Outward 2 Preview: The Survival RPG That Hits Hard
This sequel brings the pain (again), but what else can it deliver?
I started my playthrough in a quarry, having been dropped unceremoniously into the world with no preamble. The environment is very detailed, colourful, and almost cute in a low-levelled World of Warcraft dungeon kind of way. In other words, not very threatening - but I was very quickly taught otherwise.
Along with my starter gear, I put on my backpack - a bulky thing that you'll literally need to remove before combat, lest its weight makes you clumsy and slow. I blithely strode through a gate into the next area - a mine pit, with some nearby enemies to flex my combat skills on.
Hard Mode Only
Something new to
Outward 2 is the concept of an off-hand; while your left hand could only hold trinkets in the original, you can now equip a shield or a second weapon, allowing some flexibility in choosing a setup that'll deal the most damage to whichever enemy you're fighting. You can even get a bit silly by equipping two shields and just going about bashing everything.
The combat moves sound like typical RPG fare on paper - dodge, tap for quick attacks, hold for slower and stronger attacks, et cetera. But once I was actually in combat with a giant, angry bee-like enemy, I realised that I needed to undergo a lot of hard lessons to learn how to employ my skills effectively. Which is another way of saying that I died. A lot.
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