On REP's 12th anniversary, we begin to celebrate 20 years of the Resident Evil Outbreak sub series that was first released in December 2003 in Japan. The game, which started off life advertised as Network Biohazard or Resident Evil Online quickly stoked the imagination of RE fans across the world, especially those that had bet on the franchise remaining on Sony's console post PSX.

There was a lot of hope and expectation that Resident Evil going online would revolutionise the series. What transpired was not quite what was promised in the early trailers with many lamenting the lack of internet infrastructure for the PS2.

Fast-forward 20 years and both Outbreak File 1 and 2 have a dedicated fandom, with clever minds keeping PC servers alive so these games can be played as they were always intended. In the first of our year-long celebration, we will be applying our usual Happy Birthday playthrough standard to the Outbreak and Hellfire scenarios. The first of course acts as an extended tutorial, but throws players in at the deep end. Hellfire meanwhile chronologically at least takes place at the same time, but players face the dreaded Lickers in the Apple Inn. The team have therefore either fired up their PS2s (waited an eternity whilst it loads) or headed online to bring you our experiences of these chapters. Expect some contrasting views with a detailed look at the tank controls, graphics and mechanics and the hidden lore.