Watch On
Though it doesn’t hold up particularly well, Star Wars: Dark Forces was a pretty big deal back in 1995. Outlaws, on the other hand, wasn’t: it was LucasArts’ second attempt at a first-person shooter using its own Jedi Engine, and few people I talk to about ’90s FPS games ever seem to remember it. Which makes the 1997 wild west shooter a perfect candidate for the Nightdive remaster treatment.
Outlaws + Handful of Missions Remaster is set to release later this year, and offers a typically thorough renovation of the original. Expect a sharp 4K resolution with framerates of up to 120, gamepad support, a bunch of supplementary material about its development, and support for four multiplayer modes (I like the sound of the Kill The Fool With The Chicken mode). As the name implies, the Handful of Missions expansion is included, just like it is in the already-available, un-remastered version of the game.
I don’t remember Outlaws fondly, but I’m curious to give it another go more than 20 years later. Its attempt to render an authentic wild west environment has aged it worse than most of its contemporaries that didn’t give a damn for realism, but it brought some new ideas to the genre. Namely, it was the first to feature a sniper scope that actually zoomed in, and it was the first to introduce gun reloading. It also had some gorgeously animated cutscenes the likes of which were extremely rare in story-shy ’90s shooters.
While Outlaws reviewed decently back in the day, it had its work cut out for it: this Jedi engine shooter released into a post-Quake landscape, and let’s not forget that Duke Nukem 3D’s Build engine was pumping out boomer classics like PowerSlave and Blood at a steady clip. Outlaws looks extremely naff by comparison, but maybe that will make it fun to revisit.
And heck, one of the great things about Nightdive’s ongoing remaster campaign is that the studio is capable of making games you didn’t like much better. The best example is the recent Heretic + Hexen remasters. I liked neither in the ’90s, but I’ve spent the last fortnight obsessed with both.