Outcast: A New Beginning follows an open-world classic from 1999
THQ Nordic has originally announced Outcast: A New Beginning as Outcast 2, the sequel to the original from 1999, but felt that a rebranding was necessary to emphasize that this third-person open-world adventure game with an ecological spin could be enjoyed without ever having heard of Outcast. Things were a bit quiet around the project as of recent, but the publisher gave fans an update during its most recent showcase on August 11, 2023.
Set on a strange alien world, Outcast: A New Beginning is a little bit like Avatar – a delicate and once well-balanced ecosystem has been destroyed by industrial invaders and you need to help the natives to get things back on track. It’s not the most original premise for the story.
The flying in Outcast: A New Beginning looks pretty fun. You even get a glider to add to your jetpack.
THQ Nordic
However, there is some innovation when it comes to how the player progresses and gains more power. You need to help the different villages of the natives in restoring their ecosystems as well as their societies, and in return the abilities you gain from them will become more powerful. So if you help out the village that raises weird flying elephant-whales, your abilities to call in airstrikes conducted by these beings becomes stronger.
The shooting looked a bit weak in the footage we saw during a press briefing ahead of the show, the gun having very little impact. You can customize your main weapon with different modules on the fly, switching it from being a machine gun to a sniper rifle or shotgun in a heartbeat. You also have a jetpack that gets upgraded throughout the game – the flying looks pretty fun.
You’re pretty much free to act as you want in the open-world map as you conduct your war to defeat the robot invaders and restore the planet to its former glory. THQ Nordic promises that there will be a strategic element to the way you fight your campaign, interrupting the robots’ supply chain by ambushing convoys and isolating bases.
Outcast: A New Beginning is currently not too far off from going into beta. Developed on Unreal Engine 4, the single-player title will be launched on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. Currently, a length of about 35 hours for the main content seems to be the goal.
