Resident Evil Outbreak received a C+ from 1UP in their review. The staff referred to it as "another typical entry in the RE canon", and as a "competent game" with "controls [that] are actually functional and somewhat intuitive". However, they had a number of problems with the game, notably Capcom's choice to not install voice chat in favour of the ad-lib system. They found the game's five scenarios to be short, and AI partners to be "chock-full of repetitive and annoying sound bytes".