Genre: Open-world survival RPG
Release Date: March, 2019
Completed?: Lol No, not even close.
Would I play it again?: Honestly probably not unless I had someone else to play with.
"I have no idea what I'm doing" is a pretty good summarization both on how I feel writing this first review and how I felt through most of my time playing Outward. So it seems the RNG picked a pretty good first game for me.
Outward is an open-world game with an emphasis on 'open'. You awaken on a beach having survived a shipwreck and are given a pretty spartan tutorial on how some of the game's mechanics work as well as your first objective before you're cut loose to venture into the world proper. From there you can pretty much do whatever you want, but you're likely to get a rude awakening if you venture out unprepared.
While you try to figure out what you can and can't fight through trial, error, and common sense (tip: if it glows it's probably bad news) you'll also have to keep track of your health, food, water, body temp, stamina, weight, and eventually mana. Weight was the one I struggled with the most as my need to horde literally everything that wasn't nailed down had me running back to town every few minutes until I learned to prioritize what I needed.
Combat was tough but fair and it was pretty easy to grasp the basics. There are a variety of different weapons and attack styles from swords and shields to magic spells and traps. There's no indicator to tell you when you've been spotted but enemies do signal through their movements when they're getting suspicious that something (you) is rustling through the underbrush nearby and will come to investigate. Sneaking doesn't really seem to be much of a thing as far as I could tell, once you're within a certain range they pretty much know right where you are regardless of how well you're hiding. Death is also forgiving so long as you don't die to a bandit (they steal your shit!) you might wake up in a random cave but all/most of your stuff comes with you.
Outward was not visually impressive to me. The open world feels rather empty and honestly kind of bland and I expected it to be a much older game than it was when I first looked at its release date. The caves and cities are definitely better in terms of substance but considering you'll spend most of your time traveling it was a bit of a bummer to find almost nothing of interest along the road. There is a map but it does not have an indicator of your position and does not show all the areas you can explore. Instead, much like a real map, it notes some key structures and pathways in the area. You have a compass and you'll use the two together to figure out approximately where you are on the map. I can see how this might annoy some players but I found it weirdly satisfying to navigate this way. It definitely helped the whole survival aspect of it feel more immersive.
There is a considerable amount of crafting in Outward. In fact, if you can find it you can probably craft it. Camping, supplies, weapons, armor, food, and potions are all craftable if you learn the recipe. Alternatively, if chaos is more your flavor you can just throw a bunch of random junk in a pot and see if you get an item out of it.
I didn't make it very far into the main storyline but, at least in the beginning, the quests were relatively simple. Be prepared to write that shit down though. Your "journal" only offers vague info about the quests you take on and side jobs are not listed at all. So if someone tells you to go to a cave to get something specific you'll need to remember what they've told you and who you spoke with. Key info is notated in blue when you talk to them.
Like a lot of survival games, I got the impression that Outward would be a lot more fun when played with a friend. You'll spend a lot of time traveling some pretty vast and visually empty distances and it made the game feel a little lonely to me. There are also several monsters that I felt would be easier to fight as a duo based on my time in the purple mountain with the candle man but maybe that says more about me than anything else. It has a split-screen feature (which I honestly love and I wish more games would include) as well as an online co-op mode.
Currently, the game is listed for $39.99 on Playstation's store but it was included with my monthly subscription at some point so I got it for free. I wouldn't recommend it unless it went on sale personally. If it's something you already have in your library and you're looking for something to play with friends or if you're really into survival games in general I think it is worth a look.
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