Outcast 2 Is Bringing Its Open-World Adventure To Xbox Series X, Series S

A sequel to the 1999 original

by Fraser Gilbert Fri 17th Sep 2021

THQ Nordic gave us the surprise announcement today as part of its digital showcase that Outcast 2: A New Beginning - a sequel to the 1999 original (which was later remade for Xbox One) - is coming to Xbox Series X and Series S.

The game is being developed by the team behind that original title (Appeal Studios from Belgium), and is an open-world action-adventure featuring "fast-paced 3rd person combat as well as a non-linear Science-Fantasy story with dynamic plot progress based on player actions." Here's what the official description says about it:

"The original team behind Outcast 1 has reunited to create this fascinating world, full of dangerous creatures and home to the Talan people – an ancient culture whose fate has become inextricably linked with earth since the events of the first game. You play as Cutter Slade, ex-Navy SEAL, sporting the same dry wit he had back in the 90s – however, the world around him has changed and eventually, so will he."

Few other details have been provided about Outcast 2 at the time of writing, and like many other games in the digital showcase, it's been slapped with a "coming soon" release date, with no further specifics available for now.

That said, we did get an extra in-game "world trailer" during the event, which you can watch below.

Interested in picking up Outcast 2: A New Beginning when it arrives for Xbox? Let us know in the comments.

1
Vinsanity
Sat 18th Sep 2021

Wow! Never thought Outcast would actually get its sequel! I mean, I guess there's no confirmation that this is going to resurrect the ideas behind the original, cancelled PS2 version of Outcast 2,* but still, it's kind of awesome to see Outcast get a proper sequel finally! That original game was so mind-blowing back in the day, from the use of voxel environments to the fully voiced characters to the basic stealth systems and the dynamic enemies and fauna that interacted with each other in different ways and weren't just props waiting for the player character to do something near them... it really felt like someone played an open world game from 15 years in the future and tried like hell to make it work with tech from '98. It was just so ambitious for the time... non-standard controls and dated design are always hard to go back to though. The more recent remaster was really disappointing because the ONE thing it needed to do to make it more palettable to modern audiences was completely redo the controls and it didn't; it just left every action awkward to do.

This series really deserved an actual shot at some mainstream success, so its really neat that THQ Nordic is giving it one here. Hopefully Outcast 2 just plays like a normal, competent third person shooter/platformer now - like a Tomb Raider or Uncharted (with good shooting), because that's what it needs. Outcast remains the best Stargate (and come to think of it, James Cameron's Avatar) game to date. Not enough sci-fi games take swings as big as Outcast did...