Outward

I've had a love hate relationship with this game.
I walked into it expected a modern RPG and got my ass handed to me, lost all my gear, lost the starter house got tilted and uninstalled and didn't touch for years.
Eventually i came back with a lot more patience and understanding for what the game was going to throw at me. Accept my loses, adequately preparing for adventures and even making sure I have backup equipment back at home in case i lose everything out in the field. With a lot of preparation and patience this game has easily turned into a top 5 of all time for me.

A lot of negative reviews here complaining about how the game is full of inconveniences and how it is punishing and unfair. And that is the exact reason why i absolutely love this game. It's one of the very few games that truly incorporates the idea that you are NOT the hero of the story, you're just some schmuck down on his luck that has to fend for himself, and if you want to have any chance to survive outside your little village you'll need to PREPARE to journey outside.
Combat is about being prepared for a fight with buffs and proper healing/utility items, traveling is about being prepared for the journey with food and water, even reading the map needs preparation to look for and identifying the landmarks around you.
Outward is a game that rewards you for preparation and planning and utterly punishes you for rushing in like every other rpg, and i wouldn't have it any other way. May Outward 2 be even more ruthless than its prequel.

Banger, probably in my top 10 games OAT but requires time to learn and understand.
I see a lot of negative reviews comparing this game to Dark Souls or Elden Ring. Let me tell you if you think that you are going to be disappointed, this game IS NOT Dark Souls nor Elden Ring but something else. If you want an experience like those games go play something else.
The combat is actually not so bad when you learn it people struggle with it because they leave Cierzo and immediately try to fight hyenas and bandits without understanding the basics, and the magic system is unique and fun to use. But again, both of these things will require time and patience so you can properly understand them. There are also survival elements in the game, but they are really simple. There's a lot of food and water, and sleeping is not a big problem.
Another great critique is the walking everywhere, since there's no fast travel and the maps can be fairly big. This problem persists throughout the full game, so keep in mind that you can spend 30 minutes or so just traveling from a city to another. If that's a dealbreaker, maybe pass this game. There is kinda of a way to fast travel using the Soroborean caravan, but don't go expecting it.
In my opnion the best part of this game is the exploration, probably one of the best out there. There's not a lot to see, but the things you can find, and the secrets are sublime.
If you like exploration, you are going to love this game, but again, it requires patience to learn.

I've now played through each of the game's main questlines, across three different characters, and I think that this is the best 7/10 game I've ever played. When I first started playing I really wasn't sure about it and even considered a refund but as I kept coming back it slowly grew on me. It's janky, made on a budget, and there are plenty of questionable design choices, but overall I think it offers something pretty unique even apart from it's obvious influences like Gothic. This isn't an RPG that you're playing for the quests and dialogue or even the loot and character building (although I think those last two are actually pretty good). It's truly focused on exploration at your own pace and those other elements are just there to tease out your curiosity, add some form of progression and to nudge you towards interesting places.

The way in which the gameplay systems connect to each other can actually be pretty elegant which surprised me. When you think eurojank you don't expect great balance but generally the economy and class system holds up. It's an RPG with no levels or exp so all progression is based on equipment and skills, which you purchase. This creates an interesting dynamic where cash is king but getting the cash requires an investment in time and resources like. You won't be making bank just killing bandits out in the field, you need to go deep into scary places to get the good shit. That's where the backpack system really shines imo. It's neat that your inventory is actually a physical item that you carry around (and can drop on the ground to give you a better combat roll) and the way carry weight works is similarly smart. When you become overburdened you're not immediately stuck, you just lose some movement speed which decreases further as you become more full of stuff. This gradiant kind of let's you decide for yourself just how far you're willing to go, keeping in mind that with no form of fast travel you'll be lugging everything back manually. This is pretty much the main gameplay loop, deciding how far you can travel while still being able to comfortably make it back to town while maximizing your loot gains, and it's pretty engrossing to me. The survival game elements actually work well here too, and aren't really obtrusive at all. This is because you're very rarely eating/drinking/sleeping just because you have to fill a meter but because you're actively seeking the bonuses that food or sleep confer.

Of course you'll be fighting things while you're off exploring and I for one think the combat system is perfectly functional. It's kind of simple but with just enough moment to moment decision making to keep it interesting. The previously mentioned backpack drop manuver is a good example of one of the nice little touches that add a lot. So dropping your backpack gives you a better roll, which is great, but it also has some disadvantages. For one, you're often fighting in caves or tombs or whatever and your lantern is usually tied to your backpack. Shit gets dark in Outward so if the fight takes you out of the area of your downed light source you can get truly fucked. For two, your backpack has all your shit in it, so if say you want to chug a potion or douse yourself with water to keep you from burning to death you'll have to either grab it mid fight or do without. The way death works is quite unique. You never actually die in Outward, instead you're knocked unconscious and then some event happens depending on where you died or what killed you. Some friendly mercenaries might drag you back to town, or you might get thrown in a prison and have to escape or just end up back at the beginning of the dungeon (or sometimes even deeper in). These are pretty hit or miss for me. Some seem overly generous, like just sticking you back at the start. Others can be a nightmare, like stranding you deep in the dungeon sometimes separated from your backpack. Overall, if there is one thing I really like about the combat it's that generally encounters feel significant. Often there will only be 1 to 3 tough fights between you and the end of the dungeon and that really incentivizes you actually use everything at your disposal (potions, food, buffs, skill cooldowns, etc.).

I mentioned that I've played with three different characters, each with a different build (roughly corresponding to a mage/fighter/rogue) and I was really pleased by not just how different each felt to play but also by how similarly powerful they all ended up. Each had their own strengths and weaknesses but none of them felt vastly over or under powered. I've seen some things about this being a classless system and that's a bit off. There are classes, but only some of their skills are exclusive, most are available for anyone to learn. Also you get to pick three class specializations so the exact build you make can be pretty flexible. If I have any general advice for character building it would be that you can get quite far without specializing so wait awhile before you decide even if you have a build in mind. Also don't do what I did on my first character and take a bunch of mana before you actually have access to good spells lol.

There are three main questlines, each centered around one of the three major factions and this aspect more than any other really harkens back to Gothic. The story is focused mostly on tribal politics with a bit of mystical lore and it's really not bad. Totally adequate story for this sort of game, excluding the voice acting which I found distractingly bad and turned it off. Most importantly though is that the quests do a good job of pointing you towards new areas and rarely feel urgent enough that you feel bad taking some time off to do your own thing. Notably, even having done all the major quests there were still dungeons that they never took me too. If you're a normal person and only do one questline there will be tons of places left unseen. One of the factions doesn't even require you to visit one of the four regions at all. These quests are really just supplemental material, and that's underscored by the ending which is essentially “great work, now go fuck around”.

To camp out on the four regions for a minute: they're spectacular imo. Again, this game was made on a budget so everything looks a bit last gen and yet they've done a great job with what they had to work with. Each region has its own theme and personality with a unique set of challenges to consider. I just loved romping around in these places and poking into dungeons I shouldn't have been in. Also got to give a shoutout to the wonderful overworld tracks, especially the hallowed marsh theme.

This is one of THE best RPG games ever made of ALL time.
Mana and magic are entirely unique mechanics in this game, you don't start a mage, you need to pilgrimage to the mage mecca and exchange total health points for mana. This is really sick.
You don't just cast spells, you acquire sigils and cast them in combos to cast spells, kinda like arks fatalis but without drawing with a mouse.
Combat is unforgiving, punishing, you need to eat, drink, set up camp, sleep, cook, etc.
if you fail to dispatch bandits they can capture you and bring you to their prison cells.
they can rob you, take your stuff and now you're back to square one.
The only thing this game is missing is reliable fast travel systems and/or mounts. There is NO reason someone should be walking across these maps more than once, but you will have to, and you do it on foot.
and because of this, EVERY time i play thru this game; I farm for a pearlbird mask and mastertrader garbs. Because these are the only armor items that give you total % increase in movement speed, and thus these are the defacto best items in the game.
i dont use other armor, because they dont allow you more movementspeed. I don't want less movement speed because this game forces you to walk everywhere.
This becomes a problem in CoOp too because your buddy isn't gonna get lucky with the games loot tables and drop a pearl mask early for them too, so now you have one guy unable to keep up with the other, because the movementspeed is that broke. it will disrupt your co op partners gameplay, and it will funnel you into the distinct decision to use these same items as well.. because.. well.. you don't want to move slow.
this is the ONLY problem this game has. there is a small amount of clunk to the game, but not enough to disrupt the experience of the game itself.
Because of this movement speed issue i'm gonna have to give it an 8/10.
if this game got horse dlc or an update that added mounts or town fast travel for a price, it'd be an instant 10/10. but due to the spacious scale of the maps, it sours the journey from A to B after awhile.
tldr; this is a must play for RPG enjoyers, Co Op game fans, this is one of the most unique RPGs ever made.

Not An RPG For Everyone, and That's Good
Outward is Unique could honestly some up the game in a nutshell. This game has the power to give you such a childlike wonder whenever you play it. The sense of adventure this game has from it's music, level design, open world maps, it all just fits so nicely into a little bow. It really harkens back to old school game design where developers were ready to make risks and see what stuck and what didn't. There are some very weird systems in this game, and that's where all the charm is. This is also one of the only RPGs that let you play with your friends, although quest progression is not shared, which is good since that means you can be in different factions and help each other out.
Now this game can be hard and sometimes on rare occasions a bit unfair. This is intentional from the devs to make you interact with it's system. Crafting in this game is not optional, its a damn requirement. You HAVE to make food, potions, and weapons before you venture out into dungeons. If not you will find yourself dead and dead again. If you interact with the game's systems and prepare before going on your adventure, then the difficulty of the game becomes way more manageable.
To be upfront this is not a survival game with RPG mechanics. It is a RPG game with heavy survival mechanics. Please go in with those expectations in mind, and don't write a negative review just because you decided to go into the game with the wrong expectations of what genre the game even is. I'm partly writing this review to counteract the people who wrote reviews and got mad this game wasn't Enshrouded.
Nine Dots Studio has really made something special here, I can safely say there is nothing else like it on the market, and I can't wait for Outward 2

Strategy game disguised as an RPG.

Quite frustrating and slow in the beginning. Where Soulslikes are tactically difficult, Outward is about strategy and planning.
Traps are cheap, overconfidence will kill you.