Outcast was one of those games that tried to push the gaming industry forward with its excellent open-world mechanics set in a time-distoriented space-themed environment with amazing 3D graphics. It was one of those games that people wrote articles and walkthroughs about. It set the boundaries for sure and made people excited for what’s to come next. However the development team of the original Outcast game “Appeal” was declared bankrupt and future sequels would never see the daylight. But at a moment where you least aspect, they managed to resurrect the studio from the dead and had the chance to update their original game which didn’t go unnoticed. By gaining some of their influence back, THQ Nordic noticed the studio and included them in their development group which allowed them to make Outcast- a new beginning.
Outcast: A New Beginning is the title of the current Outcast game and it says a lot about whether you need some background information about the storyline that the game tries to narrate. You can play the game without any knowledge of the previous games in the series but veteran players will know a lot more about the world you’re adventuring in and the beings you meet along the way. The development team made sure that the game was approachable for new players but veteran players could see/ feel the historic events that took place in the original. The current storyline plays this out very well as your main character Cutter Slade is being warped to the world of Adelpha, a place where you’ve already been but can’t seem to put your finger on it… Cutter Slade has some sort of amnesia and tries to puzzle the pieces along the way. Cutter Slade feels a lot of familiarity with this place and the people of Adelpha try to help him sort out his history with the planet, as they all give hints about a previous encounter you’ve had with them before. Eventually, the main thread shows that you’re taking up arms against a military company that you were a part of. How it came to be, unfolds along the way.
“These 2 main goals are running next to each other and it’s perfectly fine to focus on one or the other.”
It doesn’t take long before you feel like you’ll be playing a big part in this conflict, even though your main goal is to get off the planet and transport yourself to your dimension so that you can go back home to your family. However, you will need the help of the people in Adelpha to go back to where you’re coming from but it’s obvious that they will only help you if their future is guaranteed. This can be achieved by protecting the people’s holy town and the reproduction ritual as the people of Talan haven’t reproduced since the invasion of the military force. You will need to eliminate the military force, raid enemy camps to gain fuel to reinforce the energy shield around their holy town and you’ll need to gather artifacts to make sure the festival of reproduction can begin. All of this work needs to happen before you can think about your own life. In other words, the fate of the people (like always) lies in your hands and it’s up to you to set other beings’ goals before your own.
These 2 main goals are running next to each other and it’s perfectly fine to focus on one or the other. The world is free to roam where you like and to discover events, settlements, enemy camps, and bosses, … Events, enemy camps, and bosses give you experience points to upgrade your combat/ travel talents or give you currency and even ammunition to boost your weapons. You will also find different crafting materials in the world around which are important to craft certain items or to find materials that can help you during battle like healing or protecting yourself from incoming damage.
“These timed events block the natural progression of the game.”
The settlements also provide the player with different quests that form a unique story. You will be able to talk to different inhabitants of those settlements and unlock new information about certain events/ key story parts but also new quests that will give you different rewards. You will have to take into account that some of these missions will have a countdown timer, so some quests won’t be completed until a certain amount of time has passed. This eventually makes it a bit more difficult to believe that everything you do is at your pace. The idea of open-world is to do what you feel like, and in a big part of the game it does what you expect but I don’t like timed events because it breaks the immersion a bit. These timed events block the natural progression of the game. It’s a thing you either hate or love.
Even though Outcast tries to put its mark on the current game market, it will have a difficult time competing with games that are in the same genre. A lot of time has passed since the original Outcast game was released and yes, it was one of those open-world games you would remember for its innovative approach. However, Outcast: A New Beginning doesn’t seem to offer the same innovative approach as it doesn’t have a lot of things that would set itself apart from other open-world games. The whole game experience feels like they want to stick close to the original Outcast instead of innovation. The way you handle quests, open chests, and activate terminals, … it’s just very simplistic. Even combat feels very simple with its straightforward talent tree and basic upgrades to become “stronger”. It’s all about: you do a little more damage with melee, this upgrade lets you absorb more damage, and you have access to weapons that can be upgraded with modules that try to spice up things, but it just doesn’t feel too compelling to engage me with. Also, the way you get your battle suit and shield feels super random. It just lay there and you happened to stumble upon it. I wish they made it a bit more meaningful as this battle suit is the main suit that allows you to save the planet. The way they handled it now, makes me feel like anyone could have been there to pick up the suit and become the superhero of the day. My apologies for this quick side rant…
“The scenery in combination with a great orchestral soundtrack works perfectly and adds up to the immersion of the game.”
Next to the weapons, the game also offers a shield to block incoming damage and a melee function to perform close combat. You also have the talent tree to upgrade your traversal options like hovering over the ground, jumping higher, and gliding in the air. Don’t get me wrong, these are things that feel like “basic principles” an open-world game should have and if it works, it works but you’ll need a bit more to convince people to play the game. Especially when the game doesn’t score perfectly on other sections of the game. The animations feel “rough around the edges”, bland emotionless dialogues, difficult transitions after a cutscene, … The world itself looks great and the atmosphere is captivating. There’s a lot of variety in the environments and you’re being stimulated to explore these different types of environments. You have tropical jungles, deserts, and mountainsides, … all with a little touch of “alienlike”. The scenery in combination with a great orchestral soundtrack works perfectly and adds up to the immersion of the game.
I have played the game on my PS5 in performance mode and I didn’t find a lot of technical issues while playing the game, aside from some stuttering in the very beginning and weird A.I. movement on some of the characters. I also feel like I might have been spared from heavy technical issues as the development team already put out a day one patch this week. Because I have heard about some decent technical issues from some of my friends and those issues truly broke the immersion. If there’s something that shouldn’t be happening, it’s all of the factors that could break the immersion of the players. But like I said, during my playthrough, it was okay.
Conclusion:
I feel like Outcast: the new beginning can be the start of a great franchise but they’ll have to live by the same mindset as 20 years ago. The classical gameplay experience that this new chapter has to offer will have some fans, especially for the players who have been growing up with this pioneer of a franchise but this classical experience might not be the direction you want to go if your goal is to gather new players to launch this franchise anew. You will need more engaging combat, activities, rich storytelling, quality over quantity… I will take into account that the development team didn’t have a big budget to be on the same level as triple-A games but creativity will be the only thing that can let the game rise above other open-world types of games. It’s a difficult market but it’s not impossible.
If you need a simplistic experience with a decent story, this will cure the itch. The game does look good and in terms of creating an engaging atmosphere, the development team put in the work but don’t expect engaging combat or brain-breaking activities. I also didn’t feel for my main character (even though he’s presented okay with a 90s type of vibe and sense of humor) or the inhabitants of this distant planet. I didn’t feel the characters growing on me. The dialogues are okay but too bland to care a hoot. In my honest opinion, I don’t think the game is the best option to give a full amount of money for, especially when you can choose between a load of other great open-world games. If the theme looks somewhat interesting to you, you can try it out. It’s not bad but not great either.
6/10
tested on PS5
