Just finished playing Appeal’s remarkable game Outcast, and
I’m exhausted. I’ve lost sleep. I’m worn out. Why? From staying up late playing
the game? From working hard to solve the puzzles? From surviving vicious combat?

Nope.
It’s trying to think up all the superlatives I’m going to need to use in this
review that has me so tired. How many words that end with “-est” can
I use? Hmm …

Let me admit to two things right up front, Intrepid
Reader. First, I am an action moron. I have learned that I have absolutely
no interest in shooting, combat, weapons, etc. Those aspects of a games simply
do not interest me. Therefore, please keep in mind that this is the review of
an adventure player, not an action player.

Second, I’ve lost any
sense of objectivity with this game. I just loved it.

Outcast comes
from Infogrames, the innovative French company that has been shaking up the computer
gaming world all the way back to the days of Alone in the Dark. The best
way I can describe this game is to say that it’s an adventure game built on an
action game framework.

The game begins with your introduction to the story’s
hero, a studly Navy Seal named Cutter Slade. He’s called in to help with a teensy-weensy
problem a bunch of government scientists have–they’ve accidentally created a
black hole that’s in the process of, ahem, eating the world. Don’t you just hate
it when that happens?

Slade is told that he and three others will be sent
through an interdimensional wormhole to retrieve a probe that’s supposed to solve
the problem.

The opening movie ends with Cutter going through the wormhole
and waking up in a rough wooden hut in the freezing cold with a huge creature
that looks like a bipedal camel looming over him. The creature is talking to him
and calling him something … he’s calling him “Ulukai.”

Huh?

And here’s where your adventure begins. It seems that not only has
Cutter been separated from his companions, but he’s been pushed into an alternate
universe, on a world called Adelpha. This world is under the brutal reign of a
military dictator, and for Cutter to get the help he desperately needs to recover
the probe and save earth, he has to–by the way–save Adelpha as well.

So
much for set up.

That Old Messiah Thing

The creature who’s
talking to you is a Talan, and he and his people seem to think you are a savior
who was prophesied to come and free them from the yoke of Fae Rhan, the aforementioned
evil dictator. So now your mission is a dual one. You must travel to the six regions
of Adelpha to collect components of the Earth probe while aiding the poor Talan
in their struggle against Fae Rhan.

For the first couple of hours of the
game, I felt as overwhelmed as Cutter was feeling. The game throws so much information
at you, and uses an interface much more complicated than that of a pure adventure
game, that it can be truly intimidating. It all takes some getting used to. What
makes the interface worth learning, however, is that it really is full of vital
resources. There’s a mapping feature that plots out the territory for you, including
enemy positions. There’s an inventory screen that scrolls through Cutter’s bag
of tricks. There’s a lexicon that automatically keeps track of all the strange
new words you’re learning. Perhaps most importantly, there’s an automatic notepad
that functions as an extended “to do list.” In a game as vast and complex
as Outcast, this feature is indispensable. Also, there is a tremendous
amount of flexibility in the interface. You can operate in first-person mode (great
for shootouts) or third-person mode (great for navigating). You can make the camera
zoom in or out. Because of all these options, simply learning to move around took
me some time.

Luckily, the first chapter of the game consists of a series
of training exercises designed to get you comfortable with all of the skills Cutter
will need to survive Adelpha, including swimming, crawling/sneaking, shooting,
and jumping. In fact, the game will not progress until you’ve “passed”
these tests.

But once you do, look out. This game sets new standards for
open, nonlinear play. To repair the earth probe, Cutter has to collect five “mons,”
each in a different region of Adelpha. He can do this in any order.

In
addition to Ranzaar, the base area where you start the game, you’ll be exploring
five other areas. One is a dense hilly forest. One is a like a huge series of
terraced rice paddies peppered with temples. Another is a huge desert city. One
is a series of small islands. And one is a bleak, dusty mining region.

Each
of these areas is big. Did I say “big”? I mean huge. Huge, and
completely wide open. You are free to roam around them, in real time. And roam
you will. Though capturing the “mon” is your ultimate aim in each area,
getting there involves solving multiple, complex quests. Some of the quests are
required, and some are optional.

You Say Pixels, I Say Voxels

Much
has been made of Appeal’s decision to use old-fashioned voxels instead of pixels
in this game. No graphic acceleration in a 1999 game? Shock!

I don’t know
all the technical ramifications of this decision, but here’s how it affects the
game. The game takes a while to load (okay, one night I resolved the eternal struggle
between good and evil while waiting for it to load), and the levels take a bit
to load, but once the region is loaded, it’s loaded. In other words, you
are free to explore each of Adelpha’s huge areas without any pauses for the new
room, or field, or whatever, to load. This feature seriously contributes to the
feeling of reality in the game.

AI That’s Really “I”

There
are literally hundreds of characters in Outcast. Unlike adventure games
that seem sparsely populated, or action adventures in which the population consists
of mindlessly attacking bad guys, the world of Outcast feels real because
the characters seem real. Your quests are generated by interacting with these
characters. Each of them has his own agenda (I’m not being sexist; you meet no
female Talan in the course of the game), and this agenda can possibly be used
to help further your own aims.

While you go about your business in the game,
you are surrounded by Talan who are going about their business. Plus, everything
you do in the game has a ripple effect to all of the other characters. It’s just
amazing. Help out a mining boss to get him to agree to stop mining, and later
in the game you’ll find out the evil soldiers’ weapons aren’t as good because
the metal to make them is not available.

This sort of integration runs
throughout Outcast. It’s all so real-feeling that it didn’t matter at all
to me that the puzzles weren’t particularly chewy. It was just so incredibly fun
to gallivant around the various huge environments, sometimes on foot, sometimes
riding my Twon-Ha (you’ll just have to play the game to see what that is),
and helping the good Talan of Adelpha overthrow the evil dictator.

The game
is a dream come true for fans of nonlinear games. This game makes Dark Side
of the Moon seem rigidly linear!

Since, as I’ve mentioned, I am a freely
confessed action moron, I played Outcast with cheat codes firmly in place.
As a player, I’m just not interested in how good I am at shooting. This didn’t
diminish my enjoyment of the game one little bit.

However, for those better
at the action genre than I am, Outcast will be an even more complex
and engrossing experience, as you will have to use careful strategy to know when
to use (or waste) ammunition, how to make money to buy more ammunition, and how
to avoid losing the game because of that whole annoying death thing.

Let’s
Not Forget the Other Things

Even though there are many, many characters,
to your character’s earthly eyes, many of them look very much alike. Therefore,
you spend a certain amount of time stopping characters and asking, “Where’s
Zaloff?” and then following his directions. This, added with the real-time
traveling throughout the game, added to the intensely real atmosphere.

The
voice acting in the game is simply superb. The various characters, even when they
look maddeningly alike (and after all, wouldn’t they?), each have distinct and
interesting personalities.

The music is simply incredible, dramatic and
varied, and as performed by the Moscow Orchestra adds yet another classy element
to the proceedings.

I’m going to try to shut up now, but first let me try
to come up with some kind of coherent conclusion.

Is Outcast for
every adventure player? Sadly, no. The tricky interface and action elements will
be a turnoff to some players. But if, like me, you’re an adventure purist who
likes to find out how far a game can really take you, I challenge you to dive
into Outcast.

How intense an experience was this game? Well, let’s
just say that it’s now over a week since I’ve finished it and I find myself wondering
how all of my Talan friends are doing …

Thank goodness the sequel
to Outcast has already been announced!

Have I mentioned that you
can actually see Cutter’s breath when it’s cold?! Sorry, I promised to shut up …

Final
Grade: A+

System Requirements:
200 MHz Pentium
600 MB free space
32 MB RAM
4x CD-ROM
Sound card

Video card with 2 MB memory
Windows 95/98