We’ve been lucky enough to get our eyes on a hands-off gameplay preview of Outcast – A New Beginning, the long-awaited sequel to the 1999 action-adventure game. Truthfully, it didn’t feature highly on our most-anticipated games before. But after seeing it in action, we now can’t wait to get our hands on it.
Outcast – A New Beginning is a “direct continuation” of 1999’s Outcast. But naturally, not everyone is going to have played the 24-year-old title (although it was remade in 2017 if you did want to jump in). As such, it’s been designed with newcomers in mind – and that’s the reason its name has been changed from Outcast 2 to Outcast – A New Beginning, signifying this is a valid starting point for any player looking to jump in.
The first thing we noticed about Outcast – A New Beginning is just how beautiful it looks. You can catch a glimpse of that yourself in the trailer below, but this is a rich, sumptuous world packed with detail and teeming with life. It’s alive with flora and fauna, making it feel like a real, living, breathing world. And thanks to some great-looking traversal options, it seems likes getting around it is going to be a lot of fun, too.
Watch the ‘Welcome to Adelpha’ trailer for Outcast – A New Beginning below:
You’ll have to unlock them by playing, of course, but the gameplay showed off a type of wingsuit, allowing players to glide majestically – and speedily – through the air. We also witnessed the player character gliding over the surface of water, and boosting up cliff faces with a jetpack. Providing you’ve unlocked the gear, it looks like almost nowhere is going to be off-limits in Outcast – A New Beginning, and it makes us excited to explore.
Your aerial traversal options will come in handy in combat, too. We witnessed a firefight while in the air, with the protagonist able to effortlessly avoid gunshots by flying side to side. Some enemies can take to the air, too, so it doesn’t necessarily make combat any easier, but it does add a very interesting new layer to it.
Combat’s also made more interesting by the different modules you can equip to your weapons. If you’re shooting enemies from a distance, for example, you can equip a module that deals extra damage to far-away foes. But if you’re close up, you can switch it out to something designed for dealing with nearby enemies. It seems they can be switched out on the fly, giving you ultimate control over your abilities and allowing you to customise your loadout for each specific situation.
What our hands-off preview of Outcast – A New Beginning didn’t give us, however, was much information about the story. But after seeing how beautiful the world is and how much fun it’s going to be to explore it, we’re certainly intrigued to know more about the narrative that will tie it all together. What we do know, however, is that your character won’t initially know the native language of the NPCs and other characters that inhibit the world. It means you won’t know what’s being said to you to start with – but as you progress, you’ll learn more and more of the language, eventually being able to have fluent conversations. It feels like a neat touch, and we’re interested to see how it works in practice.
We’re certain there’s a hell of a lot more to see of Outcast – A New Beginning, but our brief glimpse has us intrigued to find out more. If you’re a fan of open world adventures, this is definitely one to have on your radar, regardless of whether you’ve played the first Outcast or not. With a rich world to explore, some really fun traversal options to unlock, and combat that looks both engaging and deep, there’s already so much to look forward to.
Outcast – A New Beginning is releasing on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. No release date has been given yet.
