Outwars

The Good
Outwars gives you a really fun setting to play in: You're a member of the "Dreadnoughts", an elite strike force of Marines with the latest equipment and powered armor. The game is very free form for it's time, allowing you to fly anywhere on the battlefield and use a variety of weapons on a variety of enemies. Combat can be very intense, you have to ward off the evil "Skulls" who can attack from the air, the ground and even underground, popping up and rushing at you with talons flailing firing strange projectiles at you. The campaign is fairly linear, but it gives you a variety of mission types from demolition of enemy silos to investigating crashed spaceships, it's not repetitive at all. Outwars has a very sci-fi feel, it can make you feel like a wide-eyed 12 year old again. There are a series of single missions and even multi-player, giving Outwars a modest degree of replay value.

The Bad
Your squad mates, while amusing, are more or less useless. They'll rush in, head on into battle... and die. Hey, at least they'll attract some enemy fire, right? Your main weapons is a laser rifle which has unlimited ammo, however it only shoots 12 rounds before it needs to recharge. The 12 round limit, the rate of fire and rate at which it recharges is frustrating at times. Sure, you can switch to the Pulse Rifle which fires quickly with no recharge time, but ammo is limited and reloads are scarce. As a matter of fact, reload power-ups for all of your weapons are too scarce, forcing you to use the aforementioned laser rifle. Half the game is spent just sitting outside your target's firing range and taking pot-shots at him, since rushing in will just result in your ammo depleting or your laser rifle running out of a charge JUST before your target is about to die, if you don't just outright die that is. However the jet pack adds another dimension to the combat you'll be experiencing, I just wish Microsoft added some sort of close combat weaponry.

The Bottom Line
Outwars is great for a quick third person sci-fi adventure, because that's what it feels like: an adventure. The graphics are dated by now (god... has it really been 10 years?) and really the only thing holding this game back was the technology of the time. It was hard to pull off a game whose main focus was on freedom of movement when, in 1998, it was impossible to have THAT much freedom in a third person shooter. If you're a fan of TPSs or sci-fi or both, then seriously get your hands on this game. In the end it's fun, doesn't take itself too seriously and provides you with several hours of enjoyment. This fan personally thinks this game should be remade, with current technology. There really hasn't been a game quite like Outwars until that point or since. Get your hands on this fairly unique gem.

Dismissed!