Outcast: Second Contact - Preview @ PCGamesN

PCGamesN takes a look at Outcast: Second Contact - a remake of the cult-classic Outcast from 1999:

Outcast: Second Contact feels archaic, but perhaps it's just what fans need

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Time has not been kind to 3D games of the ‘90s, and Outcast is no exception. Coming to the original fresh almost twenty years late, it’s not hard to be instantly put off by its clumsy mechanics and muddy, smeared world. It’s hideous, it’s impossible to play… and it’s easy to see why it has an adoring fan base. Back in 1999, that open world must have been mind-blowing.

Outcast is a cult classic in the most traditional of ways. It’s not a widely-loved game that’s a bit niche; it genuinely is only loved by a small faction of gamers who recall its impact. As such, a previous attempt to bring the game back fell flat on its face. The 2014 Kickstarter never even made it to the half-funded point of its $600,000 ask. Appeal were undeterred though, and so raised the money themselves through the sale of an Outcast re-release.

And now we have Outcast: Second Contact, a complete remake that feels very much made for the fans. And that may be both its best feature and demise.

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Great news!

I am proud to say i belong to the small faction that recall the impact this game has.
Sincerely hope the game will be huge success. A 100% certain instant buy !

I'm keen to give this a go.

Cool, looking forward to this!

Still no gameplay footage? I want to see this game in action.

I replayed Outcast recently, still loved it. I don't know why I'd need a remake? Why not a sequel, or something else in the same universe?

There was already a semi-remake wasn't there? A high res patch or something. I remember playing through the tutorial section again.

ikbenrichard said:

Great news!

I am proud to say i belong to the small faction that recall the impact this game has.
Sincerely hope the game will be huge success. A 100% certain instant buy !

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I remember too.. This and Omikron the Nomad Soul were adventure hits.

Alistair said:

There was already a semi-remake wasn't there? A high res patch or something. I remember playing through the tutorial section again.

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Yeah, they call it Outcast 1.1, but it's not much of an improvement over the original to be honest. You can set higher resolutions, but afaict that's the only significant difference.

This is from 2010:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_XCfB-tq7E

Never played the original. Not sure why, I always heard good things about it.

Tried to play it about a year ago but couldn't get it running right. So for me this is perfect, looking forward to it.

Hindukönig said:

I replayed Outcast recently, still loved it. I don't know why I'd need a remake? Why not a sequel, or something else in the same universe?

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I think it is a proof of concept. They have to rebuild a community and give numbers to publishers that there is still a market for that universe. The original game wasn't very successful. You can only assume how many old fans would return to the franchise, especially after the failed Kickstarter. For today's gamers the classic game didn't age well, from today's perspective combat mode is quite clunky. As I understand, they still have a lot of the original assets they can reuse. I guess it makes it easier and saves them a lot of money to build their new technology on that existing materials. If it's successful they can carry on.

I'd love to have a remake. I still love the original, but I would also be happy to play a modern implementation with better controls, modern graphics and smooth animations. I think it's still a solid story and a unique universe with a lot sense of wonder. My only wish would be some extra content, especially for their old fans. I'm quite sure, there are some side quests that were cut during development and cut be reimplemented.