Outcast - Second Contact
Outcast - Second Contact
Game
Game2024
Outcast - A New Beginning
Developer Appeal Studios
Outcast: A New Beginning is a 2024 action-adventure game developed by Appeal Studios and published by THQ Nordic. It is a sequel to 1999's Outcast. Players help defend an alien civilization while searching for their missing daughter. The game was released for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on 15 March 2024 to mixed reviews from critics. From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
228 reactions from 4 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Lemmy, Mastodon) · newest Nov 2, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
74
Fresh
145 positive · 50 negative
95% range 68–80%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 145 | 50 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 8 | 0 | 13 |
| Lemmy * | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| Mastodon * | 4 | 1 | 1 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Mostly Positive
710 of 917 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
73% recommend · 139 yes, 51 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 190 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Mostly Positive (1,377 of 1,741 positive).
Players praise the beautiful world and fun jetpack traversal. [1][2][3] Many note the game has bugs and technical issues. [4][5][6] Some find the story and dialogue weak. [7][8][9]
Liked
Representative posts
- [7]
The story seems like it was written by a 12 year old. All the characters behave like kids and the Talan behave like even younger kids. Your decisions in the story are not worth thinking about, the "love story" is a joke, the twist is a joke and the end alltogether is an insult to the time you played. No decision of any of the characters make any sense. This alone makes me not recommend this game. Dont know what to …
- [1]
Basically Just Cause 3. Except you're on the planet from Avatar. Except the aliens aren't blue and boring, they're brown and interesting. And mostly easy to like. And you play as Space Nathan Drake. And for some reason it all works. Beautifully. Great game. Absolutely worth the price of admission.
- [5]
A belated sequel to the 1999 PC classic Outcast. The Good: + the world of Adelpha is now a gorgeous, organic looking and interconnected open world + jetpack travel is a ton of fun + the soundtrack is excellent + weapon modules provide room for experimentation + quests provide variety and are always story-driven The Bad: - even 2 years after Release, the game has a ton of bugs - a lot of cutscenes seem unfinished - …
- [2]
I was a big fan of the first game and it was one of the first games i ever bought on pc. A new beginning is a blast to play. It has one of the best map designs i have ever played. It so nice to soar around the map with your jetpack, collect stuff, do trials, upgrade your guns with different parts and find all these little quirky side missions etc. The lore is expanded even further and the humor so cheesy and good …
- [3]
Outcast: A New Beginning is a sci-fi open-world adventure with a beautiful world and fun jetpack traversal. Exploration is easily the game's biggest strength and I really liked the main character's vibe. I also enjoyed the quests focused on the native communities and the interactions between their people, which helped make the world feel more interesting and alive. I also loved the music, it somehow felt familiar …
Summarised from 34 of the 229 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 12, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
Outcast - A New Beginning sits at 74% positive across 195 opinionated reactions from 4 sources. Fresh or rotten — where do you land?
Critics, per Wikipedia
Outcast: A New Beginning received "mixed or average" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator website Metacritic. Fellow review aggregator OpenCritic assessed that the game received fair approval, being recommended by 34% of critics. In Japan, four critics from Famitsu gave the game a total score of 31 out of 40. Although they criticized it for having "overly long questlines filled with busywork" and dialogue that is "goofy sci-fi babble", IGN recommended it to fans of open world games on the strength of its freedom and exploration. Rock Paper Shotgun said it is a beautiful alien world "filled with open world busy work" and cringe-worthy dialogue. They also criticized what they…
From the “Reception” section of Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Critic context only — not part of the audience score.
Reactions
60 of 228 · most liked firstThe story seems like it was written by a 12 year old. All the characters behave like kids and the Talan behave like even younger kids. Your decisions in the story are not worth thinking about, the "love story" is a joke, the twist is a joke and the end alltogether is an insult to the time you played. No decision of any of the characters make any sense. This alone makes me not recommend this game. Dont know what to tell you, but the dialogues are on par with Borderlands. Its that bad. Also:…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As a fan of the original Outcast, which is an absolutely excellent game which despite somewhat dated and clunky controls still holds up well, I wanted to love this game. But unfortunately, the game has made it rather hard to be a solid recommendation. I will divide my review into three sections: The good, the meh, and the bad. The good: - The graphics are quite good, and the art style in general works well. It does make you feel like you are in an alternate universe. There are some truly…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Outcast: A New Beginning. (PC, own Unreal Engine Unlocker for camera/post processing/scene manipulation/pause/hud toggle, Reshade) Was playing Avowed and remembered just how *more* alien Outcast's world looked. Had quit this game half-way through, now finishing it.
neutral · AI labelView post →Outcast: A New Beginning is the worst open-world game I have played in years. It's boring, repetitive and empty. I don't know where to start - it's riddled with flaws. The world is huge, but completely empty. The open world is similar to that in Biomutant - its filled with copy-pasted side activities such as clearing bases or following a flying wisp from point A to point B - it's awful! It's basically a Just Cause clone, but without any of the fun. The story is terrible, and the dialogue is…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Basically Just Cause 3. Except you're on the planet from Avatar. Except the aliens aren't blue and boring, they're brown and interesting. And mostly easy to like. And you play as Space Nathan Drake. And for some reason it all works. Beautifully. Great game. Absolutely worth the price of admission.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Outcast: A Disappointing Return When I was younger, I played and loved the original Outcast. It lives fondly in my memory as an amazing game with great puzzles, solid action, a variety of weapons, and excellent pacing. The new installment has plenty going for it from a technical perspective: nice graphics, good sound design, a cool open-world map with lots to explore, and fun movement mechanics with a jetpack. Sadly, this game falls victim to modern remake syndrome, where every title…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I was a big fan of the first game and it was one of the first games i ever bought on pc. A new beginning is a blast to play. It has one of the best map designs i have ever played. It so nice to soar around the map with your jetpack, collect stuff, do trials, upgrade your guns with different parts and find all these little quirky side missions etc. The lore is expanded even further and the humor so cheesy and good that its dripping of Cutter Slade's cheeks. All in all a very nice experience.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Colonial guilt savior complex Avatar military father redemption arc soar like a bird and ride a giant elephant slug Game engine stutters a lot, which is frustrating, but I didn't have a single crash during my playthrough. I encountered bugs but nothing that prevented me from continuing. The game feels polished somehow despite its flaws. Select Directx12 when starting the game. Initial game load is very slow, but in-game loads are pretty quick. The original game was sooo much more…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Tried to like it but I just can't anymore. Story progression is atrocious. Missions are flat, boring and/or annoying. Dialogue is very bland. Navigation through menus to enable missions is terrible. Jackpack underutilized and requires too much having to do a lot of fluff just to get upgrades to make it halfway decent. Being forced to do all the tribe missions is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ awful. I'm disappointed I purchased this game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A belated sequel to the 1999 PC classic Outcast. The Good: + the world of Adelpha is now a gorgeous, organic looking and interconnected open world + jetpack travel is a ton of fun + the soundtrack is excellent + weapon modules provide room for experimentation + quests provide variety and are always story-driven The Bad: - even 2 years after Release, the game has a ton of bugs - a lot of cutscenes seem unfinished - characters models don't emote, which undermines the big dramatic…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's a relatively simple overworld game in a nice creative world filled with lore (although I don't find the lore that exciting). The gameplay is a third-person shooter with some nice jetpack for vertical movements which is nice but it's not as tactical as a mass effect game unfortunately. The reason I can't recommend the game is that it's pretty buggy and glitchy and at the time of review I am almost at the end of the game and I can't seem to progress because the next quest won't trigger...…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →While I have some mixed feelings due to a couple of reasons described later, I still enjoyed most of the 47h (including a couple of hours to get to 100%) I put into this. Therefore I give it thumbs up despite of several flaws. The good Most of the time the game looks great, especially the landscape and animals. Later, when the jet pack if fully upgraded and you can glide and jump to your heart's content, just flying around is a total blast. The world building is generally pretty awesome and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I am nearly 40. And I played the original Outcast. I prayed for years that there will be a new game bringing us back Cutter Slade. What I liked about the game: - Getting back to Adelpha - The wonderful designed open world with different spots - The graphics itself - they are pretty well done - The simple quest design - as a casual gamer I just want to be able to finish things fast - the chats with all the npcs What I did not like: - cut scenes are not placed good - sometimes they…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Holy cow! How did I miss this game? It’s been ages since I’ve had this much fun. I flew around the map like Iron Man, taking out enemy bases and helping the people of the alien planet. The variety of quest types and the open world are amazing. The challenges are fun and varied, and the alien words threw me a bit at first, but the glossary helps you quickly look up their meanings. This is an AA game, so expect some jank in places. A few things reminded me of Mass Effect, mostly the improved…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Holy cow the cut scenes...play for 10 seconds get a 5 min cut scene, play for 30 sec get a cut scene...cut scene, cut scene, cut scene....
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not for me, the graphics are great, but the writing and voice acting is so bad its unplayable.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →What happened to this game? I never played the original, and maybe I'm missing something but I play a lot of AA and smaller titles, so I'm pretty used to jank, but this is a disappointment. No offense to the devs but they made some really questionable choices. It seems like they wanted to add weight to character movement, I think they did this by adding inertia, but this makes it feel like the player character is some bumbling drunk all the time, it's really terrible feeling. I could probably…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →8.3/10 Okay I am loving this game. This game reminds me of the good ol' xbox 360 type rpg's back in the day. It also reminds me of another game that was one of my favorites in recent years - ELEX. Not only is the jet pack fun in both games, but exploration is fun. I bought this game for $13 and it's a steal at that price. The graphics are nice and the world is unique, busy and vibrant. You have a lot of combat control as well as jetpack manuevers you can play around with. There is a lot…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ahh, *Outcast*. The original—oooh, yes! A cosmic cocktail of quirky charm and alien wonder. You run around, you explore... it's fun! It's got heart! It’s like jazz in the jungle, baby. But now... we got *A New Beginning*. Hmm. More like... *A New Regret*. You know what’s wild? It’s got... *loading screens*. Everywhere. Like a Russian nesting doll of waiting. You load... to load... another load. You wanna play? Gotta pay the toll—in time. Thirty minutes of “please wait,” five minutes of “pew…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Outcast - A New Beginning - Gameplay Deep Dive.
neutral · AI labelView post →Outcast: A New Beginning is a sci-fi open-world adventure with a beautiful world and fun jetpack traversal. Exploration is easily the game's biggest strength and I really liked the main character's vibe. I also enjoyed the quests focused on the native communities and the interactions between their people, which helped make the world feel more interesting and alive. I also loved the music, it somehow felt familiar and fit the world really well. On the other hand, the combat gets repetitive,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The original Outcast is a perfect example of the jank of its time - imperfect controls, obtuse quests, janky interface etc. It is therefore very funny that this second Outcast is a perfect example of the jank of our time - you have done x of y challenges, collected x of y collectibles, done x of y quests. If you have vaguely paid attention to game design over the last decade, you know the score. In another two decades, there will be an Outcast 3, which will also serve as the perfect example…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is basically a AA Avatar. A very good looking, but mostly vanilla open world with good combat. A surprisingly funny story with solid dialogue and decent voice acting. The gunplay is basic, but tight and well designed. The movement system is incredible and I'd love to see it in more games. Gliding is fun, precise and fast. It feels like an indie game in a good way. The game has a lot of soul to it. It doesn't overstay it's welcome, I completed 100% of the map with my 24 hours of…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →OutcastGame: The Yods have spoken! #Outcast - A New Beginning is coming March 15, 2024.. Nitter link: https://nitter.net/OutcastGame/status/1731658477129363953 
neutral · AI labelView post →So I got the game on sale, and it was ok for the price I paid for it. Its certainly NOT worth the current steam price of £35. Now I get it was a small team that made the game, but a little more testing would have gone a long way. There were a bunch OF NPC's (mostly on the bases) that were stuck in the pose position and were non interactable. Or gaps in the geometry or texture streaming bugs (these didn't happen that often). The visuals for the most part are spot on, however there are many…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Outcast - A New Beginning - Why You Should Play the Demo | PS5 Games.
neutral · AI labelView post →This is a very gamey game. There are a lot of fun game mechanics that never really get old, like the jump pack and the boost jump, and a lot of satisfying exploring to do. It sort of reminds me of Just Cause but set in an alien open world. Would recommend 7.5/10
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →there is nothing about this game that is worth owning from the crashs that never stop to the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and lazy ass writing for the story ♥♥♥♥ this game ♥♥♥♥ me for buying this trash and i hope i can get a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ refund
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Outcast - A New Beginning - Release Trailer | PS5 Games.
neutral · AI labelView post →Very generic RPG, open world and exploration is okay, navigation jump/glide controls are not good with mouse/keyboard. Combat has 2 enemy types, ground walking shooting, flying shooting, that's it. Every quest is a fetch or kill quest. Best aspects are culture of the alien race and open world exploration, but even those are mostly cliche and not unique to the genre. I would not waste the time, even on steep discount.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Dude the protagonist never shuts up and it's just cutscene after cutscene, why are cutscenes even locked to 30fps in a 2024 release in the first place?? A total slog to play.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Was good till it wasn't really, i literally got up to the part where they say that talking too much is a problem and after that i even mentally just agreed that skipping 99% of the dialogue was better than how sloppy it ended up being with many things repeated or just not really needed while doing the main quest stuff. You could literally just watch the cutscenes and that'd really do with all the story elements, you don't need to sit through all the randomly long dialogue that's a lot to do…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This definitely scratches my nostalgia itch. I loved the original game with all its quirky details at the time and this certainly brings those memories back. The game play is great, but a bit janky in the right ways, at least on PC. On a controller it may be a bit smoother. Sadly it seems to lack any upkeep. In my time so far I have had 1 crash to desktop caught by the Unreal engine, 1 straight up crash to desktop and one complete lockup I had to Alt-F4 out of. I have already…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Jack (the main antagonist) really gave me "Saul Tigh" vibes from Battlestar Galactica!! That alone is a reason to play this game :D Did Ubisoft steal its inspiration for "Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora" from Appeal? I certainly see a lot of similarities!!! Not that they're exactly the same, but still.... ;) I do have to say that I miss the puzzles from the previous versions a bit, but otherwise, I think it's a great RPG. I thought it had a good storyline, which was again delivered with a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →One of the best games worlds I've played, truly alive with stories and varied actions, besides being stunningly beautiful. The freedom to explore is paramount. Goes to my favorites list. ** Answer to another recent review: No man, no bug, just complete more missions in other places and you'll reach the required progress for the pending mission to continue. Not a hard idea. So many times I've seen panning reviews based on unused game mechanics/lack of imagination. Even a quit and restart…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Starts slow and voice acting is questionable. But once the 3rd act hits the story gets really good. It's a funny AA style game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Outcast - A New Beginning - Welcome to Adelpha | PS5 Games. This looks interesting. Definitely seems different than anything I've played before and graphics look great.
positive · AI labelView post →Outcast – a new beginning is an adventure game. It is a soft reboot of the original Outcast game, set a few decades after that. The environment was changed quite a bit, the society is rebooted as a different one. But I liked this new approach. At 48+ hours it was much longer than I expected. The game has a large area to explore. In fact doubly so, as verticality is used to great extents, sometimes to very excessive scale. Even the starting village has a lot of vertical expanse, and a lot of…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Playable but extremely mediocre action game. This game isn't terrible but it fails to bring any new ideas to the table, ultimately leading to a rather dull experience. Despite all the ideas it borrows from sources like Avatar or Far Cry, nothing is done to the same standard. Being a very average game in such a crowded market means I simply can't recommend it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Already finished it on XBox and I had a beautiful time with this title. Likable set of characters meet a beautifully crafted world, you can explore on foot or while flying. And if you are up for dialogues and humor, playing around with multi-linguistic on a species-expanding level, you'll have a great time as well. It also offers open-world typical challenges, which are fun too, combined with a decent soundtrack, I like to listen to while not in-game as well.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Awesome game. I’m old enough to have played the original on release which was one of my favourite games ever. This one lives up to my expectations, so much fun to play, a proper modern old school game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is awful. The UI is a mess, getting a mission requires you to click multiple menus. I hate when you get to a mission only to be greeted by, you do not have the required skill pop up message, then dont tell you what skill needed. The dialog is long winded and pretentious. The game never has a flow to it, you constantly run into roadblocks like need a certain skill but not sure what one it feels like done on purpose to add padding. The side missions are same type and filler. Plus no…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This seem like when Avatar and FARCRY made a baby. its much more simpler,theres a lot of copy paste..you get like 7 zones each one is basiclly the same with "diffrent" theme,but dialog is the same and playthrough..many skills are redundent I mostly used my gun 99% of the time.So theres tons of filler,some core gameplay is fun thats about it,
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →things I don't like: 1. The story is not that good 2. Combat is repetitive and there aren't many enemy types 3. Cutter Slade's jokes aren't so great and he tells them all the time things I like: 1. traverse, the jetpack and the flying caterpillar 2. voice acting is surprisingly not bad 3. Desan district's design is great verdict: a solid 6 or 7. It's like a Ubisoft game but it still beats any of Ubisoft's slops.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hi There; I really am enjoying this game. It has action, plot and humor. Although to get the humor, you most likely have to enjoy 1990s - 2000s action movie humor. There is a lot of language play humor (The differences between different worlds languages, and the use of our earthling slang.) Which I found very humorous. . . But I am a older person, so I appreciated that type of humor. The game is sometimes cryptic in some of it's quests. So just think about how the game leads you to…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Forsooth, a Temu-Amazon collab wouldn't have done it better than this. A near 1-1 copy of the legendary gaming revelation from 30 years ago with only several wee plot twists: Most beautiful scenery you can think of absolutely void of adventure or exploration'n'reward loop, fetch quests galore right from the start, checklist of points of "interest" on the map, and all filled to the brim with zillions of nerve-wreckingly long talking cutscenes packed with gargantuously intangible fluff. Did I…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Bad start, bad narration, I am a bit disappointed, got it on xmas sale, but... F*tard camera, with parkour, that always has the wrong angle, making the parkour an exercise in frustration management instead of an enjoyable experience. I will finish the game, I paid for it, but gosh it drives me crazy and is just highly annoying. Combat is not interesting so far. Final edit : the f*g camera got me. Game uninstalled. Uninspired piece of c*p.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Man what an excellent followup to a cult classic game from 1999. It has its quirky/buggy moments, but what it lacks it more than makes up for with snappy gameplay, fun mechanics, and great dialogue that is often very funny. It's worth the cost of entry, and well worth giving a go.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Honestly? This game should be renamed in "Parkours Simulator". Why does almost every game nowadays have to be ruined by either QTEs or parkours? I hate both of these things. Unfortunately, so far the only way I have found of obtaining blue helidium in this game is by doing some kind of f***ing parkour called Orym trail. Without these blue crystals, you cannot improve your jetpack and without improving your jetpack, there are some locations that are very hard to reach (or maybe even completely…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Totally engrossed in #Outcast for the past 2 days 🤩 Everything I loved about the first game is back. An exotic, immersive world with colorful characters and punchy dialogue. I'm delighted 😀 On that note, I've got a world to save! ✨ #OutcastGame #OutcastANewBeginning #CutterSlade #AppealStudios
positive · AI labelView post →There are many things that can be and have been criticized about this game - but it's simply just great fun to play. Not much to find while exploring? True - but using the glider is great fun and the views are beautiful and absolutely worth it. Combat repetitive? No more than in other games. Story? Not mindblowing, but alright; towards the end it might get slightly confusing for people who don't know the (very old) first game. Dialogues? Many of them are unnecessary annoying babble, which is a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →TLDR: Jetpack good. Treat it as a casual platformer with basic gun combat and free exploration. I hope they reimagine the first game more like this because these graphics are dated but serviceable, while the graphics of the first game aren't even serviceable anymore. Only play it for the platforming or you will be disappointed. The main reason to play this game is the jet pack. While everything else is serviceable (the story and setting are just kind of there), I mostly got the game due to…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Unfortunately, the game is very boring in terms of its staging and is set in a world that doesn't appeal to me. I literally almost fell asleep in front of the screen after playing for an hour at a time. Sorry, it's not for me.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun game, not a bug ridden mess.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a great effort and cinematic experience that you will probably like to play. A better than expected single player game that is a recomandation at this resonable price.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →boring couldn't finish it
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is so beautiful 🤩 And the music... 🎶 💖 #Outcast #OutcastGame #OutcastANewBeginning #CutterSlade #Adelpha #AppealStudios @lenniemoore
positive · AI labelView post →Totally engrossed in Outcast for the past 2 days 🤩 Everything I loved about the first game is back. An exotic, immersive world with colorful characters and punchy dialogue. I'm delighted 😀 On that note, I've got a world to save! ✨ #Outcast #OutcastGame #OutcastANewBeginning #CutterSlade #Adelpha #AppealStudios
positive · AI labelView post →I posted my review of Outcast: A New Beginning this morning. What a weird, interesting game! Certainly rough around the edges, but it feels like the Stargate SG-1 or Farscape of open-world games action games. Rough, but charming as heck. www.ign.com/articles/out...
neutral · AI labelView post →Outcast: A New Beginning was a complete surprise for me—and I really loved it. What I enjoyed most is how the story progresses. Instead of having one obvious main quest surrounded by disposable side content, the game gives you many medium-length village stories that gradually connect and merge into the larger plot. It feels much more organic than the usual “main story plus side quests” structure, and honestly, it was refreshing. Adelpha is huge, exotic and genuinely fun to explore.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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