I have never played the original Outcast, or its remake, in the past, but I do recognize its important influence in gaming as a whole, as it essentially paved the way for the modern approach to the open-world action-adventure genre, something so common and mainstream nowadays. I do find it a bring strange that such an important and fondly remembered franchise doesn’t get the love it seemingly deserves. Is Outcast: A New Beginning a chance for the franchise to start fresh and bring in a whole new audience?

The game picks up right after the events of its predecessor (or its remake, which is a lot easier to access, being on all consoles), and sees the protagonist Cutter returning to the world of Adelpha with no memory of what has happened. Given how a few years have passed, the world as a whole has changed, so Cutter will need to adapt to newer surroundings, characters and technology. Adelpha is being invaded by a new robotic force, so he must adapt quickly to assist the Talans in reclaiming their native homeland.

Another large and empty open world.

To put it plainly, the story of Outcast: A New Beginning is uninteresting and unenjoyable. It lacks any interesting characters, and I can’t even remember the names of any of them other than Cutter. The only saving grace is the fact it often doesn’t take itself too seriously, with plenty of B-movie jokes that are entertaining enough. Dialogue will also throw A LOT of jargon at you, which can be difficult to pick up on, but much like Final Fantasy XVI’s incredible codex, a simple button press will clue you right back in.

The open world doesn’t make you feel like exploring. I ended up just going from objective marker to objective marker. It’s also full of side content that is there purely to fluff out the playtime. There’s a wide variety to explore with dense forests, villages, and much more, but none of it is particularly interesting. Thankfully, with Cutter’s jetpack getting around is an absolute breeze, and very quickly you will gain access to some upgrades that can skip a lot of the traversal.

Side content mostly consists of poorly designed platforming puzzles that feel awkward to complete or standard combat encounters. At best, they can be mildly entertaining with the occasional fun challenges or interesting combat encounters. They will also often reward you with a wealth of powerful upgrades or one of the many upgrade materials that you will need to make Cutter more powerful.

The glider makes navigating a breeze and you can get it early.

Whilst the open world is a by-the-numbers checklist that didn’t engage me, its core gameplay allows Outcast: A New Beginning to shine through. Combat is fast-paced and constantly engaging, oddly feeling like Mass Effect Andromeda‘s one redeeming feature. This is all thanks to fantastic movement, due to the Jumpack. Cutter can dash and double jump around arenas, allowing you to reposition and dodge enemies with ease.

On top of this, the progression with Cutter is also fantastic. The biggest draw is with the weapons that Cutter has access to. Whilst they may seem like just a basic sidearm and rifle, these can be modified any way you want. You can come up with some pretty amazing weapon combinations through this system, adding up to six modules to a weapon that can change its fire rate, projectiles, and speed. Essentially, you can change the entire weapon behaviour. It takes Cutter’s limited arsenal and gives it limitless possibilities. 

One of my favourite combinations is turning the pistol into an automatic, explosive round-firing machine. It drains ammo fast, but absolutely demolishes everything. It’s always fun and interesting to combine a wide variety of mods, and I’d love to see this level of customisation in other games.

Despite the core mechanics being decently well put together and the customisation being stellar, as a whole, I found that Outcast A New Beginning was just not quite hitting it for me. The most cookie-cutter designs let down what could have been a great game. The story and open world just isn’t engaging enough. There’s a lot of dialogue and just about none of it says anything interesting, making the game feel like it’s dragging at times. Whilst this game certainly didn’t appeal to me, I would still recommend people check this one out, as I know people who love this game despite the issues.

Combat is really good, evoking the one good thing from Mass Effect: Andromeda.

Outcast is also often gorgeous to look at. Whilst the open world is boring to explore, it’s almost certainly not boring to look at. With densely packed jungle environments, ancient temples, and snowy mountains, there’s always something going on visually and I was impressed with the scope on display. All of this mixed in with a fairly standard sci-fi aesthetic on top of that. It’s not quite on the level of Avatar Frontiers of Pandora, but considering the obviously lower budget, it was never going to reach that level.  As for the sound, this will be a bit of a mixed bag. Personally, I am a fan of the B-Movie corny jokes and the fact nobody takes anything seriously. It takes what is otherwise a bland and uninteresting story, and makes it somewhat entertaining.

It does have a lot of issues, but Outcast: A New Beginning also features its fair share of saving graces. It is flawed, but a somewhat good time in smaller bursts. It’s a shame its open world design felt generic, never succeeding at captivating me, because the core combat mechanics and admittedly great visual design did a lot of heavy lifting. It’s an unapologetic old-school game in its premise and content; it doesn’t try to be anything else, nor does it try to punch above its weight. Whether you think this is commendable or not is up to your opinion.

Outcast: A New Beginning is available now on PS5, Xbox Series S/X and PC.

Reviewed on PS5.

A copy of Outcast: A New Beginning was provided by the publisher.