Outward Review (Scone)
Outward is a strange game. You can think of it like an open-world souls-like with survival elements, but the game is not kind to folks who may already be familiar with souls-like combat or survival games. The world is populated with enemies but, in most circumstances, there isn't a clear benefit to fighting them. You'll stumble across dozens of ingredients without a good way to identify what they're for or how they'll help you. You'll walk into an area and start dying very rapidly from weather or status conditions that you've haven't had a chance to learn about yet. When you die, you're likely to end up in a bizarre situation that you didn't get to prepare for. Like all games, Outward needs you to learn how to play within its ruleset, but it doesn't do a great job teaching those mechanics to you.
Yet, I still recommend the game. If you get past those early hurdles (and if you don't that's okay, too; there are lots of other great games) then you'll be free to experience the charm this game has to offer. That charm comes from the environments, the dungeons, in planning ahead for your next journey and possible fights along the way, in constructing a character build, and even in the lethality of combat and the death scenarios.
Exploration is king in Outward and there's a lot of cool stuff to see and find. Exploration, more than any other game element finances your character growth. If you need that exploration and growth to be in service of a clearly set end goal, you may not find this game as fulfilling as others. It can offer a few concrete goals, such as the main story or tough boss fights, but they feel a bit separate from the core gameplay loop. As an example of this separation, you can choose when to continue the main quest after a clearly punctuated intermission. To compare it to another game, it's like choosing when to do Bleak Falls Barrow in Skyrim (just a similar example; playing Outward is not like playing Skyrim). In Skyrim, a significant element of character growth is tied to completing that quest. But in Outward, there's no such gatekeeping. There's perks to completing certain quests and doing them well, or in siding with certain factions, but you can finish most of your build and go nearly anywhere without progressing the story at all. In fact, at the time of this review, I haven't actually done much of the main quest. ^_^;
If you're not sure whether this game is for you, here's what I'd recommend if you're willing to give it a quick try before a possible refund: play the opening sequence, get to the point when you can leave the first town and then go explore for a bit (all easy to do within 2 hours). Don't worry too much about the quest you've been given; it can be a bit stressful and it's not very representative of the rest of the game. You can try the tutorial first, but I'd recommend to do that after exploring (it's always available), since it can take a bit of time with all the info it shares. Here's some tips that may help you.
Outward is a survival game in the sense that everything you do costs something: resources and weapon durability are common to other games, but you'll also spend other things like max health and stamina, especially in fights. If you sleep to recover those, then you'll lose max mana. It can be frustrating early on when the first enemies out the door are wailing on you and you're only getting weaker as they hit you. But, enemies don't necessarily have anything useful for you to loot, and since there's no character experience, it's often better not to engage. You will eventually have to fight, so when you feel up for it, shadowbox with your weapon to get a feel for its timing and range, then practice on enemies outdoors, or better yet, lure enemies into each other so that you can see how they behave. If you don't like your weapon, there's one of every type lying around in the first town. The most difficult thing to adapt from other games is that enemies don't stagger when you hit them, at least not at first, and the AI will see your attack as an opening to counterattack. If all else fails, just run away and recover. When you die, because dying is a near essential part of the game, you'll probably end up somewhere you don't recognize, weakened, with debuffs and maybe enemies nearby and ready to attack. Mercifully, the only things you may lose upon death are time (in the in-game calendar) and possibly a bit of money. Losing time only matters if your doing a timed quest. You may not have your stuff on or next to you after death, but look around and you'll find it soon. Defeat scenarios are meant to be a bit stressful, but accept that you can always recover from them and that mindset can help pull you through an otherwise dastardly challenge.