Interesting concept, themes, and setting watered down with boring and repetitive gameplay. Gunplay is very good, but missions never evolve beyond fetch-quests and assassinations. Enemy respawns are so frequent that encounters became tedious for me. This game gets a bonus star mainly because of the unique Sub-Saharan backdrop and some decent writing for the antagonist.
I'd never played this before, but I love spaghetti westerns so I decided to give it a go! Some parts of Outlaws fall into the bad and ugly category. The game doesn't seem to work well with GOG Galaxy installation, the controls (especially the shooting) can feel a little unresponsive, and a couple of the levels are duds. However, the good far outweighs these problems. The art (both in-game and during cut-scenes) is colorful, distinct, and stylish, and the soundtrack is absolutely amazing. Ducking into buildings and behind walls, only to pop out and fill the bad-guys full of lead is a treat in this game, and the unique setting and mechanics (such as reloading one bullet at a time) add to the tension and make Outlaws feel like so much more than just another shooter. If you love 90s FPS games or are a fan of Westerns, this game is a must!
Return to Castle Wolfenstein suffers from being torn between action and stealth. The B-movie plot clashes with the gameplay, which emphasizes crouching and corner-peaking instead of run and gun mayhem. High enemy damage output led to me throwing myself at a few sections more than I'd like to admit, especially the UberSoldat at the end of Chapter 5. However, despite the difficulty the setting has a unique blend of gothic horror and sci-fi camp that strung me along through each chapter. I'd recommend for any fans of old-school FPS games.
