Overall, I thought the game (Outcast 1.1) was excellent. The gameplay was super-addictive, I loved the mixture of free exploration and objectives, I thought the combat was exceptionally well-done, the story was interesting, and the world felt rich and alive.

But I was really let down by the ending. After I got the fourth Mon in Okaar I was really looking forward to using all my saved-up equipment and weapons to storm the palace Fae, get the fifth Mon (with help from the people of Talanzaar, the lampe to put the palace soldiers to sleep, etc.), and finally confront Fae Rahn. Then I get the annoying call from Marion telling me she's in trouble (yet again). We all know what happens next, when I go to help her all my weapons get taken. Frustrating, but after a quick skirmish at the prison I am ready to get my weapons back and get back on track.

Instead I am instantly fast-forwarded to the battle with Kroax and his soldiers. I found this battle to be pretty unsatisfying, Kroax is kind of a wimp so the battle wasn't hard enough to be challenging, and since I didn't have all my ammo and equipment I couldn't have fun with it the way I wanted to. I thought to myself "OK, well at least there's sure to be fun stuff getting the fifth Mon, and then battling to reach Fae Rahn's quarters and fight him and his personal guard!"

But there was nothing. I mean, after all the work required to get the first four Mons, Marion just walks up and hands me the fifth Mon, that's it? Sure, the final video was well-done and touching, but there was no more gameplay. I didn't even get to help find the probe, that was all done for me! I was so disappointed, and kind of in shock that the awesome battle to the top of the temple in Okaar (out in the middle of nowhere!) turned out to be by far the the hardest in the game.

I'm not sure if they ran out of time, money, or what, but it feels like there were several hours of gameplay missing here. Since I spent so much time in this game looking forward to an amazing finale, the fact that it ended like this kind of ruins it a bit for me. I haven't seen this mentioned in other reviews etc., so I was wondering if anyone else felt the same way?

I was also disappointed with the playable sections of the finale, but I liked the way the story ended. So it was a mixed reaction for me. When I replayed recently, and knew what was coming, I enjoyed the ending more. Taking away all the player's hard-earned stuff is usually a bad idea, especially when there's no chance to get it back, as you say. I imagine they wanted to make the final battle harder by limiting what tools the player would have, but as you say it's still pretty easy, especially if you've done all the side quests and therefore still have a lot of ammo. The flamethrower makes short work of everyone.

I think it's an example of the developers not being sure how to unite the playable sections with the story they wanted to tell. So most of it is shown, with the player not able to play much at all. I forgave it since I'd enjoyed everything that came before so much, and because I thought it was a good ending narrative-wise.

As for the probe, I'd always assumed that the capsule at the bottom of the river on Okaar was the probe. In fact, I imagined that the water there was from Earth, coming through the portal, but very slowly due to the time difference on the two worlds, so it had created a lake there over many moons. But as I played again recently I saw that the probe looked different to that capsule. I wonder if the developers were rushed at the end and had to wrap some things up that were originally intended to be playable? There have been some interviews with the developers recently, around the release of the Second Contact remastered version, but I haven't had a chance of watch them yet. Maybe they discuss the original development.

You are correct, the ending, while managing to bring emotion, fails to bring satistfaction. My guess is they ran out of money towards the end and just rushed it. The taking away of all the invenory was a cheap shot. You spend ages collecting ammo and buying and upgrading weapons only to have them unused. The battle with Kroax was boring and the small bit of interest it generated was due to the low amount of ammo. I hope one day the proper "proper remake" will happen.