Merging two genres is not always a card that can be successful, especially if complex ones like survival and RPG. Will the developers of Nine Dots Studio be successful in their venture with Outward? Let's find out together in our review!
You know, creating captivating titles that can be unique is not always easy. Lately to make everything more captivating we are noticing the birth, especially among the indies, of hybrid titles that sometimes give us positive emotions and other times not. Outward has enclosed in itself RPG mechanics merged with others that arrive from the survival universe, creating a very special title that can be a double-edged sword. Let's start this review to find out what the title looks like and its potential.
Outward: A Wide World and a Slow Start | Review
At the beginning of the game, after one short and rather skimpy customization of our character, we will find ourselves in a vast world, left to ourselves and with little, if not minimal, information on the mechanics of the game. After some talk and the move to our house, our journey finally begins, full of pitfalls and mystery which will take us into the vast world of Outward.
The game is a little slow to engage not so much for RPG mechanics, as for survival ones. Although it will not be difficult to equip a minimum and understand the various game keys, the main problem will be understand how to stock up on food, water and all the objects that may come in handy during the course of our exploration. This stage of the game won't be easy, either for the various climate changes that could affect the region, both for the various enemies scattered in the same.
To our rescue comes the possibility of being able share your screen with a friend (assuming you have a pad or two), allowing us to have a slight advantage. To this help is added the possibility of being able play online with other people, making this hybrid of genres a pretty good multiplayer.
Outward: Combat System and Mechanics | Review
Il combat system is not the best and, especially in the first hours of the game, defeating even the simplest of creatures will not be easy, let alone the various bandits that groped in these lands. You will need a lot of patience to succeed scrape together that useful money to afford you a respectable equipment and the unexpected will certainly not be lacking. In fact, they will add up to the enemies fatigue, hunger, thirst, cold, heat and other characteristics of the state which may affect your performance.
To recover energy and life you can also sleep. However this action, that may seem so trivial, hides pitfalls. In fact, during your sleep, you can be attacked by various enemies, forcing you to wake up. At these times, however, you can alternate hours of wakefulness and repair, where you can repair your equipment and watch for any suspicious movement.
Despite being an RPG, there will be no levels which will allow you to increase your characteristics. Your weapon prowess will be your own "work out". It will be possible, by payment, acquire new skills by its instructor. This will allow you to better juggle battles and inflict massive damage on opponents. However, as mentioned above, the combat system has some shortcomings. There slowness in launching attacks and in posing to parry it will cause quite a few problems during clashes with multiple opponents.
Another sore point comes from one map not exactly faithful to the world. The main problem does not concern the location of the various places reported, but the paths that connect them. Only a few are represented on the map and theabsence of a marker indicating our precise location affect our trip. Once defeated, we will always wake up in different places and it will not always be easy to understand where we are and how to go back.
Outward: the technical sector is not the best | Review
At first glance you can see ahuge shortage as regards the graphics sector of the video game. In fact, textures and patterns look like those of video games about ten years old, even having the settings at maximum. Plus the game it is not optimized at best and in fact it requires more graphics card resources than a similar title should. The only and meager consolation comes from rather nice and characteristic landscapes.
Not even the audio sector excels, but at least it juggles slightly better than the graphical one. The only flaw concerns the dialogues between the various characters barely hinted at by the voices of the dubbers. Speaking with the various citizens we will be able to hear their voice only in the first sentence of the speech, as if these weren't important. It is true that a gamer might find all speeches boring, but in this way he is even less willing to listen to them and / or read them.
I commands, although they are well organized on keyboard and mouse, they turn out somewhat complicated and cumbersome playing with the pad. Surely the idea of spreading the 8 quick commands with the mechanics selected by the developers does not pay off at all. Furthermore the slowness with which our character reacts to inputs data causes quite a few problems in terms of gameplay.
Outward: final conclusions | Review
We have now reached the end of this review and it is time to take stock. Although Outward presents itself as a gambling of a mix of genres, the end result pays off for the developers of Nine Dots Studio. Slow, sometimes too much, initially, in the later stages it shows itself more dynamic and engaging. Difficulty in the early stages sometimes turns out to be excessive and we will hardly be able to conclude something important.
Although theunderlying idea is well structured, some flaws in the technical sector go to compromise what the final result is, making it a somewhat mediocre product from this point of view. The combat system, burdened by technical problems related to the controls, is not the best and will cause some problems, at least until you understand the right timing. Despite these problems, the vastness of the world, the various difficulties that we will meet (enemies, various unexpected events and so on) and the random respawn system, give the player an extra bit of panache, making Outward a unpredictable and noteworthy title.
What do you think of this title? Will you buy it or have you already tried it? Let us know yours. That's all for this review now. We remind you that the game is available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC al recommended price of € 39,99. In order not to miss any news in the videogame world, keep following the pages of techigames!
