Without risk, there can be no reward.
I had never heard of Outward until I was asked to review it, so I really had no idea what I was taking on. After playing through the tutorial and starting my new game, I found myself having feelings of a lot of different games, but at the same time feeling like this was something new and fresh. Nine Dots Studios have created something that is both familiar and new, with a few twists and turns thrown in for good measure. It’s not without its issues, but Outward is something that I think a lot of people will enjoy.
Outward is an action RPG with survival elements thrown in. Players take on the role of an adventurer. Or rather, a person thrown into an adventure. The game begins with the character washing up on the shore after a shipwreck. Now, we’ve seen this before, but what we haven’t seen is that the player is shipwrecked pretty close to home. Not much of a journey. Making it back home, they come to realize that they have a debt to the town that was carried over from their parents. They have five days to pay off the debt or get someone to vouch for them by completing a major task for them, otherwise they lose their house. This is just the first catalyst to the adventure. Players will embark out of town to complete quests, loot enemies and monsters, and explore the countryside.
Platforms: XB1, PS4, PC
MSRP: $39.99
Price I’d pay: $39.99
Outward has two main gameplay mechanics – combat and crafting/survival. The combat can be a simple foray. Players can equip different styles of weapons that attack in different animations with a standard attack and a special combo attack that is set to the weapon. On top of this, players can learn new special abilities for each weapon that can allow more versatility. These special abilities and magic are done through a hotkey button map. These can be restricted via cooldowns or mana. Players can lock on to enemies and circle around them while blocking as well as dodge incoming attacks with a simple button press and restricted through a stamina meter. It feels a bit like a Souls game when it comes to the combat.
The other aspect of the game is the survival. Players must keep track of thirst, hunger, and tiredness. Doing this will require players to hunt for food, find water sources, and sleep regularly. Not only that, but major debuffs come into play when it comes to managing everything. I couldn’t just kill a monster and eat their meat. I had to cook the meat otherwise I risked getting food poisoning. This meant I had to set up a camp and cook the food using materials for a campfire. I had to boil water I found, wear weather appropriate clothes, and keep my character bandaged when injured. It’s actually very complex in this sense.
There is no leveling system here. Players don’t earn experience and grow stronger the traditional way. Rather they take the Monster Hunter route and go with the gear and weapons. Obtaining new skills will help out as well when it comes to the combat, and just learning the ins and outs of it is rewarding.
Death is a very different experience from the regular games in this same vein. Most come off as a pseudo-Rougelike experience when it comes to death. “You died. Now you have to start over and all the enemies are back” or “you lose everything you were carrying.” In Outward, rather than deaths, players get “death situations” – if I were to fall in battle, I would get different scenarios that would occur depending on where I was and what I was fighting. There were times I found myself being dragged away by a good Samaritan who nursed me back to health and left my stuff sitting next to me. Other times, I found myself being captured by my enemies and would wake up in a holding area now having to escape. All of these are different, and with a few exceptions, offer the player a second chance when it came to death. Time will pass and players may find they have lost their backpack with all their stuff in it, but luckily, it shows up on the compass where their pack is. These special ways of handling dying in combat really soften the blow on just how hardcore this game can be.
For instance, the combat encounters can be really difficult, especially early on when players are ill equipped. Another difficulty setting is the map itself. Rather than looking at the map and seeing a cursor showing where I was on the map and/or showing me where my destination was, the map was filled with landmarks and that’s it. I had to figure out where I was by looking at these landmarks and making my way by going by that. Then, to top it all off, I’m starting to get hungry, I need sleep, and it’s getting dark really soon. The game can be rather relentless.
Luckily, players don’t have to go at it alone. The game offers full co-op with either a friend online or couch co-op via split screen. It’s nice to see co-op in this already difficult game, and to see local play being supported, really shows the developers want people to experience this game with a friend.
Visually, the game is rather hit or miss. The models are particularly great looking, but the environments look pretty nice and the draw distance really sells it. There were a few technical issues as well. I did notice some slow down in some high action events, and there is still a bug that can potentially remove items from the characters bag when quitting the game and coming back to it. The developer has stated that they are working on that issue, but it can happen. Just try to keep the more valuable things in the character’s pockets when quitting the game.
Outward is an interesting title. It takes a lot of things other games have done and mixes it pretty well together to make a difficult but rewarding RPG. Some may find it pretty difficult, but taking one’s time with it and knowing when to fight and when to run will make all the difference, and if you’re having some issues, you can always get someone else to help out via co-op. Players looking for a mix of RPG and survival will have a great time even with its technical hiccups here and there.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.