The return of a classic, to save it from unjust oblivion.
If you remember Outcast, you are a good person, and for more than one reason. It was the 1999, there were already several The Legend of Zelda in circulation, and consoles of all respect. Those were the years of the first platformers, of ignorant games, of the arcades with the great classics: but you were far from all this to dedicate yourself quietly to gaming on PC, where it arrived exclusively, in fact Outcast. The closest thing to The Legend Of Zelda, in its time, that has ever arrived on Personal Computer.
In short, you had chosen to give a chance to a title too mistreated. Raise your hand if you are over 15 and who have heard of the game at least a couple of times. Here, in fact. Yet in its time Outlast was a half phenomenon. But why? Because it was the first real open world action title that had ever been seen before, offered an (almost) unprecedented freedom of action, small shooter mechanics and above all a deep, original and interesting plot, like a good nineties sci-fi.
Hopefully we've given you an idea of why an Outcast remastered would have made sense for a few years already - already on the last generation of consoles. We had to wait for the end of the current gen, but it cannot be said that it was not worth it at all. Outcast Second Contact carries a few optimization problems on its shoulders and you check too many, but it is the right opportunity to rediscover a classic.
The Ulukai will save us
Cutter Slade it is humanity's last hope. And already this phrase fits perfectly in disaster movies and in the plots of videogames and films of the 90s, but let's put it aside. A group of mad scientists have studied dimensional and miscellaneous travel 
inter-dimensional theories, to the point of creating a passage between our world and a parallel universe, through a hi-tec probe. The problem is that then the probe broke, and now a kind of funnel has been created between our world and another planet. Guess which of the two worlds is being sucked into the other? That's right, the usual earthly luck ...
But no problem, because a robust, ignorant and trigger-happy former marine with a troubled past is ready to save the day and make ends meet. When the government sends a helicopter to pick up Cutter Slade at the bar already on the corner, he doesn't have too much trouble: it will be a hit and run between our world and the other, as long as they don't waste too much time. And so, putting together an improvised team of characters all ready to cover the classic clichés of the case, the mission to save the Earth begins.
But things immediately turn bad. On the other planet - we had already guessed this from the introductory films - there is life. Both friendly and aggressive. Cutter ends up missing in a village of peaceful beings, who see him as the Ulukai, a kind of messiah who came to save them from slavery. On the planet Adelpha, in fact, a bloody war is underway between local Guelphs and Ghibellines that could lead to the death of many inhabitants. But Cutter can very well handle a broken probe and a civil war at the same time: he has two hands at his disposal.
A vast and deep open world… in its time
We have no doubt that Outcast was an excellent open world in its day. After all, being the first, it is not that there were who knows which opponents around. The problem is that nowadays practically 80% of the games released are open world. On the one hand, therefore, the very important role that Outcast had at the time is revealed, on the other hand it is clear how the competition has become fierce. And in a similar context, Outcast Second Contactapart from the fury and joys of the nostalgic, what arrows does he have in his bow?
Not many, unfortunately. The game has been revised in the technical and graphic sector, cleaned up, and seems to shine with a new light both on consoles and on PC. Unfortunately it is a light that is mostly only apparent. At a closer and closer look, very high quality textures are matched by others bought from the used developers, some polygonal models are rough and square, and facial animations some characters are simply unwatchable.
The audio also seems to have some problems, with high and low tones that alternate according to a more casual rather than studied logic, and slowdowns are commonplace, annoying and pressing.
The controls then it is not that they have been studied who knows how much to carry Outcast Second Contact on console (on PC it is already better). Some commands and key combinations, such as opening inventory and those for holding weapons and firing, are at least questionable. It must be said that from the moment we tried the game the
developers and Bigben Interactive have done their utmost in corrective patches, so the situation should already be improved.
Even though we didn't have the opportunity to calmly try all the interventions it already seemed to us that things were much better when we installed the patches. The fact remains that Outcast Second Contact, even if it cannot rival today's action and open world, it remains an “important” and enjoyable title, which should be tried at least once by fans of all ages. Maybe, better if on PC.
Final Comment
The remastering work of Outcast Second Contact was not successful at best, and there are a few problems too much on the technical and game controls. This does not mean that the title is enjoyable, important and that it currently has to be played in a more modern way than the previous one. Corrective patches released quickly but regularly emphasize the love of the Appeal team and Bigben Interactive distributors, which with limited sums have given new life to a great classic of the past. The adventures of Cutter Slade perhaps in another ten years will see a new work of revision, but for the moment they live a second life, more beautiful than the first in appearance, identical in substance.
