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Outward is the first game developed by Nine Dot Studios. Its and open world action RPG and has received generally positive reviews with a 7/10 on Steam 89% on PC gamer and 90% of google reviewers reporting they enjoyed the game. But despite these generally good reviews I would argue that it isn't enough and that the game deserves so much more
Introduction
So i'm going to start this off with the assumption that you have never heard of this game. The reason im going to assume this is because this masterpiece is barely ever talked about. Personally when I found this game I was awestruck I was browsing youtube on a different computer so the recommendation section was a bit different than usual. This allowed me to discover a video of a guy reviewing Outward. I had never heard of Outward but noticing the thumbnails interesting monster and being a big fan of open world fantasy games like Skyrim and the Witcher I decided to check it out not expecting much within a minute I paused the video because I didn't need more convincing and I didn't want any spoilers. The game seemed like a dream, something I've been wanting for ages finally appeared in front of me and I bought it straight away.Gameplay
Outward is a very challenging game, so challenging that I'm going to leave some tips later on to help you if you decide to buy the game. I believe that some of the negative reviews likely come from players that struggled a lot with the game. If you check the bad reviews their usual along the line of "it's too hard so it's badly designed" when in fact the design is fine you just have to play carefully you see the idea Outward tries to focus on is realism. In this game you aren't some sort of mythical hero, you don't get amazing powers or a prophecy, you're just a guy who has to leave the safety of his village to explore the outside world full of danger and turmoil in the hopes of making money and surviving. The way I like to describe Outward is if you were playing Skyrim and all you had was a sword you could probably beat a dragon in Outward if you only have a sword you could probably beat a single hyena (the weakest and most common enemy in the game). If in Outward you expect to wrestle manticores and fight of giants you're dead wrong. You have to plan for every fight, Outward has a souls like combat system with stuns and dodging and once you take damage you're going to feel it. Some monsters will take you out in 1 or 2 hits if you're not ready, even bandits can defeat you quite easily when you start. But all of this is in a way what makes the game great. The progression in the game doesn't feel like it's weapon and amour based. Yes if you have strong tools you're going to have a higher chance of winning a fight but at the end of the day you could still lose to a bandit if you're not careful. What gets better isn't just your tools but you. You learn to fight correctly, to strike when your opponent guard is down, to set up traps around the battlefield to come prepared with potions and food. All of these things come into play and truly make the progression feel much more rewarding.
What makes the game great
So here I'm going to talk about the best parts in the game. I'm going to start with what is in my opinion the best feature, coop. You can play this game with a friend both online and locally on the same computer and the game won't slow down at all. The coop is great as exploring this dark world feels so much more exciting with a friend, it creates this new layer of coordination and add to the strategy aspect of the game, it's also nice to know at least one persons got your back in this world unless they're the type of friend to run away the second things get rough. You can also play with more than 2 people if you download the multiplayer limit remover mod which allows you to play with as many friends as you want online. Another great feature are the monsters. They are all unique and challenging which I really appreciate. In the picture above you can see one of my favourites the "Blade Dancer '' it's design is totally unique which is rare nowadays with most games having the same monsters repeatedly. I still remember finding him for the first time. Me and my friend were exploring a swamp trying to get to town where we could rest up when one of them just appeared out of nowhere. We decided to fight it and just barely won the fight and as a reward I got a mace that decreased mana usage which was great because my character was a magician who used a mace as a melee weapon. The next thing I'm going to talk about is the weapons. There are different types of weapons and all of them play differently but the main difference lies between one and two handed. One handed weapons have a free hand for something like a torch, a spell book or a dagger but two handed weapons deal more damage at a longer range and it's important to consider what skill you want to get when picking your weapon. Every weapon also has a unique skill that you can learn. For example maces can absorb a magic attack and then gain its property (So if you absorb a fireball the mace will light on fire) and spears can deflect an attack and deal high damage. Basically consider what play style you want and what skills you're going to buy as skills aren't gained through level ups, in fact there aren't any levels, instead you buy them, and when you want to get a high level skill you have to use break through points to unlock a skill tree. But keep in mind you only have 3 points so use them wisely and choose skill trees that are going to be useful if you're a fighter don't buy into a magic tree and vice versa. Now these are just some of the many fantastic features and I really want to tell you all of them but I think I should move on here and let you discover some yourself.Tips
Okay so now some tips keep in mind this is going to be easier said than done as the game is challenging and will require you to do a lot of the work even with these tips I can't guarantee you will succeed. First of all when you start you will have to raise 200 silver within 5 days to buy back your house. At first that's not going to seem like much or at least it didn't until I failed to get more than 50 and ran out of time. The tip here is sell everything you don't need except your water skin, bag, weapon and at least 4 predator bones and hide. You will be tempted to sell the predator bones as they go for 8 silver each but they're useful for crafting. After you buy back your house buy a weapon in the blacksmith, if you use a machete buy a sword if you use a lumber axe buy a great axe the symbol behind the weapon in your inventory tells you what type it is. After buying your weapon, buy the fang crafting recipe for the right weapon from the blacksmith. You will then be able to use your predator bones and hide to upgrade your weapon to a faster one that deals bleeding. Okay so now I'm going to talk about magic. You don't get mana at the start but you're going to want it quickly when you start you should notice a mountain with rock floating around it go to that mountain climb it and search for an entrance once you go deep enough in the mountain you will find people that can give you mana but remember you have to exchange hp and stamina. The more max hp and stamina you give away the more mana you will have so be careful. Once you give it away you can't get it back. Finally when fighting big monsters remember to place down traps and fight carefully. If you rush in you will struggle a lot. A tactic you can sometimes use is if there are other big monsters of a different type lure them close to each other and make them fight each other for you then finish off the weakened victor. I can tell you doing this to a mini boss feels super satisfying and nothing makes you feel smarter than using them like this.Any way this one was a little long I hope you forgive me as i just love this game and can't stop talking about it. If this interested you give it a look it runs even on potato computers which is great and its honestly lots of fun. I hope you enjoyed my article, thanks.