Outcast vs. Gothic

[Thaurin]

Hey,

I've just tried Outcast for the first time and I have to say that I'm very impressed. This game reminds me so much of how Gothic feels right now, but I'm not very far into it. The use of graphics and atmosphere are very unique, as if the world-- just like in Gothic. I know there are a lot of people that yearn for the Gothic feel, and some have mentioned Wizardry 8 for that, but currently I feel Outcast may be a whole new dose of Gothic-like RPG...

Why didn't this game get more media attention around 1999? I mean, it's the only other game I know apart from Gothic 3 that uses depth of field!! And apparently it uses a software renderer that has shadows and anti-aliasing!!

[Hindukönig]

It did get attention, IIRC. The reason it didn't sold well enough (I think so, at least), is probably because of that software renderer you talk about. Most people at the time didn't have a PC powerful enough to handle it properly.

They even tried to make a sequel, but it was canceled.

I agree it's a little bit like Gothic, e.g. you have to collect five "mons" ( ... focus stones).

I for myself especially enjoyed the music - the theme played in the big desert city is one of my favourite soundtracks of all time.

[JDR13]

Thaurin,

Where did you find a copy of Outcast? Or are you talking about the demo?

[curious]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00002NDEF/sr=1-1/qid=1172112543/ref=pd_bbs_sr_olp_1/102-1690471-0712163?ie=UTF8&s=videogames

i picked up a copy about 2 years ago off amazon. all i got was the cds an for some reason before i even got it the seller sent me a refund because he said he listed it inacurately and felt bad. score for me. it captured my interest for the first couple hours but i guess i wasn't patient enough. the sound didn't play right all the time, maybe the reason for the refund. the graphics do seem amazing for the time released but the resolution is less than 300x300. so i imagine it would look alot better on a laptop. i would like to give it another go someday but its not to high up on my stack of games to be played... or replayed

[Gorath]

I think I read their was a bug in the options resulting in wrong resolutions. You had to choose the lowest to get the highest, which should be close to 640*480.

[curious]

thanks for the heads up Gorath! although i don't have hopes it will run now on my system. just a few days ago i went to load and replay martian gothic:unification on my rig and couldn't get it to run. i'm almost postive i had xp installed the last time i played it, but i did upgrade my video card over a year ago...maybe i'll load both up on my old pentium 3 laptop.

[JDR13]

I've never had the full version, but the demo ran just fine on a newer system with windows xp pro when I played it again last year.

[GhanBuriGhan]

Outcast is one of my favourite games. It made great use of Voxelspace technology too, which gives it it's unique look. As an action adventure with a big "living" world, semi-free exploration and NPC interaction it does indeed share similarities with Gothic. I think I should replay it some time.

[HiddenX]

Outcast was/is a great game !

[Thaurin]

Thaurin,

Where did you find a copy of Outcast? Or are you talking about the demo?

Don't hurt me, I downloaded it. *hides* I was young and curious! :) The company that made it is dead, so it arguably can be considered abandonware I figure. I just enjoy finding old obscure stuff that I have missed and is hard or impossible to get. I will probably only play it for a couple of hours anyway. I have this insatiable hunger to try everything that's out there. Currently, I have over 25 games installed on my PC, most of which are old games I bought years ago. And I still want to find out if this or that title really is as great as it's supposed to be. Then when I've seen it, I usually lose interest very fast. I blame the damn media age. Too much input!

I still buy more games than I can play (and subsequently never finish any of them). I never even installed Icewind Dale 1 + 2, Beyond Divinity, NWN, and hardly played many other games like Diablo II, Dungeon Siege, Runaway: A Road Adventure, Oblivion, Gothic 3, Planescape: Torment, Baldur's Gate 2, the list goes on... all played for a mere few hours. It's crazy. It's a disease!

There's a demo, though?

[Alrik Fassbauer]

Well ... Outcast ? I have it here, still unplayed, once bought for a few bucks somewhere.

The thing I liked far most about this game are the Outtakes ! These small videos are really hilarious ! :D

(Should be still available somewhere.)

[Alrik Fassbauer]

I blame the damn media age. Too much input!

Could be that you're a "highly sensitive person" (HSP). Check out www.hsperson.com to find out more about it !

[txa1265]

Interesting ... I'd heard of it before, but never played. Just noted there are a few copies on Goozex so I asked for one :)

[Thaurin]

The thing I liked far most about this game are the Outtakes ! These small videos are really hilarious ! :D

(Should be still available somewhere.)

Yes, found them here. Can't watch them now at work, though. http://www.outcast-thegame.com/gallery/outindex.htm

[GhanBuriGhan]

The dance scene for the credits was pretty funny too!

One of the coolest things in the game for me was that you actually got to learn some of the alien language. I have a fascination with lost languages and writing systems, so this really appealed to me.

[Corwin]

I did a quick check today and couldn't see where the game could be bought (here) and I couldn't find any sites for downloading it as abandonware either!! Pity, it sounds intriguing!!

[GhanBuriGhan]

Amazon has a couple of copies.

[narpet]

I just got lucky last night. I've been reading this post, so my interest has been sparked in this game that I took a pass on when it first came out. So, last night I looked on ebay and there was a complete, boxed copy up for auction that was ending in minutes. There were no bids, so I put in a bid and won the game for $1. After $10 for shipping (it's coming from Canada to me in the US) I would call that a great bargain.

Thanks for the info on this (hopefully) great game.

narpet

[Sertorius]

Outcast was/is a great game !

Maybe. but no way it was/is a RPG.

[Thaurin]

No, it's not really an RPG, more like an action adventure game. I still think it bears similarities with Gothic in terms of gameplay and atmosphere, though... even though it's a sci-fi setting versus a fantasy setting.

The graphics style is rather unique. The voxel engine is really interesting, just like real-time ray-tracing engines are to me. This game had depth of field and anti-aliasing all without hardware acceleration before any other game that I know of!

The graphics are still blocky, but with a lot of style. The story looks to me a lot of fun.

[KasperFauerby]

Exactly! By todays standards the graphics probably looks really bad - but look at the water, the DOF, the shadows etc... it's amazing what they got running in real-time at the time it was released.. many of those effects are still considered state-of-the-art on hardware these days.

On top of that Outcast is a really great game! It has lots of freedom (you can do many of the realms in whatever order you want) and a quite complex game system where what you do will affect the later game play (for example, consider what will happen if you *do* take the time to help the natives who are currently working in the fields for the bad guys....) I played Outcast last year for the first time, and once I got past the somewhat primitive graphics I got drawn into the game in a way that only happens rarely for me - and when it happens, it's usually a good sign of the quality of the game (IMO).

In other words, without wanting to sound like a commercial - if you can get your hands on the game.. get it! It's worth it!

[Cormac]

I did a quick check today and couldn't see where the game could be bought (here) and I couldn't find any sites for downloading it as abandonware either!! Pity, it sounds intriguing!!

CDAccess has 54 copies in stock and they ship international (http://www.cdaccess.com/html/quick/outcastpr.htm). Please leave one for me.

[Thaurin]

It's actually still AVAILABLE!? I wouldn't have expected that. :D I don't think that's usual for the game industry. I mean, who gets the money??

Anyway, I think the graphics style gives it its own peculiar feel. I may be blocky, but it is capable of suspending reality maybe even more than modern games. Modern games do not look more realistic; they are more detailed. But in older games, sometimes it's possible to see this entire other world through this "blur"... if it's less accurate, you are more able to imagine what it should be like!

[Corwin]

CDAccess has 54 copies in stock and they ship international (http://www.cdaccess.com/html/quick/outcastpr.htm). Please leave one for me.


I might check that out next week. Amazon won't ship games to Australia!!

[JDR13]

CDAccess has 54 copies in stock and they ship international (http://www.cdaccess.com/html/quick/outcastpr.htm). Please leave one for me.


Cormac,

I just logged on to post the exact same info, but it looks like you beat me to it.

It would be pretty funny if they suddenly sold a buch of copies this week because of this thread. They're probably sitting under a pile of dust.

$29.95 is a good deal considering how rare that game has become. I think I might have to grab a copy in the next few weeks.

[Cormac]

Cormac,

I just logged on to post the exact same info, but it looks like you beat me to it.

It would be pretty funny if they suddenly sold a buch of copies this week because of this thread. They're probably sitting under a pile of dust.

$29.95 is a good deal considering how rare that game has become. I think I might have to grab a copy in the next few weeks.

You know, I actually never bought from them but recently I've been browsing the site and they have some great stuff in stock. Pretty soon I'll get busy with a big order.

[Moriendor]

$29.95 is a good deal considering how rare that game has become. I think I might have to grab a copy in the next few weeks.

Hmmm... I doubt that Outcast is really all that rare. I remember that it was bundled with hardware a lot. It was also part of some compilations. A quick Google search reveals that it was part of "Play the Games Volume 3". So if you don't absolutely need the new original boxed version then there are other much cheaper options. $29.95 borders on rip-off for such an old game IMHO ;) .

@ Thaurin: The money goes to Atari. Infogrames = Atari.

[JDR13]

Hmmm... I doubt that Outcast is really all that rare. I remember that it was bundled with hardware a lot. It was also part of some compilations. A quick Google search reveals that it was part of "Play the Games Volume 3". So if you don't absolutely need the new original boxed version then there are other much cheaper options. $29.95 borders on rip-off for such an old game IMHO ;) .
.

I didn't mean rare in the sense that they didn't print a lot of copies to begin with.

I mean it's quite hard to find a boxed copy if you're looking to get one now. After searching the web I only found 3 places that claim to have new copies. Besides the aformentioned "CDAccess", there was another store that listed "1" copy left in stock, and another that wanted $59.99 for that title.

[Gorath]

Copies should appear on Ebay quite frequently for small money. I wouldn´t pay much for it. The voxel graphics were stylish back then but I don´t dare to imagine how a technology which is pixely by definition looks in 5xx * 4xx on a 19" TFT.

[JDR13]

I'm sure it's easy to get a used copy, but I'm very picky when it comes to my pc games and I like to get an unopened box whenever possible.

[Corwin]

By the time I take into account conversion rates and postage, the game would cost me over $50!! Not sure if such an old game is worth that much.

[curious]

here Corwin, i pulled this off the ebay.com.au site. its from the uk so shipping shouldn't be that outrageous.
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/3-PC-GAMES-HALF-LIFE-OUTCAST-AND-WARHAMMER-DARK-OMEN_W0QQitemZ300083642551QQihZ020QQcategoryZ11047 QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

its truly a sad day when i now buy things from the uk and i have to pay over 2 us dollars for every pound...