Outbreak

Outbreak opens Exo Zombies, Raven Software’s 2054 spin on the formula, with the least heroic crew the mode ever fielded: a janitor, an IT specialist, a security guard and an executive — Oz, Lilith, Decker and Kahn, played by John Malkovich, Rose McGowan, Jon Bernthal and Bill Paxton — trapped in the Atlas Biogenesis facility when the captives of Sublevel 6 stop being captive. The dead here are Atlas’s own Manticore bioweapon come home.

Earning the exo

You spawn with a pistol and no suit. The opening project is reaching the Exo Testing Room and powering its generator, after which every player collects a free exoskeleton — boost-dodging, high mantles and a lethal early-round punch. Exo Upgrades then stand in for perks: Health, Medic, Slam, Soldier, Reload.

Printers, not boxes

3D printers replace both the wall-buy and the Mystery Box — fixed printers holographically advertise their weapon, and a roaming randomized printer plays the box’s role across five stations. The Upgrade Station stands in for Pack-a-Punch, improving a weapon by increments up to Mk 20, with Mk 25 unlocked by finishing the map’s quest.

Special enemies

The roster is all Atlas products: EMZ zombies whose pulses kill your exo for five seconds, red-glowing Chargers, gas-bloated Exploders, security dogs on the special rounds — and Hosts, whose grabs infect: sixty seconds to reach a decontamination zone, or you turn.

The quest: “Game Over, Man!”

The escape plan runs through a crashed Warbird’s black box, decrypted and paired with upgraded ID badges for all four employees, ending in a called-in rescue — the first Exo Zombies ending anyone survives. The infected janitor the rescue leaves behind becomes the whole story of the next three maps.