Operating systems: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S
Cutter Slade is returning for yet another journey into Adelpha’s wilderness. Whoa, Cutter? Where is Adelpha? Yes, this could take some time.
The first Outcast became somewhat of a cult hit back in 1999. Spec Ops agent Slade was sent via an interdimensional vortex to the alien planet Adelpha, where he discovered he was the Ulukai, the local Talans’ prophesied savior. Exclusive to the PC, it was a pioneer of open-world gaming, predating titles such as Grand Theft Auto III, with the ability to complete missions and goals in any sequence. After developer bankruptcy and copyright issues with publishers, nothing happened for a while until a 2014 rerelease and the 2017 remake Outcast: Second Contact. Even Nevertheless, after seven years, it’s clear that new players should be introduced to the series.
Sadly, A New Beginning turns out to be anything but that. It appears to require knowledge of its now-obscure predecessor from the beginning, starting as a direct sequel and plunging players into the action of interplanetary emancipation with little to no explanation of what’s going on or why. Before you know it, you’re searching the planet to aid the Talans in holding an orgy (no, really) to replenish their numbers and to repel invaders (spoiler alert: that’d be us annoying humans, which in 2024 feels like a none-too-subtle take on Avatar). Maybe the weirdest tonal whiplash in game history is going from blowing up resource-draining bases to catering for an extraterrestrial sex party.
A terribly fragmented encounter.
But its overall lack of concentration seems ingrained. A brilliant narrative method is to begin in media res, but only if the storytellers are clear about their intended direction. This is where we get from Slade being an amnesiac who doesn’t know where he is or who he is to talking about finishing trials for the Talans’ gods in a matter of minutes. The game has an extremely fragmented experience because it is positively rife with startling narrative clashes. Story beats are treated as if they are already known before being introduced or clarified.
It’s an issue that affects the game’s overall design. Although there isn’t much coherence for quest chains, it keeps the original’s loose mission structure. Slade would often talk to locals and hear conversations regarding unfinished business. For example, one individual mentioned teaching music to Talan children before that goal was chosen. In another scene, a Talan bemoans the effects of a fabled creature on their hamlet before praising its benefits to the neighborhood. After a while, you’re probably going to stop listening to what the characters are saying and just go from menu screen to menu screen in order to complete objectives. And when a big portion of those objectives consist of endless fetch quests and escort missions, even that quickly becomes monotonous errand running.
Still, everything is not lost. Outcast’s greatest asset is traversal, as Slade is tethered to an advanced jet pack. When you upgrade it, you’ll be able to zoom across the landscape, launch yourself clear up mountains, and accelerate when swimming underwater—all abilities required to overcome challenging parkour challenges scattered throughout the world. At first, it will only give a slight jump boost to manage Adelpha’s more rugged terrain. Slade makes incredible use of verticality throughout, and although there is a noticeable Breath of the Wild influence, he is not limited by Link’s stamina gauge in terms of how far he can glide; if you go up high enough, you can soar for kilometers. With the exception of a few strange texture pop-ins, the globe is breathtaking to explore. As you venture farther out, the surroundings gradually change, giving each Talan settlement a distinct personality.
Although there are a few lackluster melee skills, most of the fighting is done at range with a pistol or rifle. A variety of upgrade modules that let each weapon be customized with different effects, like homing attacks, bullets that restore health when an enemy is killed, damage boosters, and more, offer some genuinely enjoyable options even though Outcast’s gunplay won’t match any of the devoted shooters on the market.
They can be a little too enjoyable, which is a drawback. Your main weapons will probably be so powerful by the time you’ve obtained later talents to call upon some of Adelpha’s wildlife for assistance, all of which call for finishing drawn-out quest chains throughout the many Talan settlements. At that point, you’ll probably be ignoring everything else. Ejecting adversaries into the air and disrupting gravity with a sandworm-like Garondar is a lot less work than unleashing a torrent of explosive tracker ammunition. When you can unleash a broad spray of energy bullets on opponents, why unleash a horde of insects on them? And why even attempt to be inventive when most of Outcast’s combat missions involve eliminating remarkably similar establishments manned by a pitiful number of robots?
Unfortunately, the game’s general lack of refinement extends to even the highlights of exploration and enjoyable, albeit straightforward, fighting. It’s buggy, with dialogue lines that are frequently subtitled without spoken audio and a propensity for finished task alerts to appear more than once. The worst of all is that if you enter the map screen while piloting the Galenta, an aerial mount, the game will freeze entirely due to a game-breaking problem (repeatedly experienced on PS5, version tested).
But despite all of its issues, it all has a certain B-movie vibe about it. Despite its janky nature, it frequently turns out to be rather fun, and it’s all capped off with an absolutely amazing score from returning composer Lennie Moore that’s probably better than the game merits in its current state. Outcast: A New Beginning could still become as beloved as its predecessor with significant patching, but right now it’s a complete mess.