The original Outcast was revolutionary. Released in 1999, it was one of the earliest truly open world games and featured a distinctive voxel-based graphical style that really stood out. An enhanced version appeared on Steam in 2014 whilst a full remake was released in 2017 – although we were less than impressed with that effort. Nevertheless it’s a testament to how fondly remembered the game is that it has had such a pattern of remakes and rereleases. Now, seven years after that last remake, Cutter Slade returns for a new adventure in Outcast – A New Beginning.
I got early access to the Steam Next Fest demo – which is going live today – and strapped in with some amount of trepidation, given how incredibly dated the original was by the time of its remake. After a decently chunky 35GB download, the demo presents you with three time-limited game modes, each of which can be played twice to give a mini taster menu of what the full game aims to offer. The exploration and story modes lasting 20 minutes each whilst the combat demo lets you fight through one alien base. While this approach does show off the range of mechanics it has, the unfortunate side-effect of making everything feel quite piecemeal and separate from each other.
First up I went with Exploration and was dumped into the world of Adelpha and given basic instructions to glide and use Slade’s new jetpack. This addition makes getting around so much faster than the original game, which is fortunate given how big the game map is. I was reminded of games like Just Cause and am interested to see how the jetpack is used in the full game.
In the demo I found a temple and got stuck into a puzzle that was unfortunately reminiscent of the infamous Superman 64. A light zooms around the environment between switches and you have to chase it through the sky and underwater before it disappears. This was actually relatively tough without a full grasp of the controls, but I stubbornly persevered to be rewarded by a collectable of which I had no idea what the in-game function was. Typical demo behaviour.
The combat mission then throws you into an alien base and gives you a chance to try out the basic weapons. This felt fine, but was pretty indistinguishable from a multitude of other third person shooters. Playing on controller the auto-aim was perhaps a little too generous by default but this aspect is so generic there isn’t much to say. You do have a scanner that you use to detect switches and terminals but even this is similar to so many other titles, not least the recent Avatar game that I had played not long before.
The final mode available was Story and this actually worked more like a traditional demo as you could talk to the native Talans and take on quests which involved both combat and exploration. I’m not really sure why THQ Nordic didn’t just release a 40 minute demo within this setting, rather than the separate experiences. The actual story aspects are incredibly faithful to the original game with lengthy exposition and dialogue trees. There is also a handy glossary on screen which explains the many alien terms being used which is welcome, though the conversation style felt a little dated.
All in all the demo gave a decent impression of the full game to come and left me wondering what else it might have to offer as everything just felt so predictable and over-familiar – our last preview from Gamescom last year had Appeal Studios talking about how Cutter has to learn to speak Talan through the game, of systemic design where liberating and connecting villages sees them grow and flourish, of being able to raise and nurture native animals, who can then help you in the fight against the invading robot army.
Of course, all of that is pretty much impossible to shove into a 20 minute demo, and that leaves the Outcast – A New Beginning Steam Next Fest demo feeling a little like Outcast mixed with Anthem. If that sounds appealing then all power to you, but I really hope the full game can show more of its own personality – Cutter Slade certainly still doesn’t.
Try the demo for Outcast – A New Beginning through Steam Next Fest, which runs from 5-12th February. The full game is coming out on 14th March 2024 across PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.
