Outcast: A New Beginning wants to be a caring open world shooter

rockpapershotgun.com:

THQ Nordic and Appeal Studios have semi-re-announced Outcast 2: A New Beginning as plain old Outcast: A New Beginning, having sensibly decided that positioning it as a sequel to a 24-year-old game might turn younger audiences away. In a pre-reveal showcase attended by RPS, producer Andreas Schmiedecker walked us through a few sections of this atypically green-fingered open world shooter.

In Outcast: ANB you play a growly-gruff ex-Navy SEAL, the sleekly named Cutter Slade, who roves a planet called Adelpha using a fancy jetpack. You're here to help the indigenous Talans - who definitely hail from the Ewoky end of the ethnic representation scale - fight off an army of robot invaders. The jetpack is the initial star attraction: it lets you boost, glide and dash through colourful landscapes inspired by 80s and 90s movies and comics. The associated animations seem a bit wooden to me: I often felt like I was watching somebody steer a man-shaped cursor, rather than a body in flight. But I certainly can't argue with the verticality and agility on display.

Slade gets a fancy transforming gun with modules including sniper scopes, shotgun muzzles and rapid-fire functionality. But his greatest weapons could be those afforded him by Adelpha itself: care for its creatures and plantlife by, say, locating an appropriate food source for some squelchy-looking dragon, and you'll both rejuvenate the Talan villages you come across and gain access to special powers, such as summoning a flock of exploding kamikaze birds. You can also ride larger creatures into battle, including flying leviathans. There's an ecosystem screen with branching nodes to illustrate the relationships between Adelpha's flora and fauna.

All of which reflects a desire