Outcast – Second Contact

Jumping mechanics like the old Tomb Raider games had me pulling my hair out but Outcast is alright other that that. Outcast is a remaster that maintains the feeling of the original version, driven by a good narrative structure that puts the player in a big world populated by different alien races that give a lot of different quests. Instead the gameplay is old and unfriendly and graphics that dont hold up.

Second contact:
It captured te core essence of the original. So I can recommend it for people who experienced it already and new players alike.
+Improved graphics
+Improved movement speed
+UI and map
+Fixed some animations, but
-That also removed some of the charm.
-Uglier talan. They made them look less alien. Kroax is probably the worst. From menacing cool they turned him into goofy lame.
-Save speed damages the mechanics of this gameplay function.
-Translations in the subtitles is not based on exploration.
-Items are harder to see because they stand out less in the improved graphics and the foliage.
My Outcast 1.1 review:
It's hard to give a fair review of this title.
This game had been a favorite of mine as a kid. I'll do my best to assess it without bias and fanboying too hard.
I'll start with the bad: It's dated, undoubtedly.
Looks old (It used to look great for it's time, and this is probably the nostalgia speaking but I think it still looks great),
The voice acting is old(there are only a few actors for way too many characters, the recording quality isn't the best, but the acting isn't that bad),
The animations are old.
The combat is a bit horrible in the beginning. Enemies are massive bullet sponges. you'd think 500 rounds is a lot, until you encounter your first pack of dogs and used up 200 on 5 enemies. This gets better once you upgaded your weaponsand progressed some quests. I suggest not engaging when you don't have to early on.
But is it worth a play? Absolutely.
This is an advnture rpg at it's core, and it's main two focus are the exploration and the dialogue.
It's is a cartoonish simple story, but a well written one. It is two-fold: You are a soldier, who's sent to another world to get a mcguffin to save Earth. And in Adelpha you are the chosen one, that has to recover 5 mcguffins, overthrow an evil ruler and free it's people. And this may sound bland but it's anything but. Getting the 5 quest items is the goal in each zone, and they are all pretty well done. And the twist about the evil ruler is quite cool as well.
It's relatively short you can finish it in a single afternoon if you skipped all dialogue, but that is one half of the game. the characters are charming. There's some cheesy funny humor. and the world building is excellent.
Exploration is the other heart of the game, you are on an alien planet, so you need to learn everything. And instead of someone exposition dumping on you, it's organic. You talk with someone, they say a word you don't understand, then you can ask about that foreign word, they explain, you get a Lexicon entry, and gain knowledge about the world's culture, history, flora and fauna, and locale as a player. One of the best world building systems a game can have.
The world of Adelpha is a place I always found wonderous. I loved to explore the zones, they are all unique. You start in a snowy mountain, then Rice field, A central city in a desert, A forest/jungle, an island in the middle of a vast ocean. All connected via portals. It really feels like you are exploring an entire world.
All of them have their own sub-plots and it's tied to getting your quest item of the zone, and it's always an adventure to do them.
The soundtrack is so great, I remember it clearly after 27 years and it is brilliant. It's hauntingly beautiful, it's majestic, and gives a sense of mystery. Hearing it, I am immediately being pulled back into a nostalgic state of awe and wonder. Not many modern games excite me as much as revisiting this cherised old title.
Gameplay is a bit dated as of today's standards, but not bad in the slightest. And I find even the jank to be endearing.
You have all sorts of useful gadgets to help you get around, or gain an edge over the enemies. There are explosives that can be used in combat as well as to open up new paths, or open loot containers. It's a bit slower paced, but that's why you have to be a bit strategic about engaging enemies. It has an unconventional way of saving progress via an in game item, and it takes a little time to save, so you can't just save-scum in the middle of combat.
The early combat might be bad but you get some cool weapons and once you've upgraded them and have plenty of ammo you are a real force to be reconed with. So the feeling of progression is really there.
I think this game wold really benefit from a remake. Second contact is a step to the right direction (and sometimes a step backwards) But a proper remake could give this title the attention it deserves. Because it's core is already a masterpiece.
"Should I play 1.1 or the Second contact?"
Yes.
No, really it's up to you. If you played it way back then, I'd recommend 1.1
If you are not old enough to drink, and you think it looks way too old, then play Second contact.
Or even both back to back like I did If you are a massive fan.

I didn't know this game, so I wondered a little bit about the 90'-ies -touch in the gameplay. As common back then the gameplay is a kind of slow and not without a challenge. The game has a strong story and is very atmospheric. The diologues are very charming and humorous.
The combat is kind of simple but feels fluent. The movements are clunky - you need patiance for this kind of game. For me the story was amazing and after I started playing I was looking forward to continue after work every day. I really enjoyed playing this game and do recommend it.

Only got this because Funhaus played it for their demo disk series back in the day.

If you're looking for a "good" game don't play this…
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How can I say that and still recommend it? This game is a piece of gaming history preserved as a remake, along with its original audio and voice recordings. It's a very OK game, but it's not particularly good by modern standards. But it is an interesting look into early open world game development and a nostalgia trip for those who lived through the 1990's gaming era.
It's by no means a terrible game, but its main claim to fame is having done a lot of things first. Unfortunately in the decades since than, everything that has learned from this game has mostly done it better.
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Open world? Yes, but a lot of it is empty and bland.
NPC's that have interactive conversations? Sure, clunky dialogue and compressed audio quality.
Story: Claptrap and nonsense.
Controls: rudimentary.
Stealth: You can pretend it has that, it will certainly claim there is.
Gunplay: Minimal ammo, bullet sponge enemies.
Camera: It hates you and your dreams.
Just remember, this is a remake of a game that came out in 1999, and it preserves the original audio and gameplay, with all of its flaws. It's mainly a graphical improvement and even then it's not winning any awards.
If none of that sounds appealing, maybe go read about it or watch a documentary and skip playing it. Compared to what came before it, this was a very ambitious game and broke a lot of ground in the industry.
How ambitious was it ? Read the store page for more in depth claims such as:
A world of possibility, 100's of quests, progress at your own pace. A living planet, 6 different continents, an entire world to explore, an entire alien culture to learn. The mission of your life, 50 hours of adventure and storyline, deliver freedom to the people from the yoke of oppression… and so on. Like I said, highly ambitious, and it is a pretty large scale. It's just not terribly fun to navigate and a lot of time will be spent finding any of those claims somewhere in the vast terrain of an entire planet.
Compared to games that came after it, well… I'd like to say most of them are better. (emphasis on most, but not all)
This is only barely recommended as a nostalgia trip to see what early open world games were like before the turn of the millennium, along with a little spit and polish to the graphics as a remake. Maybe a lot of spit… maybe too much spit… bring a napkin.
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Bottom line: The novelty of playing a mediocre game from 1999 decades after it's been surpassed by everything else.
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Outcast is a 3D, non-linear, action-adventure game, released in 1999. At the time it was totally amazing, even with its kinda ugly voxel graphics. It's important to know what you're getting with Second Contact. This is very much a remaster, not a remake. The graphics aren't as chunky, and there are some very welcome quality of life changes, but at its core, this is a 26 year old game. The spoken dialog has been cleaned up, but it's a bit scratchy, due to the original recording quality. The UX is vastly improved, but it's still pretty clunky, as is a lot of the gameplay. And some of the story elements (particularly how it treats its solitary female character) haven't aged very well. At least that gorgeous, fully orchestrated score sounds as good as ever (it was redbook/CD audio before, so nothing really needed there!).
But if you can look its flaws, this game was amazing in '99, and it's still a lot of fun. My only real complaint (other than this being a fairly modest remaster) is that the replacement cut-scenes are not an improvement at all. I get that the old files were probably 320x240, and would look absolutely awful on a modern screen, but the replacement isn't much better, even if it is in the proper resolution.
So yeah. Great game. A little rough around the edges, but well worth playing. And if you really, want to see what the voxel version looked like, check out Outcast 1.1, also available on Steam. It's too bad the two versions aren't save compatible, but at least it's still there.

Outcast presents a short, open world 3rd-person shooter with questing elements. I played the original in 1999 and was struck then by 5 aspects that stuck with me: voxel graphics, gunplay, voice acting, action-movie cliche story elements (especially the time-travel twists) and the music.

Revisiting this game in 2026 via the 2017 remaster, it's a bit sobering to realize it's been 27 years since I first played the game and already 9 years since this remaster was created. The music still touches me and I enjoyed the prettier graphics. The gunplay, acting & story remain serviceable. If you're looking for a curious filler (17 hour to 97% main question completion and 77% side-quest completion) with an eye toward one of the first open-world 3rd person shooters, give it a try.