Is a Remarkable Journey About to Begin?
Last year saw the release of Nine Dots Studio’s Outward, an open-world RPG with survival gameplay that makes hunger, disease, lack of sleep, and the environment itself as hazardous as the monsters. Now, we’re happy to announce that the game has recently been rated for Stadia. Does this herald its arrival to a brand new platform? We sure hope so. You can read our thoughts on its 2019 Steam version here, but the game has received several big updates since we first reviewed it, so you may want to play it for yourself. If so, be prepared for some in-depth survival mechanics, no map or guide markers, and deeply challenging gameplay.
Don’t be fooled by the cover art. In Outward, you are not the hero, the chosen one, or anyone special. You are a nobody, and you start off already deep in debt. To pay it off, you become an adventurer, but you’re no ex-super soldier. If you want to survive in the dangerous world of Aurai, you’ll have to treat it like a mix of roguelike and Soulsborne: be cunning, be careful, and be ready to die. A lot. Outward is definitely a challenging game, especially in the first ten hours, though it does become more balanced as you go on. Each area is visually-distinguished and can be quite beautiful, though we recall the graphics being somewhat inconsistent. The lighting effects were always gorgeous, but some textures seemed to have been taken straight out of the PS2 era – which, coincidentally, was the heyday of Silent Hill, a game franchise about roaming a town completely shrouded in fog.
The lack of a map or guide function means you need to do your own navigation, which has its upsides and its downsides. Traversing an open-world game can feel like being on autopilot, so you might find this a refreshing change of pace. It certainly makes finding secrets extra rewarding. The game also offers co-op play online and locally through a split-screen, which allows for entirely new strategies.
Will Outward come to the Stadia? Let us know down in the comments, or hit us up on Twitter or Facebook.