I remember when i played this game years ago, and how I was stunned not only by visuals, which preserved their quality even up today (!), not only by magnificent music by Lennie Moore and wonderful dubbing (Did you know that french voice of Ulukai is Bruce Willis?), not only by SUPERB and in many aspects unsurpassed AI up to this day (!!), but mainly by atmosphere and story, which are so thick and dense, that you will be in awe. Yes, even you, modern gamer. Action and exploration have NEVER been combined into such a powerful symbiosis.
Its everything: drama, action, espionage, mystic, scifi - on monumental scale - All you could ever dream about!
The main motif of this game is nothing smaller then to free alien planet from tyrannt. There are 5 islands on this planet, each with dramatically different climate - one is snowy, another is desert, jungle and so on - environment is changing often, and it doesn´t give you a slightest chance to be bored.
Just wait when you will, for example, see majestic ancient creature Gorgor, about twenty times bigger than you - but its not only about seeing it, the game cleverly prepares you to this encounter by countless legends which you will hear from common people. Its not just - Baf! Here is monster! - Everything in this game make sense on the deepest level.
But what is The most immpresive about this game is how you make impact on your surroundings by your heroic deeds. You think Fable made it too? Well, in compare to OUTCAST its mere childish attempt on the basic level. I´ll give you brief example what you are about to experience - because - you just must play this - no matter you are 5, 10, 20, or 50 years old - you just must.
As you destroy tyrants´s troops and suppress his power, common folks get stronger, as they have more spare food. They believe you more, and you are more and more a hero to them - or better said, Ulukai, Messiah. At the beginning of the game, they are just scared and fully accept the will of tyrant, they dont believe you to be the chosen, Ulukai. But when they see how you boldly stand against him and killed many of his troops, they gradually get bolder themselves - they are excercising on the fields to be stronger, helping you more. And finally, they love you as you were one of their race - it´ll make you cry.
It goes to the extent that they sabotage food rations for the tyrannts soldiers, so they are weaker and easier to kill. And those are just few examples of this tremendously deep game. The World lives, there are numerous ancient legends, which are just plain fun to listen to, every single worker on the rice field has something interesting to tell you.
There are million little details - for example - you can ride an alien animal called Twonha - but of course it is not that easy, you must first tame him. And there are numerous side quests, which actually matters, and have some effect on the main story. You will realize something magnificent - you will not be doing them to get some Bad-Ass gun and some silly XP points (nonexistant in this game ofcourse), but just because you want help those poor folks.
The World changes as you progress through the game - you see it everywhere! Nowadays, every developer says exactly the same thing - that your actions affects world blah blah - THE ONLY game where I´ve seen it done is OUTCAST!
Well. That´s it, I´ve said what have must been said. I could continuo for hours.
To make it short: The Best Game. The Perfect Experience. The Flawless Storytelling.
The day when they cancelled OUTCAST 2 was sad day for all gaming community. And what´s worse - nobody even noticed, because OUTCAST for some reason wasn´t instant hit and was more or less forgot.
Go and play it. Six dollars for this gem is like to pay 20 bucks for eternal paradise.