History VideoGame / Outcast

* TakeThatAudience: If the player reaches the HundredPercentCompletion, Slade calls their out for expecting some cool things and for being a bunch of lazy persons who cannot achieve anything in their life as they should turn off the game and go outside, for example.

->'''Cutter Slade''': "Psst! Hey, You. Yeah, the one with food stains on your shirt. You can turn the game off now, you beat it. Yeah, you did every single thing you could do in the game. You're the hero, you're the shit, you're the man. Bla Bla Bla. What did you expect, something extraordinary? 1000 girls in tight clothes coming out, dancing the can-can for you? Well, forget it. My guess is you either cheated somewhere along the line or you bought some guide to play this. No one could be as good as you think you are, so forget it. You're not getting a single thing. Nope. You can forget it. Now just shut this off and do something constructive with your computer, for Christ's sake. Write a novel, catch up on those Christmas cards you keep putting off, or just shut it off and take a walk. Do your heart some good for once, you chip-scarfing couch plant. Ahhhh, forget it. You never listen to adults, why start now, uh? Fine. Watch the screen. Hope for something incredible. Me, I'm heading home.

* TheLifestream: Essentially how essences worked.

** In the remake the minimap only shows Talan who are unique [=NPCs=] (plus the enemies). When expanded to full screen, the map even shows names and short descriptions of the highlighted nearby Talan.

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: It was released in 1999 and set in 2007.

** In the remake the minimap only shows Talan who are unique NPCs (plus the enemies). When expanded to full screen, the map even shows names and short descriptions of the highlighted nearby Talan.

* BoringButPractical: The HK-P12 pistol. Unlike all the other weapons, which have some kind of gimmick and are expensive for both upgrades and ammo, the pistol is straight forward to use and inexpensive . It'll be your mainstay weapon for most of the game.

* AwesomeMcCoolName: Come now, ''Cutter Slade''.

* PetTheDog: Cutter is impatient with those who want him to jump through hoops instead of helping him get on with saving the world, ie. everyone. But when he meets a Talan who's shaken to the core after just losing a friend to a predator attack, Cutter, being an ex-soldier, is the picture of sympathy and even volunteers to take care of the Talan's NPC business.

* BoringButPractical: The pistol. Unlike all the other weapons, which have some kind of gimmick and are expensive to upgrade, the pistol is straight forward to use and inexpensive. It'll be your mainstay weapon for most of the game.

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: Fail the sneaking test at the beginning of the game enough times, and the Talan overseeing it will offer to say you passed it anyway. Which is appreciated, as the AI's detection can be dodgy, and you've barely had time to familiarize yourself with the game mechanics.

[[WhatCouldHaveBeen A sequel was planned]], but before development could really get off the ground, [[AuthorExistenceFailure the company went bankrupt]]. [[https://web.archive.org/web/20150622062356/http://outcastii.free.fr/www/eng/index_eng.php This website]] preserves what little remains from the original sequel's development materials, including a [[https://web.archive.org/web/20060522172859/http://outcastii.free.fr/www/main/focus/OC2_1st_Script.pdf design doc draft]]. A fan-made, open source sequel entitled ''[[http://www.openoutcast.org/wp/ Open Outcast]]'' is currently in development by a group of enthusiasts. And in April of 2014, several of the original devs started a Website/{{Kickstarter}} [[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/outcast-reboot-hd/outcast-reboot-hd project]] to fund an HD remake of the first game, with eventual hopes to develop a sequel. While said Kickstarter didn't succeed, the developers created a remake, titled ''Outcast: Second Contact'', which was released on November 14, 2017. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDYI32gSrA4 The trailer for the remake can be watch here]]. A sequel was ''finally'' announced in 2021, titled ''Outcast 2: A New Beginning''.

* InterchangeableAntimatterKeys: The game provides a justification, if only for the disposable part: Doors with locks are uncommon, and Fae Rahn's soldiers have taken over all such spaces to be used as storage. In order to hinder the soldiers the Talan who craft the keys have made them deliberately brittle so they break as they are used.

* DummiedOut: In the game, there exist a level three upgrade for flamethrower and level one upgrade for the tranquilizer rifle, which you can only obtain through cheating. All upgrades to the flamethrower decrease the wind-up time of the weapon, and at level three the flame comes out the instant you press the fire button. The single upgrade to the rifle in turn makes the dart fly faster, greatly decreasing the need to anticipate the movements of your target.

[[WhatCouldHaveBeen A sequel was planned]], but before development could really get off the ground, [[AuthorExistenceFailure the company went bankrupt]]. [[https://web.archive.org/web/20150622062356/http://outcastii.free.fr/www/eng/index_eng.php This website]] preserves what little remains from the original sequel's development materials, including a [[https://web.archive.org/web/20060522172859/http://outcastii.free.fr/www/main/focus/OC2_1st_Script.pdf design doc draft]]. A fan-made, open source sequel entitled ''[[http://www.openoutcast.org/wp/ Open Outcast]]'' is currently in development by a group of enthusiasts. And in April of 2014, several of the original devs started a Website/{{Kickstarter}} [[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/outcast-reboot-hd/outcast-reboot-hd project]] to fund an HD remake of the first game, with eventual hopes to develop a sequel. While said Kickstarter didn't succeed, the developers created a remake, titled ''Outcast: Second Contact'', which was released on November 14, 2017. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDYI32gSrA4 The trailer for the remake can be watch here]].

* ActorAllusion: Cutter Slade looks remarkably like Bruce Willis. In the german Dub he is even voiced by Manfred Lehmann -- the most often used german synchron Voice for Bruce Willis.

* BigBad: Fae Rhan [[spoiler:, actually Anthony Xue]].
* BranchAndBottleneckPlotStructure: Your primary objective in the game is to collect [[PlotCoupon five integrated circuits]] needed to repair the probe whose malfunction opened the wormhole that threatens to destroy the Earth. You do so by going to and completing a lengthy quest in each of five regions of the game world -- in other words, ''Outcast'' had implemented the (in)famous "Creator/BioWare [[StrictlyFormula formula]]" full four years before ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic''. Also, in a probably-not-coincidental bit of meta-humor[[note]]What with ''{{Franchise/Pokemon}}'' being all the rage in the late 90's, when ''Outcast'' was being developed[[/note]], the native Talan call these circuits "{{Mon}}" -- and you GottaCatchThemAll.

* CharacterLevel: Inverted! Apart from upgrading (some of) Cutter's weapons, you cannot actually make him more powerful in any way. You can, however, make most common enemies (read: soldiers) in the game much weaker by subverting Fae Rhan's power structures across the world: convincing the farmers of Shamazaar and the fishermen of Okasankaar to stop feeding the soldiers reduces their HP bars to a half and then, to a quarter; making the miners of Motazaar go on strike makes the soldiers' weapons do much less damage; and persuading the traders of Okriana to stop paying taxes removes a lot of the remaining soldiers from the game altogether.

* JustifiedSavePoint: The Gaamsaav crystal "saves your essence" according to an in-game explanation. It also needs some time to charge (effectively preventing its use during combat) and is bright and loud enough to attract patrolling soldiers (effectively preventing its use during stealth sections). On top of that, being hit while saving cancels it, as it "disrupts the energies".

* JustifiedSavePoint: The Gaamsaav crystal "saves your essence" according to an in-game explanation. It also needs some time to charge (effectively preventing its use during combat) and is bright and loud enough to attract patrolling soldiers (effectively preventing its use during stealth sections).

* GaiasVengeance: Since Fae Rhan took over, ecological disasters have followed. The game never makes it clear whether it actually is the Yods (essentially Talan gods) expressing their displeasure, or a natural consequence of the exploitative industrial and agricultural practices instated.

* InterfaceScrew: In the Steam version, the game tracks statistics for progress towards achievements, with achievement progress notifications appearing each time the stat is updated (even during combat). The achivement notifications appear in the top-right corner, which overlaps the HealthMeter, making it harder to tell at a quick glance on whether or not you should flee.