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.

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.

I love this game. The character specializations, combined with unique equipment and faction passive skills offer endless character build potential.
While the graphics have some rough edges, there are some truly unique locations that are awesome to explore.
I'm going to offer what I wish I had known when I started playing this. So maybe this ends up being more of a guide than a review.
Maybe this game is not for you... But more likely you are playing it wrong. It took me 200 hours before it clicked for me. And now I'm great at it.
A lot of reviews claim it has janky combat. Wrong. It is deliberate combat. You are supposed to think about every move you make. You are supposed to be careful and and plan at all times.
New players will mash the attack button and find themselves locked into their attack animations with no way to cancel it early. That leaves them vulnerable to enemy attack.
Here's the golden tip: enemies will also get locked into their attack animations.
Find out what makes an enemy do a particular attack and make them go first.
Some examples:
*If an enemy is ranged, bait them into using melee attacks by getting in medium/short range. Melee attacks are easier to stop than an arrow or an ice bolt.
*Enemies that are cowardly will attack faster if you push right up against them. Try this early on on a hyena or pearlbird.
*Some enemies have the ability to charge in a straight line, and then hit with a single, slow melee attack. If you create a gap on purpose, they will attempt to use that charge ability. All you have to do then is sidestep and hit them while they try to attack the spot where you were just standing.
*Some enemy abilities are simply on a cooldown. Play evasively until they use it and then attack them while they're casting.
Then when you get them to attack, you defend yourself:
*Hold block/parry or dodge and meanwhile try to sidestep them. If they let off a whole flurry of attacks, some of them are going to miss while they're locked in attack animations going in a direction you're no longer standing.
*Use counterattack abilities like Brace to destabilize them.
Now you can attack:
Make good use of impact while it is your turn. Often, medium/short range abilities, whether they're spells or physical in nature, will cause the most impact. Enemies whose stability bar is below 50% will stagger at every subsequent hit you do, until eventually they get knocked down. Never get greedy. If you can't knock them down, it will soon be their turn again, so don't get locked into attack animations. Then the cycle repeats as you bait them into attacking again.
Start the fight on your own terms, especially when you will be outnumbered. Prepare tripwire or pressure plate traps. Place a fire sigil and turn it into a ring of fire using a flint and steel. Use a single shot pistol at the start of combat. The quicker you can dispatch of even one enemy, the easier the fight becomes.
Really learn what consumables do, and don't be afraid to use them. Use frequently. There's enough to use them on every single fight.
Yes it's a souls-like. But the other *half* (or more) is survival game. Food and drink management is *essential*. You will be punished for not being well fed at all times.
You cannot do effective combat without a stamina regen buff from food and water.
Also keep up health and mana regen foods at all times.
Better quality foods offer stronger stamina, health and mana regeneration.
Manage health, stamina and mana burn with teas and other consumables.
Don't be afraid to use the wiki.
You don't want to be overburdened at any time. Keep it light, you're going to have more fun. Crawling back overburdened is seldom worth the extra money it'll make. You should learn to make loot choices. Find out what items have the best silver coin/weight ratio. Generally, gemstones, alchemy ingredients, and other items that weigh 0.1 to 0.2 units will have by far the best ratio, generally only surpassed by unique equipment that you can only get once. Pick up everything at the start of your trip, then start dropping (or consuming) items with a poor ratio to make room for items with a better ratio.
Always have a rested buff. The buffs you can get from resting in town and later from good tents are very powerful. Plan your trip length around the duration of these buffs (40 minutes). Now that your trip length is always the same, you can bring the same amount of consumables every time, and you will more frequently return to town to drop off loot and not become overburdened.
And lastly, there is a lot of information you will only be able to learn from the wiki. Don't be afraid to use it.

This game is top-shelf. Is it perfect? No. But it contains creativity and focus to deliver an experience and vision that is unique in "recent" gaming memory. There is nothing else like Outward, in the best way possible.
This game asks you to pay attention. It wants you to act like an adult. Its NPCs aren't fooled by leaving the area and immediately returning. You can't patronize your way into everyone's good books. The story is much, much richer than you first realize. Your first character will barely have a grasp of the world - because the world has several competing factions you might not even realize are really, truly competing in a living world.
There is a magic casting system that is second to none. You can enchant weapons for certain scenarios, bring different load outs based on the locations or enemy types. You can line a hallway with devious traps and not engage in combat at all. You can do it ALL in co-op with another player, which unlocks even more play styles and possibilities for adventure.
The artwork and sound is astounding. The story/lore is wonderful - enchanting, and unique. Nothing is quite like Outward. The sights and art and sounds are not found anywhere else. Sure, aspects of the game aren't perfect due to the obviously MASSIVE level of ambition by Nine Dots - but they did a wonderful job getting MOST of it across. Yeah, fine, you can't "see" the war happening, but you can talk about how it is affecting different factions and different peoples. You play a pivotal role in many different outcomes to the world, or you ignore them and they play out with none of your participation. The game truly wants to immerse you in its world and for you to invest in it. And you are rewarded handsomely for doing so with awesome dungeons and rewards, encounters, and loot.
Get Outward. If you play Outward and dislike it, you're wrong and you should just play longer. I promise you unless you're using guides or following walkthroughs you can roll you're 10th character and see sights in this game game or discover play style you never even imagined were possible.

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.

To be clear: This game is not for everyone. It requires a different mindset when facing it.
I do not mean it in the elitist way of "you're not good enough" or "only for true gamers".
I pirated this game years ago, and I rage-uninstalled it. I re-downloaded it again, played with my partner, and the same thing happened. We both ended up so frustrated that I uninstalled it again.
A few months ago, I actually bought it as a way of forcing myself to give it a try, this time solo.
And for the first 8 hours or so... I've suffered. I have restarted countless times, died more than I have died playing any Dark Souls game, uninstalled and reinstalled it twice. It IS a hard game, THAT is why it requires a change of mindset:
1. Deaths are NOT deaths. You can not die in this game, you're always knocked out and then... "Something" happens. Bandits find you and enslave you, wild beasts drag you to their lair, a friendly hunter finds you and brings you to heaven, or even the good old deus ex machina of feeling a goddess' call and feeling reinvigorated. You WILL lose stuff, I have lost over 800 silver coins to bandits once!
Deaths are not a punishment per-se, they're just small pauses in whatever you were doing, and you might even be closer to that location, or find some cool loot while trying to escape, or earn some money in prison as the most efficient slave until they release you for it. You will die, it will be unfair for some time, but do not give up. Everything you can lose (bandits take your armor or your money) can be fixed by either taking those items back from a stash or not carrying your money in the wildlands, but leaving it at a safe spot.
2. The combat is clunky, slow and deadly. I do not recommend playing defensive, nor I recommend magic for a first playthrough. But this is not Bloodborne, Sekiro or Elden Ring. Stop, block and dodge your enemies' attacks. Learn their patterns, when you can punish, and learn to attract enemies one by one to not get overwhelmed. Use fences, abuse the AI to confuse it and deal with the combats slowly. Managing your stamina is crucial, so don't be afraid to lock-off the camera from the enemy and walk away while recovering stamina slowly.
3. The consumables are important. Of course, save the potions and powerful stuff for when you're deep inside a dungeon, or for a boss, but use whatever you have to make your life easier. Traps, items that infuse your weapon, the environment will also give you what you need in certain parts of the game like Dark Souls 1 does with the temporary curses to attack the ghosts. Something like that. Learn what recipes and ingredients give you health regeneration (or look it up on the internet as I did because I got frustrated) and craft a hell lot of bandages, meat, vegetables... This is Breath of The Wild now, enjoy.
4. Leveling. There's no leveling. Your character can learn skills from NPCs that train you, as long as you have money, and you can get stuff like some more health, stamina, magicka and some special moves, but there is not experience nor levelling system.
5. Weapons. This is how you will know you're ready for bigger tasks. Weapons can have different effects, but I focused more on just bonking hard and damaging the enemies' "posture" more than their health. Check how much impact a weapon has on the enemy's posture and abuse the stun system. If you learn their patterns and can stun them frequently, you can take down any enemy even with a low-damage weapon.
6. Armors. There are two kind of stats for armors: Elemental resistance (pretty self explanatory) and Protection. What you're gonna need to go for is Protection. Most armors do NOT have a Protection value, only elemental resistance, so you'll be getting three hitted easily by small enemies. My tip is follow the mission that the blacksmith gives you at the initial town and get the Blue Sand armor set. It will let you start fighting and exchanging hits even with some minor bosses, survive longer and, therefore, earn more money and get the stuff going.
This has been my experience summarized. Right now, I am enjoying and exploring the world. It is true it's a bit empty, but that's only when you kind of... Already did everything a region has to offer. Once I changed the way I was going through this game and started acting cautious and smart like the game requires from you, it is a really enjoyable ARPG with survival elements.

Amazing Co-Op Souls-like/Skyrim/Survival type of game with some glaring issues, but can be 'solved'.
-I put over 50 hours into this playing with my bro, for the price i got it for on sale, that is definitely worth it even if it felt a little frustrating or monotonous at times. The main issue i have with this game probably is the walking sim aspect of it. You will spend a ton of time just walking from point a to b, and the fetch quests that this game likes to do sometimes doesn't help either.
-That's why i highly recommend you get mods for this game, even just for that alone. Even with a Increased travelling speed mod, it still does feel like a chore, but it is significantly better and will extend meaningful gameplay instead of just walking.
-Mods can fix a lot of the balancing and mechanics of this game aswell. Another crucial mod i recommend is some sort of meditate or sitting mod that regens your stats, or an extra quickslot mod, but those can be seen as too game breaking for some.
-Combat is actually pretty fun but is still janky. I went with a full on mage build with Hex (status effect buildup), Sigils (act like zones to cast strong spells from) and Rune Sage (imagine jutsu hand weaving from Naruto). Got to a point where i had a ton of mana reduction on my armor so i basically had infinite mana. My brother did a revolver/punching build which was pretty funny and did some crazy stagger. You have lots of options in this game for combat which is nice, and the survival mechanics are okay for the most part.
-Story was alright, didn't have much to say bad or good about it. I did Holy Mission questline, which is the best one to start off with imo. You are locked out of 3 other main questlines and have to do New Game to experience those stories. This is good for replayability but it also sucks to have to restart pretty much everything every time. It took us around 50 hours to complete with us taking our time but also having QoL mods. I stopped shortly after the main quest, as the DLC questline requires you to BUILD a goddamn CITY which requires a ton of grinding and gold farming.
-Music is pretty good actually i enjoyed the soundtrack, sound effects are decent, voice acting is kinda funny and bad at times tho. but who really cares
-I haven't mentioned it yet, but as most reviews point out: This game is ball crushingly hard at times. especially the first 10 or so hours. Hell i'd probably steal the "Prepare to Die" Tagline from Dark Souls and give it to this game. It was clear that this was a intentional design choice, because there is so many different death scenarios that it's kind of crazy.
-Early game is built different and it is really hard to get good gear, especially armor as even 50 hours into the game and my bro still hated the armor sets he was using. A lot of OP stuff is locked behind End/After game so that isn't great either, as is are no leveling up in this game, it is all based on skills you learn and gear you have.
-It does drop off significantly near the mid/end I'd say (not counting DLC), which is pretty rewarding considering what you had to go to. Defintely watch a lot of youtube videos and tutorials for this game. Sheenshots was a W for my playthrough
-Overall, it is a really good co-op experience if everyone playing has some decent patience, and a lot of the major issues can be solved with mods (recommend R2modman easiest way to mod the game, remember to set the Beta build on steam to the mono branch). The highs are 9/10, and the lowest of lows are probably a 3/10 lol. Usually the game is a 7 or 8 i would say.
Definitely needs more recognition but also i would try to get this game on a good sale due to the issues. I got this for like less than 15 canadian.