Far less great than I thought. A simple recollection of set pieces from a handful of western films someone really likes with a bunch of cutscenes in between to make it look like there’s something going on. I mean, someone definitely tried, but it has the conception of a theme park ride. You got: the shootout in a town (with a saloon shootout and a bank robbery for some reason), shootout in a mine, shootout in a fortress and a shootout in a big mansion. All of these levels stitched together with cutscenes that tell a really generic western revenge story. The kind of story you’d make up in your head when you were 11 after seeing a Clint Eastwood flick that you thought would go hard but due to how barebones of a plot it is, falls flat and is ultimately forgettable and uninteresting.

Other than that it’s a pretty average game, but not much to write home about. The normal difficulty - which I figured out is the one called “bad”, since this game had the great idea to call easy, normal and hard: “good”, “bad” and “ugly” (hah! did you get it? it’s a reference to that movie!) - is specially infuriating since enemies can kill you in literally three or four shots while health packs don’t give back a lot of health, and enemies look all the same while having different behaviours from one another: some have single revolvers, others have dual revolvers, others have shotguns, rifles, etc. etc. all the while looking exactly the same. And the shotgun guys can blast you so hard you go flying backwards. You can call Doom stupid, in that unlike Outlaws it had no plot, no story, no nothing, but it knew how to make enemies distinct enough so you’d know what every enemy does just by hearing their sounds or looking at them. Here, all the enemies look the same, make the same sounds (WHEREAREYOUMARSHALL???) and other than the gun they’re using, they’re basically indistinguishable.

To all this add a convoluted, confusing and maze-like level design with all the inheritance from Doom that don’t seem to fit in the world they’re trying to make (seriously, keys? buttons? switches? levers? I don’t imagine a cowboy running around a mine in search for random switch #9 that activates/opens a random door at the other end of the mine you already forgot about) and you got the recipe for a game that is a failure at everything it tries. A design that not only doesn’t innovate, but isn’t well thought out for the kind of experience they were going for while failing on stuff previously released FPSs already got right.

Red Dead, who? You might ask. Western-themed shooters weren't really a thing, and LucasArts made it their mission to be one of the first. Outlaws was the first of many things trying to break free of the Doom clones using their own Jedi engine known as the INSANE engine. It featured not just horizontal but also vertical aiming, the first shooter with a zoomed scope, and the first shooter to feature a reload mechanic. Outlaws pushed many envelopes in the PC shooter scene and was well received for its great visuals and solid gameplay. It was as fast-paced as any Doom clone and was recognized as such. If you are tired of Doom clones from the mid-to late-90s, Outlaws is a game that sadly passed you by. Outlaws was released on the cusp of new 3D engines like Unreal and Quake. The 2D sprites were welcomed as a breath of fresh air, as were the great art styles.

This was the first PC game I had ever played, back in 1999. My family got their first PC that year, but sadly, we couldn't afford to actually buy any games. My late stepfather and I actually mastered the demo of this game for months. It featured the first two levels, and we wound up beating both of them on Ugly mode at some point, remembering all of the locations of enemies, canteens, ammo, etc. It was indeed a fun time, but we always wanted to know what happened after the second level. To be honest, I dabbled in this game over the years, but it's so hard to get it running right on modern systems. Most of the game is broken, so if you have a retro PC still lying around with Windows 95 or 98, I suggest pulling it out. There are many fixes for the game from the community, so it's mostly bug-free now. This game really needs a remaster or even a remake. Where are you, Nightdive Studios?

The plot in itself is mostly throwaway and uninteresting. You play Clint Eastwood. I mean James Anderson, a retired US Marshal who wants revenge for the kidnapping of his daughter and the murder of his wife. It's a typical Spaghetti Western revenge plot with an evil German doctor, Bandits, and henchmen. There's nothing special or interesting here, but the art is fantastic. You get LucasArts' usual high-quality hand-drawn cut scenes and decent, for the time, voice acting. In total, there are maybe 5 minutes of cut scenes in the entire game. However, that's not the most important part. You're here for the shooting. The music is also fantastic, with the usual Western themes that you hear in movies and other media, but it's still well done.

The shooting is amazing, even to this day. It's fast-paced like Doom and Quake, but there's some strategy needed, which makes the game feel a little more modern. It has both feet on two different thresholds. You need to swap around weapons for different scenarios, such as the (way too many shotguns, by the way) shotgun for small rooms, the pistol for mid-range, and the repeater for long range. It even comes with a scope, as mentioned previously. You also get dynamite to toss around, a minigun that you can only use stationary and is very rare, as well as throwing knives. Stealth isn't really a thing in this game, but it's possible. You rarely run out of ammo, at least on everything but Ugly mode, so shoot away, cowboy!

Enemies are rotating sprites, like in most shooters of the 1990s. They look good and are all unique. There are skinny and fat pistol shooters. Tougher riflemen appear, and then every level has a boss. These guys will appear on the level when you find all the keys (brass, steel, and iron) and are hiding in a final room sometimes as well. This was my biggest gripe with the game. Some of the levels are labyrinthine, such as The Basin, and while there's a Doom-style map that fills as you explore, some of the levels also have keys in weird spots that you will miss easily. Sometimes you need objects to pass through levels as well. The aforementioned Basin level has a bridge that needs to be lowered, but the dark spot next to it blends in too well with the wall, and I needed an actual video guide to realize it was there. A flashing spot would have been nice, or even a giant sign.

I also found the controls pretty poorly set up, so you will have to manually change them. There is no weapon wheel, so you have to slowly scroll through weapons with the mouse wheel or numbers. There is also no quick save, and saving frequently is a must, so you have to constantly go to the pause menu to save. I also found things like alt-fire to be poorly mapped, which is the Z key and not the right mouse button. FPS mapping hadn't quite been standardized yet, so I can't be too harsh on it. Things like jumping and vertical aiming are a nice touch and continue to add to the strategy element of the game, such as aiming down a cliff or ledge. This also adds to the difficulty, as those used to Doom will assume the weapon will automatically shoot at anything not right in front of them.

Outlaws is one of the best retro shooters ever made, despite its flaws. The controls are terrible, the game is a pain to get running, and the story is pretty much pointless, but what is good is what matters most. The shooting. I didn't like how confusing some levels were and how important interactions were easily missed, but these things can be forgiven slightly due to its age and how many things it innovated. Scope zoom, vertical aiming, jumping, great-looking visuals and music, hand-drawn cut scenes, and manual reloading The game is short with only 9 levels, but there were more added for free in Handful of Missions. If you somehow missed out on this classic, then go back and check it out.