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Most games that spend four years in development have been overhauled more times than the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and their final release is ultimately anticlimatic. But that's roughly how long newcomer Appeal spent on its flagship PC title, Outcast - and it appears that not a single second of that time was wasted.
If all you know about Outcast is its backstory, you've probably been expecting just another Myst clone. After discovering the existence of alternate universes, military scientists send a probe through a time-space portal, where they marvel for a few brief hours at the visual data transmitted from the strange new planet on the other side - that is, until an inhabitant who's not fond of interdimensional voyeurs blasts the probe to bits. But the probe's destruction leads to a lot more than finger-pointing during the following year's budget debate; it results in the creation of a vortex pulling our universe's matter into the other dimension. As gruff Special Forces operative Cutter Slade (oh, puh-leease!), your job is to head into that universe, find the source of the vortex, and - what else? - save the world.
With a setup like that, there's every reason to expect nothing more than a sparsely inhabited gameworld in which the best way the locals can come up with to safeguard crucial information is to make visitors solve arcane mechanical puzzles. But nothing could be further from the truth on Adelpha, the planet to which Slade has been sent. Instead of roaming about ruins looking for rusted mechanisms to align, you actually meet the planet's residents, talk with them, question them, get to know them, ask them for help and guidance, and eventually start killing some of their less friendly brethren.
Yes, kill. Adelpha is ruled by the tyrant Kroax, who forces the populace to harvest food for his soldiers while they live on a subsistence diet. You're hailed as a returning god when you meet the inhabitants - and like many returning gods, you're hunted and vilified by the authorities intent on maintaining power. There's little chance of accomplishing your mission without assistance, but help the enslaved farmers overthrow Kroax and they'll aid you in your mission. That realization sends you on an adventure spanning six vast and distinct gameworlds, each containing enough sub-quests and subplots to make any would-be hero's head spin.
Although some of the requests from the friendly Talans (the bipedal, trunk-nosed inhabitants of Adelpha) are nothing more than errand-boy assignments, just talking with these critters is engaging, especially as you learn each character's quirks and idiosyncrasies and what the other Talans think of them. The skill of the game's writing is that each conversation holds forth new clues. Gamers accustomed to lighter fare might be overwhelmed by all the missions and information thrown haphazardly into their laps from the get-go, but after a few hours of play things become much clearer, especially when you focus on just one or two tasks at a time.
But finding out what to do and when is just part of the challenge; finding a way to carry out the job effectively is a whole other story. Success in combat depends on a delicate balance of stealth and firepower - which means short-sighted players who grab their gun for a killing spree are in for a disappointment. But Outcast more than makes up for its lack of run-and-gun mayhem with a host of tactical twists that'll have action fans grinning from ear to ear. Mobile transporters take you from one strategic spot to another, holograms trot along happily and entice enemies, invisibility devices let you roam unnoticed among hostile forces, and X-Ray binoculars allow you to peer "inside" buildings, to name just a few of the gimmicks brought to bear.
Sweetening the deal are the amazing voxel-based graphics, which feature character and terrain visuals that are at least on par with any 3D-accelerated graphics I've yet seen (check out the sky, ground, and especially the water graphics), plus a Middle East-hued musical score that would do any movie proud.
Outcast isn't for the impatient - my rough estimate is that an average gamer could easily spend 40 to 50 hours here, and that's an optimistic prognostication. But if you're looking to settle down with a rich, rewarding adventure game that always challenges but never frustrates, this is it. Kudos to Appeal for making a game that's long on gameplay and refreshingly short on hype.