The Outfit doesn't try to be the next ultra-realistic, Nazi-killing game like Call of Duty 2. Instead it takes a much more arcade feel, both in graphics and gameplay.

Graphically, The Outfit doesn't look cartoony, but it doesn't look realistic either. Characters have an almost too-clean and somewhat plastic look to them. That isn't to say the animations are stiff, just that the character models are shiny, perfect and way too nice looking for being in the heat of battle. This is by no means a bad thing. Given the game's arcade-like setup, the visuals fully complement the rest of the game.

Levels are nicely rendered and have a good, again, almost too-clean, feel about them. Everything from the sandy beaches to small Nazi-run villages look good and definitely seem to fit in the game's feel.

The game's audio wasn't that far behind either. Characters sound like your stereotypical WWII American-infantry members (minus the crude language). And thankfully, unless I shouted out a command, the characters didn't spout out random one-liners constantly, instead when they spoke, it had some actual meaning and I didn't get tired of hearing the same voice-clips over and over again.

When I say that their comments had meaning, I'm not kidding either. I was shocked early on when I took over a vehicle and started driving with a man barely holding on - what shocked me was when he started yelling for me to slow down and let him on. There were numerous cases where the characters seemed to react to their environments more than your typical action game.

The Outfit is a group of highly trained army personnel who get dropped deep in the heart of enemy territory and do whatever damage they can in order to take over strategic locations.

Each level takes you on one such mission where your squad works its way from enemy building to enemy building, capturing bunkers and mowing down Nazis. You control one of three hero-like characters, and when one of them dies, you switch to another, and finally, to the last one. Each character has their own specialty and style. For instance, Lieutenant John Davis Tyler likes his sniper rifle, while the very Patton-like Captain Deuce Williams runs around with a bazooka and Sergeant Thomas "Mac" Macintyre sports machine-guns.

Though you will probably have a favorite, a character that appeals to your particular play style, you will probably end up getting to know them all throughout the game since it is very likely that in the heat of battle, your man will take too many hits and you will have to switch characters.

Most of the time you will guide your group from building to building, claiming an area. You claim a building by clearing out all of the enemies around it and walking next to the target bunker. Once this happens, all of the Nazi flags give way to the good ol' Stars and Stripes. Now if your hero gets killed in battle, the next one takes over at this new respawn point.

The Outfit has several major features going for it. Not only is pretty much everything destructible (provided you have enough firepower), but you can jump into any vehicle and if you have enough points, you can call down an air drop called Destruction on Demand.

Destruction on Demand is probably the aspect of this game that really helps to make it stand out. With this feature, you can select various weapons and vehicles to be parachuted down to you so that you and your squad can effectively clear out the enemy strongholds. Each level will have a different collection of available support gear. What gear is available to you depends on the nature of the mission. The game isn't likely to give you access to anti-aircraft guns if you aren't going to need them in that level.

Not only can you call for vehicles like tanks, halftracks and 4x4's, but if the enemy has left any behind, then you can man them as well. As you approach a vehicle, your character can jump into any of the available positions (driver, gunner, passenger, etc). Though you, the player, will have full control over both the guns and navigation no matter where your hero sits, the vehicle itself is limited by what seats are filled. For instance, if you have jumped into the driver seat and just started heading for the enemy without letting one of your team members jump into the gunners station, you can't fire. Also if you climb in behind the rear-mounted machine gun and no one is in the driver seat yet, then you aren't going very far.

The Outfit is a lengthy game, and not only does it have a lot of battles to wade your way through, but none of the levels are quick and easy. With respawn points scattered fairly evenly throughout each level, if you lose your squad-leader, you won't have lost a lot of ground (especially since you will hopefully leave solders on the front lines holding off the Nazis). Once you get the hang of the game's systems, it should only take you a couple of attempts to charge through the mission. But I found that I could rarely play through multiple missions in one sitting because of the lengthy levels. This was both good and bad. It made the game last longer, but I didn't feel like I was making a whole lot of progress with each sitting.

The Outfit has one major game mechanic that drives the feel of the entire game. It isn't the semi-squad based feel, or the fact that you can jump into any vehicle and destroy pretty much any structure, it is the Destruction on Demand system.

Destruction on Demand lets you call for everything from backup infantry, to tanks and anti-aircraft guns just by holding down the Y button and using the analog stick to select your support equipment. Once selected, you drop a flare where you want the object to land and stand back. A few seconds later, a crate with your new gear will fall from the sky ready to rumble. Sure this isn't exactly realistic, but like the rest of the game, Relic isn't trying for ultra-realism, just fun gameplay.

Whether you have made a career of killing digital-Nazis or this is your first romp in WWII, The Outfit is a fun game that anyone can enjoy. Its arcade feel really helps to convey the non-realistic aspects of the game (like instant air-drops and Nazi bunkers that just happen to have U.S. flags in them in case they get captured). The squad-based aspects are easy to use and the freedom that you have within each level means that you can try different tactics pretty much every time you play. Highly recommended.