After aboiut 15 hours in I am having the time of my life. It is a memorable adventure. And it feels like an adventure. Outcast has a wide variety of movement modes. All, exept the winglider, feel responsive and accurate enough. Traversal is enjoyable and fast. The glider mode is keyboard based. It is functional enough for movement in the open world, but it is not great for the parkour puzzles. I don't have all the upgrades yet, so that may improve. There is a fair bit of collecting, but all the collections so far have been wrapped into an interesting mini activity. They are quick enough to do and don't feel like a grind or a chore. So far the graphics are good, performance is alright, and the environment composition is outstanding. It looks right and in general, it looks gorgeous. I've had one or two slowdowns during cutscenes but gameplay has flowed well in my mid-of-the-line computer. The story is keeping me interested, and entertained so far. I like the protagonist. He's no wide-eyed immature kid, but a "been there done that" grumpy old man that hides his impatience behind some campy humor. Many of the characters are fun and memorable too. With what I've seen so far it seems well worth the money.
Reviewed version 1.0-1.01 after 92 hours of play. In summary, it is a good game, even great if you consider the price. You should buy it. I've played every aspect of the game during long sessions without having a sngle crash or finding a game-stopping bug. I've found minor things in need off adjustment, but I've seen the devs working on fixing them in an ongoing basis. They seem to be engaing the community and working to polish the post-launch issues. Take pre-launch reviews with a grain of salt. The game advanced quite a lot during the late development period. It is also similar to Mount and Blade and Jagged Alliance, but not a straight copy. It blends a few genres together to make a product that is distinct. The game in a nutshell... You are in a fractured country in the middle major of a civil war. There is no centralized government at all, though a number of factions assert their authority in different parts of the country. You are thrown into the mix to do as you will. Be a good guy, be a bad guy, or just mix them up in an opportunistic way. The best part about the game is that it doesn't tell you what to do or how to do it. You can play lone wolf, you can associate with any number of factions, or you can go all the way to lead your own state and rule the land. You can fight solo, or with any mix of forces you see fit. There are quite a number of different types of soldiers and truckloads of equipment to mix and match. Each squad is as unique as you choose to make them. You can win by brute force, but you can also win by using the right combination of forces and equipment. One of the highlights of the game is the FPS combat. FGW is one of a few games that allows you to deploy something bigger than a squad, and certainly one of the few that gives you good tools to manage them. If you are interested in experiencing bigger engagements then this is the game for you. Big unit tactics pay off that I've only experienced in the late (turn based) JA games.
