Remakes, reboots, revivals. Whether or not it is a lack of contemporary concepts, exploiting nostalgia, or an earnest want to introduce a brand new era to previous glories, the leisure business loves bringing previous issues again. And we love previous issues coming again, too, so long as it is not Nanna after she’s escaped from the house once more.
1999’s Outcast is the most recent title to be dragged kicking and screaming into modernity with a sequel arriving lengthy after the statute of limitations has handed. However properly, Outcast: A New Starting requires no information of that sport to play. Like within the unique Outcast, we play because the improbably named Cutter Slade, who’s transported by means of a portal to an odd alien world the place he should remedy the entire issues of the indigenous folks by taking pictures a bunch of issues and blowing some stuff up.
Missions are sometimes damaged up into interconnected components you are able to do in any order, but it surely all mainly entails discovering gadgets or taking pictures issues. That is high-quality. The taking pictures is purposeful however forgiving and infrequently irritating. You get a candy jet pack to make traversal a little bit simpler. There’s some gentle puzzle fixing, some barely wonky platforming, and a bevvy of throwaway side-quests that contain issues like gliding by means of rings and taking pictures baddies.
Sadly, there are additionally loads of technical points to cope with. Switching to efficiency mode so we may play with a greater framerate utterly borked the cutscenes, and taking part in in graphical mode meant that in some barely extra intense areas, the frames-per-second dropped to the purpose we may depend them by eye.
There’s an plain allure to Outcast: A New Starting, and twenty years in the past this might have been the breakout hit for an ongoing Outcast franchise, however in 2024 gamers are spoilt for selection within the realm of third-person action-adventure video games. In the event you’re a fan of the AA, mid-tier shooters we used to get again within the day then this may be value a glance, however in any other case, there’s simply not sufficient right here to warrant your consideration.