In 1999, this game knew everything that makes the newest Bioware RPG-s a hit: it had a huge world, you could collect resources, have long, dramatic and funny dialogues in a cinematic quality, you could upgrade your weapons, complete quests and so on... and it was never called an "RPG".
The story and the characters are superb and it is possible that Outcast has the finest screenplay in gaming history. The protagonist is a military guy, but far from an average one, his lines are hilarious, and how he deals with the problems, is just exciting and right. As for the storyline - it has the most clever twists and turns involving the clichéd "hero from prophecies versus evil emperor" that is so well explained with a science-fiction twist that it literally took my breath away. And suddenly it wasn't a cliché anymore, it was a mindblowing way of world-building. Only comparable to the best novels in SF&F, Outcast shows that games can be as good as movies and books. We can relate to this world as well to the protagonist, we can feel the pain of the talan, and this great motivation makes this game unforgettable. Only graphics are outdated - art direction, music and gameplay remained first class, even if we compare to recent games. It's a real shame that their developers went bankrupt.
Outcast is one of the best games in the universe, and I would recommend to every game developer to see what can be achieved.