THE Wild West Retro FPS from way back when.
Outlaws is a Retro FPS developed by LucasArts running on their Jedi Engine previously used in their other FPS, Dark Forces. It follows the story of ex-marshal James Anderson as his once quiet life is shattered by a land baron wanting his farmland for his railroad, leading a wife dead and a daughter kidnapped. It's now up to the former marshal to take up the iron again and fight into the sunset in pursuit. The game has a superb balance of traditional FPS tropes of the time while mixing in some new "realistic" aspects to the formula that make the game distinct.
Gameplay of Outlaws in terms starts at a boil of FPS structure of level to level, packed full of enemies, keys to find, and secrets to discover. Although the campaign is linked together it's story via start and end level cutscenes, as well as often requiring you to complete a task within the level rather than a simple level exit, mostly shooting a specific bad man. The shooting is the most interest aspect of Outlaw as while you got some standard weapons for a Wild West setting, like a Revolver, Shotgun, Sniper Rifle, and all the way up to a gatling gun that halts your movement. The most interesting part is the fact that they have to be manually reloaded, not just by pressing R and waiting for a animation but actively tapping it per bullet. One of the Call of Juarez games had a similar mechanic like this but no where near as fast-paced and frantic as in Outlaws. Especially since the time to kill from enemies is a tad quicker than other FPS games so being alert and on your toes is highly recommended.
Stylewise, Outlaws is a mixed bag in the sense of: it has a amazing artstyle but also hasn't aged as well as other FPS games around this time. As the game runs on a modified version of the Jedi Engine, previously used for Dark Forces it features that 2.5d aesthetic that most FPS games of this era had. Although by March of 1997, both Quake and Duke Nukem 3D had released with Shadow Warrior and Blood on their way, so in comparison to it's peers the level of detail in the game's environments are kinda lacking. However the art direction and the level theming are absolutely superb, both providing a ton of variety in the setting while also providing fun environments for levels. You got classics like a Wild West town, Canyons, and even a Train Level. But also more diverse locations like a logging mill or mine shaft. And considering the limitations of the engine they are depicted pretty dang well. On the other hand, the 2D/3D art used mostly for the cutscenes is absolutely amazing, both in animation quality, VA work, the artstyle, etc. It's distinctly "Outlaws" and easily the first thing I would think of when thinking about the game.
Outlaws also comes with it's expansion pack, A Handful of Missions. Which if it wasn't obvious is a handful of missions. Some being a single level while others featuring mini-campaigns in completely different settings. For example, one is following James during his service in the Civil War. While another is him capturing all the baddies you will eventually face with again in the main campaign. It serves as some extra content as the main campaign is in that short but sweet category in terms of Retro FPS games.
Overall, Outlaws while absolutely aged in some places, still holds up as a fantastic western FPS. With gameplay that makes you feel like a badass gunslinger, levels that express many different locals you would see in the setting, and some superb animation for the time via the cutscenes. It's also impressive to note that, this game still can on modern operating systems. While it isn't the most refined stability since the game wasn't made with high monitor resolutions in mind, I was still able to enjoy the entire game for the most part without needing to find a patch. Although given that it was still clunky I would recommend seeing if there's a more stable method.... which has somewhat been addressed as Nightdive Studios, like with Dark Forces, have completely remaster the game and it's expansion as it's own title!
Which is pretty cool, shame this got delisted like with System Shock 2. So you HAVE to buy the remaster even if you just wanted the original game. Not sure who calls the shots for that but it's not the coolest thing.
