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Soar Above the Ordinary Playing Field with Outwars
Published June 1998 on the Microsoft Personal Computing Web site
Somewhere in the distant future, earthlings have colonized several planets as Earth's natural resources have been depleted. But all is not well in the space colonies. Killer alien bugs are on the attack and you and your elite Colonial Jump Force must save humankind from these hard-shelled nasties. Your team, the Dreadnauts, are highly skilled fighters equipped with flying jet-packs and arsenal-laden battle suits.
Test Your Speed, Mettle, and Command Skills
Outwars isn't your standard run-and-shoot game. Yes, there is running, and yes, there is shooting as well as missile launching and grenade throwing, but the most significant difference with this game is that you can take to the skies with a jetpack or glider to commit some serious aerial mayhem.
Your mission in Outwars™ involves teamwork and strategy, the use of your entire arsenal, and the mastery of tactical maneuvering with your jetpack. Before you can enter the fray, you should first complete a Solo Mission. You can go straight into Single Campaign, but trust me, it's a smart idea to get some training under your belt first. This game poses some serious challenges.
The Training Missions
| Games Domain Review
"The missions are a great mix of shoot-em-up and strategy, and are difficult enough to present a challenge whilst enjoyable enough to keep you returning to them." |
Flying Solo
Pick Solo Mission and as the adrenaline-pumping music swells, you find yourself alone surrounded by rocky hills and dark space. Your mission: Get the heck off this bug-infested planet! You must rendezvous with your ship in three minutes or your colleagues will be forced to leave you behind. No time to stop and engage the enemy — just run toward the blue diamond that will lead you to the safety of your ship.
Hint: Keep an eye on your scope: You'll see your proximity to your ship (represented by a blue arrow which changes to blue diamond once you're close), your position (a green dot), and any enemy presence (rendered in red). Careful — those big ugly bugs might be around the next hill, directly between you and your ship.
Hint: If you find yourself looking at your feet and can't see where you're going across this moonlike surface:
- Try moving your mouse forward (thus moving your view upward)
- Press F3 to change perspective or F5 for first-person view
Advanced Infantry Training
Advanced Infantry Training is the next step after your first successful solo mission. Learning to use your jetpack strategically is key to your — and the mission's — survival. Jump training consists of air-hopping from one tower platform to another — 14 towers in all. The tricky part is conserving your pack's plasma-generated energy and mastering aerial perspective. You'll soon find that it's not as easy as you think to navigate to the top of these high landing sites without overshooting your mark. The blue diamonds again lead you on, but you have only five minutes to master the art of jetpack jumping and landing. Don't get too cocky. You'll need to stay in flight school awhile until you get the hang of it.
Hint: If you're using your mouse, use the right button to activate the jetpack, while moving the mouse slowly forward to change your perspective as you ascend.
| Adrenaline Vault
"One heck of a well-rounded title, and an experience to remember. This is what action gaming was meant to be: a strong plot backing up a dazzling 3D engine and challenging gameplay." |
Playing in the Big Time
Now that you've developed enemy-dodging skills and mastered jetpack flying you're ready for the challenges that come your way in the actual game play. Click Single Campaign and then Launch to enter full-on battle. You'll have to make split-second decisions regarding strategy and choice of weapons — all while you and your team are being fired on. You're a long way from boot camp and the fate of the world is resting on your shoulders! For a taste of what it's like to be a real Dreadnaut, play the demo.
Your Vulnerabilities
- You can be killed in a single bone-crunching blast, little by little as you get pierced by flak from alien fire, or in a fouled landing from a jetpack jump. A vertical green bar on the bottom of the screen monitors your health; the more green gives way to black, the worse shape you're in.
- You have a full arsenal of deadly weapons at your command, but choose wisely or you'll run out of ammo. The only weapon that'll never run out is the rechargeable Pulse Rifle. It's not as high on the death-dealing scale, but it makes a great fallback weapon.
- You can also easily monitor the health and welfare of your friends and foes: As they move, a horizontal health bar floats above them. When it turns red, it's sayonara, buddy! Your team also keeps up a running commentary as you engage the enemy, letting you know they've been hit or offering bon mots such as, "At times like this I sure miss Earth!"
Strategies for Survival
- Blowing the enemy to kingdom come is your best chance of survival, but you need to know when to use your Auto-Rifle and when to switch to Flame Thrower or Flechette Cannon. If you read up on your arsenal before accepting your mission, you'll know that the Flechette Cannon is best used when rushing small clumps of enemies and the Gauss Cannon makes a perfect sniper's weapon — it's imperceptible to tracking systems.
- Pick your team carefully: browse their dossiers to know you'd rather have the 19-year-old "adrenaline junky" than the 22-year-old "flight school washout."
- Although your enemy is a race of giant bugs, they can do more damage than chomping you to death. They also have a full arsenal of weapons and travel in tanks. But you might get lucky and destroy one of the tanks with a skillfully tossed napalm grenade.
- As in many games, you can pick up valuable objects as they become available during gameplay. In Outwars, different pickups can replenish your arsenal or repair your armor. You can also pick up nifty devices like the Radar Enhancer, which helps you track the beasties, and the EMC Cloak Device, which helps prevent them from tracking you.
| PC Gamer
"Fans of the first-person-
perspective 'run and gun' games should have plenty to look forward to over the next couple of months, with such titles as Half-Life, Sin, Unreal, and the first Quake II mission pack just around the corner. But those who crave a little more depth — figuratively and literally — might find solace in Microsoft's upcoming action game, Outwars." |
Unbelievable Graphics
- The cinematic environments, from the moonlike surface of Mikhal's World to the lush forest setting of Planet Oasis, will really sing with the enhancement of a 3D card. Even if you don't have 3D capability, you can choose between high-res and lo-res graphics. High-res looks better, lo-res plays faster.
Hi-tech MMX Support
- Outwars also supports the latest in smooth-flowing gaming technology: Pentium multimedia extension. MMX is a standard in new PCs, and it dramatically speeds up video operations to boost gaming to new dimensions. Outwars is one of the first games to take advantage of this blistering new technology.
—Sharon Knolle
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© 1998 Microsoft Corporation.
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