समीक्षा

• Spazzyphantasm

  Aug 8, 2023

  I wanted to like this game but it feels like it was created just to waste your time. Travel is a hassle. You get a compass and a map which that should be all that you need. But the maps I experienced were very poor quality. They are so resolution when it comes to the information they give you. They show you an abstraction of the game world rather than anything reliable. Is this grey patch on the map an impassable mountain? You can't tell, walk over here and figure it out. The maps are also too large and are not very densely pack so you're just running all the time. Traversal feels both great and terrible. The control of just running around is very fluid actually, however you cannot jump. Which wouldn't be an issue if the world was constructed in such a way that supported this. There are situations where having no hops is sorely missed. I will mention there is a supply crate by the crashed boat on the first map that you can get soft-locked if you approach it from behind. There is a small gap you can fall into and be stuck forever. You either kill yourself somehow or pray you can trick the game by loading back in and walking out of the hole as you Y coordinate seems to be just high enough on loading in to get out sometimes. If you could jump this would not have happened. You can also fall off cliffs to your death. You can also comically slide down hills at a snails pace softly hit the ground and instantly die. If vertical movement is not meant to be a part of the game, this should not be something a player needs to worry about. Put up an invisible wall like in the towns if the drop would realistically hurt. Nothing is worse than a hill being slightly too steep, resulting a death and another wasted 5 minutes getting back to that same point. Harsh punishment does not make a game difficult. You start out quite feeble in this game which I would not mind if the game didn't seem to want to grind any progress you make away when you lose a fight. It's bad enough you get put into a random location when you are defeated sometimes, but you also have 1-3 status effects that weaken you when you wake up. Making it much more likely a stray enemy may just one tap you while you are trying to tend to yourself. This stray enemy may even throw you into a dungeon forcing you to jump through even more hoops just to get back to what you want to be doing. The game even took my bag from me at one point not sure why it usually places you bag near you, Luckily the scenario I was given on death resulted in a slight breeze being enough to kill me, a chicken approached me while I was looking at the map hitting me once. I then spawned at a campsite with my bag returned. I'm sure there is a point in this game where you become stronger and some issues are lessened. It seems that the game is more interested in barring progression with enormous punishments and an imbalanced early game. The only thing that I regret it that I gave it more than 2 hours. The tutorial dangles all these cool possibilities in front of you and I bought into it. I value my time too much to play a game that doesn't show it's players the courtesy of realizing maybe the players don't want 50% of their play time being watching their character slowly run from place to place. If you value your time but want a similar feeling game just play Dragon's Dogma.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 27, 2019

  So far pretty good

  Will update soon after more playtime. (3/26/19) Pro and con list near bottom. UPDATED 8/15/19 ** They have done a few updates, most of which were very good. The game was fun before, just a little unpolished maybe, but most of that is fixed up. The lack of end game content has also been taken care of adding to replay value (Hence why I'm updating the review.) There are a couple bugs that I noticed that still haven't been fixed. Nothing major, just the music glitch where it sometimes plays two tracks on top of each other, and the other one in certain areas where the lighting pops in and out. ** Before Impressions I read a lot in the forums about how people were getting major fps dips and complaining the frame rate is capped at 60. First off it's not capped at 60 you can change it in the setting by clicking on it and tapping right arrow key to raise it. (Set mine at 144) Another thing people have been saying is it doesn't run well. I have my settings set to all high except motion blur is off, Anti-Aliasing off (think it looks gross in any game my opinion) and everything else on high at 1080p and I'm getting great frames. never dropped below 60 stays around 70+. Specs Cpu: Ryzen 5 2600 Gpu: Geforce Gtx 1060 6gb Ram: 16gb DDR4 (Yes I had originally put DDR5 and got called out by TONS of people I'm SORRY it was a typo) Downloaded the game on an older 1TB HDD and loading times are FAST!

  First Impressions

  After tweaking every setting I can find, as I do with any new game, I instantly jumped into the tutorial. Using a mouse and keyboard to control my little dude around for the first time I instantly was reminded of Dark Souls 2. You can't whip around all over the place; the player character really feels like he has weight to him. The graphics were pretty decent, not AAA worthy but not "2009" like a lot of people are saying. The character model isn't pretty, but the environment is done super well. Wet things looks glossy, shadows are nice and soft etc. etc. Took me about 20 minutes to work my way through the in depth tutorial. I read everything twice. Gotta be ready for anything. You don't have to play the tutorial, or even all of it. You can skip it all together or skips parts of it. After the tutorial I started the real game. I was very sad to find the character creation is kind of a joke to be honest. Not a whole lot to do there but oh well I'm sure armor will be covering my face and body pretty soon anyways. It would be nice to have more options, especially for a game that's so lOOK AT ME I'M AN RPG. Intro slideshow quickly describes who you are, what you're doing, and touches on the culture of the "tribe" you are in. Short sweet and to the point alright cool. Starting the game I won't spoil it, but the story at least makes sense so far. Although the voice acting is not good at all. That's okay though it's the kind of voice acting that just reads like the first couple words of a line and then stops. Also there's no actual jump just a roll. Feels awkward but oh well. First combat situation almost killed me, but I did survive. So much for all my souls skills transferring over. Don't really have enough data for a for sure say on the AI yet, but seems okay so far.

  First Adventure

  Picked up a few quests and supply from town and exited the gate after learning a cool skill from the guard. There's no real LVL or CLASS you're branded with you just get better skills and gear. I found out the map doesn't pin your current location you have to look for landmarks and try and determine where you're at based on your surroundings. There's a built in compass on your HUD which makes it a lot easier. I followed the directions given to me for my quest to collect a magic mushroom from a damp dark dank dungeon. I wanted to use my battleaxe, but had to use my machete so I could hold my lantern because my backpack didn't have a lantern built in like one the tutorial. Found some murlocs in the cave that tried to stippy stab me with their tridents. After some doge rolling, hacking and slashing, and a little lot a bit of panicking I took them out. Bandaged myself up, ate some food, was feeling better. Not bad.

  Exploring

  Wow.. The game got better the more I played it honestly. A big open world, but a lot to do in it. Everywhere I go I find something interesting to do along the way. Also after playing more I really learned to appreciate the combat. I can confidently say I DO LIKE THIS GAME.

  The good, The bad, The sosoIDK

  Good ~ Character control feels solid ~ Music is nice ~ Good tutorial (that you can skip if you want to die) ~ Pretty environment ~ Really fast loading times even on an old HDD ~ Having fun so far ~ Lots of crafting options. LOTS. ~ Good Combat with lots of different weapons, skills, and magic. ~ Bad ~ No jump, no swimming ~ Not the best voice acting...? (At least it only reads first few words) ~ Character creation is poor for an RPG ~ A lot of invisible walls ~ SoSo/Idk ~ We will see if it has enough content for $40 ~ Combat is only pretty good. Roll/Slash/Stab no parry as of yet maybe it's an ability? ~ UI is good but it looks pretty old school, not a lot of HUD options ~ AI isn't as bad as everyone says. There's one enemy the hyena I was able to just hold 'A' and run circles around him, but that didn't work to well on a couple bandits I found. ~ Thanks for reading I'm going to get back to playing so I can update the review more I guess. Made sure to turn comments on because I do want to know what other people think and I'm not afraid to be told I'm wrong. Just don't be an a$$ I'll gladly discuss anything with anyone and answer any questions I can. Later.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 5, 2021

  This is a tough one. Do I recommend Outward? Absolutely. Do I think you, random prospective purchaser, should get it? Ehh, that's a complicated question. For what it is, and what it tries to be, it is a fantastic game. However, it is *not* a game for everyone (and I think that's fine, but you should really know what you're getting into). Reviews for this game are basically split down the middle, and its 'mostly positive' rating reflects that - people either think it's one of the best games they've ever played, or they think it's a tedious slogfest with awkward, opaque mechanics that should never have seen public release. The thing about that is, the criticisms aren't really *wrong,* per se. The trick is, if you're looking for a particular type of game, or *especially* if you're looking for a particular type of co-op experience, no other game comes anywhere close to offering what Outward does (with one particular exception I will note in a bit), and by some strange alchemy, the tedium and janky combat and opaque mechanics transmutes into... making it more fun? The two games I would compare Outward to are Dark Souls and Valheim. The combat (and the UI, and the approach to lore) are HEAVILY reminiscent of Dark Souls - the first time you fight anything you'll immediate understand what I mean. In terms of straight up combat, I would say it's probably as punishing and unforgiving as the average Soulslike. However, where it differs significantly is the survival aspect, which both makes the game far MORE forgiving in terms of combat, and far less forgiving in terms of everything else. A significant portion of the game revolves around your backpack (most of which slow your dodge and remove dodge invulnerability, unless you drop it before or during combat, which you're generally expected to do), managing your hunger, thirst, and sleep, as well as health, stamina, and mana, with survival supplies and crafting with materials you both bring with you and gather along the way. In this sense, healing and recovery is much more readily available than in a Soulslike (this game also doesn't have save/reset spots, it instead autosaves and areas reset on in-game timers while you're out of them). On the other hand, your maximum stats steadily decrease with damage and use, as well as gear durability, forcing you to balance your adventuring with camping or supply use to stay in fighting form. In these latter ways, the play experience, particularly of exploring the world, which lacks any kind of mount or (reliable) fast travel, is much more akin to the first parts of Valheim, ignoring the base building aspects of that game. To kind of sum it all up, Outward can perhaps best be described as having the combat (and surprisingly deep but elusive lore) of Dark Souls, the survival and exploration of Valheim, and the questing and skill systems of something like Skyrim, with broad and seemingly shallow 'class' customizability that has much more depth than first appears. For a lot of people, this combination of genres and systems falls very flat, and playing it, even if you really enjoy it, it's really easy to understand *why*. That being said, if that concoction of play experiences tickles your fancy, there really is no other alternative for the kind of game that it is, and I SINCERELY hope that the devs continue to expand the game and the IP. Even with 80 some hours into the game, me and my sister have not even finished our first playthrough (and the game has a shocking amount of replayability, you're actually unable to see every questline in any less than 4 completions, technically, all of which have dynamic results and rewards based on choices, successes, and failures), but have still been theorizing our next characters and routes for when we finally get there. This is the kind of game that, if it scratches your itch, you're wanting more content even before you've barely finished the base game for the first time, nevermind seen everything there is to see. So, I wouldn't necessarily suggest anyone get it and try it blindly, and they'll enjoy it, but if this description sounds enticing to you, I honestly can't recommend it enough.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 18, 2020

  For years I assumed, because of the mixed reviews, that this game was a clunky, unfinished, frustrating mess that only people who still play old-school EverQuest would enjoy. I'm now thirty hours in and I'm having an identity crisis because this might be my favorite video game of all time. I normally put a lot of faith in Steam's review system, and it seems like it does a surprisingly good job of catering niche games to their respective niches. Factorio, Mount & Blade, Kenshi, all have Overwhelmingly Positive reviews in spite of--or probably, more accurately, because of --their quirky, off-beat, and not-for-everyone designs. Dark Souls, a game Outward is often compared to, is probably the quintessential not-for-everyone game--a game so good at being not-for-everyone that it spawned its own genre! There are countless games for whom their taglines also functions as warning labels, and whose Steam Reviews reflect a shared understanding of being "'Overwhelmingly Positive' (...if you're into that sort of thing)". With all that in mind, Outward's "Mostly Positive" status is completely baffling to me. It's not that I'm surprised that there are people who don't like it, just as I'm not surprised that there are people who don't like any of the games previously mentioned. Outward is an uncompromising, punishing, difficult-to-learn, kick-your-teeth-for-the-first-five-hours kind of game... also like the games previously mentioned. But, once again like Dark Souls et. al., I believe that Outward is brilliant in its implementation and execution of its systems, mechanics, and most importantly, its mood. Outward is like if Dark Souls and Kenshi had a baby. You're plopped into the game's world with little armor and even less context, with your choice of fishing spear, pitchfork, or mining pick as your starting "weapon," and you're sent into a world of roving bandits and rabid Chocobos. I think part of what people find off-putting about the game is that it forces the player to re-examine so many RPG mechanics that are taken for granted. We're used to being able to single-handedly wipe out a bandit camp from day one, to get stronger by grinding enemies, and to be able to heal back to full health with a couple potions. So when Outward shows up and says, "Every fight is going to be a battle for life and death, killing monsters doesn't make your character stronger, and in fact because you spent so much health/stamina on this fight, your max health/stamina is reduced until you can find a place to sleep," it's... jarring. But once I got over the vertigo of having nearly every RPG trope I'd come to expect tossed out the window, I began to see the deep intention behind the game's bucking of these mechanics. Outward is a game that forces you to play by its rules. In this day and age, the overwhelming sentiment with video game seems to be to let the player play however they want. "If I want to fast travel," the argument goes, "I should be able to. If you don't want to, just don't use it." Have you ever tried playing Skyrim without fast travel? It's terrible. Outward, being designed around its limitations, utilizes them as tools to uncompromisingly convey the feeling of being alone, far from home, in a dangerous world. Compare Outward to Breath of the Wild. Both games involve exploring a vast, beautiful, desolate landscape. The hot/cold mechanic is present in both games as well, adding a sense of immersion and danger to the exploration. I remember playing BotW and climbing to the top of a frozen mountaintop, gazing over the landscape and thinking, "Mr Frodo... This is the farthest away from home...I've ever been." Then having that bubble of wonder and danger popped by the realization that I could fast-travel to wherever I wanted at the push of a start-menu. In Outward, you have to find your way back down that mountain. You have to find your way back home once your last torch runs out and you start to get cold. Distance is truly distant . Danger is truly dangerous . The game isn't trying to be inconvenient, it simply refuses to sacrifice immersion for convenience's sake. That said, the game's never felt overly punishing, either. I've never come close to dying due to hunger, thirst, heat or cold. You can outrun most enemies, and being killed usually means being whisked away to safety with all your gear right next to you. Outward is a game dripping with intention. There are so many mechanics in this game that I've never seen before, that illustrate such imaginative concepts. I think the burnt health/stamina mechanic is genius in how effectively it answers the narrative dissonance of most RPGs allowing you to endlessly bandage yourself to full health. The survival mechanics strike the perfect balance of positive/negative reinforcement, punishing the player for not preparing for an expedition, but rewarding the player with significant buffs for being well-fed and well-rested, while simultaneously striking yet another perfect balance of being significant enough to matter yet not so important that you're spending all your time eating/drinking. And I haven't even started talking about what I consider to be this game's most brilliantly designed feature: its skill system. For years, RPGs have had an identity crisis when it comes to skill systems, and online forums often break down into honor duels whenever someone mentions the words: "respec potion." On one side of the debate, there are games like Diablo 2, Path of Exile, and Dark Souls. These games are like, "Big boys enjoy choosing skills that are bad, looking up builds online, and starting their characters over and over!" In the other camp we have games like Dark Souls 2/3 and The Witcher 3, whose skill systems are nearly identical, but with a tacked-on item that lets you reset all your levels/skills/talents. Personally, I think both systems are bad. On the one hand, looking up viable builds on a wiki undermines any sense of experimentation and discovery. On the other hand, respec potions undermine any sense of character-building and immersion. Outward solves this problem in a way that is so brilliant, it boggles my mind, allowing the player the best of both worlds: the freedom to experiment with weapons, skills, and builds, while also giving the player a sense of character identity in eventually forcing you to choose your own unique skill path that fits your play style once you've had time (as in dozens of hours) to feel everything out. This game is not without its flaws, and there are a few things I would consider indisputably bad about it: the music, while beautiful, becomes repetitive. The voice acting is rough (though easily fixed by turning voices off). The lack of recipe list outside the crafting menu is tedious, and the lack of inventory organization doesn't help. And while I understand that the devs want to force the player to make tough calls in only giving you eight quick slots for both skills and items, this ultimately just leads to lots of menu-opening. Some enemies have frame-perfect reactions to your attacks, which feels cheap. Beyond these admitted faults, I can absolutely see why Outward isn't for everyone. Well-established RPG mechanics such as XP, fast-travel, and healing potions are well-established for good reason, after all. It isn't merely Outward's bucking of these trends that makes the game stellar, but rather its unwavering commitment to its vision where its brilliance shines. Many games come close to the feeling of playing Outward, but nearly all of them gladly sacrifice their mechanics for the sake of ease and convenience. Respec potions, fast-travel, quest markers... all implemented so you never feel too lost, too in-over-your-head, too frustrated. Outward sacrifices all in favor of exploration, discovery, immersion, and adventure. It's the farthest away from home I've ever felt.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 2, 2019

  First thing to know: Outward doesn't fuck around. No location icon on the map, barely any instructions, and only a handful of facts about the world around you to begin (and a debt to pay off) At first I didn't like this game, it's absolutely an acquired taste - but after struggling against bandits, beasts, and the world itself, I found something - a single magic greatsword that I was able to recover from a demon infested dungeon, only thanks to sneaking around and running away. It was one of the most satisfying moments I have ever had in a game, and it was only the beginning of my journey. From there I crossed the swamp and the desert, lost consciousness many times, and joined up with a faraway warrior's guild. I became accustomed to moving at night, sleeping during the day. I learned to use the world and its landmarks as a guide instead of just my map (which has actually benefited me in other games). I struggled to learn magic and was not only proud of the character I'd built, by heavily invested in their world and the outcome it would have. Outward has pushed my patience farther than I thought I could go, and drawn me in through a simple but satisfying combat system, an interesting and beautiful world, and the most enticing thing it could offer: A serious challenge. If you enjoy that sort of challenge, to really *try* for the things you get and are willing to accept the brutal losses that happen when you're not careful enough, then Outward is absolutely your game. It'll be hours of figuring out, dying*, and trying again somewhere new, of searching, of running, of fighting to survive and to find whatever you can to survive in the brutal world around you, and it will be glorious. *One can't actually die in Outward, you simply respawn at a point nearby and lose items not in your backpack. Once I respawned in the care of a kind forest spirit, he gave me supplies and it was awesome.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 6, 2020

  Outward is a mix of survival game and open-world action RPG. I have over 200 hours of playtime for this game and I had a lot of fun with it, so you'd think a recommendation goes without saying. But it's not that simple. Outward is a genuine mix of two genres, meaning the game no longer fits either of them but it's the first game in a brand new genre.

  Story

  A story isn't what you'll be playing Outward for. The narrative is extremely basic. You start the game with a family debt to resolve. You're told there are three factions in the world that can help you deal with your problem. So, off you go… How the main quest plays out depends on which of the three factions you join and some choices you make during the game. But don't expect much storytelling from the main questline. Each of the faction's questline consists of just four quests that require only a few actions but require a LOT of running back and forth between locations in the four large zones of the game. The side quests are laughable. They're scarce and almost all of them are repeatable Fed-Ex quests. There are only a few actual sidequests and I found their narrative and their rewards unsatisfying.

  Gameplay

  As for the 'survival' side of Outward, you'll have the following elements to take into account: - weather: you need clothing, spells, food or potions to keep you warm or cold depending on the surroundings. - hunger: you need to eat and you need to eat wisely because e.g. eating raw meat may cause disease, whereas eating cooked meat doesn't carry that risk. You can combine ingredients to create dishes that restore more health over time and may even add buffs to your character. All food rots over time. - thirst: you need to hydrate. Water is abundant in most zones but only clean water is safe to drink. Sea water needs to be boiled over a campfire to extract the salt. The first time I drank river water, which sounded safe enough, I got an indigestion which needs to be cured by drinking a tea you can brew or buy from a merchant. - sleep: you need to sleep regularly. When sleeping out in the wild, you have a chance to get ambushed while sleeping. - no manually saving the game! Running around while hungry, thirsty or sleepy will put a penalty on your stats. Running around while cold or hot will make you sick. Eventually, you'll die from these conditions if you don't treat them. As for the 'open-world action RPG' side of Outward, you have quests, factions, choices that influence how the game plays out, merchants, skill trainers, dungeons (often with a boss monster), armor and weapons with stats, elemental damage and resistances, etc. The game is truly open world, meaning you'll encounter easy and hard monsters wherever you go, so you have to know when to fight and when to run, or which buffs may help you win the fight. You have to decide which character build you want. There are 8 classes (+2 with the DLC). You can learn the first-tier skills of all the classes but you can learn second-tier and third-tier skills of only three classes. Also, there's a special skill for each weapon type. The problem with all this is that you only have 8 quickslots so you need to choose wisely which active skills you want access to during combat. Outward offers the three basic types of combat: melee (one-handed, two-handed or one-handed with shield), ranged (bows and pistols) and magic (fire, ice, electric). You can specialize in one of these or create a hybrid build. Some weapon types seem to be much stronger than others but in the end everything goes. It all depends on your personal preferences: the character build you're going for and the weapon types that best fit your playstyle. Outward has no XP or level up system. Silver, the game's currency, acts as your XP since it limits which skills you can 'buy' (learn) and what gear you can afford (buy or craft). An essential aspect of Outward is crafting. You can craft weapons, armor, food and potions. There are tons of craftable items that offer great stats or buffs but the problem is your backpack has a limit to how much weight it can carry. So you need to choose wisely what to carry with you, taking into account what region of the game world you're going to. During your adventures, you'll find backpacks that can carry more weight but you'll always have to be picky about what to lug around. There's no fast travel in Outward so preparing for the circumstances you may encounter in the area you're going to is key to your survival. Of course, you'll find resources while adventuring but not everything is always readily available and if you want to be able to prepare food or potions on the fly you'll need to carry a cooking pot and an alchemy set with you, both of which are heavy items. Just as the survival aspect of the game isn't as fleshed out as full-fledged survival games, neither is the RPG aspect. Personally, I think Outward lacks quests. There are a couple of dozens of dungeons in the game, but if you just follow the quests, you'll only visit a few of them. Sidequests could be an incentive to actually explore a dungeon that is now left unexplored because the reward of tackling a frustratingly difficult dungeon doesn't outweigh the time nor the consumables it would take you to complete it. Because of this, Outward is a game where you need to make your own adventures. If you're not into exploration of a game world when nothing or nobody requires you to explore most of that world, you'll finish the game in a couple of dozens of hours and you will only have seen maybe 20% of Outward. I'm hoping for a second installment of this game but I urge the developers to add more quests, inviting the player to explore more of the world they created simply by encouraging and rewarding the player for doing so. Another thing I'd like to see in Outward 2 is XP rewards and a level system for our character. Mind you, to keep the game truly open world the level system wouldn't need to be elaborate or have a major impact. But it would encourage people to play longer and, once again, it would encourage players to explore more of the world. As it is now, I found myself having all the gear I wanted for my character build and having plenty of the very best consumables when I had barely explored half of the game world.

  Graphics and sound

  The graphics and animations are extremely serviceable for an indie game. I couldn't even believe this game was made with Unity. If Unity ever wants to run an ad showing people the limits of what their engine can do, Outward is definitely the game to show. It really looks like a game between AA and AAA, something I thought impossible to achieve using Unity after having played dozens of Unity-made games. Outward's music is nice and atmospheric. The only minor downside would be that there are only 4 large zones (5 with the DLC) so the music can get repetitive but I never found it annoying. Sound effects are top-notch for a Unity-based indie game, although there were some actions that produce no sound at all, which is probably due to time restraints or forgetfulness.

  On Steam's extra features

  Outward has 6 Steam Trading Cards. You'll get 3 while running the game. The 60 Steam Achievements are hard to 100%. First of all, a relatively large number of them (16) can only be unlocked if you own the DLC. Next, a decent number of them (16 again) require you to play through the game having joined each of the three factions, so it will require you three playthroughs to unlock all of them. The remaining half of the achievements can be unlocked by just playing the game and performing some (optional) actions, except for a couple of challenging achievements that either require you to complete the game without dying once (near impossible) or force you to play co-op so as to heal a companion.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 29, 2019

  I tried posting this several times, but it's not going through. If you see this more than once, blame Steam, not me. Or blame me, whatever you feel like I guess.

  Overall Summary

  This game isn't for everyone. That's literally the most important thing you absolutely NEED to know before buying the game. I for one LOVE it so far. A really good summary if you don't want to read my half review half rant is: "If you were to do something in a fantasy world, how would you do it?" And when I say "you" I literally mean as you are at this moment. Not "you, but like with a flaming sword, invincible armor, and a diamond horse named butt-stallion." It'd be tough. You might be homeless, get sick, and die to a single giant bird that you got too close to after walking for a few days trying to get to the next town over because you heard someone there could help teach you cool magic. That is this game in a nutshell.

  Complaining About Some Negative Reviews

  I feel like some of the negative reviews on this game are akin to buying a wired keyboard and then being mad that it isn't wireless. This isn't a perfect example, but what I'm trying to say is that it isn't fair to review something poorly just because you didn't do enough research (like reading literally one or two words on the box).

  It's Hard BTW

  This game is challenging. The very first sentence for the description is "No remarkable journey is achieved without great effort." That's not some philosophical mumbo jumbo. You actually have to put forth GREAT effort. Some people might not like that, and that's totally fine, but they very explicitly tell you that it's going to be hard. It's disheartening to then see reviews like "woah man, this is too hard. Thumbs down!"

  Why It's Hard, and Why That's Okay

  Beyond me just talking about negative reviews, and why most of them are just silly, I'll explain some of the difficult features in the game so people know what they're getting into before buying (and before leaving a bad review *cough*)... okay sorry. I'm done now. Well at least FOR now. These are some of the difficult features along with why they work in my eyes, and why they aren't just hard/annoying for the sake of being hard/annoying. Listed below. One more quick note... I could explain 90% of these with a simple "well it's because it's, like, totally more realistic this way. Uh, duh," but I'm going to try to avoid doing that. <*> There's no minimap or quest markers. - The world is designed around not having these features. The developers know these features aren't in the game, and the world is designed around that. You don't need them. areas are designed in a way that you either know where you're going (if you pay attention to signs and roads), or in a way that you'll circle back around to that dungeon entrance pretty soon even if you forgot your way <*> The actual map doesn't tell you where you are in the world. - Same point as above. There are MASSIVE landmarks that help you guide where you are and where you're going. If you can't manage looking at the GIANT city in the distance and being like "yeah, that's the city I gotta go to in this area," then this game's unique way of exploration is lost on you. <*> It takes too long to travel places. - It's not that "I have to walk all the way there," it's "I GET to walk all the way there." You experience so many cool things while traveling and exploring. Even if you don't do anything with them at the moment, you can mark it on your map for later exploration. Also, it does not take that long to travel btw. If it was any shorter, people would complain about how the world feels too small because "I can traverse it in under and hour." <*> Combat is hard. - Yeah, 2 decently equipped bandits with swords can probably kill a guy in worker's clothes with a hatchet. Players are going into these fights with the assumption that "I'm gonna win," and THAT'S their problem. Why would you think a poorly equipped dude could fight a 2v1 against decently equipped bandits with literally no training? Why not instead set a trap or two, or lure hyenas into the area to fight the bandits while you kick one down from behind? (There's more, but you get the point. Play smarter not harder. Use that brain of yours.) <*> Magic sucks. - It doesn't suck. It's just not as simple as every other game. Once you take time to learn how to use it instead of expecting to press one button and decimate your enemies, magic provides unique ways to combat that you didn't even know existed prior to using it.

  Addressing Other Complaints, and Why They're Wrong

  With some of the "hard" things about the game out of the way, lets go back to common complaints (see, told you I'm back to this.) First things first. This game was made by ~10 people. That's it. You can't expect EVERY feature to be as fleshed out as game with hundreds or thousands of people working on it. That's one of the reasons why it's $40 and not $60. <*> Character creation sucks. - It doesn't suck. It's just minimal... to start. The devs made it very clear (if you did any research) that character creation was minimal. The real character creation takes place WITHIN the game. Will you be a mage, a sword boi, a heavy armor spear lad, a swift archer and hunter, or a mix of all of the above? That's up to you to decide, and you get ALL game to figure it out. You don't choose one and go "welp, guess I'm stuck with this for 40+ hours." <*> The graphics are bad. - Are there better graphical masterpieces out there? Yes. Are the graphics for this game "bad?" I don't think so, no. I've had my jaw dropped at parts of this game's scenery. The purple and rainbow grass below the mountain in the starting area is gorgeous (on Very High settings. I'll admit I haven't tried anything else.) <*> The game's buggy or CO-OP doesn't work. - These issues will get fixed. It's been like 2 days. I'm in the discord server with the devs and I can tell you, they are working their ass off to fix these issues. The co-op bug is already fixed. They had that fixed for a full day before the update went live because their publisher had to approve the patch. Side note: these devs are committed to this game. I saw one dev (goes by Keos on Discord) answering the SAME questions asked over and over for like a damn week (even just hours before the game launched, this man was answering questions that I'm sure he's answered a thousand time by now). They want this game working as much as the players do. <*> Voice acting is bad or lacking. - I wouldn't call it bad. I would say mediocre. Lacking? Maybe a little, but once again. 10 people and it's $40 not $60. They're charging you the price they know this game is worth. They know parts aren't as AMAZING as they might have liked, but then they adjust their price accordingly. How can you be mad at that?

  Conclusion

  I think that's it. How'd I do? Anything that you totally disagree with me on that we can totally fight about (or for me to ignore because I might forget to ever check this thread again.)
• gamedeal user

  Mar 27, 2019

  This is an absolutely great game, definitely lived up to my expectations! With that being said there is definitely room for improvement in this game, I skimmed through some of the bad reviews and the main complaints seem to be "graphics, combat is clunky or bad, and world is mostly empty". I've played a pretty decent amount so far, got magic abilities, unique armor and weapons, progressed the story a bit, and have been to 3 of the 4 areas in the game so I will give a more in depth opinion on those various complaints because I definitely don't want people to be discouraged from getting this game! Bad Graphics: I definitely agree that this game does look dated and the graphics aren't god tier but the world certainly is beautiful and detailed, after you do a lot of exploring and go to the various dungeons, areas and such you will realize that, sometimes it's honestly breathtaking and I caught myself thinking "wow this is a really beautiful game". Also keep in mind that only 10 people designed this game, Nine Dots isn't an incredibly huge studio like a lot of other companies, and if you put that in perspective it really is amazing that 10 people made a game far more in depth and impressive then game studios with hundreds of employees. Now if you're someone that doesn't really mind graphics or the looks of a game then I guess this won't apply to you, but those that do care about the graphics just keep this in mind! (: (plus they can always incorporate graphical improvements/performance updates with time) Combat: Now here is one thing that I definitely agree needs to be improved, personally i would like more intelligent AI and definitely fix some of the stun/flinch times, also I hope they fix dodging a bit as well which I'm sure they will do all that with updates but I will say this; In the beginning of the game expect to be the weakest of the weak, don't go charging into combat flailing your weapon thinking you'll get a kill. You will get stunned easily and torn apart by most enemies, you need to plan and do more strategic combat, try to loot and find traps to set up, or try to separate enemies and take one at a time. Grind and save money and materials to get better weapons and armor, I went from being decimated by a single bandit to annihilating an entire bandit fortress on my own like it was nothing. So to summarize just don't expect to be a god in the begin, like the creators said in the trailer, you're a nobody with nothing, the weakest of the weak, so fight like you are or die trying! Empty World: This aspect I'm kind of 50/50 on, since you do have to run most places it does have the feeling that the world is empty but I can't really agree with that completely cause there's cool side quests, , dungeons, secrets, treasures, caches and so on hidden all throughout the map. Not only that you can run into cool characters, get caught up in random stories or accidentally run into crazy powerful area bosses. I definitely recommend playing the game with a friend because it can make the whole running around experience far more enjoyable, especially when you get survival mechanics figured out it makes a huge difference. Sure they could add in more content, towns, or anything at all (I would love that to be honest) but I feel like there's a certain balance between being able to explore and get into fights here and there versus getting into so many fights that you can't progress 5 minutes outside the town because you're already out of supplies and on the verge of dying. So I definitely want the game to have that right balance of actually being able to explore and having enough content and enemies throughout the land so there's a ton of stuff to do and experience. With this as well they could just implement updates adding in more content, adding /changing enemy placement, count, or behavior, and so on, so as of now this isn't a huge complaint for me. One huge complaint that i do have though is that a few times my friend died while we were playing together and his stuff disappeared all together so he had to start from scratch, his backpack wasn't on the map/compass, we checked the town we revived in and the place we fought as and it wasn't anywhere, so sadly he lost all of his items but from I can tell this is a pretty rare bug. Hopefully this doesn't happen to anyone else but if you're close to dying just try to pick up your backpack before you do just to play it safe. I hope this helps and clears up some issues or concerns that anyone has! Please feel free to comment or message me if you need any help, tips, or just have general questions! I would be more than happy to help (:
• gamedeal user

  Oct 19, 2022

  Outward follows its own vision for an RPG, a spicy strategy in today's market, making design decisions that that first glance may seem counterintuitive, but work together to achieve something special. This game is targeted at an older audience and thus incentivizes us to play slower, look around more, read more, and play more methodically and thoughtfully. Ultimately it transformed the way I played RPGs and has become one of my favourite games of all time. Initially, like most, I fought the game. I complained about bag space, skill slot space, tough/cheap enemies, long distances without fast travel, etc. Truly, what I hated most was not being able to pick up all the loot I want. Money is hard enough to come by! But weirdly, as I played, something started to change. Now that I constantly had to throw away items for bag space, I started reading item descriptions more, looking at weight/money ratio, how the item looks, what I might need it for in the near future. And as I did this I started to develop a more personal relationship with the items I was carrying. I knew each and every item in my pack, what it was for, when I would need it, what I might replace it with. Somehow the devs found a way to deepen my love for loot. My other annoyances followed a similar pattern. e.g. many will tell you combat is souls-like. I also used to say this and it's true on the surface, but really it's a shallow comparison. In Outward preparation for a fight is king, reflexes and reading animations is secondary. Anyway, the short of it is, don't be hasty. Like me, you might end up loving something you might have hated. Shoutout to the 4-part (now only 2-part) review by Ratatoskr on Youtube. Peace
• gamedeal user

  Feb 27, 2020

  I was looking for a good coop rpg for so many years. Now i found it. -No map markers -No handholding -Casting takes 2-4 steps -Survival mechanics Going on an adventures takes preparation like knowledge of weather terrain, having clean water food clothes for the situation. Here is one example of what happened to a friend and me : We tried to kill a black chicken. Chicken beat us to death. We wake up with no equipment and enslaved in a bandit fortress. We are naked and have to mine iron with a pickaxe. We work there for food and try to plan our escape. We barely make it out with our equipment. On our escape it turns winter. We dont have food or warm clothing. We catch a cold on the run and collapse without water. Waking up inside a mountain where you can get mana ressource and a flamethrower spell. We get out and make it back to the starting village. We face that black chicken again. Beats us to death and we wake up in a cave with a suspicious monster thats wants to help us and lets us chose between several items and skills... "make your own fun" done right 9/10