Despite growing up in the ‘90s, I had never heard of Outcast. And as someone who loves open-world exploration, I don’t share that fact proudly. I’ve only ever known the shinier counterparts of last century’s genre defining titles, growing up with games like Bioshock, Fallout, and Wolfenstein, whose decades-old predecessors continue to influence modern gaming conventions. As such, I was a blank slate coming into the recently released Outcast – Second Contact, a remake of the 1999 cult classic.
What I discovered was a strange amalgam of new and old. Second Contact looks great and it’s a clear precursor to the open world games that came later, but how does it all hold together without the rose-tinted lens of nostalgia to cover its weaknesses?
Though it was a commercial failure, Outcast garnered a cult following at the time of its initial release. Open world games were uncommon and the freedom given to players, along with the voxel engine and beautifully weird alien landscapes, made for something very unusual. Eighteen years later, the game has returned, but there have been many setbacks along the way.
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