Outpost is pretty much a 2D Sidescrolling version of Call Of Duty – a great side-on take of the tactical military shooter genre.
It must be stressed that this is still very early in development and lacking a lot of features and some polish, but the foundations of the gameplay and character animation (bar ladder climbing) are excellent. It combines the fun and unique gameplay of the old 2D side-scrollers with the realism of any modern day shooter into an great multi-player experience.
Characters move like their FPS counterparts, and the weaponry feels authentic, doing considerable damage to rival players and destructible scenery. There’s a nice selection of weaponry and equipment to select for your loadout, including sniper rifles, magnums, assault rifles, shotguns, SMGs, bazookas and grenades. For aiming, the Right click button does a very cool trick, panning across so that your character is at one side of the screen and giving you a better view of what’s ahead, and allowing you to get the drop on any oncoming enemies.
At the moment, Outpost only features one multiplayer level and limited game modes, but there are a lot of additions planned for future updates. These include more weaponry, character creation, improved menus, more maps, CoD-style unlocks, more dynamic environments, XP and flyable helicopters. There have been plenty of 2D multiplayer shooters in the past, but none of them have the same sense of realism that Outpost has. It’s shaping up to be an excellent 2D tactical shooter – Call of 2D.
UPDATE: Alpha no longer available