Have to Know
What’s it? A sequel to the 1999 basic action-adventure sport, Outcast.Launch date March 15, 2024Expect to pay $59.99 / £49.99Developer Enchantment StudiosPublisher THQ NordicReviewed on Nvidia RTX 3090 Ti, 32GB RAM (DDR4), AMD Ryzen 7 5700X, ASRock B450M Pro4Multiplayer? NoSteam Deck YesLink Steam
There is a basic contradiction between how Outcast – A New Starting appears to be like and sounds to the way it truly performs. Visually, it is usually epic. The alien world of Adelpha has by no means seemed higher, with Pandora-lite environments seamlessly alternating between lush, verdant forests, shimmering coastal beachfronts, rocky mountainous expanses, snow-capped peaks and waterfall-laden historical metropolises partially reclaimed by nature. The audio, utitlising the identical sweeping orchestral soundtrack of the unique sport, can also be stunning and atmospheric—it all the time speaks of wondrous cosmic adventures that await. What a disgrace, then, that hero of the hour Cutter Slade spends a lot of his time in Outcast – A New Starting enterprise very mundane, removed from epic, open world busywork.
This is a typical form of alternate. Cutter Slade, ex-Navy SEAL and now, after far too lengthy trapped on the alien world of Adelpha, haggard-looking dad bod chosen one, goes to alien Talan A as a result of Talan B has informed him he must for plot functions. Talan A, after prolonged dialogue, a lot of which welcomes the skip button, reveals he might help Cutter however solely after the cosmic area adventurer has gone to D to assemble X quantities of Z. However D cannot be accessed till Talan C has been helped with Y. And so forth and so forth.
These duties range in mundanity, starting from escort missions (comparable to slowly guiding a Twon-Ha area ostriches, who always want you to double again in the event you get even slightly bit too removed from them), to merchandise gathering missions (seize 10 area fruits), to straight-out home chores (herding 12 area cows right into a pen). At mutliple occasions there are mechanics the place for a location’s primary plot to be superior, you actually should go collect a certain quantity of sources and stroll as much as a desk/pot/bench with a “0/10” quantity indicator floating above it, and feed the sources into it. In these moments, development is easy courier work whereas watching digital numbers go up. Go get 10 bug larvae, return to pot, put larvae in pot. Wow! Now I really feel like a kick-ass ex-Navy SEAL area adventurer for certain.
It is an odd and barely deflating expertise, and particularly so after the Outcast’s preliminary wind-up jolts you into the sport’s out of this world setting, story and gameplay mechanics in a fairly uneven opening half-hour, replete with disorientating cinematics and a useful however trite tutorial. I nearly held on as I would bought the background of what got here earlier than within the unique Outcast lodged in my reminiscence, however it did make me marvel what a very contemporary gamer would suppose.
Fortunately, by the point the opening a part of Outcast – A New Starting is over, the important thing plot factors are clearer: Adelpha is being plundered by baddies for its pure sources and the native Talan aliens are primarily enslaved and powerless to cease this. Fortunately, Cutter, who’s desperately attempting to get again dwelling, might help obtain this by aiding the Talans in two primary methods: one is to assist deliver life to Adelpha (by way of doing a lot busywork so a Talan mating pageant can happen) and the opposite is to deliver loss of life to the invaders and kick them out. Progressing each of those macro plots splits the sport down the center content-wise, actually, with one facet naturally leaning loads in the direction of fight missions and the opposite extra in the direction of exploration, speaking with locals and, sure, fetch quest busywork. Do bits of each of this stuff in every Adelpha village and Cutter will get the assist he wants from the village chief. As soon as all chiefs have signed up then… yeah, you see how this works.
Being candid, whereas this sport’s fight is stable (we’ll get to that later), this core sport construction, which just about revels in open world chores and stuffed dialogue wheels, wouldn’t survive one second if it weren’t for this sport’s wonderful and empowering motion, which comes courtesy of Cutter’s jetpack. This jetpack, which you get proper from the beginning of the sport and may be upgraded in quite a few cool methods, critically lightens the load when enterprise one more uninspired quest, because it makes exploration and journey actually enjoyable.
Jetpack joyride
Cutter can enhance soar together with his jetpack (a number of occasions with a couple of upgrades), hover at pace over the floor of Adelpha (together with water, which is admittedly cool), and even take full flight in bursts. It is like Alloy’s glidey parachute mechanic within the Horizon sequel however far cooler and extra helpful. Acquire peak with the jetpack and you’ll dive in the direction of the earth after which swoop like a fowl, solely to regain peak, and do the entire thing once more. Improve the jetpack to the backend of its means tree and you’ll scream round Adelpha like The Rocketeer, which is bang on level for Outcast’s basic sci-fi journey comedian really feel.
Certainly, I might argue that the jetpack is the factor that basically helps replicate among the unique Outcast’s expansive marvel. Within the unique sport it was mind-blowing to suppose that in the event you might see someplace in one among its interconnected worlds then you possibly can attain it, whereas every shimmering portal provided a magic door to a different wondrous realm. In A New Starting, the jetpack is your key to reaching these epic-looking lands which you can see within the distance, or manner up excessive within the sky, and in contrast to the unique, there aren’t any loading screens between areas. That is one huge open world and the jetpack lets Cutter fly about all of it. Portals, of which there are a lot of, are actually simply fairly shortcuts.
Not less than Enchantment, the developer right here, appears to grasp this, and has in-built numerous jetpack time trials to get pleasure from. These contain discovering a trial’s start line (a magic area bulb) after which following a glowing path efficiently with out crashing or getting shot out of the sky. Attain the bulb and you’ll slash it open for factors that may go in the direction of upgrading or unlocking new talents. I discovered myself drawn to those trials and so they tapped into the very best a part of the sport. Crucially, there may be by no means a dialogue wheel or merchandise assortment bucket in sight. It is pure boosting, gliding and flying round a fairly alien world, and that is all proper by me.
On the bottom the jetpack proves helpful, too, permitting Cutter to primarily lengthy soar by urgent the sprint button after which the soar button in sequence. This sees Cutter hurled in any course at nice pace and is nice for leaping over expanses or, extra critically, closing floor on enemies or dodging their assaults in fight situations.
Excessive prejudice
Fight in Outcast – A New Starting is a third-person over-the-shoulder affair that looks like Mass Impact: Andromeda however with out a cowl system. Cutter has an power protect (which can be used as a melee weapon) to dam incoming fireplace after which a small arsenal of pistols and rifles to dispatch evil robotic varieties or hostile native beasts.
Weapon customization is a spotlight of Outcast. Each slot has mod slots, and in the event you get a particular means you possibly can even improve these slots. Once you issue within the big range of mods, there’s loads a participant can do to tailor their loadout to their tastes/playstyle.
For instance, sure mods will make it so a weapon will barely heal Cutteron a kill, whereas others enable ammunition to mechanically dwelling to targets, largely taking aiming out of the query (the sport’s auto lock-on is supremely beneficiant by default). Different mods let weapons fireplace explosive mines, cut back cooldowns, make the weapon fireplace a number of rounds without delay, enhance injury towards a particular sort of enemy, improve the hearth fee, enhance injury dealt near overheating and so forth. There’s a great deal of choices and you’ll chop and alter your loadout with out penalty.
With these weapons Cutter is tasked with eradicating enemy amenities, both to close them down and rob them of their power cores, or to free prisoners who’re being held hostage. It is commonplace go right here, clear this, loot that stuff, however it’s nonetheless fairly satisfying to undertake. Weapons have punch, and while you issue within the dodging and manoeuvring choices Cutter’s jetpack delivers, fights may be fairly dynamic. Sometimes there’s a boss struggle, however you are doing the identical form of stuff. Dodging assaults and taking pictures susceptible factors. Enemy bases are after all crammed with area chests, which as soon as looted, present beneficial improve factors. the rating.
When Cutter’s not taking pictures enemy robots he is clearing hostile native beast nests which have unfold over Adelpha. These play very very similar to the monster nests in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. You go to an space, should kill a set quantity of creatures, destroy some creature nests, then blow up the central infestation. These are repetitive because the creatures have very fundamental assault patterns and solely show any form of problem as a result of there are such a lot of of them. It is extra a case of taking pictures random shifting issues till there’s nothing left shifting. It is not very epic in any respect.
Outdated canine, previous methods
Outcast – A New Starting is a superbly serviceable open world sport—one which performs to the heritage of the sequence by way of its fairly world and musical rating, in addition to ’70s area journey comedian vibes and tone. However whereas its presentation is new, the expertise beneath it, normally, is just not. Not dangerous by any means, however that is unadventurous open world gaming that, jetpack apart, you have skilled earlier than.