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	Outcast Windows | Atari average customer review:based on 16 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Despite its ability to render mountainous landscapes with exquisite beauty, Outcast's voxel-based graphics engine is inconsistent--characters are well modeled, but objects are blocky and hard to distinguish--hampering its visual appeal. Furthermore, enjoying Outcast at its highest graphical detail requires a computer well beyond the minimum system requirements.

Outcast's enthralling story and game play make up for its graphical shortcomings. Players control Cutter Slade from either a first- or third-person perspective through gigantic environments. Adventure segments follow standard genre conventions; you'll solve inventory- and dialogue-based puzzles to advance the story line. Outcast's action elements revolve around firefights with the world's nefarious characters.

Outcast represents a new breed of adventure game. By combining action elements typically found in first-person shooters and platform games with the epic story line and well-developed characters of a traditional adventure title, Infogrames has created an extremely rounded experience that appeals to a wide range of computer gamers. --Doug Radcliffe

Pros: Epic story line Movielike soundtrack Innovative game play Many interesting characters Cons: Steep performance requirements Inconsistent graphics

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i own this game and nothing beats it for adventure

First off, this game uses a Voxel space rendering engine, which is not hardware driven, its CPU driven. You need a fast CPU for this game (at least 900mhz) to run it smoothly.

Many ppl complain that voxels are dated technology and unattractive. My opinion is that voxels create much more natural looking terrain than polygons. And with processor speeds reaching 2.5 ghz these days, it is absolutely no problem to render enviros with voxels, perhaps as high as 640x480 res (even tho Outcast doesnt support so high a res, I think the limit is 500 something by something). Yes, its been a while since I've played, but the Outcast world made a huge impression on my mind after playing. Such an impression that I keep wanting to go back and play again and again.

The enemy AI is also some of the best you will ever find, save for maybe Thief. It appears so organic (as opposed to machine-like). Enemies travel in groups often, they dont easily spot you unless you are in plain sight for a while, something games like Soldier of Fortune 2... at (where enemies see you as soon as you are within seeing range no matter what). IF spotted and you go hide like on a roof or crawl into a shallow pond, the enmey, like in Thief, will blow horns, summon back-up, come looking where they saw you last, search around, and eventually, if they dont see you, give up and go back to patrolling or whatever. The physics are convincing, maneuvering in the voxel environment is reliable and easy, the game handles so well its a shame theres not a multiplayer component (that would OWN on this game!) THe game also supports bump mapped textures.

Each world has u interacting with key people (though u can talk to anyone) they will give u tasks or requests, and if you decide to do them you reap whatever rewards come (the most important being to advance the storyline) I think the game supports Aureal 3d sound (maybe eax not sure i forgot) but the sound effects are totally realistic and immersive. Heck i am going to go play the game again now just from getting psyched up writing this spontaneous review. Water effects are awesome, with reflections and large-scale ripple effects, the water blows away that of any other game! ANyway, the whole world is geniously crafted, the beings are perfect, I only stopped when i couldnt figure out how to progress anymore, but there are sites with help that i will go read. Great weapons, great AI, great use of voxel graphics, shadows, etc.. FOr the current price of the game (now several years old) it is WORTH it. I'd buy it again in a heartbeat, for a present to my cousins or whatever.

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super

it's amazing game of my life
i waiting for new version


Maybe the greatest game nobody played

At first glance the find-the-items-to-save-world plot in Outcast appears just another simplistic game plot, however the rich environment and innovative gameplay create an exceptional experience that no one should miss. In your journey you journey though five main but unique areas, meet several dozen unique NPCs along with hundreds of others.

The story unfolds through the interaction with the NPCs and in-game cutscenes by which you are given tasks to perform. You slowly learn the game's vocabulary that's based on the language of the world you are in. Though a bit cheesy, you save the game by using a device called a Gamsaav, the language reminds you that you're not in Kansas anymore. And while the graphics haven't aged well overall, character animations are smooth and surprisingly realistic, voice work is also well-done.

While combat consist of the usual shoot-the-enemy, the enemies do have some rudimentary tactics of avoiding your fire that at least makes them hard to hit. Combat is a little too easy because your projectile weapons equipped with a laser sight that makes long-range sniping easy. You can also use stealth tactics using invisiblity, distraction holograms and even crawling to sneak around but in the end you have to kill most of the enemies.

Innoviate gameplay really makes Outcast stand out. Every enemy drops a bit of money and you'll need all of it. When you start out, you only have a handgun of course, but you don't find your other weapons laying around, instead you have to buy them from low-life merchants who have already found them lying around. You also purchase weapons upgrades too. And while a good amount of ammo is laying around, local craftsmen will make ammo for you. As you travel you find raw materials, like metal, that you give to the craftsmen who, given a little time make you more ammo.

Special tasks change your emenies. These optional tasks, like stopping food production or tax collections, will weaken or reduce the numbers of enemies you face.

Outcast isn't perfect. The third-person perspective can make it difficult to see targets directly in front of you and the semi auto-aim can make it hard to shoot what you want. The first-person mode does help a lot but switching mode often can be jarring. The laser targeting is also very dim so hitting what you want in a big fire-fight can be a problem. There's also dynamite available but you can't throw and it doesn't blow on it own reducing it's effectiveness. There's the usual issues too: You get hung-up on small pieces of scenery and the third-person camera sucks.

I played the game on Windows 2000 and had a couple problems. The startup and options dialogs wouldn't recognize every mouse click. I had to click in precise places for button to work. I also couldn't switch out of the game to the desktop. Returning to the game would cause it to crash.

Four-and-a-half stars.

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Doesn't work on Windows 2000

Be careful, it looks AWESOME ON WINDOWS 98, BUT doens't install with Windows 2000. I had to return it, but my friend loves it becuase he has Windows 98 and it runs great.


reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

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