Outcast: A New Beginning

A wonderful sequel to one of my favorite games. That said, it has some problems that might rub some of you the wrong way.

First, it's so great to be back in this world. It looks awesome and feels awesome to traverse it, with some areas being truly breathtaking and exciting. However, it can feel a bit empty at times, as if it's a technological throwback. Remember how cities in Skyrim were really just a handful of houses and a dozen people? Yeah, same here. Also, as enticing as the world looks it's unfortunately not very interactive. I wish there was more to do with the intriguing objects you see everywhere.

The strongest aspect of the series's world building is its depiction of alien culture. There's alien language, alien emotions, and lots of dialog and detail. The tone is somewhere between serious and self-deprecating, with a nice sprinkling of incidental humor. The protagonist is likeable, as are many of the characters.

The story works well. The main quest is engaging and the side quests often delightful. It all starts a bit slow and plodding, but things really ramp up around the mid game as you explore more of the map.

I played on normal difficulty and found combat to be quite easy. It might not be the deepest, but things do get more challenging and tactical later in the game. There are some really cool and surprising set pieces. They are so good that they make the less interesting locations seem disappointingly bland. The bottom line is that location design is inconsistent. Maybe a few more years of development could have raised the bar everywhere?

Where A New Beginning falters, and may garner some negativity, is in its tired, Ubisoft-like formulaic implementation of the open world. The map is littered with optional "challenges", which are repetitive, annoying, and meaningless. Just stuff to do to "clean up" the markers and get achievements. Many of these involve 3D platforming, which is never great. It feels good when you get a nice parkour-like flow, but it's very frustrating when you don't land a jump due to poor spatial indication. Without a doubt, these "challenges" detract from the game's many strengths. It wasn't enough to ruin things for me, but it might for you. If you're not a completionist then you can and should just do a few and ignore the rest.

There's a bit of a lack of polish, too. The devs are patching issues, but things still weren't 100% smooth for my playthrough. I had lots of audio issues, with cutscene volume being very low sometimes, or disappearing completely, and sound effects sometimes get distorted. There were also a few crashes to desktop. Nothing major here, but could be better.

I had a great time with A New Beginning. Despite some inconsistencies and annoyances, it was a marvelous experience, and the passion behind making it was obvious throughout. Happy to recommend it.