THQ Nordic’s 2023 Digital Showcase featured a lengthy new look at Outcast – a New Beginning, which Wccftech had the chance to check in advance during a press event. Formerly known as Outcast 2: A New Beginning, the title was changed to reflect the developer’s desire to continue the original game’s story while keeping it accessible for everybody, even those who did not play the cult classic released in 1999, one of the first true open world games.
The game’s protagonist is once again Cutter Slade, an ex-Navy seal stranded on Adelpha. Cutter only wishes to go home to see his daughter again, but it seems that the Yods, the almighty beings ruling the fate of Adelpha, have different plans for him. So, he has to stay and finds the local Talan species in peril by robot invaders exploring the planet and draining its resources. Throughout the game, players will find more than 30 modules that can be combined and upgraded. These modules change how your weapons behave. Let’s say you want to turn your weapon into a shotgun or a sniper rifle: you can do so if you have found the right modules. You will also have a shield with both offensive and defensive capabilities. And, of course, mighty Talan powers.
Key to the Outcast – A New Beginning experience is the jetpack, which lets Cutter travel quickly and spectacularly at once and is also very handy in combat with the ground pound and evade abilities. The jetpack is found at the very beginning and can be enhanced to become really powerful. That said, not everything is accessible from the start, but you will not have to sink dozens of hours into grinding stuff and climbing towers.
The player’s quest to free Adelpha also has a strong strategic aspect. You are faced with the threat of the robots, and it’s up to you to figure out their weak points while interacting with a dynamic system. When you see an enemy convoy approaching in real time on your map and in the game, you can go up there, intercept it and take it down, destroying the enemy supply line over the course of the game.
It’s not just about destroying things in Outcast – A New Beginning, as Cutter will also help rebuild Talan villages, influencing their development. The invaders have broken the Talans’ connection, and you help them rebuild their society. The map is specifically designed to help you understand these connections and measure your progress to really gauge your progress in an analog way.
For instance, Cutter can find an egg. If it is nurtured under the right conditions, it will grow and hatch into a creature that, if fed right, will grow into a powerful ally. The goal is to let players feel the impact of their actions directly in the game world: flowers bloom, stocks are replenished, and creatures grow. Helping the villages provides powerful rewards, such as antigravity powers or flying creatures that drop bombs on your enemies. These powers will get stronger as players do a better job helping the Talans since they are connected to the ecosystem of Adelpha.
The game’s art style is heavily inspired by ’80s-90s comics and movies. The story was described as Indiana Jones meets Stargate, a mix of epic and tongue-in-cheek humor. The targeted play time for this single player third-person action/adventure game is around 35 hours.
Outcast – A New Beginning is being developed with a heavily modified Unreal Engine 4 and will be released for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S|X. THQ Nordic and Appeal didn’t provide a launch date yet, but they said the Beta stage is near, hinting at a release date in the next few months.
