Outlaw is a video game with a Western theme. Due to the limited technology and graphics of the 1970s, both arcade and console video games displayed artwork with montage of gunfighters, horses and covered wagons in its cabinet and box art to help illustrate these motifs to players. Outlaw can be played in a one or two-player mode. Each player can move up, down, left, and right on the screen. When holding down the button to aim, the player can control the angle the player will shoot at. Releasing the button fires a bullet.
In the one-player mode called "Target Shoot", the player controls the movement of a gunfighter with the joystick and practices shooting the various moving targets that appear. The player has 99 seconds to reach a maximum score of 10 points with one point awarded every time the player hits the moving target. In the two-player modes called "Gunslinger Games", each player controls a gunslinger and scores points for shooting the opposing gunslinger. When a player is hit, they sit down (rather than fall over dead). The first player to reach 10 points wins.
There are several variations to the gameplay. In "Blowaway" mode, bullets are more powerful and can destroy the center obstacles in the game, such as a stage coach, wall or a cactus, which block bullets in other gameplay modes. In "Getaway" mode, players can move immediately after shooting their gun instead of having to wait until their bullet vanishes for the screen or hits a target. In six shooter mode, each player's gun has six bullets and they both receive a new load of ammunition only after both players have used all six of their bullets.