When you think of a AA gaming experience you typically think of a game that's going to maybe lack the AAA polish, the animations and textures may be a little off, you know, just the few things that can really take a game to the next level with a bigger budget. And don't get me wrong, Outcast has some of that, but man, the world of Adelpha truly has my jaw hitting the floor over and over again to the point where I just had to write about it.

Now full disclaimer before I continue, this is not a review, that will come later. Second disclaimer, I'm not a virtual photographer so I doubt these shots can even begin to show how truly special this world is, but hopefully my words can.

From the moment you step out of the first cut scene of the game you can't help but be in awe of this world developer Appeal Studios has crafted. I never played the original from 20+ years ago so I was going into this pretty blind, and it has opened my eyes to something magical.

What really makes this game shine is it's tribal villages. Each time you enter one you can just see the passion the team put into the game, and each one is vastly different. The first village, Emea, is a village built amongst the treetops. There is a bit of a sprawling open area on the surface, but taking the lift or stairs up to cross the rope bridges and talk to people is the beauty of it.

The second place I personally went to was the Dano Library. Here your initial view is a vast waterfall where the library rest above, cascading down into a lake. Again my breath was taken away at the view before beginning my descend down the hill only to make my way back up,jumping from rock to rock to make it up to the path to the library.

Or perhaps there's Bidaa, the farming village known for its special water and cultivating. Here you are instantly greeted with a stunning mill churning about in the water. The level of detail is truly something out of an unlimited budget game in every way and pretty much every time I run into the next village I can’t help but just take a moment to take it all in.

And for the purposes of this article I'll stop lastly at Sappa, a once sprawling ocean town, where inhabitants would go to vacation and relax. It's since become a bit of a hostile place and less inhabited, but just as beautiful. The tropical like beach and water with the village hut built out over the water. It feels like you are in a village in Fiji.

And this brings us to the characters of the world. While the character animations aren’t necessarily the best the actual design of the locals is fantastic and creative. Each character that you speak with feels and looks different enough that you never feel like they did a copy and paste job. Whether its the Emea chief or a trainer in Sappa wearing a fish hat,they all have a unique feel.

And finally i have to talk about the vegetation and wildlife. They have done a fantastic job making this feel like a true world that isnt earth. Too often in games we travel to a living world that just feels too much like earth,but not Adelpha. The wildlife feels unique and has great detail, the plants are vibrant and full of colour.

I haven’t even scratched the surface on all the different towns,villages,wildlife and landscapes, but I can’t wait to see whats next. This game is literally stuck in my head simply because of the world Appeal Studios have created. There is much more to like in Outcast: A New Beginning and i don’t want to discredit the rest of it,but if ever there was a game I’d tell someone to play simply for its world,it’s Outcast. Hopefully it starts to get more recognition than it currently is.

Outcast: A New Beginning is available now on Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC.