Outward

For anyone curious, this can be a wonderful couch coop RPG/survival-ish game (split-screen) or online coop game with a horrible new player experience.

My wife and I have been playing it together for awhile now, but we almost quit early on because we kept dying. The game is horrible at explaining how things work. The only thing that made that bearable was death having "defeat scenarios" like getting kidnapped by bandits and having to escape, rescued by a friendly NPC, or taken to a cave by a friendly monster and given an item/skill/etc. on each death, sometimes making it a setback, sometimes not. There's nearly a hundred of these apparently, some unique to specific deaths. It's certainly an interesting take on player death.

We pushed through, and now that we've learned the game better we're having lots of fun and rarely dying. Just running around exploring can be quite a fun experience; the number of times we've exclaimed "What is that!?" and gone to investigate are many, and I personally love that kind of coop experience.

Recommended if you and your gaming partner have a little patience.

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.

Two things up front:
1. This game has a tutorial in the main menu. Don't listen to people who say there is none. They are just blasting through the main menu and not paying attention, it's right there.
2. No, this is not a souls-like.
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Anyway, the game. Embrace the survival. Just embrace it. The only marker on the compass is your backpack when you drop it. There are 80+ defeat scenarios.
Getting lost, feeling lost, is part of the game. Explore. Figure things out the hard way. Unlike a lot of AAA titles, the game gives you the courtesy of using your own brain. It respects you enough not to lead you around.
The magic is bonkers. Casting spells is not an action, it's a reaction. For example, here's how you cast a fireball. You learn how to cast a spark spell. You learn how to create a fire sigil on the ground. Stand inside the sigil and cast spark. The sigil turns your spark into a fireball and it flies at the enemy you're locked onto, or the direction you're facing. All attack magic works this way and it's very fun.
Combat is all about preparation. Whether you're a rogue / hunter setting traps and loading your pistol, or you're a sigil mage or rune mage performing magic rituals before the fight to blast your enemies to the moon. Create a ghost sword out of thin air in your hand. Summon a ghost to fight along side you. Or you wanna throw down your big ghost drum and smack it, and your enemies, with a stick until everyone's dead. Or counter / parry / martial arts your enemies to death with a hammer or axe or giant sword.
Go camping, stay warm in the winter, stay cool in the desert. Watch out for hyenas & thunder crabs. Fight a lich boss, beat up some bandits, explore ruins, get an old magical train working again, fight weird mushroom people.
The music is freaking amazing. It's got a soundtrack that really pulls you in.
I couldn't gush about this game enough. Just keep an open mind, embrace the challenges. Be prepared to lose, get kidnapped, mugged, beat up. 80+ defeat scenarios are there because success is built on failure. Have fun.

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

So people did not lie - that Outward can be difficult.
Honestly, part of that is the unforgiving nature of the game as intended, part of that is the - let's face it - janky and outdated combat. It feels stiff and unresponsive at times, and I assume the devs intended that so it felt more 'realistic'. Sometimes, tho, it just feels clunky. I find myself just avoiding fights if I'm playing alone (or else spamming traps and lanterns and things of that nature).

But, aside from that, the game has quite a bit of charm to it. The survival mechanics are basic and honestly? I prefer that. No one needs to reinvent the wheel here, and accidentally stumbling upon new recipes through experimenting in crafting is actually a lot of fun. I've only just now entered the 'second area' in the overworld map and I feel like I've already discovered a lot.

Also, I get to play it with my best friend and he is very good at saving my butt when I run into the same trap for the third time and run out of bandages.

MY BIG COMPLAINT FOR THIS GAME THOUGH - It did trigger motion sickness for me. Quite a bit.
Turns out the cause of that is the mouse acceleration/camera smoothing that the game has no option to disable or change at all. I had to download a mod to disable it. For anyone else experiencing this, download the mod "Sinai's Utility Pack" and check "Disable Mouse Smoothing".

Overall though, a fun game with an old school RPG kinda feel to it. Get it on sale and play with a buddy.

The game the first few hours in can be frustrating. You're basically told to make money to keep your house. So you venture out only to find a bunch of enemies to plunder for loot. In most RPGs thats pretty straightforward, so times to slay those enemies and pay off the house right?
Well no, you're not a hero and even lowly bandits can 2-tap you if you're inexperienced. From there on out, figure it out. There are a FEW tips to guide you in-game but after that, that's it.

With that, I hated it at first. With no knowledge and "Just-figure-it-out" while continuously getting bodied for not having prior knowledge was really hitting my boiling point.
But there's a charm to this game that's hard to explain. And I can't even describe in this review.
Best I can tell you is that you just have to grit your teeth through the painful beginning and you start to see the magic.
Here's a few tips(Which is more tailored to those that want to jumpstart from the hell out of beginning game):
-Learn how to make money. I recommend the Horror Weapon Farm + Electric Lab Route. Props to SheenShots. Having a lot of money really reduces the frustration of this game quite a bit.
-Gaberry Tartine is a food recipe you should be stocking up on, it's infinite Stamina, why not.
-Practice the Combat. If you have to use Debug mode and give both you and your enemy invincibility and just practice each weapon that suits you.
-Lastly, there is no shame to use the Wiki. This game rewards curiosity but sometimes it can be hours of trial and error, and every mistake you make quest can impact your current run permanently. I use it when i absolutely need to but I play half-blind.
That's it. I haven't beaten the game but I believe I have been enlightened why the niche group loves this game. There really isn't games like these anymore. The dev team have a vision and if you just bear through it, you can truly see the beauty.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Do NOT do the Three Brothers DLC. It has no reason to exist and it is the only major flaw this game has. If someone tells you otherwise, they enjoy grinding for the sake of grinding. There is no satisfaction, The tedium is painstaking, and the lore is so generic I thought I was reading a book for kids. Just skip it for the sake of your sanity.