Reviews

• gamedeal user

  May 27, 2022

  I've played for about an hour and a half and it's so fun. I'm a big fan of the first game and the visual novels and have been anxiously awaiting this since it was announced. It's Out There but so much bigger. The graphics are gorgeous and the game-play is familiar enough. I will say I am very glad you gave us save-points as I was scared that this would be as unforgiving as the first game. Considering this game has a much more linear and involved story, I'm glad I have a save-point I can go back to if I die. The exploration is fun and adds a nice expansion to the game. I love how we can go more in depth with the crew and all the other additions. I will say the game is time-consuming. All of the additions mean that progress is a bit more slow-going than the previous version but I think it helps in some ways, it just means this one isn't as casual of a game as the first one was. So far, I'm absolutely loving it and I can't wait to see what more I discover!
• gamedeal user

  May 27, 2022

  I've waiting for this game for a quite long time. So far gameplay is good as old one. However my FPS is 60 on space, and most planets, 8 to 12 in expedition mode. The game is really needs a performance update, ASAP.
• gamedeal user

  May 27, 2022

  so i played the beta or demo or whatever it was and they had a mechanic where by exploration was risky and challenging because you would run out of "energy" while exploring, this was over tuned in the beta and made the game very punishing/un-fun. they have decided to remove the "energy for exploration" mechanic entirely. which aside from removing an aspect of what made the process tense and risk/reward it has also left the game feeling hollow as a significant part of the character abilities and items are based around making the process of exploration more efficient which felt rewarding when it mattered but just pointless now that they don't? the strange thing is that lets say they changed the mechanic to something as simple as running out of energy results in your ship collecting you automatically (i.e you can no longer explore, this could mean you fail the main objective of said exploration) then it would by all accounts make the game design around this process of rewarding players with better exploration character buffs/items still valid. if i had to guess i would say they backed out of their original vision for the game in wake of many complaints about a system that needed work rather than removing. which is a shame. Trouble is the game-play loop of exploring and levelling up crew really dose feel gutted without that distinct need for a challenge to overcome. right now exploration is really more of a click and point adventure rather than the tense decision making process it used to be. then again if i had publishers/players protesting about a core mechanic then i too would feel very tempted to just remove it for the initial sales. hopefully they will add this component back in as an "option" sort of the difference between story mode and normal for those of us that like are rouge-likes punishing.
• gamedeal user

  May 27, 2022

  It's a neat game, and better than the original Out There (in my opinion). However, it's INCREDIBLY limited and doesn't let you do things in any logical manner. The first example, when you get the opportunity to create bunks for your crew, you are FORCED to discard or destroy something (if, like me, your ship is full) to make the component. And, if you were trying to make room, it FORCES you to put it where you made room. No, you can't move components around, you have to disassemble them and you lose resources in the process. And you can't stop the tutorial from forcing you to do it RIGHT NOW. And it does this EVERY TIME you get a required component. Sure, it's an OCD thing, but if you're not going to make the game user friendly, it's not worth a positive review.
• gamedeal user

  May 27, 2022

  I don't want to give that game a negative review but... I got to say, the biggest new feature, the away missions and the related new moral resource kills it for me. That despite I really liked the predecessor and had this one on my wish list for a long time, me. These forced away missions turn a relaxing casual game into a pointless grind fest. The game got quite an update regarding the visuals and story animations. Also there are multiple languages included right from start, although the game contains a lot of text! I also found no bugs yet except for quite huge frame drop when you do away missions and don't use a good graphics card. The problem are the away missions themselves. You now have new resource called "morale", that goes down whenever you jump between star systems. You can only increase it by completing away missions and visit villages while doing so. That means, you are more or less forced to do these missions. On the other hand you can't do them whenever you like because there is a cooldown of two jumps per crew member. So you not only have to do them but also in a certain interval! Before you can start such a missions, you have to compelete a mini game that gets quickly annoying. The missions then turned out to be very time consuming for usually little rewards. In the first "Out There" game, you landed on a planed, talked to some aliens and maybe drilled for resources. Quick and simple. Now you walk arround like 20-30 minutes on a single planet, mostly because you can only move like 4-5 tiles per turn, no auto-walk possible to already explored areas. You also have to do some micro management and evade dangerous tiles by walking longer ways arround. That has probably to do with the system they had in place during development, where you could only stay on a planet for a certain time so you had to choose whether to take the risk or not. Either way, I can't get into these missions, they just take too long for too little reward and also get boring quickly. There should be a an option to auto-resolve these, like it is with any other event in the game. Probably to somewhat offset the annoyance that away missions are, you can now save manually in some star systems. I actually had no problem to lose in the old game without being able to load some save. But there are run took also only like 2-4 hours, if it went really good, so if you bascially complete the game, in average it was more like 30 minutes to an hour if you screw up. Here most of my playtime are away missions with very little overall progress.
• gamedeal user

  May 27, 2022

  You complete the story line in about 4 hours. Then, you are left with the choice to either continue to do the same repetitive stuff you did for those 4 hours from a save to maybe see a different outcome (depending on when your save was), or restart to complete the story line in a different way doing the same repetitive stuff for another 4 hours. The game is just so narrow in scope and depth.
• gamedeal user

  May 27, 2022

  short version: original OT's resource grinding is a bad centerpiece for a longer roguelike space exploration/adventure game. long version: it pains me to not be able to recommend this. I love the original game (65 hrs on it & more to come) & waited patiently for this, but I don't think what they did here works. what makes me play the original is that's it's short, unforgiving, mysterious, and to the point (get home) and I love the art style & music. this game is easier, has expanded gameplay mechanics which are.. ok, neither good or bad, but make things take longer. since the game takes longer, it's more frustrating when bad luck wipes you out (although there are save points now in white dwarf systems). things I like: the music's great, being able to finally take hydrogen out of the scoop & put it directly into the engine is great, and the greenhouse mechanics are kind of cool. things I don't like: dropping the original's comic book style, the morale system is an unnecessary chore because the characters are void of personality, the character writing is really bad (apparently this game's dialog was written by a professional screenwriter, but you wouldn't know it), the character models are fugly, the planet models don't look near as cool or varied as they did in OT, planetary exploration is repetitive, the labyrinthine star path you have to follow feels arbitrary, the story is generic space opera stuff... but the core of this is still a resource grinding game so there's little narrative depth (not w/these characters, anyway) or a conflict (since combat isn't a feature). the original game is about getting home & grinding resources because you HAVE to, this game is about saving humanity (or something) & exploring, but with no straightforward objective & expecting you to enjoy grinding resources & taking care of your unlikable crew for the fun of it. I don't know who this is going to appeal to. I think the hardcore fans of Out There are going to be disappointed at the generic new look & all the shoehorned-in time wasting mechanics. And I think anyone new to it looking for a space roguelike are going to find it strangely lacking in depth for an asking price of >20$. Pick it up on sale, I guess. that's all I've got.
• gamedeal user

  May 27, 2022

  Oh my god what did they do? I was waiting for this game for so long. How can you release it in such a state? I love OT. I played the first one more than I should have. Refreshed the Steam page the 26th several times so I can buy and play the second one asap. Launched the game, graphical bugs. Quit. Relaunch, ships cargo is invisible. Quit. Relaunch the 3d models head is in his chest. Ignore, continue to play. It's still fun. Half an hour later cargo disappears again. If I hadn't love the mechanics of the game so much I would have returned it asap. 2 developers and 3 publishers and you still release a game so buggy? Did you only work on the extra content you are trying to sell? Deluxe skins and wallpapers. Really? You have added the "on planet" missions but they are as boring as it gets. You seriously need a better game designer and try to think less money more product. Why having 3d models if they are just going to stay put without moving. No one would have cared if you had nicely drawn still images instead. Devs and designers made the worst choices they could make for this game. I hope the devs wake up from their dream and start to support this game with bug fixes and new content updates. Like maybe a more sandbox way of playing the game? For me they had one of the most promising IPs in indie gaming now all they have a "mostly negative" game. Congratulations devs tap yourself on the shoulder, count the euros you earned through selling deluxe skins and start working on fixing this game you charge 18 euros for!
• gamedeal user

  May 29, 2022

  I can't in good conscience recommend this. Maybe in a few months (or years, at this rate) when the big issues are ironed out, things will be better, but considering that this game was meant to release a year ago, it should be incredible by now. Good: -The ability to drag resources directly into the fuel, oxygen, or hull is the best quality of life improvement from the original game I could have asked for. -The increased interaction with other life is very enjoyable. The trading system is awesome (if a bit overpowered), and I like building a massive crew. Bad: -Expeditions suck, for many reasons, and other people have explained the main failures better than I can. Some of the less game-ruining ones, however, I'd like to discuss. For one, the mini-game to find anomalies is incredibly tedious, and adds nothing. Sweeping a planet for the 20th time isn't fun, it's just a waste of time. Also, what's the point of multiple anomalies per planet if you can only actually visit one? From a gameplay perspective, having to choose is interesting, but there is no in-game explanation for it, which just makes it frustrating. -It's easy. From someone who beat Omega Edition multiple times, it's *mind numbingly* easy. I understand that the difficulty was the biggest criticism of the first game, but a hard mode would be nice. Specifically, the fuel costs are nearly negligible, expeditions have basically no downsides, there are too many slots, and there is no longer any incentive to min-max. Out There Omega was, at its core, an inventory management game; this game has somehow managed to trivialize that aspect of it. Bugs: -Wormhole generators aren't very useful, entirely due to their map. You have almost no frame of reference: your goal pointers go away, your trail is gone, and it changes the way you've angled the camera. This cost me a game. -Sometimes, when you've finished an expedition or looked at an abandoned ship, the game thinks your cargo hold is open when it isn't. Clicking the button to close it does nothing, and exiting to the main menu and coming back is the only solution. -Expeditions cause ridiculously low frame-rates. The graphics option in the settings does nothing to alleviate this. -If you fly away from a planet you have discovered an anomaly on, but haven't visited, the anomaly disappears. I desperately wanted to like this game, and I honestly feel robbed. I expected much better considering the original Out There's quality.
• gamedeal user

  May 29, 2022

  It's OG Out There but 'bigger and better'. I can't really explain it any better. I can however list a few issues: - Very rare UI bugs (none are critical, you just have to restart the game if it happens). - Early game expeditions should be much more punishing RNG-wise, right now it's actually harder to do late-game ones (and please don't bring back expedition timer). - There's something wrong with expedition rendering/generation stuff - depending on the location it can bring even the mightiest CPUs/GPUs down to it's knees. QoL suggestions: - Hotkeys for space views (planet/system/galaxy) - Allow skipping all cinematics/animations (ie end of expedition) - Perhaps 1 spare space in drill/post-expedition screen to allow moving stuff around when you're full Balance suggestions: - Nerf early game Archon ship - it's way too good, especially morale/comfort - you don't [i] really [/i] have to replace it until you get Nyx's ship - I think it's worth specializing ships, that is locking some slots to be cargo/tech/module, otherwise it's not really worth swapping them P.S.: To all the people comparing the game's writing to Mass Effect - have you actually played ME lately? Because if you did you'd remember how weak ME writing is. This game is ME-ish at best, but condensed as necessary to fit the game loop. It is ME in 10 lines of dialogue it requires to progress the story. If you somehow think otherwise I'm going to disappoint you - you're delusional. ME has always been and always will be your average overarching space opera, which actually reminds of Kojima's MGS writing. And just to be clear - I've played ME & MGS on both consoles & PC multiple times (mostly on consoles). Overall, it's a great successor to OG Out There barring some bugs & a few balancing issues.