I snagged this game a long time ago as a free game; I was intrigued by the beautful art style and the simple yet fun gameplay, now that I have played it I would like to give some thoughts on it.
Outland does platforming quite well, dispite the rocky start with learning the controls as they are very sensitive to the smallest movement of the analog stick( played it on the controller) and it has an annoying habit of not doing what I want the game to do even though I made sure that I did the correct movements. But the use of changing colours to make certain platforms appear, make beams of red or blue energy not damage you or allow you to damage enemies that are of the opposite colour to you. The ablity to change your spirit colour at will is an interesting gameplay choice and allows the player to jump and run around the levels.
The story is not much; it does have a mystical atmosphere with the feel of a fairy tale. You play as a lone hero trying to save reality from being torn apart by two god like sisters representing life (Blue) and death(red), through a series of bosses that were part of the grand scheme of life but now mad shells of their former selves. There is a feeling of Dark Souls about this that I do like, it is not as well done as From Software's storytelling but it does the job for the most part.
The graphics and art style are amazing, it has deep roots in Japanese mythology and looks like a Japanese artbook. The use of blues and reds as prominent colours make it look fantastic as well as giving the game its own identity. I love this art style, plain and simple.
However the game has its frustrations and strange difficulty spikes that make Outland not my favourites. I really hate the mini bosses as there is no real pattern to killing them, if they get to a certain amount of health they will just spam attacks that do not allow you the opening to hit them as they are only vulnerable when they are walking towards you or if thier weak spot is open, none of which is possible if they get stuck in the same attacks over and over again. You are gambling on the AI to decide what happens leads to a lot of frustrating fights because their health gets restored if you go too far away from them. But the final straw for me was the final boss fight which has such a massive spike in that it lead me to die so many times trying to kill it. I did kill it in the end but I was not having fun,I hated that boss fight and I hated all that time spent killing that boss to get this review out.
The framerate is unstable, with sudden jumps in framerate and a total slowdown to almost twenty frames in the first snow level for no good reason. Please keep in mind that I have been able to run Witcher 3 and Elder scrolls online with no issues yet this less then a gig game could not keep a constant framerate.
Outland is a good game that is marred by some very annoying gameplay and performance issues that ruined what could have been an amazing game. I hate that final boss fight.
lol great and nice