In a surprise blast from the past, Outcast 2 – A New Beginning was announced during THQ’s 10th Anniversary Showcase, and it looks like it could rival Ubisoft’s Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. This is a sequel to the 1999 open-world PC adventure that featured cutting-edge technology and a nonlinear narrative, and it’s bringing back ex-soldier protagonist Cutter Slade and being developed by Appeal Studios.
Outcast 2 is just one of several new games announced during today’s showcase. Other highlights include the official reveal of the recently leaked Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed, which is a full remake of the second game in the alien invasion series. In terms of what’s new, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake was also revealed, making the next in a long line of licensed Nickelodeon games from THQ. Fellow throwback sequels Jagged Alliance 3 and Superpower 3 rounded out the showcase, which showed off THQ’s deep library of franchises and reaffirmed the publisher’s willingness to bet big on retro games with cult followings.
In THQ Nordic’s announcement trailer for Outcast 2 – A New Beginning, Cutter Slade and the world of Adelpha are reintroduced in a visually stunning cinematic. Just like the original, Outcast 2 will a third-person open-world game allowing for exploration of the alien setting and story. The action picks up 20 years after the events of the first game, and Adelpha’s invading corporate raiders are stripping the planet of resources and killing its citizens. Slade must organize the resistance and rid the planet of these invaders, but how he ends up achieving that goal will be up to the player.
Like Destroy All Humans! 2 Reprobed, Outcast 2 is firmly set in the current generation as far as console horsepower. Appeal is trying to recapture the cutting-edge tech that pushed the first game, leading to an impressive first trailer with large shoes to fill. Current-gen open-world games like Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora promise to push the genre’s boundaries can be thanks to new leaps in technology, and Outcast 2 looks it could aim just as high. It’s unknown when the game will arrive, but players on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PCs can rest assured that the long-suspended sequel is coming to their respective platforms.
It’s been a long time since Appeal released the original Outcast, so Outcast 2 – A New Beginning will likely be the first time many players have ever tried the series when it hits consoles and PC. It will be interesting to see how the developer continues the story of the original game while also making the narrative accessible to newcomers.
