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The gaming industry is currently saturated with RPG releases, making it a dominant genre. Nearly every new game falls into the RPG category, whether it's an action RPG, a Souls-like, or even a straightforward action-adventure game infused with RPG elements.
In today's gaming landscape, finding titles with truly innovative concepts is a rare occurrence. Outcast: A New Beginning is undeniably an RPG in every sense, yet it introduces unique ideas that deviate from the commonplace, offering a refreshing and uncommon experience in the gaming realm.
However, challenging is a journey from conceptualization to realisation, and as it comes, this game goes through this path with obstacles. Translating what's envisioned on paper into practical gameplay poses its own set of challenges.
Story
The narrative holds significant importance in any RPG, and Outcast: A New Beginning adheres to this principle. The story unfolds in a perplexing and mysteriously intriguing manner, immediately hooking you up. The opening scenes are filled with fascination and shrouded in secrecy and ambiguity, adding an extra layer of allure to the overall experience.
The game places you in the shoes of Cutter Slade, a soldier who wakes up on an unknown planet without a single clue about how he got there or his true purpose. Soon, you find yourself drawn into the conflict between the native race called Talons and the invaders who arrived to enslave this seemingly backward race and plunder the planet's resources.
In an intriguing twist, it is revealed that Slade is the prophesied saviour long-awaited by Talons. Without hesitation, Slade embraces this significant responsibility, albeit with some personal motivations guiding his actions. After these events, you embark on a mission to help Talons get free from the oppressors, and that marks the beginning of your adventure.
The story, without a doubt, is highly engaging, original, and brimming with mysteries that serve as a compelling force pushing you forward throughout the game.
As Outcast: A New Beginning is an open-world game, the story unfolds through quests provided by various quest givers scattered throughout the game. The approach to these quests is somewhat unconventional and quite original. When initiating a quest in a specific location or settlement, a quest line begins, guiding you through interconnected, smaller quests associated with the overarching storyline.
While the unique approach to quests in Outcast: A New Beginning is innovative, it comes with a significant flaw. It's easy to become disoriented amid the multitude of tasks, and as the game progresses, some quests tend to linger, involving repetitive back-and-forth interactions with NPCs. This can lead to the sensation of playing an errand boy, introducing a potential source of monotony and boredom in the gameplay.
Additionally, there's a sense of an excessive number of tasks required to progress through certain parts of the story, creating an imbalance that, in my opinion, affects the overall pacing negatively.
Given that our protagonist is on a distant planet among a race with an unfamiliar language, the game ingeniously addresses the language barrier. The protagonist is a chosen one, and as a result, he miraculously learns the language overnight, but not all the complex terminology, of course. For this, the game introduces the entire glossary that pops up when you speak with NPCs, which you can bring up by pressing a dedicated button.
Despite the presence of a glossary system, the terminology remains highly perplexing, leading to frequent instances where understanding the conversations or their context becomes challenging.
However, the language barrier sometimes brings a very positive outcome, injecting a considerable amount of humour into the game through instances of being lost in translation. Occasionally, the Talons take phrases literally, resulting in hilarious moments when certain expressions are unfamiliar to them.
The downside of the story is the prolonged conversations with NPCs that occur periodically. The only positive quality in this aspect is the commendable voice acting, particularly Slade's, which compensates for much of the tedium associated with these lengthy dialogues.
Contrary to the usual trend in video games where the storytelling often surpasses the narrative itself, Outcast: A New Beginning presents a unique scenario. It boasts a compelling and high-quality story, with the primary issue lying in the less-than-engaging manner in which it is told.
Gameplay
Many top-tier RPGs or games incorporating RPG elements typically prioritise addictive combat and weapon upgrades. However, Outcast: A New Beginning introduces a unique concept where these traditional elements take a backseat. Instead, the game places emphasis on the traversal system, making it the central and most crucial aspect of gameplay that drives the entire experience.
Don't get me wrong; there is plenty of combat in this game, but it's relegated to a secondary role. At the beginning of the game, you receive a jet pack that enables high jumps and dashes. As you progress, its upgrades transform it into a true technological marvel, allowing you to glide, execute triple jumps, and perform various stunts.
Despite being an open-world game with a highly efficient fast travel system, in Outcast: A New Beginning, you'll often find yourself completely ignoring fast travel due to the exceptional traversal mechanics. Instead, you'll frequently choose to glide or use the jet pack to reach your destinations.
Furthermore, much of the side content revolves around using the jet pack mechanics to traverse parkour sections and unlock various elements in the game. While the traversal system is undeniably enjoyable, it's also plagued by janky controls. This can lead to significant frustration, particularly when precise actions are required.
Regarding side content, it predominantly involves tasks such as clearing enemy bases, activating fast travel points, dealing with aggressive wildlife in corrupted areas, and tackling various traversal challenges. While the range of side activities is diverse, they lack innovation and tend to feel repetitive, leading to monotony rather quickly.
In terms of combat, it's notably fast-paced and somewhat simplified. Targets are automatically locked onto them, requiring swift movement to evade enemy fire. Your primary weapon is an automatic pistol, with a rifle becoming available later on. Ammunition for the pistol and rifle is distinct and obtained from special crystals found throughout the world.
Both weapons can be enhanced by installing mods found in the world, offering nearly limitless customization possibilities. Additionally, besides upgrading weapons and the jet pack, you have the opportunity to unlock new combat skills that can significantly alter the gameplay experience.
Regarding defence, you'll possess a shield that doubles as a melee weapon and can be further upgraded for improved performance. All in all, combat in Outcast: A New Beginning is unconventional and remarkably engaging, and even if it isn't the best part of the game, it undeniably holds its own and will give you occasional moments of enjoyment.
Graphics, Sounds, and Performance
In terms of graphics, Outcast: A New Beginning can be described as a game with a visually appealing design. However, the execution of this design falls short and, to avoid being too harsh, is poorly implemented.
Planet Adelpha boasts stunning landscapes, including dense rainforests, picturesque beaches, vast deserts, snowy mountains, and rocky areas teeming with diverse flora and fauna. While these environments appear impressive from a distance, upon closer inspection, the graphical presentation is noticeably lacking in quality. This highlights the disparity between the conceptual strength of the game's graphics and its execution in practice.
The game's graphic presentation is marred by issues such as poor textures, the absence of modern graphical effects, and inadequate character modelling. Nearly every character appears identical, with the only distinguishing factor being their clothing.
The overall graphical presentation feels incomplete, giving the impression that development was halted midway with a sentiment of "it's good enough; let's prioritise other aspects." This was the prevailing impression I experienced while playing the game.
Performance, on the other hand, presents its own challenges. On PlayStation 5, the game offers two modes: fidelity and performance. In fidelity mode, the game runs notably poorly, often falling below 30 FPS. Meanwhile, the performance mode struggles to achieve a consistent 60 FPS, with screen-tearing reaching such high levels that it renders the game virtually unplayable. While a recent patch has slightly improved the screen-tearing issue, it remains prominent and disruptive during gameplay.
Regarding sound, the environmental audio is excellently executed with no notable issues. The soundtrack is fitting, featuring backing tracks that correspond well with each area's theme. For instance, jungle areas are accompanied by music reminiscent of tribal melodies, while desert regions feature oriental-inspired tunes in the background.
However, the sound presentation was regrettably marred by its own set of issues. Occasionally, crackling noises would disrupt the audio, and during conversations—typically over the radio—speech mixing would occur due to delays, resulting in considerable chaos.
I'm genuinely hopeful that these issues will be addressed in future patches, though I must admit I'm not overly optimistic. Despite three patches released since I started playing the game, none have managed to resolve these problems.
Conclusion
In essence, Outcast: A New Beginning can be characterized as a game brimming with exceptionally promising ideas yet suffering from dismal execution. While the story holds considerable merit, its delivery falls short. The gameplay showcases innovation, yet the imprecision of the fundamental mechanics breeds frustration. The design exhibits potential, but the graphical implementation leaves much to be desired. The list of shortcomings could go on and on.
I believe Outcast: A New Beginning isn't inherently a poor game but rather suffers from underdevelopment across various aspects. Whether this was intentional or due to budget constraints remains unclear. With additional time and attention, it has the potential to evolve into a much stronger contender.
If you are willing to overlook the aforementioned flaws and are ready to turn a blind eye to some evident shortcomings, this game has much to offer and can be very good, if not great in some moments.
The Good
Intriguing story- Diverse environments
- Good potential
The Bad
Poor graphical execution- Frustrating traversal mechanics
- Repetitive side tasks
- Performance issues
