I’ve had a spotted history with Outcast, when it was originally released in 1999, I played it briefly over a friend’s house and was entranced by the world conjured and possibilities laid out. The unfortunate thing was, I didn’t have a PC that could really get the most out of it at the time, and I fell away from it – assuming that I’d return soon – but the next time I spent any time with the game was when I picked up Outcast: Second Contact in 2020, and, revisiting the game so long after release highlighted the sheer scope and imagination of developers Appeal Studios, along with the unavoidable fact that the design and mechanics were lodged in a transitory period of the third-person open-world genre, and had aged appropriately. Thus, when I caught wind of this new entry in the franchise- pseudo-reboot, pseudo-revising, pseudo-revisiting pseudo-sequel – call it what you want – I was glad to discover that I feel that this I finally the most complete, accessible, and wonderful way to know the story of the impossibly named ‘Cutter Slade’, and appreciate the full scale of the dev’s vision. A vision set into motion almost thirty years ago.
