Outlaws

Outlaws arrived in 1997 as LucasArts' attempt to bring the first-person shooter into the dusty world of the Spaghetti Western, and it remains one of the most distinctive shooters of the DOS era. Built on an evolved version of the Jedi engine that powered Dark Forces, it wraps its gunplay in the story of Marshal James Anderson, a retired lawman dragged back into service after a railroad baron's henchmen destroy his ranch. The presentation leans hard into its cinematic influences, with beautifully drawn animated cutscenes and a genuinely superb orchestral score by Clint Bajakian that channels Ennio Morricone so convincingly it became the game's calling card.

Where Outlaws stood apart from the Doom-clone crowd was its deliberate pace and its weapons. Instead of a sci-fi arsenal you carry period-appropriate iron: a revolver you reload chamber by chamber, a lever-action rifle, a shotgun, and dynamite. The revolver even offered a manual fanning mechanic, and a sniper-style zoom on the rifle gave gunfights a tension unusual for the time. Levels wound through canyons, mine shafts, saloons and trains, each capped by a named boss gunslinger.

Today the hand-painted sprite art holds up with a charm that fully 3D contemporaries lost, and the multiplayer and included level editor gave it long legs. Outlaws never sold in Quake numbers, but its atmosphere, music and theme have earned it a devoted cult following that still speaks of it as an overlooked gem.