outlaws

content/articles/early-shooter-clones.md

@@ -121,7 +121,7 @@ Shooters commonly counted as Doom clones with different engines:
 - Blood
 - Duke Nukem 3D
 - Shadow Warrior
-- Outlaws
+- [Outlaws](/games/pc/outlaws)
 
 Since Doom was released and the game kept on winning players, industry giants tried cloning the game in an attempt to push it from the throne. Almost every released shooter game after DOOM was controversially classified as a simple DOOM clone, even ROTT received many negative feedback. The most popular "Doom clone" is Duke Nukem 3D?, released in 1996. 3D Realms built their own custom engine, simply called Build Engine, also used in Redneck Rampage e.a. Like Doom, the Build engine represents its world on a two-dimensional grid using closed 2D shapes called sectors, and uses simple flat objects called sprites to populate the world geometry with objects.
 

content/articles/retro-shooters.md

@@ -36,16 +36,17 @@ Playing Hexen, the medieval shooter running on the Doom engine, boiled down to m
 
 > The Doom engine source is released [on Github](https://github.com/id-Software/DOOM).
 
-1995 - Lucas Arts' **Jedi Engine**, used for Star Wars: Dark Forces, and later again in the 1997 masterpiece Outlaws. I can still hear the cowboys yelling "_Where are you marshall?_" and I'm glad to see it's purchasable at GOG.
-
-![](/img/games/outlaws.jpg "Outlaws")
-
 1996 - 3D Realms' **Build Engine** hits bullseye with [Duke Nukem 3D](/tags/duke-nukem-3d). I really should also play Blood at some point, the gory crazy and seemingly difficult game from Monolith. Shadow Warrior re-used a lot of assets from Duke but managed to create it's own appeal, and of course the recent [Ion Fury](/articles/ion-fury) runs on a beefed-up version of the same engine. In 1998, my dad bought me Redneck Rampage, a game where you shoot... chickens and pigs? Unlucky for me, I got stuck at some point searching for yet another keycard. 
 
 > The Build engine source is released [via Ken Silverman's website](http://advsys.net/ken/buildsrc/default.htm).
 
 ![](/img/games/redneckrampage.jpg "Redneck Rampage")
 
+1997 - Lucas Arts' **Jedi Engine**, used for Star Wars: Dark Forces, and later again in the 1997 masterpiece [Outlaws](/games/pc/outlaws). I can still hear the cowboys yelling "_Where are you marshall?_" and I'm glad to see it's purchasable at GOG.
+
+![](/img/games/outlaws.jpg "Outlaws")
+
+
 ### 2. Mid 1990s: 3D models, beginnings of hardware acceleration
 
 1996 - the **Quake** engine saw the light and introduced us to the _real_ world of 3D environments. Quake could be rightfully called the spiritual successor of Doom. Hexen II runs on the same engine. I added Quake to my toplay list - I was to busy with Duke3D at that time. A lot of Build engine games were released in the shadow of Quake, missing the hype train... 
@@ -92,9 +93,9 @@ At this point, I'm starting to doubt whether future shooters qualify for the key
 
 2001 - Operation Flashpoint claimed to be a super-realistic warfare shooter. It did take all the fun out of playing a shooter game, but the fights in the woods were impressive, I guess. 
 
-2002 - My beloved Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield was made possible thanks to the **Unreal 2** engine, also powering Unreal Tournament 2003. I can't count the hours my friend and me played Raven Shield's maps co-op. I still know almost every enemy spawn point by heart. 
+2002 - My beloved [Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield](/games/pc/raven-shield) was made possible thanks to the **Unreal 2** engine, also powering Unreal Tournament 2003. I can't count the hours my friend and I played Raven Shield's maps co-op. I still know almost every enemy spawn point by heart. 
 
-![](/img/games/ravenshield.jpg "Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield")
+![](/games/pc/raven-shield/rvs2.jpg "Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield")
 
 2002 - In the same year, Digital Illusions Creative Entertainment released the first **Battlefield** game (1942), of which the engine will be reused for three more of their games, before switching to a proprietary engine. 
 

content/games/pc/outlaws.md

@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+---
+title: "Outlaws: a Classic LucasArts Western Shooter"
+date: 2023-08-24
+score: 4
+game_release_year: 1997
+howlongtobeat_id: 6833
+howlongtobeat_hrs: 5.7
+game_name: "Outlaws"
+game_developer: 'LucasArts'
+game_genre: 'Shooter'
+tags:
+  - 'LucasArts'
+  - 'western'
+---
+
+Before modern incarnations like _Call of Juarez_ and _Red Dead Redemption_, there weren't many western shooters out there. In fact, at the time of _Outlaws'_ release, in 1997, as far as I can remember and as far as the Interwebz tells me, there were none at all. And even twenty-six years later, there are still very little pure FPS games set in the West that manage to get the theme bang-on (hah!) like LucasArts did. 
+
+_Outlaws_ is not a great shooter, neither is it a graphical powerhouse. At that time, it lagged almost a year behind _Quake_, and people were starting to move beyond 2D sprites as enemy and item graphics. The engine used was a modified _Star Wars: Dark Forces_ one that, albeit it manages to does the job adequately, falters at more than one time during my playthrough. But we'll get to that in a minute---what I'm trying to say is that _despite_ its mediocre parts, _Outlaws_ is fondly remembered and still a very lovely and thematic playthrough today. This shooter is what you'd call a "story-based" shooter, where high quality animated cut-scenes in-between levels tell a tale of a kidnapped daughter you're trying to rescue, and where at the end of each level you'll have to face the bad guy of said video.
+
+![](allclear.jpg "All quiet at the Western Front here. At least, it now is.")
+
+This, combined with the atmospheric country soundtrack that adapts to tense moments, the almost cartoony look of the guns (that remind me of the much later XII shooter), and your typical cards that act as the HUD, really make _Outlaws_ a unique but way too short game. Enemies that are wandering around with you in the neighborhood keep calling you out: "_Don't be a fool marshall!_" or "_Where are you marshall?_" followed by "_There he is, git 'im!_" and a gurgling "urrgh" when biting one of my rifle bullets. It's a fun way to tell the player they've missed a few enemies, perhaps on higher platforms, initially unreachable. 
+
+I can see why some players might find this to be tedious and repetitive sounding after a few hours of facing the same enemies and hearing the same voices, but to me, that was part of the charm. When it comes to enemies, there's little variety in _Outlaws_. You've got your standard bandit, the dual-wieling pistol kind, the redneck with the rifle, and even a few shotgun-wielding foes that love sticking close to windows. Aside from a few color palette changes to help you discern the difference, that's about it. No monsters or beasties to kill here---this ain't _Duke 3D_ or DOOM: the theme stays consistent. The bosses are just regular-sized but slightly more unique enemy sprites as well.
+
+![](cutscene.jpg "As can be expected with nineties LucasArts games, the cut-scenes are simply stunning.")
+
+My mixed feelings became most apparent when thinking about the level design. Some maps, like the first two and the fort, are pretty basic: a big map littered with saloons and buildings that usually contain the classic consecutive keys (in this game: iron, steel, brass) in order to progress. Other maps, like the canyon and later cliff sides, are quite open in nature, but had me go round in circles until I gave up and got rescued by GameFAQs as to where the hell I was supposed to go. All levels promptly end, not by hitting a button like in the aforementioned _Duke 3D_ or _DOOM_, but by killing the stage boss. The problem is that the conditions for spawning said boss sometimes were unclear: do I have to hunt down and kill all enemies, or do I just unlock this door with the brass key I don't have yet?
+
+Some stages like the cliffs and the sawmill come with a bit of puzzling. The problem is not interacting with buttons or puzzle components but finding them! Most are built right into the walls and neatly concealed with shoddy texture work, even for a 1997 game. I activated one puzzle accidentally when reverting to my _Wolfenstein 3D_ "hug walls and press spacebar on everything" tactic. That still works here to discover the odd secret, but far less often. Instead, you throw a dynamite stick---stylishly lit with your cigar---to a cracked wall. But then we bump into the shortcomings of the _Dark Forces_ engine: accurately throwing stuff just doesn't work here.
+
+![](train.jpg "'Scuse me, you were saying? Your wagon? This is my train!")
+
+Nevertheless, blasting stuff does work, and it works well! Well, almost. The guns themselves fit neatly into the theme, are more than varied enough, and come with alternating fire modes: you've got your revolver (that can be slammed to rapidly fire out rounds), your rifle (with or without scope), a small shotgun, a sawed-off and fully featured one, and in the one rare case if you look around in the cellar of the last level, a gatling gun to help take down the end boss. The bigger shotguns fire off two shells that can help rapidly clear a room, while the rifle is essential to deal with enemies at a distance. I also never felt that the good ol' standard revolver became obsolete as I found more potent weapons, which is a good thing. 
+
+Actually taking aim and shooting felt a bit more weird in _Outlaws_. If you fire your rifle in quick succession, the weapon "recoils" and shifts to the left or right, indicating your next shot will likely miss. But sometimes it didn't, and sometimes it did. Just like sometimes shotgun blasts also seemed to take down enemies that aren't close, while at other times, it didn't. I guess this is just part of the Western shooting charm? In the end, I just rolled with it, fired at stuff that moved, now and then mixed up the arsenal, and had a lot of fun. If accuracy is your thing, _Outlaws_ likely won't be.
+
+![](sawmill.jpg "Stumped at the sawmill. Get it?")
+
+That is not to say that the shooting isn't great: it should rather be treated as a Western "gallery shooter", not as a boomer shooter or a modern realistic one. The bosses are tough as nails, by the way, at least if you star the game with the "ugly" difficulty. I chickened out quickly and alternated between "bad" and the too easy "good" modes. Speaking of chickens, I love the chicken sound effect if you jam `ESC` to quit the game!
+
+The amazing cut-scenes and soundtrack really puts this single-player story-based shooter a cut above the rest. The animated scenes in-between levels remind me a lot of [The Curse of Monkey Island](/games/pc/the-curse-of-monkey-island), which shouldn't come as a surprise since multiple people worked on the same game (that also was released in 1997). The same is true for the music, done by, among others, Clint Bajakian, who's responsible for a slew of awesome game soundtracks, including the very recent [Return to Monkey Island](/games/switch/return-to-monkey-island)! Another music engineer, Hans Christian Reumschuessel, also produced LucasArts' _Curse_ music. I know I'm repeating myself here, but I've yet to come across a thematic shooter of this caliber---pun intended.
+
+![](goodies.jpg "I just discovered a cupboard full of ammo goodies.")
+
+The only sad part, besides the janky bullet and dynamite physics, is perhaps the sheer neglect of this cult classic. The game was met with mostly positive reviews and still features on many "best of" lists. I guess it just didn't sell well enough, or was released during a period of turmoil when LucasArts management was (further) losing interest in the (PC) gaming scene? For people actually interested in trying to spin this thing up on their modern PCs, it got worse. Before the GOG release, _Outlaws_ was notoriously hard to get running and involved emulating a Windows XP machine, including fiddling with compatibility settings. I didn't bother getting this to run on my Win98 build and just went with the 32-bit GOG installer that worked just fine on Win XP.
+
+To conclude, this is a short and janky shooter from the makers of the _Monkey Island_ series, where in true LucasArts fashion, atmosphere more than makes up for its mechanical weaknesses. After finishing single player mode, there are a couple of historical maps to plow through, and you can try your hand at TCP/IP multiplaying---just don't forget to haul your yellowed midi tower to that LAN party. 
+
+![](cutscene2.jpg "Where are you, marshall? I'm coming, I'm coming!")
+