Outcast: A New Beginning

Outcast - A New Beginning is an excellent sequel with a lot of great gameplay elements that go a long way to make up for its need for further polish. Bugs are common, from an outpost with the robots stuck in the floor to breakable helidium crystals floating several feet above the ground they should be poking out of, and the conversation trees are in desperate need of re-ordering. Despite this, tho...

The joy of Outcast – A New Beginning comes from the freedom of its nonlinear concept.

Outcast: A New Beginning lives up to the ambition the same developer achieved all those years ago. A captivating story, interesting characters, thoughtful world-building and slick action are only slightly marred by an inconsistent frame-rate, repetitive quests, bugs, and occasional crashes.

Let’s start with a bit of video game history. The original Outcast was released in 1999. It was an action adventure game and featured one of the first freely explorable open worlds. For that element alone, it garnered a lot of respect and a cult status that continues to this day. Side note: the game’s amazing musical score was one of the first to be recorded by an orchestra, and released as a stan...

Outcast: A New Beginning has a fair amount of fun to offer, unfortunately, it just doesn't run well enough on the Steam Deck.

Appeal Studios really hit the nail on the head with this one. Outcast: A New Beginning is the reimagining of the old Outcast games, with smooth gameplay and sweet, sweet graphics. Explore the world of Adelpha and discover a dazzling place like you wouldn’t have imagined.

Outcast – A New Beginning rekindles the original game's epic scope and audio-visual magic, but delivers a largely unadventurous open world gaming experience

Outcast: A New Beginning may not have a gameplay loop that interests everyone, considering its repetitious nature and somewhat dated shooting mechanics. With that said, the world and how you interact with it is enough for the right audience to dig into.

While there are things that work in its favor, Outcast: A New Beginning ultimately feels like any other open-world game you could play this year or have played years ago. It retains the charm of the original and further explores the world of the Talan in unique and odd ways, but how you go about doing that doesn’t feel as revolutionary as it did back in 1999.

Repetitive gameplay and numerous bugs can make some of Outcast: A New Beginning a chore. Fun exploration mechanics might save it for returning fans.

Unfortunately, the Jetpack can't make up for all the negatives in Outcast: A New Beginning.

A poor (and bored) man's Avatar, Outcast: A New Beginning is a tedious open world shooter that simply doesn't have anything new to say.