izigame.me

I don't like Steam's reviewing system. There are so many cases in which I don't wanna choose between recommending a game or not. Sometimes there are certain aspects of a game I like and others that I don't. How can I, the reviewer *always* have the right answer for you, the reader? Someone I don't even know personally? Someone I have no idea what they want and expect from a game? Sometimes I just wanna post my own analysis without a "sentence" attached to it. Anyway, small rant aside, I enjoyed Outland.
The game's theming surprised me right away. I don't know why, but I was expecting something futuristic/space themed, but the game is set in a very "primal" and mystical environment. With spirituality and shamans and all that (the whole bright neon blue/red colors probably made me think of Tron).
The game feels like it's going to be boring right away, with enemies and platforming sections that don't do much to challenge the player, but this changes quickly.
Soon in the game (could've been sooner, IMO) you will acquire the power to shift between light (blue) and dark (red). While blue, you are immune to blue projectiles and can harm red enemies. The same goes for red: immune to red projectiles, can harm blue enemies. This allows the game to come up with scenarios that would be impossible to traverse without these mechanics and soon you'll find yourself quickly shifting between colors in order to avoid damage. Not only that, but new enemies appear later on providing the game with some variety to the combat and the platforming sections become increasingly complex. The game achieves a nice middle ground between action/combat and platforming (often having them both at the same time as you are forced to fight enemies in the middle of a barrage of projectiles).
The game can be very challenging at certain points, but due to the abundance of checkpoints spread across the levels, powerups that allow you to quickly dispatch more... problematic enemies for a small energy cost and the occasional health upgrade, you never feel like you are being punished for making mistakes when figuring out the best course of action to tackle the challenges presented to you. The boss battles offer similar variety of action and strategy, and I would even go as far as calling some of them puzzles, because you really need to figure out what's going on in order to beat them.
Finally, the game has a few collectible masks that are hidden in out of the way areas or protected by harder-than-average platforming/enemy sections which unlock concept art or something. I think this may give some replayability to the game, but I don't know. I'm not a completionist, don't care much for these... still, I felt like pointing it out that it is a thing you can do if you're into that sort of thing.
Now what *don't* I like about the game?
Well I can think of a few things, but even though I don't consider them enough reason to warrant this a negative review, some bias is in place (you will see what I mean) and you may find yourself disagreeing with me.
First of all, if my profile picture wasn't enough of a givaway, I play most games with a controller if I can help it... and while I can't say such is the case, I've heard a lot of complaints regarding the controls and calling this a poor PC port. I don't know if that's true, but it's probably better to play this with a controller if you have one just to be safe, or look for other reviews that may explain this issue in more detail if you don't. Personally, using a controller felt fine most of the time with the exception of the color shift command being bound to one of the shoulder buttons which can make it a bit clunky during the combat sections (I would have preferred a face button for this).
Another thing I'm not a big fan of (and this isn't as big an issue as the previous one) is that the animations for your attacks do not match the hitboxes very well, specially for the upwards swing. A lot of the time it'll look like you hit an enemy when you actually didn't and will be annoying until you get used to it. And this really is the only solution to it in the end isn't it? Get used to it. Not ideal.
Bottomline I guess I recommend this game? I mean, if the gameplay I described above sounds fun to you and you can get past the issues I mentioned, then I guess you'll enjoy it? I don't know, I'm not you.
Still, I had more good things to say about it than negative ones, so I guess it is a positive review.
Thanks for reading!