- Tarn Airborne Strategic Command
Northern Pacific Ocean, Nov 2036.
You are now approaching Nogari Island...
Scourge: Outbreak is a Third-Person Shooter developed by Tragnarion Studios.
In 2036, a stray meteorite falls in the hands of the Nogari Corporation, a MegaCorp whose activities include development of secret bio-weapons and illicit dealings with terrorist organizations for global domination. When the meteorite, supposedly a source of the rare "Ambrosia" technology which Nogari Corp. is researching, is sent to the company's private island base, and contact with the elite Special Forces team known as Alpha Squad, sent to Nogari Island earlier for an earlier investigation was lost, a second team, Echo Squad, was dispatched.
Thanks to the help of Dr. Reisbeck, a defected Nogari scientist who intends to expose the corporation's activities, Echo Squad, a four-person operative team consisting of leader Stonewall, demolitions expert Mass, sniper Shade and communications officer Amp managed to secure a landing on Nogari Island. But a much greater - alien - threat lies beneath the bowels of the island's laboratories.
As atypical with TPS games with choice of multiple characters, players can begin the game as either one of Echo Squad's members - they may switch character after completing levels as well. The game features both single-player and co-operative gameplay modes, with up to four players able to play together online.
The game was released for the PlayStation 3, macOS, Windows Computers and Xbox 360.
It's now or never...
- Attack Drone: Outdoor levels set on rooftops and skywalks will occasionally throw hovering, automated drones armed with turrets to attack the Echo Squad.
- Badass Crew: The four Echo Squad operatives can take on armies of alien monsters and defeat gigantic bosses.
- The Bad Guy Wins: The Echo Squad defeats the Scourge's Queen and Final Boss, only for Dr. Reisbeck to taunt them that the slain Queen is just a decoy, before leaving as what's left of Nogari Island explodes. All four members of the Echo Squad evacuates in time, but from what the final cutscene shows, Dr. Reisbeck managed to unleash the Scourge across the world, with him serving the true Scourge Queen as her advisor and ruling over humanity. Whether the Echo Squad managed to stop him in the future is an untold story.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: The Alpha Squad, who arrived a week earlier but have since lose contact, turns out to be under the Scourge Queen's control and appears as bosses the players need to battle.
- Bug War: The Echo Squad faces a minor one when the base's underground laboratory turns out to be breeding grounds for the Scourge creatures, leading to large numbers of insectoid monsters swarming all over them. By the ending, however, it seems like the Scourge outbreak is now global.
- Camera Abuse: Amazingly, the game managed to pull this off despite being in Third-person - getting damaged will result in the screen glowing red in the corners, and occasionally with blood dripping down the lens. The camera even tilts with you if you lose a life and fall over.
- Combat Resuscitation: A downed squadmate can be revived by approaching and interacting with them before they die. Computer-controlled companions will automatically do this if the solo player is downed.
- Deflector Shields: All members of Echo Squad have a miniature forcefield generator as part of their equipment allowing them to deflect enemy attacks.
- Faceless Goons: The basic Nogari corp. troopers, and several members of their security forces, all wear balaclavas and helmets with visors that conceals their faces. Their headgear can be shot off to reveal their faces with a Boom, Headshot!.
- Gatling Good: There's a high-tech Gatling Gun as one of the best automatic weapon pickups, which can fire north of 500 rounds without reloading. Useful when Scourge Scavengers tries swarming the players.
- Giant Spider: The Scourge monsters all resembles some sort of alien arachnid, and even the smallest of them are human-sized.
- Ground Pound: The "Shockwave" special attack granted to all the Echo Squad members creates a circular energy field from the zero point of impact which stuns and damages enemies caught within it's radius, though their range and impact varies depending on the character used.
- Insect Queen: Turns out the insect-like Scourge Swarm follows a matriarchy system, where each caste are ruled by a queen who produces offspring in large numbers. And that there's more than one of them in the island, and at least one which Dr. Reisbeck serves.
- Island Base: The entire game takes place on Nogari Island, the corporation's secret base where they're developing the Scourge technology.
- Marathon Boss: The second dropship boss is far more durable and heavily-armed than the first, and it's two turrets - each having an individual health bar - needs to be destroyed before players can attack it's main body. Unlike the first, there isn't a mounted heavy machine-gun or easily-sabotaged antenna systems to make things easier; the dropship needs to have it's lengthy health meters (all three of them!) chipped away, one-by-one.
- Once More, with Clarity: Near the end, when it flashes back to Echo Squad's drop-off and botched landing into Nogari Island in the opening FMV. As it turns out, the game's events actually occurs a week after the opening drop - none of the original squad survive, and the Echo Squad which the players were controlling are Scourge clones.
- Our Clones Are Different: For most of the game, you're in control of the Echo Squad, an elite team of Cyborg operatives investigating an alien outbreak in Nogari Island, until a cutscene near the end reveals the original Echo Squad had died shortly after landing on Nogari; the game's Hidden Villain, Dr. Reisbeck, had the whole team cloned so he can manipulate them to take over the island, and that you've been in control of a bunch of clones the entire game.
- People Jars: There's a clone development facility in Nogari labs containing tanks filled with deactivated, artificial human bodies in stasis fluid, revealing that cloning was one of many, many illegal activities Nogari Corp has dabbled in. It also foreshadows that the Echo Squad isn't exactly who they think they are.
- Pistol-Whipping: When fighting enemies from up close, sometimes you'll use your firearm as a club instead of firing away.
- Regenerating Health: Health is recovered by diving behind cover and waiting until the surrounding red haze disappears.
- Sigil Spam: You'll be seeing the Nogari Corp. logo (a hexagon with the company's name underneath it) quite a lot throughout the entire base. On walls, crates, helicopters, the side of their building facilities, and so on.
- The Squadette: Amp for Echo Squad is the team's sole female commando. And for the ill-fated Alpha Squad, Lilith.
- Taking You with Me: Subverted with Phase; upon defeat, Phase pulls out a grenade on each hand in a cutscene and explodes. Which does... nothing.Phase: If you don't know by now, trust me... it ain't gonna help ya! [BOOM]
- Teleport Spam: Phase, the first rogue Alpha Squad boss, has the ability to port himself all over the place thanks to being enhanced by Scourge technology. He's introduced teleporting an unfortunate technician to his death, and will repeatedly port all over his boss fight.
- Treacherous Quest Giver: Dr. Reisbeck, who serves as Mission Control for the Echo Squad, turns out to be manipulating them into killing the second Scourge Queen - one which he couldn't control - while he plots with the first Queen to Take Over the World.
- Unique Enemy:
- Nogari researchers in blue jumpsuits, armed with dinky little pistols, appears in only one area of the lab. If you get to close, bafflingly they'll actually try to attack you with a roundhouse kick.
- The cloning facility has a couple of maintenance robots, harmless drones that can be shot and blown up.
- Unwitting Pawn: As revealed in the ending, the entirety of the Echo Squad is being used by Dr. Reisbeck to eliminate the rival Scourge Queen and to help him secure control over the Scourge swarm.
- Zerg Rush: The lowest-ranked Scourge mutations, the Scavengers, relies on overwhelming the players through sheer numbers.
