Outcasts is Fun but Falls Short of its Predecessors

Outcasts is an action-packed, comic-style, point and click adventure game developed by German company Dynamighty. The game is set in a school with three worlds that the player can explore. The school is a very surreal place, with some odd and funny characters. You start the game in a room, where you meet a guy named Axel, who tells you to take a seat in front of what appears to be a blackboard.

2012’s Outcast was the first game in the series to offer a multiplayer mode, and it was the first to allow players to board the titular spaceship. While the game was incredibly fun, the single player story was relatively weak, and the game offered a lot of content that could have been implemented in a better way.

Outcasts is an interesting game. It was originally created as a class project for a university course in 3D art and programming. It was meant to be a simple game with little challenge, in which the player would wander around an area and collect items, move from room to room, and occasionally solve simple puzzles. The player would move from room to room, slowly gaining in height, until he reached the ceiling. At this point, he could jump to the roof. Once on the roof, he would be able to jump to the next level. The main goal of the game was to get to the roof, where the player would be able to jump to the next level. It might not sound like much, but it was a fairly ambitious project

Aeon’s End is another another game that has been on the market for a long time but that I have never given a fair chance. When COVID-19 struck NYC and we were all forced to remain indoors, my fastidious tastes widened, and I gave every game a college try that came my way. My first thoughts were completely wrong, just as they were with Black Rose Wars, and I found a surprisingly complex deck-building game that I fell in love with.

Thankfully, I discovered my enjoyment for the series with just enough time to late pledge the newest edition, Aeon’s End: Outcasts. I’ve been excited enough about trying my copy that I told myself I couldn’t play it until I had finished all of the other reviews in my queue. Turns out, that was a longer queue than I initially anticipated, so here we finally are! Aeon’s End is a cooperative deck building game where up to four players defend the city of Gravehold against giant monsters known as Nemeses. Each session of the game has players utilize the special abilities of their chosen breach mage, as well as a set of shared spells to construct powerful decks used together to battle a single Nemesis (not you).

The fact that Action Phase Games isn’t afraid to mess with the deck-building process is what makes Aeon’s End so intriguing. In most deck-building games, players are instructed to shuffle their cards at the start of the game or whenever their draw deck is depleted. Instead, Aeon’s End takes the unusual step of removing all shuffling from player decks, allowing players to choose the sequence in which cards emerge. Rather than concentrating on the chances of drawing the right card at the right moment, Aeon’s End enables players to control the deck’s order, ensuring that their spells and money are ready when they’re required.   

All played cards are put into the discard pile after players complete their turn. But first, they re-order the cards they’ve played in whatever way they choose. At the start of a game, there aren’t enough cards in player decks for this to matter, but as the session progresses and players buy additional cards from the market, they’ll be able to re-order their deck with strong spells and relics. This versatility allows players to arrange their card order to favor spell, relic, or Aether heavy turns according on the requirements of their group. It also eliminates the unpredictability of the conventional deck draw. While players may build their own decks, there are many additional random factors that they must contend with. The opponent deck is made up of three tiers of ability cards that are organized in a manner that will increase the boss’s difficulty as the fight progresses. It’s difficult for players to prepare for opponent assaults until after they’ve been disclosed, unless they’re replaying a fight. The incorrect Nemesis card may derail even the best-laid plans, so players will need to adjust their deck compositions appropriately.

The Turn Order Deck is perhaps one of the most contentious elements of the series. The turn order in Aeon’s End is chosen at random each round by drawing the top card from the turn order deck. Two Nemesis cards plus a mix of player cards, depending on the number of players, make up the deck. One card at a time is pulled, indicating which mage or Nemesis will perform their turn. Before drawing a new turn order card, the randomly chosen player resolves all stages of the player turn.

The Turn Order deck’s randomness poses the biggest threat to even the most skilled players. The spent cards are all picked up and mixed back together when the Turn Order deck runs out of cards. This implies that the Nemesis may attack twice in a row, shuffle the deck, and draw the two Nemesis cards together, giving the opponent up to four turns in a row. Even the best-built decks will be unable to withstand such a barrage.

The problem with the random turn order method is that it has a high probability of undercutting the player’s deck-building efforts in a game where player talents and economics are heavily emphasized. While Aeon’s End is still a fun game to play, one might argue that the random round sequence detracts from the game’s core concept of deck building. I don’t think this detracts from the overall experience, but I know a lot of people who despise Aeon’s End because of this element of the game and the lack of control it gives players. 

Aeon’s End: The New Age, the third entry in the series, featured a new mode called Expeditions, which acts as a mini-campaign. Players may take part in a new expedition in Aeon’s End: Outcasts. Expeditions introduces a sequence of sealed envelopes that lead players through a mini-story. For each chapter, there are A and B envelopes. The A envelopes include a new Nemesis as well as any necessary tokens or cards. When the Nemesis is vanquished, players get a new playable character from the B envelope, as well as access to the next Expedition chapter.

I’m undecided about the Expedition mode. On the one hand, I like the additional world building and the excitement of “unlocking” new characters and boss battles. On the other hand, neither the plot nor the writing are very interesting. I get the impression that the story exists only to justify the experience of “unlocking” additional material, and the end result is a bit disappointing. If Aeon’s End: Legacy wasn’t so much more engaging, I’d be more inclined to dismiss this. The Legacy edition progressed the overall narrative of the series and was much more engaging than the Expedition modes. Expedition mode was just an afterthought in the case of Outcasts. 

If the spell was cast from their third or fourth spell slot or breach, spells from earlier versions like Tethered Dart allowed one player to cast the damage-dealing spell and then transfer the card to another player to use on their turn. The number of spells that provide creative functions like this grows with each new version of Aeon’s End. I had great hopes for Aeon’s End: Outcasts since it was the fourth box of its type, but I was disappointed with the final product. 

As I’ve progressed through the series and completed most of the material, I’ve been able to compare Aeon’s End: Outcasts to the others, and this one places a lot greater emphasis on player skills and charges than the others. Outside of Outcasts, we would only utilize our player abilities once or twice each game in most games. When we could employ magic to meet our needs, we seldom needed it. With the addition of Xaxos and his Outcast ability, there is a larger emphasis on charge generation. Many of the gems and relics in Aeon’s End: Outcasts will give players and Xaxos more charges, making it much simpler to activate player abilities and allowing each player to utilize them up to four or five times each game. Even the spells have a strong emphasis on charges and recharging Xaxos. 

It’s a lot of fun to go back and forth with a group of mages, shooting off spell after spell as the players work together to build ability synergy. The inclusion of Xaxos’ abilities seems like adding another AI participant to the game, diluting the cooperative experience. While players still collaborate to assign charges to the skills that are most relevant to the situation, the emphasis on Xaxos’ abilities makes it seem as if players are cast in a supporting role while Xaxos steals the show and performs all the heavy lifting. Players still have a lot to carry, but the Outcast Xaxos abilities are so powerful that it seems like they’re simply trying to get the ball back to their star athlete, the game itself. It gives me the impression that Aeon’s End: Outcasts doesn’t truly require me to win its fights. 

Overall, I was underwhelmed with Outcasts, although it isn’t without merit. This edition’s Nemesis battles were a little more distinctive than previous ones. In previous versions of Aeon’s End, boss battles were more conventional, with special mechanisms like villains boosting their stats or preventing mages from doing as much damage as they should. The Nemeses’ unique powers are a little more meta in this version.

I’m not going to identify them since I don’t want to give anything away to people who want to enjoy the game as a surprise. There is a Nemesis who totally alters the spell market and instead creates spells for players. One of the market cards advances ahead on the track each time the Nemesis releases, ultimately vanishing from the game. To generate fresh experiences, it seems that the danger was aimed at the participants rather than the character they were playing as. Normally, I’d think this detracts from the immersion experience, but it seemed like a reasonable compromise given the increased difficulty level. 

I like Aeon’s End: Outcasts, but it pales in comparison to the rest of the series. The emphasis of Aeon’s End changes from one mechanism to another with each successive version. I’ve always thought that player skills and spells were most fascinating when they were diverse yet coherent, as they were in Aeon’s End: War Eternal, but this was mostly absent from Outcasts. Apart from Arkham Horror: The Card Game, Aeon’s End is the only series I collect faithfully. Any other version of Aeon’s End would be better, but Outcasts falls short of its predecessors.

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Outcast, by independent developer Team17, is an adventure game in the spirit of the classic point and click adventure games of the late eighties and early nineties.. Read more about aeon’s end: outcasts and let us know what you think.

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This article broadly covered the following related topics:

• aeon’s end tips
• aeon’s end: outcasts
• aeon’s end new player guide
• aeon’s end legacy
• aeon’s end: the new age