Outlaws + A Handful of Missions: Remaster Review – A Relic Revisited

Outlaws + A Handful of Missions: Remaster Review

Where were you in 1997? I suspect that many of you weren’t even in the character creation stage of your life. Others were likely not old enough to play first-person shooters. Outlaws was released in 1997, the same year as my favorite game from that period, Redneck Rampage. Developed by LucasArts, Outlaws rode into town on the heels of games like Doom, Quake, and Duke Nukem. It had an Old West theme, some B-list name talent for its voice acting, and a kickass musical score. Outlaws + A Handful of Missions is literally what it claims to be: the original game remastered, plus some DLC from 1998.

Pure Horse Opera

Outlaws starts with an extended cutscene/cinematic rendered in a hand-drawn style. It sets up a classic Western tale of retribution. Marshal James Anderson has hung up his guns for a simple life on the farm with his wife and young daughter. While he’s away in town buying groceries, Marshal’s ranch is attacked by some bad men wanting to buy his land. His wife is killed, his daughter kidnapped. Marshal Anderson has no choice but to strap on the six-shooter again and hunt down the outlaws.

For its time, the game’s cinematics were exceptionally well done, and they hold up much better than the game that follows. The remaster uncompresses and increases the resolution of the cinematics, but they still look they the old-timey Westerns they were meant to imitate.

Start Shootin’

Outlaws runs players through several iconic Old West levels, like dusty towns, moving trains, canyons, and mines. They’re built on the simple technology of the time. Levels are largely empty, buildings are square shapes, and enemies are barely reactive, poorly animated puppets. There is a decent array of guns like pistols, a rifle — with a scope! — and even a Gatling gun, but they’re all wildly inaccurate compared to more modern shooters.

If Redneck Rampage nails the feel of the swampy south, and Duke Nukem gives us a convincing urban alien invasion, Outlaws does a similarly good job with Old West atmosphere. Graphically, it’s obviously primitive by today’s standards. But an appropriate color palette and good basic art direction sell its Western vibe.

Outlaws’ music, by LucasArts go-to composer Clint Bajakian, does a lot of heavy lifting, too. Sometimes it sounds like something out of a spaghetti western, while other moments feature discordant pianos and percussion. As good as the music is, though, it doesn’t necessarily reflect the action in the moment. It also gets pretty repetitive.

Dust off the Guns

The remaster does what it can without actually remaking the game. Improved textures, 4K 120fps resolution, and full controller support lead the way. Cross-platform multiplayer — the game has four multiplayer modes — the Handful of Missions DLC and some behind-the-scenes goodies round out the package. Options include controller and graphics tweaks that would have been unheard of in 1997. Aside from the music and sound of the guns, there isn’t a whole lot of audio. The “where are you, Marshal?” line wears out its welcome in the first 15 minutes, but at least the semi-positional audio helps identify the enemies.

The whole of the main campaign from start to credits, plus the DLC, clocks in at maybe five hours on the highest difficulty, which is perhaps a hard sell for $30. If you’re gonna play Outlaws, this is the edition to choose, but it isn’t going to be your go-to shooter once the nostalgia factor wears off.

Back in 1997, Outlaws did a great job of turning classic Western tropes into a video game. Still, it’s hard to ignore that the gameplay and design are stilted and simplistic compared to modern shooters. Fans of the original will certainly appreciate the happy jolt of recognition, and there’s a bit of value in new gamers walking through the time machine to a much simpler period in technology. All that aside, Outlaws’ fun doesn’t last very long, even remastered.

***PS5 code provided by the publisher for review***