Outcast – A New Beginning Review | PC

We’ve had a good run with several great releases so far into 2024, but there are still several genres that need hits to fill the bingo card. On today’s round, we have Appeal Studios from what some would consider to be the chocolate capital of the world, Belgium. Now, this studio might not be a veteran in the game development industry when you consider that they were only established in 2015, but they had a dream to make a big impact with their first release… And they sure as hell did it with Outcast – Second Contact in 2017.

 

Outcast – Second Contact is an open-world Sci-Fi adventure with a lot of heart, and as a first release, it was quite ambitious. To sweeten the deal, it was a remake of the original cult. However, it was quite well received and already got this studio on the map, though they had no plans of stopping or even slowing down. Sadly, they did hit a slight drought with development when they worked on ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’ in 2023. Though jumping a few years ahead, and this brings us to Gangs of Sherwood in 2023, this one was a bit of a hit or miss because it has great qualities but also not-so-great qualities. Moving on to the present Appeal Studios, another round of Outcast in the form of a sequel to the original on 15 March, known as Outcast – A New Beginning.

Outcast – A New Beginning has our infamous protagonist, Cutter Slade, for another round on Adelpha, but things aren’t quite what you’d expect. After his untimely end at the firing squad, as ordered by his superiors, he was brought back to life by the gods of Adelpha to save its people and prevent the extermination of the Talans. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done, and Cutter has his work cut out for him since he’s now fighting for the Talans instead of against them, with no support from the invading humans he once sided with. However, his end goal is still to get back to his daughter, which can only happen after he saves the Talan, but nothing is quite as it seems on Adelpha, and then the plot will definitely thicken like Zeedog sap in the sun.

So, prepare yourself for what might be a confusing start to a great story as you take on the role of Cutter Slade. The first thing you should know about Outcast – A New Beginning is that a lot has changed from its predecessor. Aside from fighting for the Talan instead of against them, you’ll also get a much closer look at how each village lives and how their culture operates. This might not seem like much, but this is quite literally what makes Outcast – A New Beginning so alive. It’s an entirely new culture with some inspiration taken from real ones, but there are some interesting twists in the most bizarre places that just work so well with the overall setting.

 

Starting off in Outcast – A New Beginning, you’ll naturally have to go through the tutorial, which is combined with your introduction to the world. However, tutorials are typically meant to progress slowly until you have time to get a feel for everything, but this is, sadly, where you might lose interest with how slow things move. Unfortunately, you’ll have to push through and be patient in this regard because it does get better, but anything can happen, and this might still change. This is one of the very aspects of Outcast – A New Beginning that needs a little work, but nothing in life is ever perfect, and there’s still a lot more on offer in Adelpha.

For the most part, the tutorial will show you how to use basic movements, such as jetpack jumping and very basic combat. Everything from there will get massively expanded on once you unlock upgrades, and this is where Outcast – A New Beginning really takes off. For now, the most attractive feature to take note of is movement. You’ll start off trapped on the ground, only being able to run, sprint, and crouch, until you find your best friend… Some very advanced but somehow minimally designed armor that comes with a jetpack. Now, your jetpack will initially only give you a basic jump boost, which comes in handy when climbing all over the place, along with negating fall damage. Sadly, your jetpack has a limit, and you’ll have limited energy charges that will only recharge once you’re on a flat surface again. We specifically say ‘flat surface’ because as long as Cutter can stand on it, it counts for the recharge to take place.

Now, you’re probably wondering where these jetpack upgrades come from. Well, jetpack upgrades aren’t the only ones, but we’ll touch on those really soon. This specific set of upgrades starts with Blue Helidium. This painfully rare resource can only be obtained from Main Story missions and Side Missions and will come across as the bane of your existence at first due to how little you get, but this is actually great because it helps maintain a good pace while progressing. Worry not; there’s enough in the entire game to get all the upgrades, but you still have leftovers and access to upgrades such as energy charges, gliding, hovering, etc. All of these expand your reach and combat potential if used correctly.

 

Moving on to combat, the typical Sci-Fi environment usually calls for energy-based weapons, but these weapons can be one of two ways; Fast projectiles that will hit your target damn near instantly, slow projectiles that suffer from falloff, and a firing arc. Luckily, Outcast – A New Beginning relies on the former, but you’ll still be limited in ammo. Ammo doesn’t come in a battery or a clip; you’ll have to use what’s around you, and your ammo is a different color of Helidium. Between your pistol and, eventually, your rifle, you’ll need Green and Red Helidium, both of which can be found everywhere in huge clusters or as drops from enemies. Unfortunately, the amount of Helidium you can carry is limited until you can upgrade your carry capacity, but aiming for accuracy will save you in the long run.

Carrying on with weapons, things just keep getting better once you discover Weapon Modules. Outcast – A New Beginning doesn’t give you endless different weapon options. You’ll only have your standard two weapons, but you can swap out the various modules to give them different effects, such as adding explosives to your shots, rapid fire, cooldown speed, homing shots, and so much more. The customization possibilities are nearly endless, and there’s more than enough to go around, so you can build the perfect killing machine. However, nothing is ever free, and while each module comes with its own unique perk, they’ll also come with a cost, such as extra ammo usage.

Saving one of the bigger pieces of the chaos for now, you’ll need upgrades sooner or later. However, your jetpack has its own set of upgrades that require Blue Helidium, but you’ll need Nano Cores to upgrade your Weapon Modules, Armor, unlock more module slots, and a few other spoiler-worthy things. Luckily, you’ll get Nano Cores from quite literally almost every human or robotic enemy you fight. Though if you’re hurting for more Nano Cores, you can also take a chance at raiding a base or looking for patrols on your way to your next objective.

 

Sadly, not everything is as promising when you’re exploring Adelpha in Outcast – A New Beginning. Upgrades and combat are well executed, but you’ll also have access to crafting and trading; sadly, this is painfully limited and not worth exploring. This is largely due to a lack of certain resources, or just a severe lack of options that don’t make crafting all that appealing, and the same can be said about trading for other items or selling items to get Zorkins that can be used to buy other items from an equally limited selection. However, you’ll still need Zorkins for capacity upgrades, leaving you in a bit of a catch-22.

To save the best for last, Outcast – A New Beginning features a brilliant story once things start moving. You’ll get to explore many different villages and see how each village lives, their cultures, and how they survive. This gives the world a lot more life and expands the lore potential to a whole other level, even though there are a lot of similarities to actual life and how we operate. There is one minor downside to the story elements, and it comes when talking to the people. You’ll have to choose the same dialogue option several times in some cases to get the full objective; just changing or marking the option a bit more clearly is the only polish this needs.

One of the bigger things to keep in mind is that the Main Missions are tied to each village, and they’re broken into segments. Unfortunately, you never really know if the mission is done if you’re doing a fetch quest and dropping everything off at the specified location. For some reason, it takes a few minutes to move to the next step or be marked as complete, leaving you wondering if there’s a bug or if you missed something.

 

On the visual front, Outcast – A New Beginning definitely saw massive improvements and upgrades when compared to its predecessor. There’s a wide-open world to explore and so much to see or even admire purely for the amount of detail that went into everything. A lot of the original designs from Outcast – Second Contact was still maintained and improved upon, giving the Talan a lot more detail; the same can be said about the wildlife you’ll encounter. However, there are some optimization issues that desperately need to be addressed due to the lag they cause. Sadly, a high-powered setup won’t save you from a release that still needs optimization.

Now for the part where Outcast – A New Beginning really shines, the music and voice acting. As you may have guessed, Outcast – A New Beginning is fully voiced, and just about every conversation is unique in its way. This is actually a rare sight because voice acting is normally saved for important characters in a story, but it looks like Appeal Studios went above and beyond to bring as much life to the game as possible. On the other hand, the background music inspires a sense of adventure when you’re out exploring and changes pace very quickly when in combat, but there’s also a silly undertone to the music that helps you not to take everything too seriously.

 

Overall, Outcast – A New Beginning has endless potential, and it’s a pretty solid game to begin with, but it also needs some work before it really shines. There’s already a great story, a beautiful open world to explore, and an interesting combat system, and let’s not forget about the fully voiced world, but a little bit more polish would do wonders for this release. Unfortunately, optimization is still the biggest downside to this release, and this will definitely affect the experience unless it gets fixed.
 

Jay Claassen (@R3GR3T_3NVY)
Senior Editor, NoobFeed