Outcast - Second Contact

Unfortunately buggy remake, but still playable. The enemy AI stops working occasionally, this has some features removed the original had though has some new quality of life ones added, characters keep sinking into the ground like in quicksand, performance is pretty bad (the original ran perfectly on Duron 350 and no GPU, they haven't increased the fidelity That much), etc. I don't remember if the swimming sounds in the original were this bad, but they're horrible. Worst part is that some dialogs keep hanging with people staring at each other for like half a minute before it decides to just cancel it. Otherwise, it's about as good as the original? I'll probably play the original after I finish with this one just to see how much my memories have gilded it.

Althought this is a remake of a game from 20 years ago, I can't blame it for what it is: a giant fetch quest. The story is fairly interesting at first but all you'll be doing in this strange world is running back and forth between lands collecting items and saving people. There are 4 items you have to collect, and right in the middle of searching for the 4th one, I realized I saw everything I cared to see in the game and chose to watch the ending on Youtube. I bought it on sale and got more than my money's worth.

I remember when it came out originally, it looked dated even on release this graphical rebuild of the game is brilliant with just enough small tweaks in gameplay to improve without changing the feel try it!

Credit where it's due, 20 years ago when it was released this was clearly phenomenal. Honestly I'm not sure how I never heard of it until recently. The graphics redo brings it reasonable to modern times, and the mechanics aren't too terrible, but.... Combat is uninspired by current conventions and makes little sense. You have to empty a whole clip into each oponent to kill them even if you make head shots. Movement is a bit janky but what can you expect from a game this old. The world edge is clearly something horridly outdated. The sound... well I can't figure out why it seems like the main character was recorded in a bathroom... Overall it's not bad but it's not worth full price. It also has nothing overly engaging and the lore is laborious to listen through. I just find myself with nothing real memorable about it and no desire to launch the game again after a few days. Very meh, and it's a game that needs time commitment so that's an issue. If a few more things had received an update it might be a solid play, but as is it's just a fresh coat of paint on a run down old car outclassed by modern options.

The original was one of my favourites from that era, I've spent countless hours with it. This new version brings back all those good memories.