Outcast

The Good
Well, it has an impressive initial impact. For a few minutes it seems as if you have been dropped into a deep, interactive world which you can explore at your leisure; the environments are very attractive, using smooth voxels, whilst the sound and music are professionally done and, in the latter case, expensive. Indeed this game reeks of money and talent, and like many expensive collections of expertise it is absolutely hollow inside.

The Bad
As explained quite well in some of the other reviews, the actual gameplay is dreadful, dated, linear, uninvolving. Each level involves running up to a character, listening to a dull conversation, running elsewhere to pick up three or four objects, running to a second character in order to repair the objects, running to a third character in order to find the location of a fourth object, running to the fourth object, running to the second character to find the new location of the first character, running to the first character to hand him 'object Z', at which point he tells you that you need to locate character X in order to embark on a very similar quest. The whole game is nakedly a modular series of looping flowcharts, with no enjoyment at all.

The 'sci-fi' angle involves taking a bunch of quasi middle-eastern characterisations and environments, renaming everything (so that instead of locating Farmer Giles and asking him for a pair of 'scissors' you have to locate Qu'loth and ask him for his 'maarg', or his 'tarrn', or his 'tazmak'), and little else. The game is thus very, very complex but utterly shallow, indeed it is meaningless, impossible to relate to or feel anything for. It reminds me a great deal with 'X: Beyond the Frontier' in that respect; attractive, quality stuff, no game.

The Bottom Line
The nightmare is that this game showed enormous promise. Each level is like a functioning city/village, although sadly not loose enough for you to simply wander around, playing with things. If it had been married to some kind of RPG it would have been excellent, but it isn't, the game itself is no more advanced than a simple Sinclair Spectrum arcade adventure.

I could feel my initial intrigue - the game is very, very attractive - wearing off, until by the second level I was playing it out of sheer bloodymindedness. Again, this reminds me of 'X: Beyond the Frontier' and, oddly, 'Serious Sam', another game which had promise but ran out of ideas very quickly. If only...

The Good
This game is a nearly perfect blend of action and adventure. It takes place mostly outdoors with expansive vistas (many games tend to have a very limited visual field, whether due to primarily interior or urban environments). It has many supporting characters with individualized personalities. The musical score is performed by the Moscow Philharmonic, and gives the game a "cinematic" feel. The interface was very easy to learn and uses a combination keyboard/mouse. This game is vast and will keep the player busy for many enjoyable hours.

The Bad
I suppose the use of voxels to render the imagery was one thing that could be improved upon. There is a lack of rendered detail of objects. Oddly enough, this did not really detract from the game a bit. I have read that the sequel will not be using voxels and that the detail will be much better.

The Bottom Line
Outcast is a game to try if you are an adventure gamer and you need a break from hardcore puzzle solving. There are puzzles but they are so well integrated into the storyline, and they are usually solved within the context of the action. FPS/action gamers will probably find the action a bit tepid but this game is "aimed" more at the adventure gamers who like some action elements too. My wife and I both enjoyed this game very much!

The Good
Once in a while, a game so incredibly good shows up that trying to think of a lot of good points is easy but trying to pin one down as a place to begin with is very hard. Those who have played Outcast and are reading this will know why I'm having trouble figuring out what I should begin with. The truth is, Outcast is good. No I take that back, Outcast is amazingly good. When it was first released, I had an interest in it but for reasons of money among other things, I never got around to buying it. Recently, I found it as a budget title and decided to get ahold of it. Now that I've played through this very long game, I can't believe I didn't get it sooner. Where was I? Ah yes, the good points! Where to start... Well I could tell you about the dozens of absorbing quests you must undertake, or the plethora of sub quests you can find. I could talk about the huge and lush world you'll be completing them in, or the brilliant sound and voice acting. Then again I could just talk about the music, the beautifully written orchestral score performed by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra is utterly phenomenal. More than once I have found myself popping the cd into the cd player and listening to it while I was working or relaxing. Visually the game is strong and even in todays games I have not seen a better rendition of water. In Outcast the water shimmers, ripples and reflects like nothing I've ever seen before in a game. Gameplay is so much fun it's hard to stop and the story is also well put together. I could go on and on about this game but I think my enthusiasm for it speaks volumes by itself so I'll just go on to the easiest section...

The Bad
For the first time in all the reviews I've written I'm at a loss. I can't think of anything I really hated about this game but if you push me then I guess the story was a bit less complex than I'd like and the character development was in some places not as high as others. I am really reaching here by the way.

The Bottom Line
You must get this game. That's all there is to it. You have no excuse since it's now a budget title which makes getting it almost criminal. If you play games then go and get it NOW. About the only people who I think should avoid it are those who loathe action of any kind in their games. On second thought even those people should try this, you might be swayed.