Now that's what we call scenery - 42!

Black holes. Should we be scared? Or are they are our friends who will, in the distant future, enable us to travel the Universe in seconds rather than millions of years? And what have they got to do with Infogrames' latest entry to the action adventure genre?
Andy Smith

Black holes then. Do they actually exist?
Apparently so. Mathematically anyway. That's of no concern to us though because for this game's scenario they do. A black hole's been created after an unknown, but obviously intelligent alien life form damaged a probe recently launched to investigate the possibilities of a parallel universe. This black hole now threatens the Earth's existence.

Nasty little green men, eh? Why can't they leave us alone?
Er, because we'd be limited to action adventure games with female lead characters in search of ancient artefacts? Actually, for Outcast we don't know if the aliens are baddies or not. It's down to the player, as Cutter Slade - ex navy S.E.A.L.S Commander - to escort three scientists through the black hole to a new world called Adelpha.

It's a first-person shooter then...
Not so fast. Actually it's a first or third-person perspective game and no, it's not a straight shooter. The game features its fair share of fighting, but this is an action game populated by highly artificially intelligent non-player characters, not all of whom are enemies.

Artificial Intelligence, smelligence. The characters will still bump into walls...
Again, not so fast. The game's developers, Appeal, are very keen to stress the strength of their AI. Each and every character in the game has unique behaviour patterns and will react differently to the player's actions.