Another grand edition to the Dark Forces continuity, Outcast is most notable for its 'modibility'.
What is it? Well for starters, it begins primarily as a shooter like Quake III or similar games. Once again playing as Kyle Katarn, the protaganist from the previous three installments, due to his run in with the sith in MotS, Kyle has abandoned his Jedi ways in fear of falling ot the dark side again. So really, its back to mission hopping like Dark Forces and Jedi Knight (With the exception that Jan Ors will now assist you in battle, rather than talk to you over a radio all the time.). After busting up Stormtroopers in several very well layed out levels and realistic enviroments with surprsingly hard yet addictive gameplay, Kyle eventually gets a lightsaber and force powers after Jan is kidnpped by the latest dark jedi named Desann.
The lightsaber combat in Outcast I must say is far superior than what was experienced in Jedi Knight and Sith. Rather than a few basic moves, you could now switch between three different styles of varying speed, strenght, and stamina. Force powers are also much more advanced. Rather than asingle bolt of lightning, now you hold a steady stream of deadly light raining down on all who get in the way of your power. Jumping and force jumping is also now all one key, thus making it much easier to manuver levels and fight enemies.
However, despite loads of good features in combat, level design, and story, Outcast lacks in one thing that plagues almost every video game: AI. Outcast's enemy AI is rather poor. While not very noticable early on with Stormtroopers, it will later be very common to see a Reborn Warrior Force Leap to is Doom over a balcony. AI will run into walls, stand and shoot, or fall of ledges. Also, while the multiplayer bots may seemed more intelligent, if you create a single room with an editor, you'll relaize that Bots just jump around. Apparently the Bots just run on tracks. Becuase of this, it would be very common to see them run into ech other and get stuck at certain spots, unable to move. Other than that, the Multiplayer mcan addicitngly fun, and for the most part, I've really only focused on multiplayer, which leads to another thing: Modding.
Outcast is extremely easy to modify, being able to create new maps, new mulktiplayer skins, and new characters for singleplayer. However, Outcasts modding community has been largely replaced by the Mod Community for Outcasts sequel, Jedi Academy.
Final Word: This game will definatly appeal to all Star Wars fans, and mainstream gamers alike. However, the poor bot and AI system does leave some things to be very much desired.