Outcast 2: A New Beginning is no more. In a new trailer at the THQ Nordic showcase, it's been officially revealed that the game will now just be known as Outcast: A New Beginning, dropping the two from the title altogether.
Speaking ahead of the showcase, developer Appeal Studios told us that this name change is to ensure that newcomers to the series aren't put off by the fact that this is a sequel. This isn't too surprising, given that Outcast: A New Beginning follows on from a game that launched all the way back in 1999 and re-released in 2014.
Announced around two years ago, this is one of our best looks at Outcast: A New Beginning yet. Here, gameplay very much takes the focus, showing off the traversal systemm and how we'll interact with the world of Adelpha and its citizens. It also gives us a taste of the game's tone, which Appeal Studios described to us as "Indiana Jones meets Stargate".
Prior to the showcase, the devs gave us a hands-off demo to see these features in action. In particular, traversal looked incredibly satisfying, making quick work of journeying around the planet. For combat, we were shown how guns can be customised for different playstyles. There will be plenty of opportunities to test these out, it seems, as the open world looked to be mostly filled with enemies when you're going in-between settlements.
Once again, we're playing as Cutter Slade - or the Ulukaï, as he is now known. In true camp sci-fi fashion, he's described as the "chosen one" destined to "reunite the people of Adelpha and liberate it from the invaders." We didn't get to see much of how this is represented in-game, so it remains to be seen if this tired old trope can be done justice nowadays.
We did get a quick look at how conversations will work here though, and they were pretty noteworthy. Given that you are a stranger here, the player won't immediately be able to understand the languages. The devs told us that these will have to be learned by Cutter Slade in order for the player to understand what these NPCs saying.
While we still don't have a release date, the game is "close to beta" in terms of its development cycle. The devs are expecting it to take players around 35 hours to complete, emphasising that they didn't wish to pad it out with needless grinding.
Outcast: A New Beginning will be available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. It is skipping last gen altogether.