Outcast - A New Beginning

[aweigh]

[Konjad]

I wanted to play it this weekend, but I'm still playing Aliens: Dark Descent and just started also I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, so I think I will postpone it...

[Breathe]

Picked it up. Loved 1.1 and judging by reviews this will be very decent.

[Rand]

By all accounts, needs a few patches as it is somewhat crash prone on some systems and has a number of non-critical bugs.

[rusty_shackleford]

Releasing it during a Steam sale was a terrible idea. Also I think $60 was too high of a pricepoint to optimize sales.

[Konjad]

I played today for a few hours. Graphics are great, from the jungle through the mountains to the desert to which you can travel at any time, they are all pretty to look at.

The game is more story-focused than the first one. In "A New Beginning" there's many more cutscenes, often you pew pew a bit, watch cutscene, pew pew a bit, then watch another cutscene and so on, though it of course depends how much you follow the story and how much you choose to just wander off to look around. The focus on the story and cutscenes doesn't mean the story is good though. It's essentially Avatar copy-paste with human-like aliens (which are kinda red, instead of blue) being killed by humans from a military corporation who do it because they want to conquer the planet and exploit it by murdering and enslaving everything and everyone because that's what military corporations do. Fortunately, the main character appears and it has been in prophecy of the natives that he is going to save them. Pew pewing isn't much better, shooting in the first game wasn't great but it was fine enough, here it's just inconvenient and unsatisfying, after a while I started to avoid combat and just run to objectives. Quests are "go there and free that person, pick up that item and bring it, talk to that NPC" and without any interesting backstories or variety. Overall, this is a game that looks pretty but plays crap.

[rusty_shackleford]

Feedback from a small amount of playing:

* Works fine on linux if you use d3d12. For whatever reason the d3d11 version freezes and I don't feel like diagnosing it.
* You can pause during cutscenes, nice
* Performance is poop. I seemed to be able to enable DLSS in the config file, but can't ingame.
* The texture streaming during cutscenes is jarring
* This is not a $60 game, and they're going to suffer for pricing it at that point. When I say "not a $60 game", I don't mean to me or whether the actual quality warrants $60, but what the average person would pay for it with little foreknowledge. They should have priced it at $40.

Anyways, voice acting is decent and the controls are fine. I'll post more when I play it more, I guess.

[Xenich]

Was able to enable DLSS in the main menu, so not sure why you had issues @rusty_shackleford .

Typical Console style interface that looks like it was generated by a template.

FOV settings aren't available until the in-game interface is accessed. Out of the box, 32:9 setup isn't smooth, but then I see this a lot with the console designed titles.

[rusty_shackleford]

32:9 setup isn't smooth,

you're one of those people that goes on the steam forums to complain when a game doesn't support their 3207x547 resolution, aren't you?

[Xenich]

32:9 setup isn't smooth,

you're one of those people that goes on the steam forums to complain when a game doesn't support their 3207x547 resolution, aren't you?

Nah. If it has really poor support for 32:9, I just step it down to black bars on the side and it is fine (or I wait till some fixes/hacks come out later). Also, while this game looks good in that resolution, some games just don't feel right even with it designed for it or the interface is at the corners of the screen making it a neck breaking experience to play it that way.

My resolution isn't crazy though, 3840x1080 is pretty common if they support the wider resolutions. Though I will admit it urks the hell out of me with some games like the X series which allow for wide resolutions, but keep an engine coded FOV so it looks like a fish bowl and there is nothing you can do about it.

[aweigh]

meme resolutions

[rusty_shackleford]

too many cutscenes. Cutscene for 5 minutes, walk forward, cutscene.
dlss not working was my fault, had fsr2 wrapper misconfigured
saving seems to work based on checkpoints or something, I can save anywhere but get taken back to a checkpoint when I load, but progress seems to reset? Don't quite understand it yet.
cutscenes seem locked to 30FPS despite rendering at 60FPS, they're in-game but I think it's using some weird form of FPS lock? They feel sluggish.
far too much handholding with the tutorials JUST LET ME PLAY THE FUCKING GAME REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE


…but…
the game is fun.

[Shillitron]

The video had me really interested, the level design looks amazing, I love the world setting and the creature design. Even the dialogue was looking serviceable.

For me the hurdle is the enemies.. large boxy rooms of robots and when you kill them their body explodes in glowing orb goodies? Yikes.

The combat also looks like trash.. just pewpewpewing with a laser gun. I wonder if they had something cooler then a marketing guy came in and said "ugh no that combat is too complicated.. make it overwatch with diablo 4 health orbs!"

[Anon]

too many cutscenes. Cutscene for 5 minutes, walk forward, cutscene.

This is what made me drop atomic heart. unskippable cutscenes that last more than half the gameplay? Pass. That also effectively means replaying will be a horrible experience btw.

[rusty_shackleford]

too many cutscenes. Cutscene for 5 minutes, walk forward, cutscene.

This is what made me drop atomic heart. unskippable cutscenes that last more than half the gameplay? Pass. That also effectively means replaying will be a horrible experience btw.

FWIW they're all skippable and you can pause them. But they lay it on way too hard in the early game, same with tutorials.

[Emphyrio]

The trailer looked cool except for the ttn. Like what I hoped starfield would be when it was first announced. Rather have a 1st person game though and you guys say its meh.

[rusty_shackleford]

For all the technical flaws this game has, playing it is fun. And I like how they've setup the mission system where there's no real side quests, everything is tied together somehow and you unlock it slowly, which includes going around and asking about topics and you learn about new topics to ask about as you finish parts of missions. All the villages are intertwined in a similar way.

[rusty_shackleford]

and you guys say its meh.

I'm having fun playing it.

[rusty_shackleford]

And I like how they've setup the mission system where there's no real side quests, everything is tied together somehow and you unlock it slowly, which includes going around and asking about topics and you learn about new topics to ask about as you finish parts of missions. All the villages are intertwined in a similar way.

I'm even having trouble explaining how it works, exactly. I guess some screenshots of the UI might help?

Here's the quests for one specific village, you can see how they're all linked to the main quest of the village:

No, it's not just three quests. It's more like three major quest arcs, I suppose is a better term?

If I click on the one in the bottom right, you can see that I have to complete these parts of the mission to learn more about it:

But those aren't "parts of a mission", exactly. Each one is a collection of various missions that are related to the overall 'arc' i mentioned above.

[edit]
And this goes back to my point I like to reiterate about how the overall narrative in games doesn't matter but individual stories. Overall story kinda sucks tbh, but the individual stories are good.

[rusty_shackleford]

saving seems to work based on checkpoints or something, I can save anywhere but get taken back to a checkpoint when I load, but progress seems to reset? Don't quite understand it yet.

I stopped having this issue after the 'intro' part(I guess?) btw. Once it opened up more, no issue.

[edit]
Also, a lot of trade is done by bartering, I think each vendor/town deals in different goods/wants different goods. I like it.

[aweigh]

was gonna gloat about how it "runs fine for me bro" until i finished the intro tutorial and the framerate absolutely PLUMMETED. oof.

abysmal performance even with dlss enabled.

[rusty_shackleford]

was gonna gloat about how it "runs fine for me bro" until i finished the intro tutorial and the framerate absolutely PLUMMETED. oof.

abysmal performance even with dlss enabled.

Without vsync enabled the game felt significantly more laggy, not sure why.

[maidenhaver]

For all the technical flaws this game has, playing it is fun. And I like how they've setup the mission system where there's no real side quests, everything is tied together somehow and you unlock it slowly, which includes going around and asking about topics and you learn about new topics to ask about as you finish parts of missions. All the villages are intertwined in a similar way.

Man Discovers 90s Action-Adventure Game

[Breathe]

Man Discovers 90s Action-Adventure Game

Time to ride again!

[aweigh]

was gonna gloat about how it "runs fine for me bro" until i finished the intro tutorial and the framerate absolutely PLUMMETED. oof.

abysmal performance even with dlss enabled.

Without vsync enabled the game felt significantly more laggy, not sure why.

Unreal has some weird syncing engine features, maybe by enabling vsync you override the game engine one thus producing a better result. i always play everything with GPU vsync forced as a personal preference but it's almost always better than the in-game option or in-game equivalent.

EDIT: Outcast is easily the worst-performing unreal game for me yet. In terms of actual performance deficit. never seen a frame rate tank like this.

[Rand]

They clearly did zero optimizations.
This does not surprise me. This studio has been chronically short of money every development.
Frankly, I suspect they barely got a full, functioning game out the door before the money ran out.
I respect that they did, but this engine needs behind the scenes work pretty badly.

[rusty_shackleford]

Performance isn't the best, but my FPS is a steady 60 at the quality DLSS option and a mix of medium/high/ultra video options. I think the shader(or effects?) setting had the largest impact IIRC. Encountered 1 crash and only a bugs, most were visual/audio but the rare enemy sometimes is stuck in the floor.

Very fun game, I like the shooting so I don't know about the criticisms there. Fast-paced, obviously not a very 'serious' shooty pooty game.
Major criticism I would have is binding use/swap weapon to the same key.

Traveling around is a lot of fun when you get jetpack upgrades. Game could really use a ledge grapple system tho.

When jetpacking along a path you'll see a blue hologram appear over it, it means your guy is following the path and you don't need to steer along it. Game doesn't tell you this.

[rusty_shackleford]

Quests are "go there and free that person, pick up that item and bring it, talk to that NPC" and without any interesting backstories or variety. Overall, this is a game that looks pretty but plays crap.

STRONG disagree btw. Very, very few quests are like this. Lots of unique quests and stories.

The current quest I'm on requires me soaking these giant fur yak-like things in booze so they don't attract predators. Which means I have to herd them into giant puddles of booze. Previously had to help hatch a giant egg of a legendary creature and then help raise it.

Guys in the same village are currently making booze from ingredients I collected. Which sounds a bit like "go fetch that" except to collect it required me to climb up a big mountain then glide down a giant vine and snatch the fruit from the flowers before they could close, among other things for ingredients. And by "making", I mean they do it in real time as a lot of the game world feels 'alive'.
I like the quest design in this TBH, refreshing.

[rusty_shackleford]

Think I figured out the cause of the weird performance issue despite it showing 60 FPS. They have framerate smoothing enabled, this should disable it:

Code: Select all

[/Script/Engine.Engine]
bSmoothFrameRate=False

Goes in your Engine.ini in `AppData/Local/O2/Saved/Config/WindowsNoEditor`

I think the shader(or effects?)

Yea, it's effects. They've tied a bunch of stuff to that knob.

Code: Select all

[EffectsQuality@0]
r.TranslucencyLightingVolumeDim=24
r.RefractionQuality=0
r.SSR.Quality=0
r.SSR.HalfResSceneColor=1
r.SceneColorFormat=3
r.DetailMode=0
r.TranslucencyVolumeBlur=0
r.MaterialQualityLevel=0 ; Low quality
r.AnisotropicMaterials=0
r.SSS.Scale=0
r.SSS.SampleSet=0
r.SSS.Quality=0
r.SSS.HalfRes=1
r.SSGI.Quality=0
r.EmitterSpawnRateScale=0.125
r.ParticleLightQuality=0
r.SkyAtmosphere.AerialPerspectiveLUT.FastApplyOnOpaque=1 ; Always have FastSkyLUT 1 in this case to avoid wrong sky
r.SkyAtmosphere.AerialPerspectiveLUT.SampleCountMaxPerSlice=1
r.SkyAtmosphere.AerialPerspectiveLUT.DepthResolution=8.0
r.SkyAtmosphere.FastSkyLUT=1
r.SkyAtmosphere.FastSkyLUT.SampleCountMin=2.0
r.SkyAtmosphere.FastSkyLUT.SampleCountMax=16.0
r.SkyAtmosphere.SampleCountMin=2.0
r.SkyAtmosphere.SampleCountMax=16.0
r.SkyAtmosphere.TransmittanceLUT.UseSmallFormat=1
r.SkyAtmosphere.TransmittanceLUT.SampleCount=10.0
r.SkyAtmosphere.MultiScatteringLUT.SampleCount=15.0
r.SkyLight.RealTimeReflectionCapture=0
fx.Niagara.QualityLevel=3
r.VolumetricCloud.ViewRaySampleMaxCount=128
r.VolumetricCloud.ReflectionRaySampleMaxCount=32
r.VolumetricCloud.Shadow.ReflectionRaySampleMaxCount=8
r.VolumetricCloud.Shadow.SampleAtmosphericLightShadowmap=0
r.VolumetricFog=1
r.VolumetricFog.GridPixelSize=32
r.VolumetricFog.GridSizeZ=64
r.VolumetricFog.HistoryMissSupersampleCount=2
r.VolumetricFog.HistoryWeight=0.99

[EffectsQuality@1]
r.TranslucencyLightingVolumeDim=32
r.RefractionQuality=0
r.SSR.Quality=0
r.SSR.HalfResSceneColor=1
r.SceneColorFormat=3
r.DetailMode=1
r.TranslucencyVolumeBlur=0
r.MaterialQualityLevel=2 ; Medium quality
r.AnisotropicMaterials=0
r.SSS.Scale=0.75
r.SSS.SampleSet=0
r.SSS.Quality=0
r.SSS.HalfRes=1
r.SSGI.Quality=1
r.EmitterSpawnRateScale=0.25
r.ParticleLightQuality=0
r.SkyAtmosphere.AerialPerspectiveLUT.FastApplyOnOpaque=1 ; Always have FastSkyLUT 1 in this case to avoid wrong sky
r.SkyAtmosphere.AerialPerspectiveLUT.SampleCountMaxPerSlice=1
r.SkyAtmosphere.AerialPerspectiveLUT.DepthResolution=16.0
r.SkyAtmosphere.FastSkyLUT=1
r.SkyAtmosphere.FastSkyLUT.SampleCountMin=4.0
r.SkyAtmosphere.FastSkyLUT.SampleCountMax=32.0
r.SkyAtmosphere.SampleCountMin=4.0
r.SkyAtmosphere.SampleCountMax=32.0
r.SkyAtmosphere.TransmittanceLUT.UseSmallFormat=0
r.SkyAtmosphere.TransmittanceLUT.SampleCount=10.0
r.SkyAtmosphere.MultiScatteringLUT.SampleCount=15.0
r.SkyLight.RealTimeReflectionCapture=0
fx.Niagara.QualityLevel=3
r.VolumetricCloud.ViewRaySampleMaxCount=128
r.VolumetricCloud.ReflectionRaySampleMaxCount=50
r.VolumetricCloud.Shadow.ViewRaySampleMaxCount=80
r.VolumetricCloud.Shadow.ReflectionRaySampleMaxCount=16
r.VolumetricCloud.Shadow.SampleAtmosphericLightShadowmap=0
r.VolumetricFog=1
r.VolumetricFog.GridPixelSize=24
r.VolumetricFog.GridSizeZ=64
r.VolumetricFog.HistoryMissSupersampleCount=4
r.VolumetricFog.HistoryWeight=0.99

[EffectsQuality@2]
r.TranslucencyLightingVolumeDim=48
r.RefractionQuality=2
r.SSR.Quality=2
r.SSR.HalfResSceneColor=1
r.SceneColorFormat=3
r.DetailMode=2
r.TranslucencyVolumeBlur=1
r.MaterialQualityLevel=1 ; High quality
r.AnisotropicMaterials=1
r.SSS.Scale=1
r.SSS.SampleSet=1
r.SSS.Quality=0
r.SSS.HalfRes=1
r.SSGI.Quality=2
r.EmitterSpawnRateScale=0.5
r.ParticleLightQuality=1
r.SkyAtmosphere.AerialPerspectiveLUT.FastApplyOnOpaque=1 ; Always have FastSkyLUT 1 in this case to avoid wrong sky
r.SkyAtmosphere.AerialPerspectiveLUT.SampleCountMaxPerSlice=2
r.SkyAtmosphere.AerialPerspectiveLUT.DepthResolution=16.0
r.SkyAtmosphere.FastSkyLUT=1
r.SkyAtmosphere.FastSkyLUT.SampleCountMin=4.0
r.SkyAtmosphere.FastSkyLUT.SampleCountMax=64.0
r.SkyAtmosphere.SampleCountMin=4.0
r.SkyAtmosphere.SampleCountMax=64.0
r.SkyAtmosphere.TransmittanceLUT.UseSmallFormat=0
r.SkyAtmosphere.TransmittanceLUT.SampleCount=10.0
r.SkyAtmosphere.MultiScatteringLUT.SampleCount=15.0
r.SkyLight.RealTimeReflectionCapture=0
fx.Niagara.QualityLevel=3
r.VolumetricCloud.ViewRaySampleMaxCount=256
r.VolumetricCloud.ReflectionRaySampleMaxCount=50
r.VolumetricCloud.Shadow.ViewRaySampleMaxCount=50
r.VolumetricCloud.Shadow.ReflectionRaySampleMaxCount=16
r.VolumetricCloud.Shadow.SampleAtmosphericLightShadowmap=0
r.VolumetricFog=1
r.VolumetricFog.GridPixelSize=16
r.VolumetricFog.GridSizeZ=64
r.VolumetricFog.HistoryMissSupersampleCount=4
r.VolumetricFog.HistoryWeight=0.98

[EffectsQuality@3]
r.TranslucencyLightingVolumeDim=64
r.RefractionQuality=2
r.SSR.Quality=3
r.SSR.HalfResSceneColor=0
r.SceneColorFormat=4
r.DetailMode=2
r.TranslucencyVolumeBlur=1
r.MaterialQualityLevel=3 ; Epic quality
r.AnisotropicMaterials=1
r.SSS.Scale=1
r.SSS.SampleSet=2
r.SSS.Quality=0
r.SSS.HalfRes=1
r.SSGI.Quality=3
r.EmitterSpawnRateScale=1.0
r.ParticleLightQuality=2
r.SkyAtmosphere.AerialPerspectiveLUT.FastApplyOnOpaque=1 ; Always have FastSkyLUT 1 in this case to avoid wrong sky
r.SkyAtmosphere.AerialPerspectiveLUT.SampleCountMaxPerSlice=4
r.SkyAtmosphere.AerialPerspectiveLUT.DepthResolution=16.0
r.SkyAtmosphere.FastSkyLUT=1
r.SkyAtmosphere.FastSkyLUT.SampleCountMin=4.0
r.SkyAtmosphere.FastSkyLUT.SampleCountMax=128.0
r.SkyAtmosphere.SampleCountMin=4.0
r.SkyAtmosphere.SampleCountMax=128.0
r.SkyAtmosphere.TransmittanceLUT.UseSmallFormat=0
r.SkyAtmosphere.TransmittanceLUT.SampleCount=10.0
r.SkyAtmosphere.MultiScatteringLUT.SampleCount=15.0
fx.Niagara.QualityLevel=3
r.VolumetricCloud.ViewRaySampleMaxCount=256
r.VolumetricCloud.ReflectionRaySampleMaxCount=50
r.VolumetricCloud.Shadow.ViewRaySampleMaxCount=50
r.VolumetricCloud.Shadow.ReflectionRaySampleMaxCount=16
r.VolumetricCloud.Shadow.SampleAtmosphericLightShadowmap=0
r.VolumetricFog=1
r.VolumetricFog.GridPixelSize=16
r.VolumetricFog.GridSizeZ=96
r.VolumetricFog.HistoryMissSupersampleCount=4
r.VolumetricFog.HistoryWeight=0.96

[EffectsQuality@Cine]
r.TranslucencyLightingVolumeDim=64
r.RefractionQuality=2
r.SSR.Quality=4
r.SSR.HalfResSceneColor=0
r.SceneColorFormat=4
r.DetailMode=2
r.TranslucencyVolumeBlur=1
r.MaterialQualityLevel=3 ; Epic quality
r.AnisotropicMaterials=1
r.SSS.Scale=1
r.SSS.SampleSet=2
r.SSS.Quality=1
r.SSS.HalfRes=0
r.SSGI.Quality=4
r.EmitterSpawnRateScale=1.0
r.ParticleLightQuality=2
r.SkyAtmosphere.AerialPerspectiveLUT.FastApplyOnOpaque=0
r.SkyAtmosphere.AerialPerspectiveLUT.SampleCountMaxPerSlice=8
r.SkyAtmosphere.AerialPerspectiveLUT.DepthResolution=32.0
r.SkyAtmosphere.FastSkyLUT=0
r.SkyAtmosphere.FastSkyLUT.SampleCountMin=4.0
r.SkyAtmosphere.FastSkyLUT.SampleCountMax=256.0
r.SkyAtmosphere.SampleCountMin=8.0
r.SkyAtmosphere.SampleCountMax=256.0
r.SkyAtmosphere.TransmittanceLUT.UseSmallFormat=0
r.SkyAtmosphere.TransmittanceLUT.SampleCount=30.0
r.SkyAtmosphere.MultiScatteringLUT.SampleCount=20.0
fx.Niagara.QualityLevel=3
r.VolumetricFog.GridPixelSize=4
r.VolumetricCloud.ViewRaySampleMaxCount=768
r.VolumetricCloud.ReflectionRaySampleMaxCount=80
r.VolumetricCloud.Shadow.ViewRaySampleMaxCount=80
r.VolumetricCloud.Shadow.ReflectionRaySampleMaxCount=24
r.VolumetricCloud.Shadow.SampleAtmosphericLightShadowmap=1
r.VolumetricFog=1
r.VolumetricFog.GridPixelSize=4
r.VolumetricFog.GridSizeZ=128
r.VolumetricFog.HistoryMissSupersampleCount=16
r.VolumetricFog.HistoryWeight=0.9

And if your game takes a long time to startup, add this to the Engine.ini:

Code: Select all

[OnlineSubsystemSteam]
bEnabled=False

[rusty_shackleford]

► Show Spoiler

There's a mission that involves you riding a massive air leviathan to destroy a convoy by dismounting and flying over to the convoy with your jetpack. Afterwards, you get to call the leviathan at will to destroy the convoys in the air. I thought those were just background scenery…

► Show Spoiler