Outward Definitive Edition (Nintendo Switch) – The test

In 1987, Dungeon Master, a game developed by the American studio FTL Games, was released on the Atari ST. Among the innovations that this RPG brought, we can note the management of hunger and thirst, its equipment and the weight that each character can carry, then finally a system of skills which only increased when they were used. used, or when practicing creating potions or casting spells. This game wasn't crazy beautiful, but all these little things added so much to the immersion of the players that it was a hit when it was released. What does this have to do with Outward Definitive Edition you tell me? He offers all of this, which makes us immerse ourselves in his universe until we no longer want to leave it.

Outward Definitive Edition is available oneShop at the price of forty euros.

Adventure is adventure

Outward was released on PC in March 2019, it was developed by a Quebec studio, Nine Dots Studio. Today, it is released on Switch in a Definitive Edition which includes two DLCs and still takes place in the world of Aurai. It is a role-playing game in an open world with a very succinct storyline and very developed possibilities for exploration and survival.

At the start of the game, our character wakes up on a beach after the boat he was sailing on was shipwrecked. He manages to reach the town of Cierzo where he learns that he has five days to pay a debt or risk having his ancestors' house confiscated. We learn incidentally that this debt arises from the faults of our lineage. If our ancestors did wrong, it falls on us. Either ! We are trying to go on an adventure to raise the necessary money as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, the guard at the village gate only allows us to go out if we are properly equipped with survival equipment. Indeed, Outward Definitive Edition is not a classic RPG because it also includes a lot of survival. We learn to craft food, clothes, weapons. If survival is not a constant concern, it still remains very present throughout the adventure.

Razor's Edge Survival

Survival begins with managing our character's health. He may be too hot or too cold depending on where he travels, and it is therefore necessary to bring clothing adapted to the climate. If he is dressed too lightly in the snow, he will catch a cold, or worse, and he will have to take care of himself. Harvesting berries and other natural products, preparing herbal teas and potions in a cauldron can fight illness. We also have the possibility of obtaining remedies from a merchant when we come across one.

So you have to buy a cauldron, collect wood to make a fire and have a way to light it. The constraints don't stop there. Our character can't carry as much gear as he would like. Between his pockets and his backpack, he can carry around thirty kilos of objects, weapons and food. Little tip, when a fight occurs, it is possible to put down your backpack because it prevents dodging and rapid movements. We put down our bag, we fight then we pick it up again. We also have to manage our avatar's hunger and thirst. By killing animals, we collect meat and skin that can be used later. Crafting is a really important part of the game.

Death as such does not exist in Outward Definitive Edition. If unfortunately our character loses all his life points, a loading screen will appear and tell us that an individual has rescued us and deposited us in a safe place. We will wake up with low statistics but alive, and with or without our backpack containing our precious tools and objects. If this is not the case, two choices will be offered to us, either return to look for it where we lost it, or find another one and resume our adventure differently. Sometimes a hunter will take us back to the nearest village. Other times, if we are knocked out in a cave, we will wake up there, abandoned by our enemies who had an unforeseen event to deal with. This system is very clever because it does not require us to start from scratch and it allows us to learn from our mistakes, to try to do better next time.

A very discreet hero

Our character is not a hero, he does not have a destiny to fulfill, there are no great hopes or expectations resting on his shoulders, and this is where Outward differs from many RPGs . He is an ordinary character who will write his own story and destiny. Of course, characters encountered during the adventure will offer us work or quests to complete in exchange for money, but most often, we are free to go wherever we want and do what we want. .

This is really what makes Outward Definitive Edition so charming. Each time you restart it, you have the choice between continuing what you were doing or taking a completely different path. This way of playing is also dictated to us by the fact that the game saves automatically and there is no going back. So at the beginning, we have five days to raise a certain amount and keep our house. If we don't succeed, it will be annexed by soldiers and there will be no possibility of resuming an old save to change this state of affairs.

We still have to talk about what's annoying because two black spots are on the horizon: on the one hand, the graphics. Already when it was released five years ago, the game piqued the eyes of players and their simplicity and lack of polish were glaring. On the other hand, the emptiness which surrounds the interesting places in the game. You can spend several minutes crossing plains without coming across a single living soul. This can reinforce the feeling of survival and immersion in a hostile world, but it's still not very alive.

Alone against everyone

Another point poses problems, and it concerns the game interface. Access to the backpack, to the different menus, to everything related to crafting is not very simple, and we spend a lot of time to succeed to do what we want at certain times. It's absolutely not prohibitive and it doesn't spoil the gaming experience, but it still slows it down a little. In the series of annoying things but not great either, there are the loading screens between zones, those in the event of “death” which are too long but we have to live with them. On the other hand, the acronyms which appear at the bottom left of the screen give us information on the general state of our character. A very good idea because you know at a glance if he is hungry, thirsty, sick or tired. So much little information that is always useful before going to attack someone or when deciding where to set up camp to rest.

We must still highlight the positive points with the music of the game which is epic and corresponds perfectly to the atmosphere of the title. A certain number of dialogues are dubbed into French and it's always nice to hear the characters we meet speak to us. The fact that the adventure is not linear gives the game real replayability and the possibility of returning to it without having to remember the story and the quests that we had to pursue.

Similar articles