Outcast: A New Beginning feels like a pretty old-fashioned game when you first launch it. This is manifested not only in the outdated technical part, but also in the initially seemingly clunky gameplay, which seems to convey greetings from the early 2000s. However, after you get through the long story introduction, the project begins to show itself from a different side. In this review, I will try to explain what exactly attracted me to the new part of Outcast, and what, on the contrary, disappointed me.
It’s worth noting that I didn’t play the original Outcast: Second Contact. More precisely, I tried to evaluate the remake, but quickly realized that the game simply did not stand the test of time. To be honest, playing the first part is quite painful for me now, so there were hopes for a sequel. In general, they were justified, but not in everything right away, since it took me some time to, so to speak, “catch the vibe” and start getting some kind of pleasure from the gameplay.
The main character of Outcast: A New Beginning is Cutter Slade, who looks like an ordinary hard worker of about 40-50 years old with an unremarkable appearance. He just wants to return to his family, his wife and daughter, since he finds himself drawn into the conflict against his will.
The plot of the plot is as follows: Cutter Slade finds himself called to a planet where intelligent humanoid creatures, the Talans, live. People attacked their homeland, and now the main character is trying to protect the local residents from his own relatives. Yes, the story is hackneyed, but the plot is the last thing you should buy Outcast: A New Beginning for. But the local long-term stories associated with individual settlements are very interesting.
Our hero, first of all, “takes” with his charisma and sense of humor. Yes, in the game, which surprised me, there are a lot of jokes that involuntarily make you smile. A considerable part of them is tied to the fact that the Talans, local residents, do not understand figurative expressions and figures of speech. And since Slade is just a storehouse of sarcasm and sayings, he constantly finds himself in funny situations related to the fact that he is taken literally.
Outcast: A New Beginning has a large number of NPCs, each of which has its own character and history. You can talk to them and ask many questions on different topics. It is noteworthy that, having started a dialogue with one character, you periodically open up new options for remarks for others, thereby learning even more information about the topic that interests you. Moreover, when new lines appear, an exclamation mark will be displayed next to the character, so you will never miss them.
There is simply a huge amount of dialogue in Outcast: A New Beginning, like in a full-fledged role-playing game. You’ll have to talk long and often here, especially if you want to ask additional questions to learn more about the game world or specific topics. I liked the fact that during a conversation you can turn on a glossary with all the terms important for the current dialogue by holding down the Shift key. It reminded me of classic RPGs where you could hover over a highlighted word to get details. This feature is incredibly useful, since the game has a lot of unusual words and talent names that can easily get confused.
The main disadvantage of NPCs is that they are all the same. Aliens literally only have two or three facial options, so the only way to tell them apart is by their clothing and voice. We are also talking about key characters with whom you will constantly have dialogues, and not just about ordinary residents. The developers should make unique faces, if not for all, then at least for the main quest NPCs.
Outcast: A New Beginning is first and foremost a game about exploration, and this is where the core gameplay is based. There is no linear plot structure along which you can purposefully move. Immediately after completing the prologue, a large map opens to you, where there are several settlements in need of help. You are free to go anywhere and complete settlement tasks in any order. At some point, the opportunity opens up to destroy one of the human bases located in different parts of the map. This is what advances the main storyline.
In the game world you can also find many additional activities that provide valuable resources for leveling up. These include capturing outposts, platforming sections, and destroying a nest. Of all of them, I didn’t like only the last one, because it’s just a meaningless destruction of monsters without any special features. The rest of the developers tried to diversify due to different conditions.
In exploring the world, Slade will be helped by a jetpack, which has several important functions. First of all, it allows you to make high jumps, several times in the air, if you have enough energy. This gadget is also a kind of mount, with which you can quickly move across vast locations. It is also capable of turning into a wingsuit and allowing it to glide in the air. By the way, you do not receive damage from falling, since the backpack is automatically activated at the last moment, but if you fall from a great height, you will spend a couple of seconds before the hero fully gets back to his feet.
There are only two main weapons: a pistol with green cartridges and a rifle with red cartridges. However, we can say that in reality there are many more of them, since modifications (which are hidden in outposts) allow you to change their type. For example, turn a pistol into a machine gun, and a rifle into a shotgun. In general, there are a lot of modifications, and they make it possible to customize the weapon for yourself, not just changing characteristics, but also providing new capabilities. Essentially, the shooting is constantly changing, so it doesn’t get boring.
The hero does not automatically restore health, and for treatment it is necessary to collect special plants. To be honest, it’s quite a tedious task, considering that at the beginning you can only take a maximum of 10 heals with you. You can also restore your health in one of the settlements with a healer. There are two ways to avoid damage – using a summoned shield and a dash to the side.
The main leveling tree is divided into two categories – “jetpack” and “combat”. The first allows you to improve your backpack, increasing energy and adding new capabilities. In the second you will find improvements to the shield, dash, melee damage, and more. There are no levels or experience points here, so all leveling is based on the extraction of several types of resources, dropped from enemies and chests, and also given for completing activities. There are also ultimate abilities, but they are given only during the course of the story.
Graphics in Outcast: A New Beginning, as mentioned earlier, there aren’t enough stars in the sky, especially if you start looking at the textures. However, the work of the artists compensated for, if not all, then most of the flaws. The locations really turned out to be beautiful and varied, which is why sometimes you want to stop and just look around.
The impressions of the game can be greatly spoiled by some strange decisions of the developers. For example, why create a separate world map for teleport? That is, you first open the main map, and then through it open the map for fast travel (and nothing is displayed on it except teleportation points). These are unnecessary actions that do not make any sense. And here’s one more thing: why assign weapon switching and interaction to the same key? Because of this, I keep accidentally switching weapons when I pick up a bunch of items on the ground. So if you plan to play, then you will have to get used to some features of the game.
To sum it up, Outcast: A New Beginning is a pretty good open world adventure that allows you to explore and complete quests in the order you want. The game is truly capable of attracting fans of the genre for long hours, but many shortcomings do not allow us to recommend it to everyone. Especially considering the price of a full-fledged AAA project of $60 or 2480 rubles on Steam.
