Outward Review

Multiplayer:

Unusually for either survival or large-scale RPGs, there are a couple of ways to play. There’s a 2-player split screen option (watch the graphics hit and performance drop), or the ability to play online. The game is certainly easier with two, although finding other people to play with is the main challenge. I often set my game to open, only for no-one to join even after a couple of straight hours of play.

Presentation:

Outward is not a good-looking game. The art direction and style is good, and there’s a lot of variety to the different game areas, as well as some impressive real-time weather effects (actually, the rain looks terrible, but the snow is excellent). But there’s fogging like it’s the N64, very little in the way of environmental effects, and the world feels quite barren overall. You also have to endure quite a lot of loading between areas. The character animations are one or two generations behind, and make the game feel as if it runs at a sub 30fps rate, because they either lag, jerk or operate at a different refresh rate to the main game.

The game’s orchestral score is actually pretty good, although it seems to start and cut out almost at random, and there’s only a couple of tracks for battles, so they quickly get tired. What I can’t get tired of is the hilariously poor voice acting, which doesn’t cover all of the text (and is also sometimes, confusingly different to the subtitles), loads into the mix late (and very loud), and sounds like it was recorded over the telephone onto a tape recorder before being played through a MIDI sampler. The quality is diabolical, and the “actors” are just as terrible.

Conclusion:

Outward is a game that a lot of traditional RPG players are probably going to hate. If you’re used to being guided around a map and going on a power trip as you level up, prepare to be disappointed. But if you’re prepared to put in the hours to learn things the hard way, to navigate through skill and memory, to write things down on pen and paper, then it can be a very rewarding game. It’s one that will require dedication in both time and effort. If you’re not willing to put that in, don’t even bother. If you are, you’ll find a deeply flawed but very rewarding game with a lot of heart and charm.