Outcast: A New Beginning, the sequel to one of the first open-world games ever, is heavily inspired by The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
The Outcast series returns after a quarter-century hiatus, but the 25-year hiatus gave the sequel more influences to draw from. Outcast: A New Beginning is about our main man returning to the alien planet Adelpha to liberate his home villages from an invading mech faction – and surprisingly, the way you move around its terrain has a lot in common with Nintendo's beloved open world.
“When imagining what the game would be like, we decided that the key point would be to make it completely non-linear,” explains game director Pablo Coma in the walkthrough embedded below. “After a brief tutorial, you can literally go anywhere in the world,” meaning you can help the natives in any order you want since the game “doesn't lock remote locations behind an experience system.”
Kuma goes on to say that the first Outcast was clearly the team's “main inspiration,” but Nintendo's first proper foray into the genre also offered a lot to think about. “Breath of the Wild was a great game that used the same design principles,” Kuma continues. “We try to maintain the same sense of freedom, but give the player different tools to exploit.”
One such gadget is the Glider Suit which, unlike the Zelda mentioned above, travels very fast and does not consume energy. “So, if you start on the top of a mountain, you can slide for a very, very long time.” Other traversal tools include a small jet pack that allows you to fly over large bodies of water and a suit that apparently allows you to hover slightly above the ground.
“We have a large world of 64 square kilometers, and we think that discovering every corner of it is a big part of the fun of the game,” Kuma continues. “We hope that the ability to move quickly will entice players to push the exploration of unexplored areas.”
Outcast: A New Beginning is scheduled to release on March 15 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series You can play its demo now steam.
It can slot in our The best open world games classification?
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