Outward very early impressions

51 hours and I feel like I haven't scratched the true surface of the game yet. I haven't done any dungeon-diving really besides what was required for the main questing and maybe a side quest or two, so I probably am missing out on a ton of cool stuff. The game has so much replayability though that future runs can cover some of that. I've been to maybe one main location in each map, like the Stone Titan Cave in Abrassar (and didn't even solve whatever weird riddle puzzle was there) and the Bandit Camp in Chersonese. There's just a lot here, and I feel the survival aspects will be felt even more if you go around dungeon-diving a lot. Has anyone else here put a lot of hours in and feel like they still haven't seen a lot of the game?

So I cleared another dungeon and found an ornate chest, inside was an awesome "Prayer Claymore" and some sort of ritual mask that gives you a stamina boost and a nice chunk of silver. I believe in 51 hours that was my first ornate chest find, and I assume they are pushed in hard to reach spots in dangerous dungeons. Pretty neat stuff.

Well I have to agree with Fluent. The game is really growing on me and I'm getting a handle on the combat. The exploring is top notch and the items and economy is just about perfect. The survival aspects are good and you don't have to spend all your time crafting.

I've only played around 25 hours and have only done 2 dungeons that were in the starter area. I will be doing more dungeon diving soon.

My first guy is all sword and shield. My second will either be magic or a 2 handed spear. not sure yet. I joined the desert faction with the free will on my first character. Will try another one on next play through. I would give Outward 4 out of 5 stars.

Originally Posted by Hastar
Well I have to agree with Fluent. The game is really growing on me and I'm getting a handle on the combat. The exploring is top notch and the items and economy is just about perfect. The survival aspects are good and you don't have to spend all your time crafting.

I've only played around 25 hours and have only done 2 dungeons that were in the starter area. I will be doing more dungeon diving soon.

My first guy is all sword and shield. My second will either be magic or a 2 handed spear. not sure yet. I joined the desert faction with the free will on my first character. Will try another one on next play through. I would give Outward 4 out of 5 stars.

Glad to hear you're digging it Hastar. What classes are you or will you be using?

Originally Posted by TheRealFluent
Glad to hear you're digging it Hastar. What classes are you or will you be using?

I haven't got any classes yet I don't think. I have paid for skills like running faster, a shield attack, more hit points X2, and a sword attack. Where do you decide to get classes? I have been training at the mercenary trainer in the desert city. Haven't been to the swamp city yet.

How's crafting? Is there a lot to it? Is it complex? What do you usually craft?

Originally Posted by Hastar
I haven't got any classes yet I don't think. I have paid for skills like running faster, a shield attack, more hit points X2, and a sword attack. Where do you decide to get classes? I have been training at the mercenary trainer in the desert city. Haven't been to the swamp city yet.

Classes are gained by using your 3 breakthrough points. You can choose 3 classes out of 8. These are the trainers marked on the map as "spellblade trainer", "sage trainer", "monk trainer", "mercenary trainer" and so on. You only get 3 points so you have to choose wisely, and they are the skills that cost 500 silver and give you access to the top class skills of that class. Hope that makes sense. Check out the trainers next time and give it a look. The breakthrough skills are in the middle of the skills panel, with a 500 silver and 1 bp point tag on them, and they connect the bottom panel of skills that anyone can learn to the top panel which are the class specific skills.

Originally Posted by arthureloi
How's crafting? Is there a lot to it? Is it complex? What do you usually craft?

Crafting is quite good, but it's as deep as you want it to be. Basic crafting is making a campfire, maybe using a cooking pot to make food or an alchemy kit to make potions. You can craft armors and weapons if you want, or choose to find them or buy them instead. It's very open in how you approach the game, you can do whatever you like and figure out a way to improve your character. There are recipes in the game as well. It's not too complex, but there are a ton of recipes you can learn which usually require 2 or 3 ingredients to make. It's a fun, rewarding and non-intrusive system like the survival aspects are too.

There are also rare ingredients and there are a ton of things you can make. Healing potions, different meals with different buffs, traps, rags and varnishes to add an elemental damage to your weapon, armor, weapons, all manner of other potions as well. There's a lot to it but it doesn't take much, you don't even have to find a workbench or anything, just manually make it with your hands. Also, certain vendors craft rare armor and weapons if you bring them certain ingredients and enough silver (the game's currency). They'll craft you really nice stuff but the ingredients may be rarer to come by.

I usually craft Life Potions, Astral Potions, Fang Weapons, maybe a meal here or there. I've had the blacksmith in Cierzo craft me Blue Sand Armor, which was pretty nice. I also craft makeshift torches to use with my Flamethrower spell. And if refilling your explorer lantern attached to your backpack is considered crafting I do that as well. I haven't gone too deep with it but my playstyle doesn't require it much at the moment. You'll create your own unique way of doing things in the game that is 100% unique to you and what you want to do.

Originally Posted by TheRealFluent
Classes are gained by using your 3 breakthrough points. You can choose 3 classes out of 8. These are the trainers marked on the map as "spellblade trainer", "sage trainer", "monk trainer", "mercenary trainer" and so on. You only get 3 points so you have to choose wisely, and they are the skills that cost 500 silver and give you access to the top class skills of that class. Hope that makes sense. Check out the trainers next time and give it a look. The breakthrough skills are in the middle of the skills panel, with a 500 silver and 1 bp point tag on them, and they connect the bottom panel of skills that anyone can learn to the top panel which are the class specific skills.



Crafting is quite good, but it's as deep as you want it to be. Basic crafting is making a campfire, maybe using a cooking pot to make food or an alchemy kit to make potions. You can craft armors and weapons if you want, or choose to find them or buy them instead. It's very open in how you approach the game, you can do whatever you like and figure out a way to improve your character. There are recipes in the game as well. It's not too complex, but there are a ton of recipes you can learn which usually require 2 or 3 ingredients to make. It's a fun, rewarding and non-intrusive system like the survival aspects are too.

There are also rare ingredients and there are a ton of things you can make. Healing potions, different meals with different buffs, traps, rags and varnishes to add an elemental damage to your weapon, armor, weapons, all manner of other potions as well. There's a lot to it but it doesn't take much, you don't even have to find a workbench or anything, just manually make it with your hands. Also, certain vendors craft rare armor and weapons if you bring them certain ingredients and enough silver (the game's currency). They'll craft you really nice stuff but the ingredients may be rarer to come by.

I usually craft Life Potions, Astral Potions, Fang Weapons, maybe a meal here or there. I've had the blacksmith in Cierzo craft me Blue Sand Armor, which was pretty nice. I also craft makeshift torches to use with my Flamethrower spell. And if refilling your explorer lantern attached to your backpack is considered crafting I do that as well. I haven't gone too deep with it but my playstyle doesn't require it much at the moment. You'll create your own unique way of doing things in the game that is 100% unique to you and what you want to do.

Cool, sounds noce. Thanks for the info.

Is there any kind of player housing beside the first house you have to pay the debt for?

Originally Posted by arthureloi
Cool, sounds noce. Thanks for the info.

Is there any kind of player housing beside the first house you have to pay the debt for?

There's a house with a stash in each of the 4 cities. Not sure if the stash is the same in all the houses, or if it carries over. Haven't gotten a player house yet as I make my way in the wilds.

Is the dark souls combat claim true? Meaning does the combat play comparably to dark souls or is the comparison mainly due to the combat being difficult?

Combat and excessive walking are my only concerns. A lot of the other things I’ve heard sound really interesting.

Is this mostly combat? Are there good stories and quests? Puzzles?

I really like Dark Souls combat. Best sword & shield kind of fighting in any games, ever IMO. Never likes the Souls approach to magic, though. I never finished a Souls game, but the combat with general opponents is great.

Micromanaging inventory sounds like a chore, though. You have a backpack AND pockets. So you can die and be far away from your pack, but still have things in your pockets, for instance. Two different stash areas on a character at all times sounds annoying.

Originally Posted by sakichop
Is the dark souls combat claim true? Meaning does the combat play comparably to dark souls or is the comparison mainly due to the combat being difficult?

Combat and excessive walking are my only concerns. A lot of the other things I’ve heard sound really interesting.

It's not really walking, it's surviving. You have to dodge/deal with enemies, survive harsh weather, manage your sleep/food/thirst but also your "burnt" health, stamina, mana and so on. There's always something going on while walking.

Dark Souls, not sure. The combat is difficult and deadly and there is lock and dodge roll like DS. I haven't played DS to actively compare the 2 though.

Originally Posted by FizzyShellfish
Is this mostly combat? Are there good stories and quests? Puzzles?

I really like Dark Souls combat. Best sword & shield kind of fighting in any games, ever IMO. Never likes the Souls approach to magic, though. I never finished a Souls game, but the combat with general opponents is great.

Micromanaging inventory sounds like a chore, though. You have a backpack AND pockets. So you can die and be far away from your pack, but still have things in your pockets, for instance. Two different stash areas on a character at all times sounds annoying.

Managing inventory is far from annoying. It's actually fun, and not like you think it is. Trust me on that one. I wouldn't even call it micromanaging. It's actually simplistic because you can't carry that much stuff. Set it and forget it.

Souls combat, see above. There's some puzzles but it's mostly combat and survival with story. There are quests and 3 unique faction storylines that are mutually exclusive. There's some lore to start digging into as you play through the faction lines.

Originally Posted by sakichop
Is the dark souls combat claim true? Meaning does the combat play comparably to dark souls or is the comparison mainly due to the combat being difficult?

Combat and excessive walking are my only concerns. A lot of the other things I’ve heard sound really interesting.

Hard to figure out how players managed to compare combat to DS. On what ground.

Originally Posted by sakichop
Is the dark souls combat claim true? Meaning does the combat play comparably to dark souls or is the comparison mainly due to the combat being difficult?

No, combat doesn't play like Dark Souls. Not sure where any such comparison would come from. Perhaps the difficulty, but I didn't think it was DS level.

Originally Posted by JDR13
No, combat doesn't play like Dark Souls. Not sure where any such comparison would come from. Perhaps the difficulty, but I didn't think it was DS level.

I haven't played DS but Outward is very hard. Quite a few enemies at the start can 2-shot kill you, if not 1 shot. As I said there is lock-on in combat, a dodge roll and a high difficulty level. I guess that is as far as the DS comparison goes for me as I can't say much more.

Originally Posted by ChienAboyeur
Hard to figure out how players managed to compare combat to DS. On what ground.

Originally Posted by JDR13
No, combat doesn't play like Dark Souls. Not sure where any such comparison would come from. Perhaps the difficulty, but I didn't think it was DS level.

Several sites are calling it an open world dark souls, even the rock, paper, shotgun review linked here references dark souls. Also several user reviews have mentioned dark souls.

I just assumed they were talking about combat. So i thought I’d ask. Wishful thinking, i guess.

Originally Posted by sakichop
Several sites are calling it an open world dark souls, even the rock, paper, shotgun review linked here references dark souls. Also several user reviews have mentioned dark souls.

I just assumed they were talking about combat. So i thought I’d ask. Wishful thinking, i guess.

It has some basic similarities, but I doubt a Souls veteran would be very satisfied with the combat in Outward. There's no Poise, and it's a lot clunkier by comparison.

I think it's weird that anyone would even make that comparison though to be honest. I'm guessing it's just about the harder than average difficulty because they're certainly nothing alike in other aspects.

I've had my eye on Outward for the past couple weeks or so, and I'm thinking of jumping in this weekend. I'm keeping my expectations in check, though - reviews seem to be somewhat mixed on the game.

Just beat one of the faction storylines at 54 hours. Great game, enjoyed it a lot. I didn't realize just how many of the dungeons were optional. Pretty much ALL of them are! Wow. Definitely a ton left for another playthrough or two. I'm going to put the game down for now and play something new though, but I did enjoy the story even if I am kind of sad that it ended so soon. I was hoping for another 20 hours or so of story content. Guess I can't have everything though. That said it was a great purchase and I look forward in the future to another run as a different faction.

It is interesting to compare Fluent's play with mine. I played 51 hours all in the first area and Fluent "finished" his play in 54. This would be a completionist vs a storyline gamer. Not to say either of us can't be both! So, one map if you go everywhere and touch everything is equal to a whole game's worth of play if you just follow the story. This is cool to me. However, Outward isn't very content dense compared to most open world type games. Gothic, Skyrim and ACO are all WAY more content, but they're also not an indie team of 9 dudes.