Outcast Remake Is Happening After All

A remake of cult classic Outcast is still in the works, says the developer of the original. Outcast – Second Contact is being released in March next year, despite some troubled years in development. The original game was released way back in 1999 and was generally well-received by critics, while being thoroughly ignored by the unwashed masses. By this, I mean you. I was barely alive in 1999, so don’t lay any of that at my doorstep.

Outcast was one of the first open-world games and it told the story of a hero who travelled from earth to a newly-discovered parallel universe. The remake is following the same tale, putting you in the shoes of Cutter Slade, special forces dude, who is sent into the alternate dimension of Adelpha to Lock That Shit Down.

If this news sounds familiar, that’s because the developers already lived through a failed Kickstarter a couple of years ago. They asked for $600,000 back then but received just under half of that amount. And yet, the project lives on.

You can still play a slightly-cleaner version of the first game, dubbed Outcast 1.1, on Steam. But this new one is even more beautified. There’s no word on exactly how the game will change – will it co-opt some new mechanics? Or will it stick feverishly to it’s source material? - we don’t know. But we do know that the controls will at least be revamped. Because, you know, the 90s.

I’m also obliged to tell you that Outcast is the 57th Best PC Game Of All Time. Years of consuming games journalism has compelled me to utter this sentence. And I honestly do not know why. All the older staff at RPS laugh whenever someone talks about Outcast, and I laugh with them, nervously, falsely, wretchedly.