In a break from earlier arcade adventure titles such as The Staff of Karnath and Entombed, Outlaws is a straightforward shooter game and does not feature the aristocrat adventurer Sir Arthur Pendragon.

Outlaws was released on the Commodore 64 at the same time as another Wild West-themed title, Gunfright, for the ZX Spectrum.

[2] Typically for an Ultimate release, players are given a tantalising and cryptic introduction: The game was poorly reviewed.

Zzap!64 rated the game with 35%, stating that "Ultimate [had] surely seen better days" and that "there is nothing much to say about Outlaws, except how mediocre it is", but the graphics were generally praised as being "crisp" and having "excellent equestrian" animation.

Commodore User were similarly unimpressed, describing the game as a "massive disappointment".