In 1999, Outcast launched as a pioneering open-world action-adventure that boldly showcased voxel graphics and non-linear gameplay years before such concepts went mainstream. While not a commercial hit at the time, it steadily amassed a cult following entranced by its vivid alien world of Adelpha and its bizarre indigenous Talan race. Now, after over two decades of false starts and an eventual remake, this long-awaited sequel – Outcast: A New Beginning – has finally arrived to revive the franchise’s imaginative sci-fi universe.
Developed by Appeal Studios, comprised of talents from the original team, A New Beginning admirably aims to recapture the spirit of open-world discovery that made Outcast so innovative for its era. This time, however, the production values have received a major glow-up, rendering Adelpha in lush, vibrant detail unimaginable on late 90s hardware. The visuals alone invite immersion into this strange extraterrestrial realm.
Yet graphics alone do not an ambitious game make. With A New Beginning, expectations run high for a thoroughly modern open-world experience bolstered by more refined gameplay systems and storytelling craft. Can this obscure sci-fi property defy the odds and secure a worthy second life? Or will it succumb to the trappings of dated open-world design that have plagued many revivals of classic franchises? Let’s delve into the alien adventures of Cutter Slade to find out.
Lukewarm Storytelling in a Bizarre Alien World
The core narrative setup of Outcast: A New Beginning is one we’ve encountered many times before in sci-fi – the familiar “humans are the invaders” trope. Our gruff protagonist Cutter Slade, a former Navy SEAL, awakens disoriented on Adelpha after events that transpired in the original Outcast. He soon discovers that his former employers, a shady military organization called the WNA, have brought their advanced technology to conquer this strange alien world.
Slade begrudgingly joins forces with the native Talan inhabitants to drive out these human invaders. His personal motivation, however, is centered on being reunited with his long-lost daughter back on Earth rather than any noble desire to protect Adelpha. It’s a somewhat selfish premise that renders Slade a decidedly unlikeable and one-note hero devoid of much backstory or compelling characterization beyond grizzled tough-guy sarcasm.
The Talan civilization, on the other hand, is decidedly more fascinating from a world-building perspective. These three-fingered orange-skinned aliens, who worship powerful beings known as “Yods”, are sprinkled across various villages and settlements that showcase impressive architectural and artistic diversity. From jungle tree branches to palatial cliffside dwellings, the creative design team clearly put painstaking detail into imagining how an ancient alien society might inhabit Adelpha’s environments.
Where the narrative disappoints is in its inability to make you invest in the plight of the Talans beyond basic video game motivations. The script leans too heavily on overblown sci-fi gobbledygook filled with made-up terminology that quickly grows exhausting. Even worse are the amateurish voice performances from the Talan characters that often veer into unintentional comedy when they deadly seriously spout expository dialogue about “Zorkins” and “Ulukai”.
Cutter Slade’s constant quippy banter also grows stale over the 30-hour campaign. While occasionally humorous, too many of his snarky remarks are clearly aimed at emulating beloved sci-fi anti-heroes like Han Solo but miss the mark by feeling like tired machismo overcompensation. The storytelling ambition is admirable, but the execution leaves much to be desired in crafting a compelling or memorable narrative woven into the vibrant alien backdrop.
A Lush but Overstretched Alien Playground
Right from the outset, Outcast: A New Beginning makes an immediately striking visual impression with its rendition of the alien world Adelpha. Vast horizon lines stretch into the distance, showcasing a diverse array of biomes that players can freely traverse across – from vibrant jungles teeming with bioluminescent plant life to harsh desert valleys and frosty mountain ranges. It’s an indisputably gorgeous setting that seamlessly blends earthy naturalism with distinctly otherworldly flourishes.
The environmental artistry on display is undeniably impressive, even more so considering the scope and scale of this open-world. Adelpha doesn’t just look expansive – it feels genuinely vast, dwarfing Cutter Slade’s adventures with its towering vistas and elevated landmasses that require creative use of advanced movement mechanics to conquer. And yet, for all this sprawling grandeur, there’s a tangible sense of cohesion and intentionality in the layout that avoids the overly artificial feeling of many checkerboard open worlds.
That being said, all this environmental immensity can work against the pacing and gameplay flow. With numerous key story objectives and villages scattered to the farthest reaches, being set loose without clear navigation can foster an overwhelming sense of aimlessness as you zig-zag across the map. The ability to tackle missions in a non-linear order provides welcome freedom, but also means you’ll spend extensive stretches crossing empty terrain devoid of compelling random encounters or diversions. It’s a double-edged sword of open-world design.
What helps mitigate the repetitive cross-country traversal are Slade’s fantastic movement capabilities. After a slow start, you’ll soon unlock a jetpack that allows for extended hover streams, aerodynamic gliding, and thrillingly vertical platforming maneuvers. When paired with platforming challenge courses and hidden secrets stashed high up, exploring Adelpha’s verticality is an absolute joy and injects a lovely sense of flow and momentum. Environmental puzzles that use tools like bait to lure down gargantuan insects also put these mobility skills to creative use.
The open world isn’t as empty as it may initially appear, either. While the lack of random wandering creatures is disappointing, environmental hazards like spore clusters that corrupt local flora/fauna at least provide opportunistic combat scenarios during longer treks. There are also ample opportunities to put skills like gliding to creative use by skimming across bodies of water to stun underwater creatures. It’s an open world design that clearly prioritizes highlighting Slade’s versatile movement kit as the star of the show.
Repetitive Busywork Amidst Well-Crafted Critical Paths
For all of its strengths in cultivating a captivating alien world ripe for exploration, Outcast: A New Beginning struggles to consistently deliver compelling mission design that takes full advantage of its open environs. The core critical path surrounding Cutter Slade’s efforts to reactivate dormant portals and aid the Talan natives is enjoyably structured and provides a strong sense of forwardmomentum.
These central campaign missions showcase some of the game’s most inspired and memorable moments – from infiltrating high-tech enemy installations to activate teleporters, to defending settlements against full-scale invasions. Their multi-layered objectives promote creative uses of Slade’s full skillset, demanding you strategically combine combat prowess with precise platforming and environmental manipulation.
Unfortunately, the quest lines surrounding these standout narrative missions are needlessly protracted by endless filler busywork that quickly turns tedious. Be prepared for endless stretches of menial fetch quests demanding you collect an endless stream of fauna samples, extracts, or cultural artifacts for the insatiable demands of Talan task-givers.
These side objectives squander the potential of the open-world format by reducing it to a lifeless checklist of repetitive chores. The tedium is compounded by an overreliance on reused gameplay loops – clear this enemy base, herd these creatures across the map, activate this console by collecting MacGuffins. What brief moments of novelty exist are stretched far beyond their engaging lifespan.
And for all the open-ended promises, very little about these optional missions feels truly open-ended in execution. They more closely resemble linear checklists that you can only progress by checking off in a very specific sequence. There’s little room for creative problem-solving or taking unorthodox approaches to complete them outside of their intended solution paths.
The repetitive quest design slogs are made all the more wearisome by the need to constantly backtrack across the open world or engage in time-wasting checklist maintenance to replenish quest resources and items. It’s a tremendous disrespect of the player’s valuable gaming hours that could have been easily solved with more intelligent replenishment systems and less artificial roadblocks.
Malleable But Shallow Warfare
While the core combat of Outcast: A New Beginning doesn’t stray far from standard third-person shooter tropes, it benefits from a reasonably versatile weapon customization system. Cutter Slade’s basic pistol and rifle can be upgraded with various modular attachments that dramatically alter their firing behavior and attributes.
From rapid-fire barrage modes to ricocheting debris launchers, these firearms offer fun opportunities to experiment with different loadout configurations tailored to your playstyle. The depth is appreciated, even if many of the randomized loot attachments ultimately feel inconsequential in the grand scheme.
Where the combat system falters is in its general lack of skilltesting scenarios that fully tap into Slade’s expanded mobility toolkit. With few exceptions, most enemy encounters boil down to taking cover and chipping away at easily exploited AI patterns rather than demanding fluid integration of jetpack skills for advanced maneuvers.
The lack of impactful melee combat systems also means hand-to-hand brawls are wisely avoided as much as possible. When forced into close quarters, the basic punch attacks feel extremely undercooked and lack any sort of weight or visceral satisfaction.
On the subject of bosses and difficulty spikes, the experience here is a bit of a mixed bag. While super-sized mechanized adversaries do eventually rear their heads, memorable showdowns are few and far between. More often than not, the game’s idea of upping the ante is simply throwing more rank-and-file enemies at you in confined spaces until the frame rate chugs to a slideshow.
At least there are options to tweak overall difficulty settings to compensate. Still, a more thoughtful injection of Challenge could have elevated Outcast from feeling too low-stakes for long stretches of the campaign. As it stands, the combat systems get the job done serviceably without ever aspiring for greatness beyond momentary power fantasies.
Artistic Ambition Muddled by Technical Hiccups
From a pure visual standpoint, Outcast: A New Beginning is an undeniably attractive game that convincingly sells the alien allure of Adelpha’s biodiversity. The vibrant color palette, towering scale of environments, and fidelity of natural imagery like flowing waters and dense foliage all combine to create a lush, inviting sci-fi world ripped straight from the covers of pulpy paperbacks.
Unfortunately, this artistic ambition is frequently undermined by noticeable technical blemishes that can disrupt the immersive experience. Playing on PlayStation 5, I encountered frequent hitches and stuttering whenever the game was streaming in new areas – an issue exacerbated by texture pop-in that briefly reduced detailed locales to blurry, low-res backdrops. Load times between areas were reasonably snappy, at least.
Performance took an even steeper dive whenever intense combat situations arose, with frame rates plummeting to slideshow territory until the action cleared. While not frequent, these moments proved incredibly distracting. Other glitches like enemies getting stuck in terrain were relatively minor annoyances.
It’s unclear if these issues are isolated to the PlayStation 5 version or indicative of broader optimization problems. What is clear, however, is that A New Beginning doesn’t take full advantage of modern hardware to deliver a consistently smooth, technically-polished experience befitting its artistic pedigree. The game could have benefited greatly from additional optimization passes.
A Flawed But Refreshingly Offbeat Sci-Fi Sandbox
When it was first revealed that a proper sequel to the cult classic Outcast was finally in development after over two decades, expectations were high for an open-world sci-fi revival that could reinvigorate the franchise’s innovative spirit for a new generation. In many ways, Outcast: A New Beginning delivers on that ambitious premise – resurrecting the wonderfully bizarre alien world of Adelpha with modern graphical flair and overhauled mechanics befitting an expansive open-world playground.
At its strongest, this long-overdue follow-up showcases a genuine passion for imaginative world-building and design seldom seen in today’s open-world landscapes. From the diverse and vibrant biomes to the intricate architecture of Talan settlements, Adelpha is a richly-realized setting that beckons exploration thanks to Cutter Slade’s multi-faceted movement toolkit. The sheer verticality of environments combined with the abilities to jetpack, glide, and parkour create a lovely sense of free-flowing momentum.
Yet for every instance of clever open-world design, there’s an equal and opposing example of formulaic busyness that feels ripped from the past decade’s checklist of tired open-world conventions. Repetitive quest structure, menial checklist tasks, and needless backtracking constantly undermine the game’s ambitions with tedium and disrespect for the player’s time. The combat is reasonably fun in bursts but rarely tapped to its full potential.
Performance woes like stuttering, framerate dips, and persistent texture pop-in also hamper the overall quality. While not perpetual detractions, these technical blemishes do put a damper on the overall level of polish and immersion.
Outcast: A New Beginning is not a revelatory experience that will redefine what we expect from open-world adventures. However, it does showcase enough creative bright spots and endearing rough edges to stand out from the increasingly homogenized AAA crowd. For fans of extraordinarily weird sci-fi worlds and lighter gameplay sandboxes, it’s an easy recommendation despite its flaws – just tempter expectations accordingly. For everyone else, this long-awaited revival is still at least worth a curious glance into Adelpha’s bizarro universe, warts and all.
The Review
Outcast: A New Beginning
Outcast: A New Beginning is an ambitious but flawed return to the bizarre alien world of Adelpha. While it impressively captures the creative spirit and imagination that made the original a cult classic, it also succumbs frequently to the tedious open-world checklist design that has plagued many revivals. The lush environments, versatile mobility, and offbeat humor provide an entertaining sci-fi sandbox. However, repetitive missions, technical hiccups, and an uneven narrative prevent it from achieving true excellence. For fans willing to overlook its rough edges in exchange for a refreshingly weird experience, it's an easy recommendation. But more discerning gamers may want to temper their expectations.
PROS
- Gorgeous, imaginative alien world with diverse environments
- Versatile movement abilities like jetpacking and gliding
- Flexible weapon customization system
- Endearingly weird sci-fi humor and world-building
- Massive sense of scope and freedom
CONS
- Repetitive quest design full of menial tasks
- Sluggish technical performance with framerate issues
- Shallow, repetitive combat scenarios
- Unlikeable protagonist and hit-or-miss storytelling
- Overly padded with busywork that wastes player's time
