20 years ago, there was a game called Outcast that completely slipped under my radar. I never played it and to be honest, never heard of it. That is until I came across Outcast A New Beginning. After doing some digging, I found out that this is a sequel to the original 90s game and one that some fans might have been waiting for a while for. Just to imagine waiting 20 years for a sequel is baffling but hey it can happen.
However, if you are like me and didn’t play the first game, don’t let that stop you from diving into this one as it does a good job at letting you learn everything about the previous game and the world of Adelpha. I love a good open-world game and even more so if they are set on an alien planet. So, with that being said, I was lucky enough to get a hold of a copy on PS5 and dove right into Cutter Slade’s return to Adelpha.
The original team behind the first game has reunited to bring us the sequel. Adelpha is full of dangerous creatures and home to the Talan people. After the events of the first game, the Talan people have become inextricably linked with earth. We get to play as ex-Navy SEAL Cutter Slade who still provides that dry wit, he had back in the 90s, however, the world around isn’t the same and has changed.
Resurrected by the almighty Yods (Gods) he has found Talan’s enslaved, the world stripped of its resources and his past connected to the current invading robot forces. Have you got what it takes to save the planet, again.
It was nice to be able to progress the story my own way and at my own pace with the non-linear approach. If you want to steamroll the story you can but I highly advise doing the side quests so that you can unlock more and discover what hidden treasures Adelpha has in store. Outcast A New Beginning has a beautiful world full of lore that is waiting to be discovered and what better way to do this than with the jetpack that you unlock in the early stages of the game.
The jetpack has various unlockable features as you progress and it will become your main form of traversing the world. Even more so when you unlock the ability to glide and use the wingsuit style.
There are two main weapons, the pistol and rifle but these can be combined with dozens of different modules, which in turn give you the flexibility to build your weapons in your favourite play style. Even though you only have these two weapons the modules give the combat a unique feel even if it is just simple third-person shot mechanics. The shield can be used to block incoming fire and attacks from enemies but can also be used as a melee attack, though it doesn’t stand well against the bigger robots.
The quest line in Outcast A New Beginning is okay but nothing special. It sees you tackling the main questline and numerous side quests in an outdated fashion. A lot of the quests are “go to this location”, “Deliver this item to X”, or clear out a facility which all look very similar.
I couldn’t get attached to any of the characters as a lot of them just seemed bland and didn’t have much to offer. If it wasn’t for Cutter Slade the game would have fell flat from the get-go. Even though there isn’t a 2 in the game title it is evident from the start that this game follows on from the events of the first one. It does do a good job at explaining a bit of the lore and peculiar words but the main idea is that you are once again called upon to save Adelpha.
Even though there are numerous alien life forms that are cool to look at, the main robot enemies are generic and get boring to fight after a while. It would have been nice to see more complex robots and a better big bad. Having a bald general as the big bad doesn’t amount to anything amazing and we have seen this storyline done before in the forms of Avatar. If it wasn’t for the weapon modules and the movement mechanics being so good I wouldn’t have stuck around for as long as I did.
Graphically stunning Outcast A New Beginning brings new life to Adelpha. With the different alien life forms, different biomes, and a vast open world to explore. You can spend hours just taking it all in. I did, however, keep getting graphical issues during cutscenes and the odd visual bug. This isn’t uncommon in games nowadays, but I did feel they happened too often for my liking. Feels like it needed a bit more polishing.
The voice acting was decent with the shining star being Cutter Slade. Even though at times the humour did fall flat and there were a few crickets. It does have a jokey feel to its dialogue and in some cases doesn’t take itself too seriously. It was a nice touch to have the option to check what certain words meant while an audio cutscene was playing. It helps when trying to understand the plot and storyline a bit better. All in all, it doesn’t go above and beyond with its cinematics and audio, just enough to get the story across.
There is plenty to do in Outcast A New Beginning, whether that be playing through the main storyline or doing the side missions that are scattered throughout Adelpha. If you just concentrated on the main storyline, you will probably complete the game relatively fast compared to if you took your time and took everything that was on offer.
There are plenty of NPC to speak to, and loads of lore to dive into and if you’re like me and love the travelling mechanics in this game will spend hours just soring around Adelpha taking in its beauty. The movement in Outcast A New Beginning reminds me of the good old days when I used to play Just Cause. The movement in that was wacky and so much fun and I get similar vibes in this game.
Conclusion
My first time in Adelpha was a fun one but nothing spectacular. Outcast A New Beginning has a few strong points which are its gorgeous open world and its movement/combat mechanics but other than these it doesn’t push itself to be a phenomenal game but more an average one. Cutter Slade does everything he can to keep the humour flowing but when the game is littered with bugs and visual issues you can’t help but notice and get frustrated.
I hope that fans of the original game get what they have been waiting for out of Outcast A New Beginning but for me, it just came down to an average open-world game that was sprinkled with some good features. For those reasons, I’m giving Outcast A New Beginning a 6 out of 10.
Outcast A New Beginning Trailer
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