I waited 25 Years for this.. and you ruined it

[AnTiCrIsT]

As a kid i Played Outcast like a maniac. Played it again with second contact.
Was super excited for Outcast 2.. but the game is far away from being a AAA-Production. Even some Indie titles are more polished at release.

AI: Non-Existent
Difficulty Settings: I played on hard and was an immortal Rambo without every being close to death. Was the difficulty Setting even active in the demo?
Animations: Clunky like s***
Open World: Empy like you forgot that it was there
Combat: Due to bad balancing and non existent AI just a boring joke
Exploration: Fine just the Energy Managment for Jumps might need a tweak so you can jump on Hills and Mountains just to realize they are as empty as the rest of the world.

Bugs: I think i never experienced this much bugs in a Demo.
Clipping,
getting Stuck,
Rocks Flying in the air
Objective related Enemies buggingt hrough the air making it hard to find them for the related quest
Tanak bugges through the ground so he gets trapped on the ground between the plants(?) instead of walking around the house

Movement. Fine but it obviously a controller game. Controlled gliding with M+K ist pain in the ass


Please, get that broken game fixed. I really want it to be good. But after the demo its definitely a no buy to release. Which makes me really, really sad

[Khalum]

Yeah I mean, Outcast was always buggy. There was jank. But the redeeming factors weighted so strong for me and others that appreciate it that we can see past these issues. Combat was bad. Quests/NPCs glitched out. You had to save constantly because something could break. But the strong points were incredibly strong. I wish they'd focused on those while making the experience more stable and i'd be happy.

[gimlikos84]

Originally posted by Ale:

Energy managment for jumps is quite good in the demo, making me thinking about how to reach some places. I suppose it will become too easy with all the skills unlocked, sadly.
Also there are stuff to find around exploring: in the initial area of the exploration demo I found 4 hidden item. You can't have something on every rock or you will loose the trill about finding something in the first place.

I agree about enemies AI and I add quest markers on the map as a problem. Sadly is 2024 and players can't use their brain to solve challenges anymore: I read more than one review about old Oucast complains about the need for a walkthrought to complete the game.

At least world building and lore look top notch.

This is why I also will buy it.I love the world building and lore.I think the gameplay is actually ok , but not as good , as in Outcast 1.Outcast 1 was very much realistic in gun play , and movement , and also A.I was much better.Outcast 2 was made for new audience , and that is also ok.Today teenagers , dont want to think to much , and there have to be a mini map all the time to show where to go ;].I love immersion like RDR2 , and would be great if Outcast 2 was like that.Any way I will buy Outcast 2 for sure , knowing what to expect.I just love this world building , and lore.Stargate fan

[Freddyk]

I used tricks to skip limitations of time and trys, and finished everything in the "Village" demo. They should definitely have done that for the demo : limited to village area but without time limit. This area has everything : quests, temple, big enemy base, daokas (and way too much Orym trails and Gork zones).

The quest sequence is not bad at all, really feels like Outcast. Dialogs have the funny tone, sometimes too much forced (some specific words seem unfitting for Talans).
Daokas are very close to each other, and most of them are activated with just a button, that is not fitting with the lore and scenario, but useful to get back to Shamaz for healing (in the 1st game I used personal teleporters all the time for that).
I still dislike the worldmap filled with markers, and unfortunately there are not enough indications to find quests without them...

[Retro]

this demo is going to be a god send to the devs they can make the MUCH needed adjustments

[Ank Myrandor]

Originally posted by Retro:

this demo is going to be a god send to the devs they can make the MUCH needed adjustments

In about a month before release? Physical edition might have been shipped already to distributors. They arent going to make any major changes in the upcoming 4 weeks

[Ale]

Originally posted by gimlikos84:

This is why I also will buy it.I love the world building and lore.I think the gameplay is actually ok , but not as good , as in Outcast 1.Outcast 1 was very much realistic in gun play , and movement , and also A.I was much better.Outcast 2 was made for new audience , and that is also ok.Today teenagers , dont want to think to much , and there have to be a mini map all the time to show where to go ;].I love immersion like RDR2 , and would be great if Outcast 2 was like that.Any way I will buy Outcast 2 for sure , knowing what to expect.I just love this world building , and lore.Stargate fan

Originally posted by Freddyk:

I used tricks to skip limitations of time and trys, and finished everything in the "Village" demo. They should definitely have done that for the demo : limited to village area but without time limit. This area has everything : quests, temple, big enemy base, daokas (and way too much Orym trails and Gork zones).

The quest sequence is not bad at all, really feels like Outcast. Dialogs have the funny tone, sometimes too much forced (some specific words seem unfitting for Talans).
Daokas are very close to each other, and most of them are activated with just a button, that is not fitting with the lore and scenario, but useful to get back to Shamaz for healing (in the 1st game I used personal teleporters all the time for that).
I still dislike the worldmap filled with markers, and unfortunately there are not enough indications to find quests without them...

Quests, aside the markers problem, look very interesting.
I catch this in a trailer:
https://imgbb.com/3k1bVPJ
And it got me quite hyped.

Also I found severals hidden items exploring the map: this should improve exploring sessions.

In anycase we are on the same page.

[kloperius]

The open world is beautiful but it seems very empty . Need more NPC with interesting quests spread on temples and other places in the world that are not villages.
Remove The Quest markers and do like the first One with Hints.
The activities give us more time in the game but becomes very repetitive. Do the same thing 10x. For example all the temples have the same boring activity. This is the problem with all modern Open world games like Ubisoft.
This game is very gamish not organic. Unfortunately it is too late to change these problems until release day.😞

[outcast]

Originally posted by Khalum:

After giving the demo a try I decided to re-play the original to make sure I'm not being unfair. I bought Outcast on release and it soon became one of my favourite games.

Now that I've just beaten it again, I have to say: Nope. This isn't it. The whole aspect of exploring the world and talking to inhabitants that act or look distinct to see if they have a task is gone. Talanzaar could have been overwhelming, maybe impossible, but Outcast managed to give the player the tools to find all the important characters - without a single marker on the map. You learn where important locations are from dialogue, fully immersive. You find secret treasures because you helped out someone who gives you information on where to find them. Each puzzle was unique, not some minigame that got repeated 10 times in each zone. The UI was non-intrusive. There's even a lore reason for why you find equipment and ammo all over the place - the people collected sacred objects! The game had such an incredible atmosphere that - for me - very few games managed to create.

The demo has none of it. It may be called Outcast in name but that's it. And it's a damn shame, Outcast deserved a worthy successor.

Final note: I'm not going to judge combat because that was also nothing to write home about in the original.

This is also my feeling exactly. The original Outcast was so incredible because everything was so immersive and consistent and had its own internal logic and explanation, even the save system had an ingame explanation. It really felt like stepping into another living world where nothing was "fake" but everything had thought and purpose behind it and was made to have a reason and consistency and felt believable and like it really belonged in the game world.

I must say after playing a bit of the demo this feels much like the complete opposite. Everything feels generic, inconsistent and fake. Like some sort of arcade amusement park. There are arcade style glowing loot drops flying at your from everywhere with glowing chests and damage numbers flying out of enemies when you shoot at them and the whole screen is just made up of floating markers and text and button instructions. It just looks like some generic arcade game instead of a believable universe to get lost in (even though with very pretty graphics)

It makes me really sad though to think back of the first Outcast where it really felt like you where stepping into another unknown world and then finding a Talan to speak to and ask your way and he would explain where he last saw the person or location you where looking for or even pointing to it/him. It was all so incredible immersive and autentic, like you and these characters actually existed inside that game world. And now instead you get generic fat ugly floating markers on the screen instead guiding you by the hand like a mindless drone.

It is strange because judging by the demo so far in many ways this feels like the complete antithesis of what made Outcast so special and what actually make it stand out even today.

I hope so much I will be wrong though and I still want to play the full game since I love Outcast so much (just look at my name..) and like the op I have also waited 25 years for a sequel. If there is just some way to toggle that horrible cluttered intrusive hud hopefully the full game will still have that incredible world building to get lost in where you really get sucked in to the lore and world. But I am at least holding off until there is confirmation it will be possible in some way to at least toggle all that ugly HUD clutter.

[Ale]

Originally posted by outcast:

Originally posted by Khalum:

After giving the demo a try I decided to re-play the original to make sure I'm not being unfair. I bought Outcast on release and it soon became one of my favourite games.

Now that I've just beaten it again, I have to say: Nope. This isn't it. The whole aspect of exploring the world and talking to inhabitants that act or look distinct to see if they have a task is gone. Talanzaar could have been overwhelming, maybe impossible, but Outcast managed to give the player the tools to find all the important characters - without a single marker on the map. You learn where important locations are from dialogue, fully immersive. You find secret treasures because you helped out someone who gives you information on where to find them. Each puzzle was unique, not some minigame that got repeated 10 times in each zone. The UI was non-intrusive. There's even a lore reason for why you find equipment and ammo all over the place - the people collected sacred objects! The game had such an incredible atmosphere that - for me - very few games managed to create.

The demo has none of it. It may be called Outcast in name but that's it. And it's a damn shame, Outcast deserved a worthy successor.

Final note: I'm not going to judge combat because that was also nothing to write home about in the original.

This is also my feeling exactly. The original Outcast was so incredible because everything was so immersive and consistent and had its own internal logic and explanation, even the save system had an ingame explanation. It really felt like stepping into another living world where nothing was "fake" but everything had thought and purpose behind it and was made to have a reason and consistency and felt believable and like it really belonged in the game world.

I must say after playing a bit of the demo this feels much like the complete opposite. Everything feels generic, inconsistent and fake. Like some sort of arcade amusement park. There are arcade style glowing loot drops flying at your from everywhere with glowing chests and damage numbers flying out of enemies when you shoot at them and the whole screen is just made up of floating markers and text and button instructions. It just looks like some generic arcade game instead of a believable universe to get lost in (even though with very pretty graphics)

It makes me really sad though to think back of the first Outcast where it really felt like you where stepping into another unknown world and then finding a Talan to speak to and ask your way and he would explain where he last saw the person or location you where looking for or even pointing to it/him. It was all so incredible immersive and autentic, like you and these characters actually existed inside that game world. And now instead you get generic fat ugly floating markers on the screen instead guiding you by the hand like a mindless drone.

It is strange because judging by the demo so far in many ways this feels like the complete antithesis of what made Outcast so special and what actually make it stand out even today.

I hope so much I will be wrong though and I still want to play the full game since I love Outcast so much (just look at my name..) and like the op I have also waited 25 years for a sequel. If there is just some way to toggle that horrible cluttered intrusive hud hopefully the full game will still have that incredible world building to get lost in where you really get sucked in to the lore and world. But I am at least holding off until there is confirmation it will be possible in some way to at least toggle all that ugly HUD clutter.

Sadly, making an open world without markers is almost certainly a commercial suicide.

In my opinion Outcast 1999 is one of the best game ever, but the developers got broken...than kickstar campaign failed...ect, ect. Probably is a miracle we are getting a new Outcast.

It looks obvious to me they are trying to appeal a larger audience because that is the only way Outcast will survive.

Still there are a lot of other things I like in the Demo. Dialogues, world building, no linear interconnected quests, lore, ect.

[Oberscht]

You could say it's ironic that the store page advertises with "Outcast, pioneered the genre of non-linear open-world games" and then the sequel is the exact opposite

[Smartik1]

Also got stuck in a platform, also hate the "controller first" design that follows a lot of games. Menus buried within menus are a pain to navigate, can't select dialogue options easily with direction keys like controller users can, gliding on KB+M is a pain.

[outcast]

Originally posted by Ale:

Originally posted by outcast:

This is also my feeling exactly. The original Outcast was so incredible because everything was so immersive and consistent and had its own internal logic and explanation, even the save system had an ingame explanation. It really felt like stepping into another living world where nothing was "fake" but everything had thought and purpose behind it and was made to have a reason and consistency and felt believable and like it really belonged in the game world.

I must say after playing a bit of the demo this feels much like the complete opposite. Everything feels generic, inconsistent and fake. Like some sort of arcade amusement park. There are arcade style glowing loot drops flying at your from everywhere with glowing chests and damage numbers flying out of enemies when you shoot at them and the whole screen is just made up of floating markers and text and button instructions. It just looks like some generic arcade game instead of a believable universe to get lost in (even though with very pretty graphics)

It makes me really sad though to think back of the first Outcast where it really felt like you where stepping into another unknown world and then finding a Talan to speak to and ask your way and he would explain where he last saw the person or location you where looking for or even pointing to it/him. It was all so incredible immersive and autentic, like you and these characters actually existed inside that game world. And now instead you get generic fat ugly floating markers on the screen instead guiding you by the hand like a mindless drone.

It is strange because judging by the demo so far in many ways this feels like the complete antithesis of what made Outcast so special and what actually make it stand out even today.

I hope so much I will be wrong though and I still want to play the full game since I love Outcast so much (just look at my name..) and like the op I have also waited 25 years for a sequel. If there is just some way to toggle that horrible cluttered intrusive hud hopefully the full game will still have that incredible world building to get lost in where you really get sucked in to the lore and world. But I am at least holding off until there is confirmation it will be possible in some way to at least toggle all that ugly HUD clutter.

Sadly, making an open world without markers is almost certainly a commercial suicide.

In my opinion Outcast 1999 is one of the best game ever, but the developers got broken...than kickstar campaign failed...ect, ect. Probably is a miracle we are getting a new Outcast.

It looks obvious to me they are trying to appeal a larger audience because that is the only way Outcast will survive.

Still there are a lot of other things I like in the Demo. Dialogues, world building, no linear interconnected quests, lore, ect.

I think it is a huge mistake to think that the lack of markers or direction in the first game was the result of its failure (honestly pretty much all games back then lacked hand holding markers). A great game can fail for 100:s of reasons, many of them sadly being just a factor of "luck" and timing.

There are actually quite a number of extremely successful games on the market that does not pander to the player. Just take the Dark Sould and Elden Ring games as one random example. Elden Ring which is an incredible success have sold over 20 million copies (as of feb 2023 so a year ago) and actually gives you some vague direction with the shining light while still having you find your own way, but more importantly it does so in a way that is actually consistent within the game world and that is key to not making it feeling completely cheap, fake and artificial.

You can appeal to a larger audience and at the same time stay true to the original vision without pandering or making something that feels like just an amusement park ride instead of a rich and mysterious adventure. Just plain generic open world games are extremely saturated these days and I think many people are extremely sick of them and they just feel uninspired as soon as you play them as they all follow the exact same cookie cutter tired formula of mindless breadcrumb copy paste repeating busy work.

To sacrifice vision and authenticity for the sake of the least common denominator is a mistake in the long run I think.

I still hope and think Outcast 2 could be successful, in a pure graphical aspect it looks really nice and I think this could draw in a much larger audience since in my opinion what really hindered the original was the controversial use of voxel graphics (which I personally absolutely adore) and apparently also numerous game breaking bugs on its release that I also was spared from. But I think it is a huge mistake to draw the "conclusion" that pandering to player would be the source of its potential success.

To really stand out and shine you have to actually stand out and do your own thing instead of just following someone elses generic tired formula. Lets not also forget that the people who actually did play the original almost universally loved it and the metacritic score for that game is an incredibly high 8.8 and the fact that it is not in the 90:s is probably only because of the technical issues and bugs the game had. I remember that PC Gamer in my country reviewed it with the highest review score they had ever had with 96 out of a 100. It was a true masterpiece as far as the actual game went and the lack of commercial success had nothing to do with the actual quality or direction of the game but was due to other (technical and perhaps marketing) factors that made people not pick up the game in the first place. (Marketing is probably a huge part of it as even the trailers for the original game and second contact are atrocious and makes even those games look like a generic cheap action games as opposed to the wonderfully immersive, authentic and lore-rich adventure game they really are). I would bet everything I own that the reception score for this game will be much lower based on how uninspired and generic it feels so far even though the commercial income will most likely be higher because of better graphicial fidelity, marketing and timing.

But I will not judge the game fully though before the final release and I still pray to the gods that the full game will have a way to disable each interface/HUD element and a hud toggle since that is my biggest gripe with the demo so far. The horrible cluttered mess of the HUD that is on at all time. If it will be possible to toggle it all off and on with a button I think I could still be immersed and enjoy the game world.

[Oberscht]

Considering boomer shooters are financially successful, I'm sure a boomer-exploration game could have had a chance too, but we will never know

[Ank Myrandor]

Originally posted by Oberscht:

Considering boomer shooters are financially successful, I'm sure a boomer-exploration game could have had a chance too, but we will never know

they might steer the future projects according to this 'success' I mean the only thing I see are boomers that are complaining, haven't seen a big new target group that inquires info about the game.

[polarlicht7]

Yepp, I think that they romanticise the original too much. I did also in the beginning. Perhaps the demo should have been a smaller but more concentratet one. I also circumvented the time restriction and saw to much of the map. Hope I didn't spoil the overall experience for later in the full game.

At first I was flashed by the graphics of the world. When I moved around, that feeling quickly was gone. It felt a bit cheap and the first comments from cutter were a bit cheesy.

After a while some of the real dialogs got quite nice. Sometimes trying to bring back the old humor of the original fails, but sometimes I caught myself smiling because it succeeded. About 4 hours of testing several things, I got quite used to new stuff that I found strange in the first place.

So after all I'm glad that there will be a sequel finally and when I recall the sparse infos before OC: Lost Paradise was put on ice, some elements that were planned seem to have survived over the years e.g. the setting of an invasion on Adelpha, the jetpack and I'm not sure but I recall that there was talk about more action.

The interesting thing and big argument against the theory, that all is done for some lazy teenagers: Theres rumors that the game has a strategic part in which you can rebuild the societies, control the development of the viallages and this all will have impact on the overall environment and also movement of the enemy. On some level this was also true for the original, with stopping Risi production for Fae Rhan and so on, but I think this could be much more complex... I hope at least, but cannot promise anything.

In the end I think I can live with the controls, since they weren't that good in the original - not that I noticed that back then, but playing Second Contact, I was reminded of that (for 1999 they were more than okay).

P.S. If the former user Twon Ha Gui finds this post, please reply ;)