Outward Definitive Edition: The Polarizing Souls-Like Survival Game 

I have played it for over 800 hours, its not a perfect game but its definitely worthwhile playing it. The lore of the game is AMAZING, the progression is fun once you understand what you need and when, exploring the different hidden dungeons (there are a lot of them) is so fun because every single one of them have their own secrets you need to find out to get special and unique rewards. Truly a beaultiful game with a atmosphere that is so rare nowadays.

Here are a few tips for new players. -Save your house on day one without paying. First, gather everything you can from the village. Two, make or find bandages. Third, talk to the gate guard while holding a weapon you want to use. He'll teach you a useful skill for that weapon. Fourth and most critical, turn around and go through the door under the cliff. It's a storage area, with some enemies. Run past them and leave through the back. Fifth, sneak along the beach until you see a fallen guy. Sneak up and give him the bandages, he'll give you a tribal favor. Use the map and run home, avoid hyenas. Give the tribal favor to the boss lady. Done. No more timers, until you join a faction. -Learn to make Pungent Paste and Fungal Cleanser. Pungent Paste is one of the best stat restorers in the game and Fungal Cleanser will help with some of the diseases found in the game. -Make Gaberry Tartines. Cook four Gaberries into jam and spread it on bread. This thing lasts for weeks in-game, keeps you warm, and is one of the best early-game energy restorers. Don't sleep on tartines.

Outward is a game I wanted to love, but due to many of the issues mentioned by other comments, I had to stop and put it to the side. Its a wonderful world/game but its just not meant for many people to be able to enjoy. Those that do, will absolutely treasure it. Edit: I should note that at the time of this video, outward is 85% off on steam and is only $5. If you've been curious for awhile, or this video made the game seem like it was worth trying, go do it! You may end up like me. But if you ended up enjoying it at all, you'll find one of your favorite games.

On a sidenote there is a tutorial mode that is separate. But yea if you want you can hop directly in the game.

With a bigger budget and heaps more polish this game could have been a GOAT. Despite it's flaws, I still love it though. It has the same charm to it as Morrowind did for me. The game has a soul.

Outward is one of my favorite games of all time and the best couch co-op game I've EVER played. I think when everyone's first experience with the game is walking outside the town and getting stuffed by a couple of the basic bandit enemies, it immediately filters a big part of the potential audience. I was pissed and threw my hands in the air like, "why would someone make a game like this?" But the seeds of determination had already taken root. This game gets easier as the player's knowledge scales. That's an insanely difficult mechanic to implement but it makes the most rewarding experience. I love how complicated and nuanced this game is... and the lack of fast travel and minimap is both annoying and its strongest asset. It's a great game... for dads. But also I played this whole thing with my 8 year old daughter so it's not that crazy. We both played classes to stack all of the game's sigils and double-cast spells on top of the totems, trivializing most of the, "difficulty".

This game captivated me unlike any game has in a long time. I was so insanely addicted to it. It gave me that traditional RPG exploration vibe, and was so fun in doing so. Nothing was explained well, but that added to the fun of the g ame. You had to experiment and figure things out and it was such a joy. The combat made me rather annoyed though. Sometimes it was a blast, other times it was janky and infuriating. Overall though, An absolute blast of a game that didnt get near the recognition it deserves. Developed by a small team that rivals AAA RPGs.

In my 40s and I think Outward is my favorite gaming experience in my life thus far. I nearly quit, too, but I stuck it out because I could see tiny bits of progress in myself, and somewhere in the 15-20 hour mark everything started jiving.

I think there is something to be said about the mindless tedium that is playing outward. While I do absolutely love the game, running around region to region can bit a drag. Especially when quest lines have you going traveling multiple regions over, then coming all the way back. It’s extremely easy for newbies to mess up their build. Not helped by one of the worst skill trees being the first and only one you’re given access to in the beginning. Also I hear a ton of praise for the magic system in outward, but it really isn’t all that complex. You take 1-3 points of magic depending on how much mana cost reduction gear your wearing, and cast all the spells you want. There’s no give and take aspect to it when magic builds can easily achieve 80-100% cost reduction while sacrificing little to nothing. You actually take less mana the more you intend on casting, which seems a bit contrary to what the system was intending to do. There should’ve been a magic damage buff, and maybe unique spells tied to taking certain amounts of mana. Maybe better damage boosting gear for mages that offers little to no cost reduction, encouraging you to take more mana to make better use of the equipment. Outside of that, I don’t really have any major issues with the game, before the DLCs released anyways. Combat is a bit clunky, quest timers get a bit weird sometimes, but it’s all just little things you expect from an indie company. The DLCs are a bit of a mixed bag. I absolutely adore most things about the Soroborean DLC. The “fast travel” system is obviously shit and feel like an intentional fuck you to people rightly not wanting to walk everywhere. Enchanting is a great addition and really adds to build diversity. While in most cases, there 1 objectively right enchantment and a bunch of wrong ones, it does bring viability to a whole host of otherwise worthless weapons. The enemies and boss fights are all enjoyable, and and dungeons are all great to explore. Three brothers on the other hand… I absolutely hate three brothers, which is a bit of a shame, because there’s a lot of enjoyable content there. Addressing the biggest issue first, building is absolutely a shit addition, which was unforgiving on release. I played 20+ hours just walking around getting all the resources, trying to get the one item I needed to build the building a wanted with 0 success. Just put the game down for a while after that. Nowadays, you can send out for expeditions to get the rare resources you need, and the chances are much better in general. It definitely helps, and I’ve since completed the DLC multiple times, but it takes an unbelievably shit system to a somewhat bareable amount of shit. Three brothers also adds enemies that ignore significant amounts of your % defenses. This takes those big tank builds that have never really been viable anyways, and shoves them into the shitter. You have to play at a snails pace to reach significant physical defenses. So you could either invest everything into a defensive tank build, and come out to 80-100% physical resist, sacrificing a lot of offensive potential and stamina to get there. Now, a lot of the harder enemies can ignore up to 50% of your defenses. So you’ve invested everything into defensive only to come up to 30-50% resist. What reason would I sacrifice all offensive capability for a measly 30% resist, when I could instead focus offensive power and have a much better time. Tank builds used to enjoy the luxury of significantly easier fights at the cost of experiencing the worst of what outward has to offer significantly more than anyone else, and now they don’t even get that. It’s just downsides, which kills off a lot of build diversity. Not to mention the entire gameplay loop of three brothers is to run around, mine the rare resource nodes, and kill scarlet emissaries to get building materials. Would you rather be running around in your slow and clunky heavy armor, or put it in your bag at the cost of carrying anything else. Or would you just wear light armor and not have to worry about a thing. Running around place to place was already outwards weakest aspect, and the thing literally everyone cites as a complaint against the game. To build a dlc from the ground up purely, where the main gameplay loop is walking from place to place doing nothing is insane to me.

Spend time planning, preparing, adventuring... ...then getting stuck in a wall and eaten by a wendigo. Uninstall. Profit. It's the Outward experience.

i love outward and im glad there is still content being made for it

The only thing that prevented me from finishing the game was the insane amount of walking/running you have to do. Maybe one day Ill come back to it because it was fun.

An other thing to mention about the death mechanic is its not just based on who killed you and where but also on the total times youve died recently in the region the higher the amount more likely you are to bring brought back to the city

I can get behind clunky controls and mechanics, but damn I'd be lying if I said the dialogues and quests didn't disappoint me quite a lot.

The community is sort of like a cult, their ferocity to protect th game from any non-dev ideas can only be matched by the Star Citizen cult.

There is a tutorial, it's right there on the menu screen, right below "New Game" you have "Tutorial". But the issue is, just like Projet Zomboid, people tend to ignore tutorials when they show up on menu screens somehow. And it is a good tutorial btw, with pretty much everything you need to start the game and know what you should be doing. Outward is an RPG, and that's why it's not holding your hand. People tend to confuse "adventure games" (which tend to be linear and have tons of quests markers), with a RPG, a game that gives you the freedom to play it however you want. For instance, my personal favorite to pay back the debt don't actually require you to get out of the town much. I want it to be done quickly because if you miss the deadline even by a day, you lose the house. So I use an alternative route that means I don't need to give them any money, I just save one villager who was hurt on the beach near town (that can be access through their storage) who gives me a "tribal favor". Then with a mastery of the looting, crafting and trading system you can make all the money you need early without leaving Cierzo itself. Even though it could definitely be improve, Outward backpack mechanics are probably the best thing about this game. I'd like the death scenarios to be implemented in RPG but not having necessarily our life saved or stuff intact all the time. Because games can sometimes be buggy, I do like being able to save and reload when it happens.

walking and spending a lot of time doing it is one of the things that i love about this game, because travel is a thing, you need to plan very well your decisions, the food, loot, etc. You dont know when you will return

Outward is a game that I had a rough start with, but really really enjoyed while playing coop with a friend. It takes a while to get going, and is quite uncanny, but at the end of the day it's super fun. Loved how the video explained some of the reasons the game is so rough in some aspects, it's quite unique to say the least.

I keep coming back to outward and starting a new character despite the frustrations of the early game. The music and atmosphere are 2nd to none.

Honestly i love this game but it kicks my butt sometimes. I will say the ability to feel dope by dropping your backpack before a fight is a sensation i never knew i needed.

This game has been on my radar for awhile but never pulled the trigger because souls-like (i hate this term also) games aren't my bag. But survival games are. And KCD is my favorite game of all time. I'm going to give it a shot now. Great video. Appreciate it!

I'll forgive you since you skimped on the magic... but it's important to note that magic and stamina are opposed to each other. You talked about trading capacity at the ley line, but it's deeper than that. Sleeping is the main way to restore health / stamina / mana. It also restores health max and stamina max but REDUCES mana max. There's also a sleep deprived debuff that is terrible for melee characters but actually buffs magic significantly. It's explained in-game that magic is (pretty much) letting go of reality. It's a neat system to help prevent characters from getting access to the best stuff in every category, since you just simply cannot be at peak melee and peak magic at the same time without consumables.

I love Outward! Just saw the trailer for the second game, great video.

Since you're inexperienced with magic you missed onene of the most interesting aspects of magic in this game: it flips the resting mechanic on its head. When you rest, you regain burnt health and stamina, but it burns your mana. In fact, having the tired status actually improves your spell casting abilities. It makes all your decisions about when to rest, and how much to rest, so much more in-depth and changes the way you interact with survival mechanics entirely. It gets even more interesting in co-op when you're sharing the guard duties and rest at camp.

Protip: Focus on getting all the running speed gear early on, game changing, now its fun to run between zones.

Nice review. cant wait to see what you put out next

My biggest issue with the narrative surrounding this game is that the conclusion always seems to be: "The game is fine, you are the problem", or "oh, this game is just not for you, that's fine".

this is one of the best reviews ive ever seen; i really loved what you said about how this wasnt a soulslike game. I just got this game for SIX bucks on steam, spent 60 on the ps4 some years ago. Great game =) too easy, but still truly great!

Outward is just so unique. Its not the best game ever but try as hard as you can to find something similar (not even better) and you will find out that there is nothing truly out there that come close to what Outward offers as a package. And for that reason Outward is amazing. I really hope for an more polished and expanded Outward 2.

Great video! Never checked this game out before. Perhaps now i'll give it a go.

Great overview of the game! Thanks. Hope you keep up the great work with your channel. You're doing a great job so far and I think you'll grow huge if you stick with it. On a side note, where did you learn to edit? You're videos are really well done for a new channel. :)

an Outward vid in 2024? hell yeah!

It's a game that feels like it should have more conversations. It's a Gothiclike without talking. Once you forgive it for that, it becomes a cool game about preparation.

Outward 2 announced and combat is greatly improved in the pre-alpha preview. I’m so hyped for the future of this series.

It’s a running simulator, and the music is fucking amazing. Dude is diluted. Absolutely fantastic game, even better with a friend. Despite all the walking.

honestly. outward does have the effect of either people hate the game or love it and i think thats good. outward gave me a feeling of nostalgia even tho its a rather new game. i absolutly love it for how rough and hard it is. its a game where the adventure is the goal. not the endgame.

I really enjoyed this review, well done!

Great vid! Liked and subbed! Keep it up

Great video, keep it up ⚔

The deal breaker for me with this game was the lack of a jumping mechanic. Such a basic thing but not having it is super frustrating

Great game designers got inspiration from KCD. This include Elden Ring and RDR2. It’s just the ideas they stole are subtle. KCD is a true RPG.

Big love for talking about this absolute gem of a game.

I love Outward so much. I fell in love with the buildcrafting aspect of the game.

i love that people are still playing and making videos about this game its amazing

Dork!!!! 😁 same here. Walking to enjoy virtual scenery.

Really appreciate this review, its spot on

I love this game, stoked to see new video on it

Great review, you've got talent.

To all new players I recommend using caged armor boots as it gives a lot of movement speed and armor followed by finding a pearl bird mask and switching helmets when traveling

Man I want to like this game because the people who do just gush about it. I bounced off it pretty early for all of the reasons you mentioned, but I really appreciate this video and getting a chance to see what the other people saw in it, I've always been curious.

Anybody who complains about the amount of walking in Outward misses the point of the game, I think. The game simulates a true adventurer's life. The tedium and monotonous aspects included. Everybody watches Lord of the Rings and sees the orc battles, the nazgul ambushes, and the abandoned mines of Moria and thinks to themselves "Man, it must so fun and exciting to be an adventurer on a quest across the land". What they don't see in those movies is the miles and miles of walking, the stopovers to rest and eat, the general difficulties of surviving in the wild and managing your supplies, well-being, and equipment. Outward simulates adventure in all of its glory, even the ugly sides of it I can understand complaints about the bugs and glitches, but the experience is meant to be slow, difficult, daunting, frustrating at times, and dangerous. No other game has captivated me with its unique-ness like Outward has

I bought this game because someone sold it to me as being along a similar vein as KC:D. As someone who doesn't look survival or souls games I wouldn't have bought it otherwise. Granted I'm still not sold on the game but it's definitely an experience and I don't regret buying it.

Would love to see the devs make another. I still play this solo and coop, just enjoying the world and magic.

i put 57h into this game before definitive edition came out. although i actively avoided going into magic cause my method for combat relied heavily on stamina so i felt uncomfortable giving any of that up. it is definetly a great game to get immersed in.

While I can appreciate the fact that you almost go through the journey that you go through when playing the game, I think that this video potentially comes off way too negatively for the first 75% of the video. And not everyone watches until the end. The game is actually really great, and after a pretty short amount of time in all honesty it really grows on you and you see the beauty of it. It is a true open world rpg where you figure things out as you go and experience the world for yourself. I think the vast and empty feel is what makes it feel real in a lot of ways. You wouldn’t constantly run into people or enemies in the real world if you lived in a medieval place like that. Something is so charming about it. And the game play is very enjoyable.

I appreciate this game a lot but I gave up at some point. After swamps I think. It’s too dated in many ways despite being published in 2019. I like a good challenge like the next guy but this was borderline unplayable experience for me. I have finished all Souls games + Gothic 1 and 2 back in the day (moat wooden game I ever experienced) but I had way more patience and way less games to play. The best way to describe how I feel about Outwards is.. - Exhausting.

thanks for the great video

i loved this game and it was nice to see an honest video about it

tried it. never returning. the flaws outweigh the positives.

I think any fast travel beyond what they allowed in or mounts would have wrecked a lot of the magic of the game for me. The game is designed for people who don’t like that convenience and prefer to get to experience the journey and I think it does this really well. Add in fast travel and a lot of what makes it special is gone and it kind of needs that.

great video

i absolutely loved this game, played it co-op with my friend and it was a blast.

One of the best games I have played in 23 years of gaming

if the developers treat this new game opportunity well this could grow well beyond their imagination i think it has real potential whether or not anyone see it.

Took me a few attempts through the years but the game finally "clicked" for me. You have to approach combat like monster hunter instead of a Souls game. Although I hate monster hunter games I like Outward. As for kingdom come, I don't think that game will ever click for me.

I loved outward from the first time I ever played it. Never got annoyed from it.

I’ve been playing it on Steam Deck over the last few weeks and I even when I take breaks, I keep getting drawn back into it. Really fun game. Weirdly, I found that I had the most fun with it when I was following a guide, for the first quest at least. I had played through the game without a guide initially and it made the beginning hours much too difficult for me. But after using a guide just for a little help with the first quest, everything else I’m A-OK with figuring it out as I go

The combat people don’t fully understand. The goal is to chip away at the enemies stamina by trading/blocking blows. Once the enemies stamina is below half then it can be staggered by every hit. Once you understand it then the combat makes more sense

Neat. This just randomly showed up for me. How do turkeys escape in the wild? Can they fly short distance like a chicken?

Just wanna know Unreal/Unity or custom game engine?

Outward is one of my favorite RPG games, from begin is a lot of death... when starting learn... its so fun.

God, I own this game on PC and have yet to boot it up. This video is encouraging me to do so now.

There's one severe downside to using Defeat Scenarios to fast travel, which is how it will cause food and ingredients to rot due to how much time was skipped. This is extremely noticeable on items with short decay times like Raw Meat, Raw Alpha Meat, all kinds of Raw Fish and certain alchemy ingredients.

I think Outward is my favorite game, I just love open world RPGs and this one, even with all its problems, just feels incredible to play.

Outward 2 is on the way!

"wish more games would implement backpack weight systmes"... bro where have you been since 2010?

'come-like' 😂😂 Dude, you're really entertaining 🎉 I see a great future fir your channel ❤ By the way.. THIS GAME IS AWESOOOOMEEE ... 🎉🎉

Gothic/Risen vibe. Will try it later, thank you!

As a person who has more than 1k hours in this game, trust me when I say it but mods fix so much of how this game is played I would strongly recommend in to looking in to them, from simple QoL improvements to a complete skills overhaul.

I honestly beleive this game is hard to enjoy in the pkng term without downloading a few vital QoL mods. But eith those mods it really made the game shine in a way that the lack of QoL prevented at first.

Outward is my comfort blanket game.

Been addicted to this game since release years ago

There is a mod that lets you hire a carriage that can take you to the main cities in each region. I also recommend a mod that lets you add more quick bars. There's a lot of skills especially when doing magic that one quick slot bar feels limiting.

One of my favorite co-op games. Definitely not as enjoyable single player but it's still solid

I have this game, I played the hell out of it, until i had ever pack stuffed with ever weapon armor relic potion laying around every tent. I mastered every class, but my favorite is Speedster, paired with Dancer Armor and the Golems Rapier, imbued with Spiritual Varish and various potions, I dance around cutting anything down without getting hit. But the game is pretty short. I 100% it in just 3 weeks. I plan to replay it someday but there are other great games ive yet to chew on.

oh and the soundtrack!

Yeah this game seemed kind of lifeless and clunky to me at first, but it definitely grows on you later in as you get to learn more about the system and world. It does give a feel of an older generation of game, which I enjoyed also. The elements missing that a modern game might have, I feel can be easily overlooked because the core of it is enjoyable. Which has always mattered to me more. It’s very different from a lot of other games, which I think made it feel fresh. Which is hard to do these days

It’s one of the game that literally said “go hard or go home” It has unforgiving and hard-to-grasp combat since it has a lot of momentum with every movements. It’s not “unresponsive” like many people said, in fact, it’s very responsive, but your actions are locked behind momentum. You can’t cancel ur attack animation by dodging but you gotta wait until your attack is finished before you can move or dodge away. Why ? Cuz it’s punishing, “oh you swing at me and missed ? Too bad now your ass is wide open”, you need to try your best to make sure every hits count, or else the enemies gonna blast you so hard so see Jesus.

outward is one of my favorite games ...... hoping for outward 2. Hope it retains it charm

Empty MMO was a good description! I want to play this but I’m old now so just as with Death Stranding, one could say that pacing is important but my time is too precious for that these days.

Who else out here is hype about Outward 2? It is pre alpha stage now so the game probably come out in a year or two, i think.

How to dominate outward; 1st step stockpile trip wire. 2nd sep obsidian pistol 3rd magic bomb(mage) rune or hex bomb(tank).

All I got from this video is, "come-like" and I'm ok with that. Subbed to u

Outward is easily one of my favorite games of all times. I have about 100 hours in the game, with 30 hours of couch coop. This game was made to be played in coop, the experience is vastly superior that way. I would love an Outward 2 or a spiritual sucessor of the game, that polishes and expands the core gameplay mechanics. The graphics were never an issue to me, but the game is also a little old at this point as well. The story, however, I love it. I'm tired of grand rpgs where you save the world and everything falls in the shoulders of a lv 1 nobody. This game was such a breath of fresh air to me in that regards: you're just some dude trying to survive in an unforgiving world of magic and monsters. With some more voice acting and more variety of npcs, this world could become a landmark in RPGs. I see it as a groundbreaking game that tried to actually do its own thing, and not just sell what was popular to make some money. To me, this game is on the same level of Exanima with its uniqueness, but the guys from Exanima are still working on their game even after 8 years of Early Access. I wish Outward had being planned to be an Early Access game and was still being actually developed. If they had taken more time to polish the game while still making a buck to sustain their jobs, I can only imagine the potential that this game could have.

Loved this game. I just wish it wasn't so easy to get the best backpack in the game in the first area though. Definitely one of the most fun games in the last 10 years though, way better than almost every single "AAA" game released recently too. This game also had the exact perfect amount of fast travel as well, as in none.

I'd say there isn't any other co op game that hit the same as this, one of my favorite games. Someone really needs to take this model and clean up all of its issues.

I am still waiting for any updates on the game, the all the DLC's (had to edit as I forgotten that there are 2 DLCs and the soundtrack) was a must buy for me, I don't like the graphics of it but hey never in my life did i care about it, every decision you make impacts the rest of the game and I did kinda cheat looking up the texts and the rewards for the conversations but still played the game line 200+ hours and had a character that was only storage, I hade everything on him, armor, weapons, potions, that character was my mule I was using the split screen shenanigans to change according for the boss or mob if i had the time. Still waiting for a DLC from them, still here hopping

Outward is the only game I've ever refunded on steam, the lack of any explanation with how punishing combat is turned me off. Then after a couple months I rebought it to give it a second chance with a fresh mindset, carefully played through the tutorial mode, took things slow and had a ton of fun. I like how the backpack system works as well as the need to camp. I like how hard it is to come by money and build wealth while maintaining travelling weight. The weight system is balanced really well, you have to prioritize essentials and emergency supplies vs. valuables. The class system is also very unique, but I'd recommend some mods to make it less punishing (specifically the ability to respec).

so ... alternatives to death oblivion mod + inventory is a backpack oblivion mod - both from 2009😆. I tried building both in Skyrim, but it was impossible in Skyrim's updated (from Oblivion) event and mission object system. But I do have an unreleased version of Alternatives To Death for Skyrim.

“Come-like” made me laugh so unreasonably hard