Outcast: A New Beginning is an open-world third-person shooter developed by Appeal and published by THQ Nordic. The original game came out in 1999, and several attempts were made to make a sequel, but those plans never came to fruition. However, a sequel has finally emerged, representing the franchise’s fresh start. Unfortunately, playing through the game feels like playing a dated open-world game, and at some points, it feels like playing an Avatar knockoff, but worse.
Returning to Adelpha
You play as Cutter Slade, an ex-soldier who winds up on Adelpha. He discovers that an invading force is taking over, and the world’s natives, the Talan, are trying to fight back. To get back home, Slade has to team up with the Talan and unite each tribe. Slade goes to each village and helps solve its problems to gain their trust and fight against the invaders. Each city has multiple quest lines for Slade to go on, which help progress the game’s narrative. Once you complete all the village quests, you get a pendant from the village chief that promises to unite with the other tribes. There are flashbacks to flesh out Slade as a character, but they don’t make me care for the main character. There are also these looks into the future involving Slade, which don’t add much value to what is going on in general.
Unfortunately, none of the characters are worth investing emotions into. Slade is a snarky soldier with dry humor and jokes that aren’t funny. Most of the Talan you aid aren’t characters you want to help. The performances felt monotone and emotionless, contributing to many one-dimensional characters. Overall, there are just a lot of characters that deterred me from enjoying the game and didn’t get me invested in the story being told.
Just Another Open World
Outcast: A New Beginning is an open-world game. The good news is that Appeal created a beautiful world with lush jungles, beautiful seaside landscapes, and planes filled with wildlife. The bad news is that the things you do in the open world are generic. You go to different bases and wipe out enemies, go on fetch quests, and do time challenges. Many revolve around completing tasks for the various villages in the game. Doing these will reward you with more health, new weapons, and experience points. Frankly, they are also boring to do, and it feels like something you would find in any generic open-world game. The fetch quests tell you to fetch ten objects, but only when you return to the village does the game tell you to return to the same place to fetch more objects.
The game’s combat is very lackluster. While shooting feels arcade-like, the enemy AI is very predictable. They have limited patterns to memorize, which leads to stale and repetitive encounters where every enemy feels like a pushover. Upgrade trees for combat include more damage, better shields, and weapon mods to collect throughout the game. The combat is serviceable, but the AI is too easy and makes the firefights boring.
The best part of the game is how you traverse the open world. Very early on, you get access to a jetpack, your primary way of traversing the world. There are a variety of ways to move around with the jetpack. You have an upgrade tree for the jetpack to unlock more movement options, which add more fun ways to move around the world. You also get access to a flying mount, which makes traversal across long distances easier. It’s disappointing that the game didn’t capitalize on the movement aspect because moving around and using the jetpack was my favorite part of the game.
A New Beginning?
Outcast: A New Beginning feels less like a new beginning and more like a generic open-world game that offers little to the player. At some points, it felt like I was playing a knockoff Avatar game. The game’s traversal options and beautiful setting are the best parts. Unfortunately, Outcast: A New Beginning is held back by its lack of character depth, generic plot, and horrible AI.
