Outwars

You never know what you're getting when you play a game this old, but I genuinely came to love "Outwars" after I truly understood all of the game's mechanics. It's a third person flying shooter with great controls and an emphasis on mission-based objectives. I personally just love games that give you the jetpack from the start, and this one also has tons of bugs to shoot. It is more strategic than your average shooting game, but not to the point that it doesn't still require skill. Every level starts you off with a mission briefing from a guy who looks kinda like Captain Kirk (later replaced with a woman in the second half). The mission descriptions are very important and you really need to read them carefully to make sure you don't fail the mission. There are objective markers on the map, but they don't always tell you the whole story. Later on you can pick your suit and weapons loadout as well. There's much more depth to the game as it goes on, and there's lot of variety, with every mission having a different goal and none ever repeating, which I love. Some levels give you a glider where you fly through a canyon. Another has you slowly trekking through a ship that has collapsed sideways on itself. I also love the end to this game, as you are essentially going through the barrel of an alien gun to remote detonate it. You get teammates that you can direct around, and there are some tricks that I found fun to figure out. Strafe flying is similar to bunny hopping in Quake, in that if you fly while strafing a very specific way you can increase your jetpacks speed and power by around 20%. Gently tapping hover as you get close to the ground can stop you from taking fall damage. The game also gives you tons of weapons. I really liked the remote mines because once you know how to use them you can spam them like high damage close range weapons. Sure, the game has a bit of jank to it, but I actually like that because it gives a little wiggle room to figure things out. Too many modern games totally hold your hand, this one is not entirely cryptic but also not totally easy to figure out. The soundtrack is also amazing and sounds like a movie score. It's a lot of fun to blast the bugs and watch them explode into bug guts. Starship Troopers came out about a year earlier and this game is thematically VERY similar. I almost feel like this should have been a lost "Starship Troopers" game since the theme is the same and there's a hugely cinematic quality to it. I really enjoyed the journey this game took me on and wish I could find more games just like this one, but I acknowledge it isn't everyone's cup of tea.