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The mighty Undertoad Thor from the UK yet again comes through, as he’s sent us another
blast—processing—from the past. It’s Outlander for the SEGA Genesis.
This thing is like Illicit Activity: The Video Game. How disgraceful.
So this game originally came to the Genesis in 1992 and would be released for the Super
Nintendo a year later. We’re obviously playing the SEGA version of this game. This utterly
ridiculous game. This is where I usually tell you what genre of game it is, however in this
case...I mean, I guess it’s like...I don’t know, a first-and-third-person criminality
simulator with a touch of ***.
Sounds marketable.
Outlander is one of many video games that followed the whole Mad Max theme. So post-apocalyptic
setting, punk rockers on motorcycles, lots of dust...I mean, the whole premise is immediately
familiar. But the thing about Outlander is that...I don’t think I’ve ever played
a video game quite like this one.
You start off behind the wheel of a car. And you think, “Oh, okay. It’s like Rad Racer
with...homicide.” So you’re driving along from a first-person perspective, and all these
**** kids with no jobs and no parents start swarming you. They’re throwing bombs, they’re
doing drugs...I can’t even imagine what they’re yelling.
It’s a good thing my windows are up.
The idea here is basically to kill them. Your car is equipped with a machine gun, you also
have a shotgun you can aim out the window to blow their heads off...or you know, you
can be a man about it and just run them over. But as all the death and destruction occurs,
your car runs out of gas and supplies. So when you see signs for towns, you have to
stop and pull off like it’s an exit or something.
“Oh, time to stock up on death pellets. Hope there’s a Wendy’s.”
Anyway, that’s when the game turns into some clunky side-scroller with really stiff
controls. But the point is...it turns into something. Outlander is like the worst person
imaginable. Murderer, guy who doesn’t use turn signals...oh, and he happens to be completely
schizophrenic.
Outlander isn’t what I’d call a great game...the controls are kinda rough, and the
game doesn’t seem too concerned with explaining itself or its objectives in any way whatsoever.
So it’s a bit awkward and poorly designed, but it has the spirit of a serial killer who
really has no idea what’s going on. And for that, I give Outlander two empty shotgun
shells. Whatever that’s worth.