Outward: An Adventure Life Simulator (RPG) by indie developer Nine Dots

Games
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The creators of the new RPG Outward describe the game this way:

Outward is an open world RPG that you play alone or with friends, either online or in splitscreen. It’s more than just an open world RPG you can play coop though: it is an adventurer life simulator. You live the life of an adventurer, from your humble beginnings up until your retirement. Your life isn’t only about killing monsters and looting: you need to eat, drink and sleep; preparing accordingly before jumping into danger. Everything is meant to feel more real and consequential, while still taking place in a high fantasy universe with magic and exotic creatures.

Available on Xbox One, Playstation 4, and Steam:

Official Wiki:

I bought this game last night on my Xbox One and have been playing off and on as I have time tonight. I appreciate the open nature of the game so far. I’m dying a lot, but I’m also enjoying the different scenarios spelled out for me for each death. The death scenarios help explain where I am and why I’m there after returning to the game world.

I know that the art and graphics are putting a lot of younger players off, but I love the art style because 2002 era EverQuest and Asheron’s Call artistry speaks to me much, much better than either WoW graphics or modern, bland photo realism in games.)

The world is hand-crafted rather than procedurally generated, and that’s another big win for me. I like that the things I’m finding were placed there with a purpose in mind. I also like that I’m not expected to just pop open a map screen and start running around trying to stamp out of hundreds quest, mission, and lore icons that seem to be so prevalent in many modern games (looking at you, Ubisoft).

I am still quite new to the game and have barely even scratched the surface, so while I don’t want to pretend to give an informed opinion just yet, I can say that the game is working for me in a lot of ways.

Because this seems like a game that will eat up some time, I figured I’d create this thread where some of us can talk about it, instead of trying to isolate relevant posts in the indie thread.

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That’s a big incentive for me. I tend to dislike procedurally generated, unless it’s used for very specific sorts of things. I like that someone has placed a mob, or a group of mobs, in a specific location, for a reason. It’s actually one of the big differences between EQ and Asherons call for me. Mobs in AC were just sort of strewn about the landscape. EQ sort of ended up there as the expansions rolled on, but the layouts and mob placements in some of the earlier iterations of EQ were great.

There is nothing more boring to me, than an outdoor zone, with henchmen mobs randomly strewn about and no boss or progression.

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Anyone know how to place an alchemy station? It’s just red (and an error message) when I try, wherever- in the town, in my house, out in the world. I want to do the alchemy dude’s quest before I leave the village for good (?)

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I haven’t tried to place one myself. I haven’t even seen that Quest. In these games I tend to do the bare minimum that it takes to get the hell out of town and start seeing the world and that’s kind of what I did this time too.

On a side note, since campfires seem to last forever, they make fantastic custom landmarks. It’s sort of easy for me to get lost in some of the valley’s and stuff, especially after I’ve died and woken up and have no idea where I am.

And on another side note I think it’s absolutely hilarious that there are road signs pointing the way to bandit camps. Or at least one bandit camp. If only we had these types of things for mob hideouts and terrorist cells and such here in the modern-day world.

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I just went to town and talk to The Alchemist. Are you talkin about that Alchemy Kit that he sells? From the description it looks like that has to be placed on a lit campfire. Is that what you’re trying to do?

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A friend played it. He feels the combat should be a bit balanced, but overall he likes the game. I’m playing it when I get the chance for sure!

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I didn’t read the description! I’ll try that!

But I’m the opposite type of player- I do all the side quests before moving on.

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I actually returned to town and started picking up and selling everything I could get my hands on, and doing quests there as well. It’s a hard world out there, and showing up unprepared has been a punishing experience.

Pro tip for people that read loading screen tips: One of the tips says that in order to restore your maximum health and maximum stamina you need to sleep inside a tent or at an inn. Well this actually extends to any indoor building I have tried (so far). Whether it’s a cave, or a monster hide out, or even your own City Hall, sleeping in any of these will allow you to restore maximum health and stamina.

However you should still pay attention to the danger rating for ambushes when you’re sleeping. Because some places will never go above 0%, but if you’re the type that likes to sleep in monster caves, you will be in for a big surprise in the middle of the night if you aren’t spending time on guard.

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Spent most of the day kicking this around. And yes, you are right, the Alchemy Kit says right there in the description to use it on a campfire. Doh!

Ended up traveling across the world and back. Went to the forest zone, and the desert, but I haven’t been to the swamp yet. I’m pretty thoroughly playing as a ‘hunter’-type- I use a lot of traps and a bow to lure enemies into them. I got a perk that doubles my lock-on range for the bow, so that works out nice.

That said, I ended up coming all the way back to the starting land/city to learn magic. If you want to join your friend in the city Levant, you have a choice to either pay them 200 silver, or be a mage. So I decided to learn that, and the only place to do it is back underneath the big purple mountain.

It’s cool that you can just avoid buying recipes for everything by just experimenting yourself, but you can, of course, just then look them up online. Not that I have yet, but I know it’s coming on a wiki or something. But in the meantime, I have gotten a bunch of potion/tea recipes after I saw how the first one I bought worked. They are great for restoring your max heath/stamina when you don’t want to rest.

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Based on a very quick look at this – faffing about outside the main town and dying a couple of times – I really like how much empty space they’re willing to include. Which, yeah, is the exact opposite of Ubisoft and Bethesda, isn’t it? It’s nice to let a world breathe a little.

Also known as “cheating”. :)

-Tom

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Haha, true.

On a note about the map, once you’ve been around a bit, you can start to identify possible points of interest. “Well, if this looks like that on the map, I wonder what that is over there…”

I can see the only-on-foot travel getting old after a while though. On the other hand, one of the trainers I found sold a perk that has reduction of 40% stamina loss while running. Have to get the 500 silver to pay for it though…

Another, ah, cool thing, Seasons! when I decided to start my epic journey to the desert, I stepped outside the starting town, and it started snowing. By the time I got halfway across the map to the exit to the forest zone, the entire land had turned white, and I had severe cold affected going on. By the time I made it, I was in really bad shape. . Fun!

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Hmm, so does this mean there are no mounts? It seems like the perfect game for mounts.

-Tom

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No mounts. Devs said it on a video I watched.

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Had a great time massacring Trogs with my quarterstaff in Blister Burrow this morning.

It’s west of the Cierzo - turn left before heading toward the bandit camp.
It’s a nice starter dungeon with some decent early game loot.
Managed to complete a quest for the curiously named Helen Turnbull there.
So far loving this!

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@LutherBlissett I don’t know if you realized this, but you can actually complete two quests for her there. The main one she sends you there on, and her ‘standing’ quest. It doesn’t go on your quest log, but she wants ‘interesting’ items, and there’s one in the burrow…

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Well, this game sounded way too appealing for me to pass up so I just picked it up from greenmangaming (15% off there, currently). I very rarely do impulse purchases like this so I sure hope I like it as much as I think I possibly might.

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No time at the moment to give my thoughts, but this game is right up my alley. I’m enjoying it, and I enjoy the slower more deliberate pace.

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Speaking of the travel times, you can speed things up a little if you kill a few of those giant chickens and loot the bodies…

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As long as you go in knowing it is in no way a AAA experience (i.e.proper expectation levels), if you think you’ll like it bases on what you’ve already heard, you probably will.

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Nope, I wasn’t expecting AAA. I like indie stuff, myself. I just went through the tutorials and it’s just fine. I’m looking forward to starting a new game now. Combat seem kind of like Dark Souls but not as frenzied.