This game doesn't deserve to get all the bad critiscm it gets. It's enjoyable and fun, even if it is slightly tedious.
The story in Resident Evil Outbreak is basically the same as the third game, except toned down and not as deep. You must play as one of the eight citezins of Raccoon City who must escape the city before it blows up. Each character has a special ability that is unique. The abilities can range from larger inventories to lockpicking, which can come in useful at times.
The controls in the game are okay. They can be annoying, although you can adapt to them within a matter of minutes. The camera angles are fixed so that means you can't control them to your advantage, although they aren't bad angles and they won't get on your nerves if you aren't picky.
Something that really bothers me in this game is the life. From the start of the game you are infected with the T-Virus which slowly increases from 1%, which is when you are at your healthiest state, to 100%. Once you reach 100% infected your character will fall down and mutate into a zombie. Your infection meter can speed up if you are attacked by an enemy and can be slowed down if you take a health pill. It's really quite annoying as it makes you feel presured to complete the scenario as quickly as possible. It's not the scary kind of timer, it's just plain terrible!
In Resident Evil Outbreak you advance through the game in scenarios. There are 5 in total. Each one takes around an hour to complete at most, filled with puzzles and enemies. The puzzles aren't difficult, mostly just running back and forth retreiving items to move onto the next part of the scenario.
The monsters you will encounter in Outbreak has a wide range. You will come across Zombies, Sciccor Tails, Moths, Larvaes, Crows, Hunters, Hunter Gammas, Lickers, Cerberus, Leeches, Leech Men, Giant Spiders, Wasps, Regis Lickers, Muntant-G, Thanatos and Neptunes. As you can see, the majority of the monsters will be animal typed creatures, like Resident Evil Zero and the first game. A lot of them are really tough to defeat and got me killed a lot, although once you know their weaknesses you'll be fine.
With Resident Evil Outbreak, you'll either like it or loathe it. I liked it, although don't try and compare it to one of the main games in the series as you will obviously find the main games are far better. This game had a lot of potential, but sadly didn't use it to it's advantage. Despite the annoying health system and the frustrating enemies, it is a good game and any die-hard fans need to have it!