Outcast

In the year 2007, the US government successfully deploys a probe designed to prove the existence of a parallel universe. Minutes into the mission, an intelligent alien life form damages the probe. On Earth, an unforeseen backlash of energy creates a black hole which threatens the very existence of the planet. You are Cutter Slade, a US Navy S.E.A.L. Commander, charged with the safety of the three scientists who have been chosen to travel to this new world, Adelpha. Your mission: confront the dangers of a mysterious and hostile world in order to recover the probe and close the black hole.

The Earth's future is in your hands.

6 VAST AND DIVERSE CONTINENTS, inhabited by thousands of living creatures, both friend and foe.

TOTAL FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT: you can climb, crawl, swim, talk, ride, fight, etc.

GADGETS & WEAPONS: flame-thrower, tripwire, explosives, X-ray glasses, invisibility, tracer gun, dart gun, perforator gun and the crowd dispersing boomer gun... and a lot more to discover.

GROUND-BREAKING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: interact with characters and creatures who behave with unprecedented levels of realism.

1ST AND 3RD PERSON CAMERA PERSPECTIVES which dynamically reacts intuitively to every situation you encounter.

ORIGINAL MUSICAL SCORE performed by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra.

Box blurb - # 2007-07-31 12:33:28 - official description

The game was a sort of technical marvel when it was released. Depth of field, software rendering only, voxels, and whatever else I'm forgetting. Possibly the only game ever using depth of field effect with software rendering, possibly also the first game with depth of field.

Sanguine # 2010-03-18 18:18:14

Outcast is a superb action adventure. Unlike Quake or Half-Life, one has to talk to and help many people to progress - as well as killing plenty of soldiers! :-)

What marks the game out are its graphics - Infogrames bravely went for a voxel engine, which produces smooth round surfaces and stunning quality of light in the realistic, outdoor sites (not a sewer or warehouse in sight). The music is also superb.

This game is in my all time top 5, along with (for those retros out there) Avalon, Knightlore, Carmageddon II, and Half-life.

# 2001-11-04 19:49:02

hardware: Red Book Audio,

display: voxels

Minimum:
* Windows 95
* Pentium 200 MHz CPU
* 32 MB RAM
* 2 MB VRAM
* 4X CD-ROM drive
* 600 MB free HD space

Recommended:
* Pentium 300 MHz CPU
* 64Mb of RAM
* 4 MB VRAM
* 8X CD ROM drive
* 700 MB free HD space
* 4 axes joystick

The game seems to run fine even on WinXP64 with all 3 patches applied (the first one is used to install the game) and running in Win98 compatibility mode (the patches need to be run in this as well).

Sanguine # 2008-06-07 19:09:23

Fresh3D re-released the game on 2014-12-18 as Outcast 1.1 which was updated for modern systems. The game is largely identical to the original except for support for 3D hardware acceleration and some HUD and input updates as well as bug fixes.

Sanguine # 2016-11-15 12:06:44

has influenced
open Outcast: The Hidden Gate (Linux)
Legacy of the Yods (Windows)

was remade as
Outcast: Second Contact (Xbox One)
Outcast: Second Contact (Windows)