Outward

2025-11-30
When I exited the starting town in Outward I was pumped to begin my adventure. The game had laid down just enough tidbits of lore and really sold me on the idea that while I'd start out weak, if I spent time braving the wilds and investing in my character, I would ascend to truly awesome heights. What I was greeted with however was combat that is a total mess. Like Piranha Bytes took the floaty, janky combat from one of their games and tried to “Dark Souls it" while not understanding the first thing about how those systems work. Music that, while pretty good, doesn't have enough variety and loops incessantly. Some of the worst voice acting I've heard in a game that's come out in recent years. Travel that takes far too long. Across an overworld that is a barren wasteland with so few enemies and no real landmarks. Just a trudge from one very distant location to another.

And then I hit my first dungeon and by the skin of my teeth was able to brutally fight my way to the loot hidden at the end. And stuffing my pockets full of everything I could carry I began my slow journey back to town to sell my newfound treasures. And suddenly my character had meaningfully more money, potions for healing, new weapons--more power. Better equipped for my next foray into the depths. And that is the promise of Outward: if you search and scour the world and delve the most dangerous corners you will slowly but surely become a Herculean pack animal.

Ultimately that is the core of the game: you are a pack mule. Sure some of your strength is in your kick, how big is your sword, how big is your strength stat. But a lot of it is in how much you can carry. And, like a mule, how stubborn you are. Stubborn to part with shiny baubles and rare artifacts, unique swords and axes and shields, because you know they'll fetch a high price at market. And part with some of those treasures you shall because the world of Outward is brutal. Those walks, those treks, those journeys back to town are long and full of peril. You have to plan your route and make sure you get there in one piece. And if you have a bag full of money--yes, silver carries a significant weight in this game, and trading up your silver to gold bars is one of many optimizations you'll need to make--you won't be able to run as fast if you encounter something you can't kill yet. So you best be dumpin' some of them heavier trinkets if you wanna hoof it proper, mule. In a lot of ways it mirrors Death Stranding but instead of a delivery man you're a hoarder.

There are more weighty criticisms I can levy at the game besides "The voice actors sound like this is the first time they've ever spoken out loud." The big one is the emptiness of the world and the lack of quality life features. If the joy of the game is the challenge, the search for treasure, why make it so tedious to find either at times? And while I understand the ethos of "You gotta walk everywhere, bitch", why not add in some form of very expensive fast travel or mount that lessens the monotony if you're willing to invest the time and money? The paltry affordances of caravans traveling between like two places in the world and increased move-speed gear like the Master Traveler's Set absolutely don't cut it. To the point that hours in, after I had already proved I could make the trip back and forth from one side of the map to the other numerous times, I just turned on some cheats to set my move-speed to 10x. (Which, sidebar, is fucking hilarious due to fall damage such that you can end up going off a hill too fast and self-yeet to your inevitable doom as you fall hundreds of feet from the sky. Like playing Sonic with fall damage turned on. A delightful Morrowind-ism in itself.)

For me though Outward's core game loop, that core power curve is incredibly compelling to me. It's the same core that makes me hold Morrowind and Dragon's Dogma as two of the greatest of all time. I want to explore a world that wants to kill me and slowly, through sheer grit, eke out a livable and then triumphant life. And it's what made me enjoy the game despite whatever more fundamental problems I have with the game. And, hey, maybe they're taking notes for Outward 2 and we'll have a nice GOTY contender for 2026.