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

Looking forward to play this game and pay the house bills.

So, I guess you lose all your stuff every time when you die?

I finally got enough equipment together to head out of town on a quest. I ran into a bandit and killed him but got killed by a second bandit I didn’t see while looting the first one’s body. When I finally made it back to where I was killed there was nothing there except the bandit’s body and one piece of equipment I hadn’t looted before I died. All my stuff gone, lantern, backpack, weapons, armor, food, money, everything.

No, not always. There are different scenarios, and some will actually benefit you.

You’ll also keep your equipped weapons and armor and everything in your pockets (not backpack). Depending on how/where you die you may find your pack nearby. But bandits are the worst.

Do yourself a favor and get in the habit of dropping your pack before battle, not just for combat bonuses, but because it’ll usually be where you dropped it when you get back (and even shows up on your compass).

What kerzain said. But I’ll also add that whatever you found yourself after you die, your pack is often sitting on the ground next to you, and you might not realize it. And objects you drop persist in this game for literally ever- I dropped some routing food in my house since I couldn’t find a way to destroy it for good, and it’s still there, weeks later.

Ending up in the slave mine for bandits is one of the exceptions- your pack is in another room. But it’s easy to look around and find it in that death scenario- is laughably easy to get out of it. On the other hand, I did learn some nice recipes there. You should look at your compass to see if your pack is on there.

Nope, I awoke as a prisoner in a bandit camp and I was basically naked. I had none of my equipment or weapons that I had equipped when I died and none of it was nearby. Neither was my backpack. There were some filthy rags next to me in the room I woke up in and that’s all I got. No equipment or anything of the like nearby. I tried to escape 3 times from the camp and kept getting killed by armored guard dogs and guards. Finally, I woke up somewhere else and was able to keep playing.

I checked the Steam forums and it appears there’s a pretty common bug where you may lose all your stuff on death so I guess that’s what happened to me. I hope they fix it soon.

I have yet to see my backpack show up on the map after death (5 or 6 deaths).

Cool - I think there were lower levels I didn’t explore as I was low on health and had a full backpack.

On my map there is an icon that looks like it might be a backpack right next to the Montcalm bandit fort. I went in there at night and sneaked around looking for my stuff but couldn’t find it. I did get some nice armor and a two hand greathammer in there from killing bandits.

I think I’m going to restart since I lost my house and have a better idea of how to play now.

Bought it for co-op… turns out it is a pretty bad co-op experience right out of the gate. There’s no “shared” looting or questing. I would consider those pretty essential pieces of a co-op RPG experience taking into consideration that you are doubling the number of player characters.

Grim Dawn is an example of a game that got this right.

It might be an okay single player game but that is not why I was interested in this at all.

Well, in regards to looting, you can probably kill things with two players much quicker, no?

The questing thing is more disappointing. Crackdown 3 was the perfect game in that regard- you could save your character, and you could save your world- two different things. So I could have my game, and the one I played with my brother was separate. You really can’t do any quests as a guest in this? That’s a bummer- I’ve discovered that the ‘side quests’ are mostly repeatable every few days, and a good way to make cash. Surprised they don’t let guest PCs do those.

Played a bit and… is not very good.

Map is huge… and empty. Controls/UI is not very good.

Maybe it gets better later, but I am getting cold and is very dark.

I was really anticipating his game and really wanted to like it but it’s just too janky for me personally, at least right now :(

Anyone on PC able to confirm widescreen support? I can’t find a review that takes you through the settings.

EDIT: Found out it does support 3440x1440 :) Wishlisted, probably wait for a sale!

Are there current games that don’t support widescreen? O_O Or are you talking of ultra-widescreen?

In any case, the answer to both is: yes
https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Outward

Yes, absolutely. The most recent was Underworld Ascendant. I’ve learned to always check first, unless it’s a AAA.

Keep that wiki bookmarked then.

The issue I ran into was with the static/placed/treasure chest loots.

So the quest to leave town says you need a weapon, backpack and a waterskin. Split between us we only found one of each, so we pooled our loot just so we could complete the quest. Did so, got a free skill. Swapped loot and the other person couldn’t get the skill unless they paid 50 silver (pretty astronomical sum for not having left town yet).

That was already tedious and I figured going forward the survival aspects were going to be more of that, i.e. everybody gets half rations! I don’t think I have that kind of patience anymore.

Played a bit more. Is weird. The game feels somewhat MMORPG in that cities are large, the world is huge, the game is kind of lacking of sand in the sandbox.

But then theres these tiny ideas.

In my world is snowing, so now all my gear is bad, because don’t protect me from cold. and I have been forced to buy winter gear to survive. That is kind of cool at itself. Also the whole world is a cold white place, and that is awesome.

I’m doing a lot better on my second start. I’ve managed to keep all my stuff, save my house and unlock my mana so far. The game certainly doesn’t hold your hand.

I’ve gotten a few cool things so far including an incredible backpack. Here’s the spoiler:

If anyone is interested, there’s a 110 lb capacity backpack you can get in the Montcalm bandit fort from the body of a master trader in a locked room of a small building inside the fort to the left of the main gate. There’s a big rock next to it you can climb to get on the roof and bypass the locks (click the pipe and jump down)

I’ve been playing this game every chance I get since buying it. This game is totally up my alley and I’m so glad I took a chance on it. I’ve mostly been exploring every nook and cranny of the first region, Chersonese, but finally moved on to another one (the swamp) yesterday.

The second big city I found, Monsoon, looks great, and I especially like the art direction.

I’m mostly playing a sword and board character at the moment, but did just pick up my first magical ability, so I guess I can dabble in that a bit if I want.

I love the quest system so much. I’m not tied into completing any of them, and in fact I failed some of the early ones because I didn’t complete them in time (no house for meee, but I’ve taken up residence in the inn’s lobby instead, and have been doing great).

I love the persistence of loot in the world (except for empty backpacks, can’t just drop those from inventory, you have to equip/wear them and then “drop” them properly or they’ll disappear).

The seasons are fantastic, and the onset of winter is just enough of a kick in the balls to make life harder without making it too extreme.

I’m still getting the hang of fighting magic creatures/users, because I’ve spent so much time blocking with my shield that my muscle memory keeps getting me killed when I should be rolling instead of blocking, because I never freaking roll.

I love that the survival aspects are there to give every kill and gather spot purpose, without overwhelming me with situations where I’m constantly down to one bullet or something like some shitty zombie game.

As of right now this game is a contender for my game of the year, but there’s no way I’d make a blanket recommendation for it because I can tell it’ll probably be a love it or hate it affair at best.

Once I finish the game I look forward to going back and completing the quests I’ve failed thus far… but I don’t think I’ll get there for a long while yet.

Great write-up. How is the game from quest design and writing perspective?