Outbreak Ranking Outbreak Characters

[mert20004]

How would you rank outbreak games' characters from most to least favourite?

 

[mert20004]

My ranking:

1. Kevin

My favourite one without a doubt. His special handgun is really good, he can do potshots along with a special kick and he's very fast.

Best scenario where he shines the most: Desperate times

2. David

He can shoot handguns and magnums with one hand, he can create weapons as well as repair unusable ones, his monkey wrenches are very satisfying to use and he can use knives in a special way.

Best scenario where he shines the most: End of the road

3. Cindy

Not that strong in terms of offense but she starts with extra herbs and can store them to her special inventory. In 2nd game; this becomes even more useful when she's teamed up with george where she can create mixed herbs by combining all types 2 times and giving them to george who can create anti-viruses that can be used with his capsule shooter. She can also do a special evading attack.

Best scenario where she shines the most: Wild things

4. Alyssa

She has a special evasion attack, she can do potshots like kevin and she has a lockpick which can allow her to travel through new paths or obtain new items. Her lockpick is pretty good but at the same time a bit clunky to use since the most useful lock depends to where it's used.

Best scenario where she shines the most: Flashback

5. George

He's more useful in outbreak file 2 where he starts with capsule shooter but ı really enjoy playing as him in decisions, decisions scenario. He can create new medicines that can come in handy and he has a special tackle attack.

Best scenario where he shines the most: Decisions, decisions

6. Yoko

While her backpack is useful due to extra inventory space as well as her low virus rate and her special item in 2nd game; she's quite slow and is more effective as a partner character.

Best scenario where she shines the most: Below freezing point

7. Mark

He starts with a handgun, has more health than others, can even block and charge melee attacks. However he's quite slow, has a fast virus rate and his handgun does less damage than others.

Best scenario where he shines the most: Outbreak

8. Jim

My least favourite character in outbreak games. He's pretty much a luck based character and while that can come in handy; his personality is still insufferable unlike others. He also has the fastest virus rate and his special move can raise his virus rate even faster. In 2nd game; he's a bit more tolerable but still not likeable enough.

Best scenario where he shines the most: Underbelly

 

[foxyareku]

It kind of varies depending on the level in question, and also whether you're online or offline, but generally I'd probably rank them like so.
From a gameplay/balance standpoint and assuming high skill play

S: Kevin, David, Jim
Ridiculous damage output, though David takes a lot of skill to use well and Jim needs time to set up, Kevin's gun with his potshot is ridiculously broken to the point bosses are complete jokes if you save all the ammo. Kevin and David both have a good running speed too, and while Jim doesn't, his dodge is so strong he'll basically never get hit unless mistakes are made.

A: George, Cindy
Usefulness is dictated by how much your team gets hit, but both of them have very good personal skills with their dodges so they are good for running objectives, and George gets significantly better in file 2 where he can become a strong boss killer by sacrificing un-needed herbs. These two also work very well together, Cindy letting George have a headstart on pills or antiviruses. Also shoutout to Cindy for being the only character who can carry Linda and avoid the sniper shooter in End of the Road at the same time.

Another funny tidbit: George's pill gun does DOUBLE healing on nightmare mode. If it's nightmare mode, I'm almost tempted to put him in S tier.

B: Mark
Kind of gets the short end of the stick. He is solid for his HP stat and block, and the super swing helps sometimes, but it's offset by how slow he runs and him having a bigger hitbox, and he has nothing unique in any level unless you count Bob in Outbreak, which really just makes the level harder more than anything (even if it is fun to save him). Playing as him you just can't avoid getting hit sometimes, so it's a good thing he can take a beating.

C: Yoko
Just doesn't really bring anything to the table. If you use her Yoko: Z variant she can make a good AI partner offline to carry key items for you, since that variant has double the HP, but base Yoko will die too quick as an AI and actually playing as her is equivalent to a challenge run (UNLESS it's Below Freezing Point where she has a level benefit). Only good thing about her is her incredibly slow virus gauge, making it not matter if you get downed a few times. Her dodge-crawl is fun to use though but from a viability standpoint, there's just no reason to pick her besides having fun.

Situational: Alyssa
I can't rank Alyssa because she's entirely dependent on the level. She can be basically mandatory (Like in Wild Things where there is *8* locked doors for her to pick on VH), or just a much weaker version of Kevin (Flashback, Below Freezing Point, at best you get an extra first aid spray here).

Now, for my personal favorites based on aesthetic and personality.

Cindy: Probably my favorite video game character ever. Poor, pure girl who doesn't deserve to be in this situation. Love her a lot and I'm usually playing as her online 95% of the time, helps I enjoy playing healer for my friends.

Yoko: I find her incredibly interesting, especially her ties to T and Umbrella. Kudos to her for bringing about Umbrella's end.

George: Just a lovely man. Hardworking and stubborn, someone you wouldn't look twice at if you saw him IRL, he looks amazingly normal. It's my headcanon he gets together with Cindy after the incident and takes care of her.

Mark: Best dad. We could all use a dad like Mark. A+ voice-acting.

David: A character who could have really used some more development, I would really love to know why this plumber comes across as a gangster. Way too brave for his supposed occupation!

Alyssa: Very angry, her flashback story is incredibly interesting to me, enjoy her personality the most. Apparently has the biggest balls on the cast.

Kevin: A lesser favorite, but I enjoy his backstory and relations with people in the RPD. It's cool how he is an even better shot than Chris or Jill, and the only reason he's not STARS is because of his anger problems and drinking habits causing him to get rejected. Probably a good thing he failed the application though, or Nemesis might have shown up in one of the games.

Jim: Used to hate him, and while he's still my least favorite, I get a lot of laughs at his antics and voice lines now. Don't know why he squeaks in file 2, scared to ask.

 

[mert20004]

It kind of varies depending on the level in question, and also whether you're online or offline, but generally I'd probably rank them like so.
From a gameplay/balance standpoint and assuming high skill play

S: Kevin, David, Jim
Ridiculous damage output, though David takes a lot of skill to use well and Jim needs time to set up, Kevin's gun with his potshot is ridiculously broken to the point bosses are complete jokes if you save all the ammo. Kevin and David both have a good running speed too, and while Jim doesn't, his dodge is so strong he'll basically never get hit unless mistakes are made.

A: George, Cindy
Usefulness is dictated by how much your team gets hit, but both of them have very good personal skills with their dodges so they are good for running objectives, and George gets significantly better in file 2 where he can become a strong boss killer by sacrificing un-needed herbs. These two also work very well together, Cindy letting George have a headstart on pills or antiviruses. Also shoutout to Cindy for being the only character who can carry Linda and avoid the sniper shooter in End of the Road at the same time.

Another funny tidbit: George's pill gun does DOUBLE healing on nightmare mode. If it's nightmare mode, I'm almost tempted to put him in S tier.

B: Mark
Kind of gets the short end of the stick. He is solid for his HP stat and block, and the super swing helps sometimes, but it's offset by how slow he runs and him having a bigger hitbox, and he has nothing unique in any level unless you count Bob in Outbreak, which really just makes the level harder more than anything (even if it is fun to save him). Playing as him you just can't avoid getting hit sometimes, so it's a good thing he can take a beating.

C: Yoko
Just doesn't really bring anything to the table. If you use her Yoko: Z variant she can make a good AI partner offline to carry key items for you, since that variant has double the HP, but base Yoko will die too quick as an AI and actually playing as her is equivalent to a challenge run (UNLESS it's Below Freezing Point where she has a level benefit). Only good thing about her is her incredibly slow virus gauge, making it not matter if you get downed a few times. Her dodge-crawl is fun to use though but from a viability standpoint, there's just no reason to pick her besides having fun.

Situational: Alyssa
I can't rank Alyssa because she's entirely dependent on the level. She can be basically mandatory (Like in Wild Things where there is *8* locked doors for her to pick on VH), or just a much weaker version of Kevin (Flashback, Below Freezing Point, at best you get an extra first aid spray here).

Now, for my personal favorites based on aesthetic and personality.

Cindy: Probably my favorite video game character ever. Poor, pure girl who doesn't deserve to be in this situation. Love her a lot and I'm usually playing as her online 95% of the time, helps I enjoy playing healer for my friends.

Yoko: I find her incredibly interesting, especially her ties to T and Umbrella. Kudos to her for bringing about Umbrella's end.

George: Just a lovely man. Hardworking and stubborn, someone you wouldn't look twice at if you saw him IRL, he looks amazingly normal. It's my headcanon he gets together with Cindy after the incident and takes care of her.

Mark: Best dad. We could all use a dad like Mark. A+ voice-acting.

David: A character who could have really used some more development, I would really love to know why this plumber comes across as a gangster. Way too brave for his supposed occupation!

Alyssa: Very angry, her flashback story is incredibly interesting to me, enjoy her personality the most. Apparently has the biggest balls on the cast.

Kevin: A lesser favorite, but I enjoy his backstory and relations with people in the RPD. It's cool how he is an even better shot than Chris or Jill, and the only reason he's not STARS is because of his anger problems and drinking habits causing him to get rejected. Probably a good thing he failed the application though, or Nemesis might have shown up in one of the games.

Jim: Used to hate him, and while he's still my least favorite, I get a lot of laughs at his antics and voice lines now. Don't know why he squeaks in file 2, scared to ask.

Interesting ranking. You make very good points. Though ı would still put jim at the bottom not just for his personality but for his mechanics as well. The whole luck concept with him in regards to his coins feels out of place and ı dont find it that interesting. I also dont like his dodge mechanic which raises his fastest virus rate even faster.

I didnt rank the characters based on their personality that much cause ı honestly like them all except jim ( Outbreak file 2 develops them even better though jim is still not that interesting. ) but in terms of character backstory, ı think ı find david the most interesting one due to his mysterious nature. I'm personally a big fan of his characterization. You still make good points for explaining your points for that as well so thanks for that.

 

[foxyareku]

My first ranking was more how they perform mechanically then my preference. Jim requires a few minutes of doing nothing for coin flips, but once he gets that? Killing machine that never gets hit typically. Though his dodge is really nerfed in file 2, it's still good.

But I completely understand not liking him. I only recently started to appreciate him for the comedy relief, used to just hate everything about him.

 

[mert20004]

My first ranking was more how they perform mechanically then my preference. Jim requires a few minutes of doing nothing for coin flips, but once he gets that? Killing machine that never gets hit typically. Though his dodge is really nerfed in file 2, it's still good.

But I completely understand not liking him. I only recently started to appreciate him for the comedy relief, used to just hate everything about him.

In your opinion, at which scenario jim shines the most? I think it's underbelly but ı would like to know your thoughts.

His coin flips consume time which is very important for jim since he has the fastest virus rate. Unless there are items that can stop the infection from raising, it's tricky to utilize. And his lucky coin in 2nd game takes extra space but doesnt feel that useful either.

Also ı want to know just in case. I believe you need to flip his coin 3 times and get heads correct? That's what ı saw on wiki and ı flip his coin until ı get heads 3 times. Getting tails once seems to reset it to 0. Getting heads 3 times raises his critical chance to %45 at max ı believe.

 

[foxyareku]

You're mostly correct for file 1. In file 2 they changed it, each head only gives 10% crit-but you can stack it infinitely instead of only 3 times.

Getting 5 heads in a row takes forever but boy does 50% crit feel good...

Jim shines the most on flashback because he can get the axe and melee combo the boss dead in like 10 seconds. It's dumb and when online with my friends I try to keep Jim from getting the axe because I like to actually fight the thing XD.

Underbelly is also good though because he can do the vent (SUS AMOGUS) thing and get a free shotgun from a secret room only he can access.

If you want you can skim this playlist, quality isn't the best cos it's over a decade old, but I detail each scenario's 'best' character in the part 1 description of each level and it mostly still holds true. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL56F37986B2C72D82

 

[Cindy B]

Interesting ranking. You make very good points. Though ı would still put jim at the bottom not just for his personality but for his mechanics as well.

If you are ranking personalities its totally subjective, no biggie. But if this is at all a tier list Jim is as top as it gets! Take a peek at Jim with an axe on Flashback, its actually silly

 

[mert20004]

If you are ranking personalities its totally subjective, no biggie. But if this is at all a tier list Jim is as top as it gets! Take a peek at Jim with an axe on Flashback, its actually silly

I'm glad you enjoy his mechanics but ı dont find them as interesting as others personally. I dont think ı played as jim on flashback either, from what ı remember ı played as alyssa the most at that scenario.

 

[foxyareku]

What Cindy B means is effectiveness/meta gaming, not particularly 'interesting'. I don't like playing as him either, but Jim has the highest potential DPS when you get into the numbers.

But of course, metagaming a game like this isn't for everyone and being the strongest character doesn't necessarily = enjoyment.

 

[mert20004]

What Cindy B means is effectiveness/meta gaming, not particularly 'interesting'. I don't like playing as him either, but Jim has the highest potential DPS when you get into the numbers.

But of course, metagaming a game like this isn't for everyone and being the strongest character doesn't necessarily = enjoyment.

True but ı still wanted to make my ranking more subjective from my point of view as well as my own preferences rather than ranking the characters more on objective stats. Notice how ı say " most to least favourite " at the top rather than " best to worst " ?

I could have put david to a lower position for example since ı'm not good at executing his knife combos but ı still like his mechanics, especially in 2nd game where it expands from his knife combos.

Also ı play these games more on easiest difficulties during my marathons these days. I used to play them more on normal difficulty and ı also tried harder difficulties a few times but ı think outbreak games are really difficult, even on easy difficulty. I think they are more designed around online rather than single player. Aı can make unnecessary decisions but thankfully there's an option to disable partners. I decided to use save files for pcsx2 to unlock everything, especially infinity mode so that ı can make the game more comfortable for myself. Still ı really like those games' mechanics quite a lot, ı really adore sasaki's ambitious vision for the games he directed.

I still wished virus gauge could have been disabled though since it feels like a time limit one way or another but it only feels like an annoyance on end of the road scenario for me since ı prefer to play as george on decisions, decisions scenario and he can create anti-viruses to stop the virus gauge before using daylight which disables the said mechanic.

 

[foxyareku]

Long as you're not Jim and you don't get floored virus gauge isn't generally a problem.

Game would be even harder without it cos without a virus gauge, getting floored would have to be just instant death. I understood the design a lot more when I realized that. It's already silly when you eat a daylight in DD, it makes you impossible to die haha.

 

[Yama]

But of course, metagaming a game like this isn't for everyone and being the strongest character doesn't necessarily = enjoyment.

Yeah, well said. Even in fighters I'll pick a character out of enjoyment first, then hope they're viable second... or work hard to make them viable. Great tier list by the way. If you had to place Alyssa in a tier despite being situational, where would you place her?

 

[foxyareku]

Yeah, well said. Even in fighters I'll pick a character out of enjoyment first, then hope they're viable second... or work hard to make them viable. Great tier list by the way. If you had to place Alyssa in a tier despite being situational, where would you place her?

Probably in lower A . If you don't factor in her lockpicking, she really is just a worse Kevin at the end of the day. It's nice she can get, at worst, an extra first aid spray most of the time, but even in casual play that doesn't help super much. And Kevin is already making bosses super easy so the extra potshot firepower only really helps in desperate times if you have both of them.

I like when the game does weird things like putting the eyeglasses in decisions, decisions in the B4F Alyssa locker, but that's more of a neat random thing then something super useful.

I also understand she was the best for 'point runs' back in the day but no one really does those anymore, so discounting that.

 

[Cindy B]

Hey @foxyareku is your tier list based on OB1/2 or 2 mainly? I feel like it has so many upgraded mechanics but your list can be universal because quite literally everyone got a buff in OBF2.

 

[foxyareku]

It's overall.
George probably drops to B tier in File 1 though thinking about it. He definitely upgraded the most going into File 2.