Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
Let me tell you about this cozy game my daughter and I are playing together called Outbound. Now, I've been following this game from the initial Kickstarter back in April 2025 to its full release in May 2026. The best Mother's Day gift for myself and my first ever collector's edition in a physical copy!
Outbound is fulfilling my camping itch just nicely with all the visuals and sounds of nature. I've played the single player and have been experiencing a lot of fun and exploration. However, we do have a couple of gripes in multiplayer (more on that later), but we are having a grand time!
We are currently in the third biome and really enjoying hunting for things to complete, rebuild, or fix the various 'attractions.' We even had the pleasure of a hot air balloon ride! The only things missing are the smells and the wind through our hair as we float up.
Gameplay:
Source Energy
You start out in Outbound with an electric powered camper van that starts out at a slow speed, but through the vehicle upgrades the speed increases. When you open the trunk portion of the camper you find the crafting. There's also the motor info as well as the bio burner power plant to fuel the camper. I wasn't good with the minigame in the workbench, but feel free to have fun with it for crafting your tools.
Build
Along with living off grid with your camper van you can build your dream home on top of it. You have access to the upper level with a ladder, and later with the latest fishing update you get stairs to build a multi-level home. There are also blueprints to collect so you can build that awesome home and make more upgrades to your vehicle.
Craft
Your character has a health gauge, food gauge, and there's also the power / fuel gauge for your camper so you know when to stop to power up again. You find many resources for building, food consumption, water collection, and make other parts to fix those attractions you visit.
Grow
As you play, you can build crop plots to grow food for yourself (or your group) and I was amazed at the rating of how much food health you gained from each new recipe we unlocked. After finding the blueprints for the machine needed to cook the ingredients, you can make food that provides up to one hundred percent food health!
Multiplayer
Since I'm hosting our multiplayer game I'll let Susan N. tell her side of the coin for gameplay.
Susan here. Outbound has been quite enjoyable to play both in single player and multiplayer. With Valerie, we've driven across the various biomes, solved puzzles, found multiple gnomeos, and even caught some fish! We've had a great time exploring the world and grabbing plants to grow our own.
I've had the opportunity to do a lot of the driving in our camper van which is quite fun and it allows you to get just about anywhere. Although, there were a couple of locations that were a bit rough to get through like in one of the maps there is a sharp dip in the road filled with some water. That particular section is steep for any vehicle, nevermind the camper van's size or weight.
Anyways, Val and I were able to build a nice house atop the camper van with a couple of lovely fish tanks, an assortment of plants, and as much lighting as we can muster because the lighting is admittedly not the strongest in the game. And it is one of the bigger pain points in the game for us both. Val and I have gone camping together many times over the years and a flashlight or two are some of the first pieces of gear that we pack. In Outbound, the ability to unlock a flashlight or lighting in general is much too late in gameplay, and even at that, the lamps and decorative light for your mobile home is simply not strong enough. The lights barely illuminate anything and the player flashlight is much too harsh at close distances.
That said, there are many other aspects of Outbound that I personally love. I enjoy the lore notes found scattered around the houses and landmark locations. And with every location, you can find a large amount of supplies to be collected for both players - mostly. With the exception of certain later resources that are sparce on purpose, there are plenty of items to gather. Thankfully, most of the items you need respawn quickly.
Now, most of the multiplayer aspects of Outbound are fantastic and the game is really cozy. However, there are some frustrating issues I have found with the multiplayer version of the game. The biggest two have to do with the design of the multiplayer itself, and the lighting.
First, let's talk about the multiplayer design. I will say that it is easy to play with your friends or family since all you need is a succinct five character code to input. Unlike other games where you may need to create a password, you don't need to worry in Outbound. And generally speaking, the multiplayer in Outbound does not have any desyncing to the host player, which is awesome. However, the game struggles with item unlock syncing. As Val is the host of the game, I get to experience the issues of being the other player in the game which is not a bad thing because I have been streaming our playthrough and my PC can only handle so much! Anyways, while Val has all of her upgrades and items unlocked each time we play, I have to pull objects out of the camper for the game to register recipe unlocks. I also have to take time to scroll over all the items in the build menu because the game treats it has having just been unlocked right then. This leads to my having to ask Val to craft certain items because I can't see items in the machines. Once I have done this, then I no longer have the duration of the session. I only have to worry about it on the following stream when we go back in.
Secondly, the lighting in the game is mostly annoying to us both. The floor lamps are not bright enough to cover an area, in fact it seems to only affect the square it sits in. Conversely, the hand flashlight is quite bright, which is great for exploring the great outdoors, it is awfully powerful when you approach a machine or another player. Sadly, I'm unsure what type of solution this would require, but the lighting needs a bit of attention.
Thirdly, there are some interesting issues with falling through parts of the terrain. However, even in saying that, I imagine some of the locations are not meant to be traversed, so I can understand why there isn't always collision where you expect it to be. Val and I didn't find many areas where there were egregious issues with collision, it was noticeable when we did fall through terrain.
All of that said, The multiplayer is mostly seamless which is an incredible feat at times. I will say that Val and I have both had a blast playing Outbound in search of adventure and hunting for gnomeos - clearly one of the best parts of the game!
UI / Graphics:
The graphics style is a low-poly look using the Universal Render Pipeline (URP), and what the heck is that you ask? Well, "The Universal Render Pipeline (URP) is a prebuilt Scriptable Render Pipeline, made by Unity. URP provides artist-friendly workflows that let you quickly and easily create optimized graphics across a range of platforms, from mobile to high-end consoles and PCs." This is a direct quote from the Unity3D website and it is a part of the Unity game engine that is quite popular in today's games. The vibrant colors and 3D environment that is Outbound are fun, easy to navigate, and just an all round wonderful world to drive around in. As an artist I was quite curious about this URP, so I looked it up! You can also read about how Square Glade Games used it here.
There is a little bit of everything in this utopian futuristic game and Outbound has a lot of playability in it with all the little adventures and environments. Susan and I really enjoy hunting down the gnomes (we yell out Gnomeo! each time we see one), so when we find one the other can come see it if she is close to the location. Other than that, I've been taking many screenshots during this game.
The user interface is easy and I am so glad that we have a 'log book' style of menus to navigate. This makes it feel more like being on a camping trip. The first page if you will is your backpack where you also have separate slots for bottlecaps (Remind you of another game? Fallout 3 maybe?) and vouchers. The map takes up the second page and third page is your Task Log where you can see your current objective, any side tasks, and all the ones you've completed. The fourth page is your journal which keeps track of your progress, and the final page is for multiplayer. In order to get to this though, at the start of the game, you have to finish the tutorial. When multiplayer is unlocked in Outbound there is a code you can copy and share with the friends you're going to invite to your game.
There is weather that we experienced days where it rained a few days in a row. You also experience the passage of time as you 'sleep' to 'End the day'. There isn't any combat in cozy games which makes this an awesome exploration game. Yes, you can buy things to decorate your camper with them.
Sound/Music:
Outbound's music is very relaxing in this game and complements the sounds of nature around you. The realism to the sound of the tires on the sandy gravel roads I found to be a little low in volume, but other than that spot on! The attention to the detail of the sounds for each of the crafting machines definitely gives the feel of you actually operating it. Some of the visuals for the machine are cute and interesting. The voice actor for your character is awesome and doesn't overpower the gameplay.
Final Thoughts:
All in all Outbound has been a lot of fun to play and even more of a journey playing this game with Susan. I'm giving Outbound a 10 out of 10 because it has everything I need to camp and have my home with me to live 'off grid'. Oh! I forgot to mention you also get a companion in this game. The dog type you choose with help you carry the items you pick up and be your buddy for wandering around. If you love cosy games like this as much as I do, go get it! It's available in all platforms now.
Score: 10 / 10
0 comments:
Post a Comment