0 
0 If you’ve played the original Outcast, then get excited. The original team has brought you a sequel called Outcast – A New Beginnings –. It’s been 20 years for Cutter Slade, and now he’s returned in this new third-person open-world, action shooter.
Published by THQ Nordic and developed by Appeal Studios, you can pick the game up on PlayStation, Xbox and Steam. A demo is available as well on the PSN Store, so why not try it before you buy it? If you do decide to buy Outcast, then it’s priced at £59.99.
A New Beginning… Because I don’t Recall Anything
I haven’t played the previous entry for Outcast, and when I checked out the trailer, the combat and world piqued my interest. The environment looks vibrant. The combat looks simple and enjoyable, and if it holds up to what I expected, I might check the previous game.
Gameplay
Outcast’s gameplay is easy to learn and doesn’t overburden the player with various moves and skills to learn. The skills you’ll learn will mainly go for your jetpack and shield (which you also use for melee). Cutter’s jetpack is his main way for traversal in the game.
You can upgrade it so the battery lasts longer or to glide through the air. The shield works for defence and offence, but later upgrades allow to do charge attacks or ground pounds.
Although the upgrade trees are small, the skills you get all come in handy when needed. For example, unlocking the Jetsprint ability will help you get around much quicker.
Weapons & Modules.
Only two weapons are available in Outcast, and you get them fairly early. One is a pistol, and the other a rifle. You can equip both with modules that the player finds in the game, which offers various fun ways to clear enemies. Some of these mods will change the rate of fire or make your gun hit harder but will overheat much quicker. Modules aren’t weapon-specific, so go ahead and make a pistol shoot like a shotgun but with the accuracy of a sniper.
You can locate modules in outposts found throughout Adelpha. Once you clear the area of enemies, you’ll be able to open a chest and receive your mod and some upgrade materials.
Meeting the locals.
The main story will have Cutter meeting the local inhabitance of Adelpha, the home of the Talans race. Throughout your journey to save the Talans, you will help them and learn aspects of their cultures in hopes of uniting them against the WFA invaders. The villages usually have a chief that Cutter will speak to and help to gain their trust. Also in these villages are merchants for buying wares and recipes for potions, a Shamaz which will heal the player for free.
You can speak to a Weaver that will increase the carrying capacity of potions and weapon ammo. Just make sure to have the materials on hand. Each village will have the player running back and forth with various tasks to help strengthen the tribe’s relationships.
Activities scattered around Adelpha.
When Cutter isn’t breaking into enemy facilities, he can try doing some side activities. For Example, there are Orym Trials that have you follow a glowing bulb until you reach a flower. Once you reach the flower, you will receive some Blue Helidium, which you use to upgrade Cutter. In Outcast, there are areas corrupted with something called The Ghork.
These areas will have the player take down infected animals and then destroy what’s in the centre. In return, the player receives a piece of Ghork that they can give to an infected Talan for Zorkin (the game’s currency).
Graphics
There are some brilliant visual aspects to Outcast. Most notably, the colours throughout are beautifully vibrant, and it’s a treat to look at. I also enjoy the unique appearance of many of the planet’s creatures, and the scenery in the game is quite breathtaking.
Unfortunately, several things often take away from Outcast’s vibrancy and beauty. Some minor issues include some janky animations from the character models. In addition, the characters tend to gesture too much during dialogue, making them look even more odd. The voice acting also sounded somewhat awkward at times.
Occasionally, while getting kills with the Frenzy module, the screen is covered with a nasty digital red tint that covers all nearby environments, and it’s very jarring. Giving the character or the weapon a red aura would be much easier on the eyes.
On the more noticeable side, I had issues with screen tear on Performance Mode in the graphics, though it fixed itself after switching to Quality Mode. It’s very confusing since usually issues would occur during a high-graphics setting, and not the other way around. There were also frequent instances where I would clip through foliage and see floating grass throughout.
Final Thoughts
I found Outcast‘s combat and movement fun, especially when doing the Orym Trials. My main issues come from a boring and uninspiring story. The story didn’t captivate me at all, and with long-winded dialogue from NPC, I felt more like pressing the skip dialogue button. While playing, I had multiple crashes, from just opening my inventory screen to using the Jetpack to jump. The world doesn’t offer much to do apart from going here and killing this, and the quests get boring fast.
When I read that Outcast was one of the games that helped pioneer the open-world genre, I was impressed! But that is to say, this game seems like it would have thrived back in the day. Nowadays, we have way too many open-world games, and this one doesn’t seem impressive unless you loved the first and wanted a sequel.
It’s a shame, as the world of Adelpha is beautiful, and some of the creature designs look cool, but it falls short everywhere else, in my opinion. That’s why I’m awarding Outcast – A New Beginning – the Thumb Culture Silver Award, and this is me being generous.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
YouTube | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Discord | Podcast
About Author
