The negative reviews on this game are honestly astounding in how inaccurate they are (there's even someone talking about levels which don't exist in this game). This is primarily due to a rough start to the game (notice the time played in the negative reviews vs the positive reviews) which is fair but all these people talking about how they feel like they do no damage, their weapon swings carry no weight, and there's no progress are complaining because they haven't experienced the progress yet. As this game can be compared to Dark Souls, it's like reading the reviews of people who never got out of the Undead Parish complaining about the drake on the bridge being impossible to beat.

Ultimately, this game is dependent on experience and accumulated knowledge. Knowing how to make money, where to find skills, crafting recipes, attack animations for the various enemies, how to deal with environmental issues and sickness, etc are all key to this game and sadly, that makes a steep barrier to entry which is, itself a valid critique. Just temper those negative reviews with the understanding that all the gameplay elements they complain about have solutions those reviewing are not aware of.

If you're interested in trying Outward, just understand the game actually has no grinding besides the accumulation of personal skill and knowledge and that the early game without those will be rough. Come up with clever solutions to problems, make use of things like status effects against enemies you lack the damage to properly fight, and do not feel restricted to any particular routes or locations. If you struggle with an area or don't want to address it then, simply don't and go explore somewhere else.

Outward is more than just an open world RPG.. it’s an infuriating, relentless journey that dares players to test the limits of their resilience and patience. Having recently thrown myself into its unforgiving world, I feel like I’ve unearthed a diamond hidden in a pile of jagged stones, brilliant, but damn, does it hurt!

You start washed up on a desolate beach, with no guidance whatsoever. Seriously, you’re met by a guy telling you to sleep as if that’s supposed to make any sense! The disorientation is maddening and perfectly mirrors the chaos of this game. You’re not a hero; you’re just an ordinary person with no levels to guide your worth. It’s crazy to grasp, I hated that it doesnt give you at least that. You could 'technically' just walk right to the final boss before you've done anything of worth but you WONT make it... but it does force you to carve your own path, levels be damned and I kind of like that about it. I have played recently and lost all my things, my backpack is very much still there, my clothes, all my other belongings including my silver. Its just locked away in a bandit castle and I am no where near strong enough to it all back.. BUT I soo soo love the challenge!! I want to keep at the hopelessness!! Masochist?! -maybe?

Magic? Sure, it exists, but good luck accessing it! You have to hunt down ley lines—these mystical veins of power that seem to mock you by turning all the landscape purple as you struggle to find them. They represent the hidden potential within all of us, but tapping into that power requires an exhausting amount of effort. It’s like the game is daring you to face the brutal truth of striving for greatness.

Let’s talk about the graphics.. Is this PS2? Sure, they’re not the prettiest, but that’s not what keeps you playing. It’s the raw emotional weight of each desolate area and bustling town that drives you crazy. The combat? Don’t even get me started! It’s punishing and relentless, demanding not just skill but an almost masochistic willingness to adapt and learn from failure. Each defeat feels like a slap in the face, yet you can’t help but pick yourself up and dive back in frantically looking for your backpack and praying you didnt lose everything in your pocket.

The crafting system - Infuriatingly intricate! Arranging candles and tables just right to enchant items feels like an exercise in frustration. But maybe that’s the point.. it forces you to pay attention to every detail, and each small victory feels monumental. It’s maddening yet oddly satisfying. Even cooking 4 ingredient recipes is rough, if you get any of it wrong you're left with unedible food waste and a void where your ingredients used to be but noooo you had to rush it because you were bleeding out and needed nourishment before your crap expired in your pack.. -takes a breath-

When you finally team up with friends.. (good luck getting anyone to play this with you) It turns the struggle into a shared chaos. Sure, the enemies don’t scale(Edit: There is a mod system now that takes 5 minutes to setup and it absolutely does scale - message me for help with that.), and the loot is shared so no, you both dont get that sword or new backpack, and you might find yourselves overwhelmed by who is being targeted and who isnt, but the bonds forged in this relentless battle are worth it. It’s a raw reminder that even in a world designed to beat you down, camaraderie makes the journey less brutal... so long as you have food for you both.

Outward is a brilliantly maddening narrative woven into a fabric of relentless exploration and endurance. As I look forward to the announced sequel and oogle of the beta test demo, I can’t shake the feeling that this game is a beautiful torment, a testament to the extraordinary potential hidden beneath the ordinary struggle. Hope I've at least entertained you in my ramblings. Now get out there champ, you're losing daylight! :)

I struggled to give this game a thumbs-up, but eventually I feel this developer team is worth supporting. This game by itself is bad, 4 out of 10, and I'm uninstalling it after 12 hours of game play, don't get me wrong, I think this game is a gem, I like to see outward 2 improve, the adventurous and exploration feeling you find in this game, you can't find it anywhere else nowadays, I can see where the developers are going, it's a good direction.

So, the deal breaker for me is the combat system in this game, it is just clunky, it ruins the emotion of my adventure. Despite many outward tutorials saying that "If you don't like it, you're playing it wrong", I totally disagree. Here are the problems I see in this game's combat system, and it certainly can be improved:

1. You cannot cancel your attack when it's initiated, that means when you close up the distance and decide to start your attack, by that moment, if you see your opponent start its attack too, you're destined to exchange attacks, with no ability to cancel your current action and get out of reach. Suggestions: Make canceling action possible in attack wind-up.

2. Skills have very long cool-down time, even a kick skill takes 15 seconds to wait, making your combat mostly waiting for skill cool-downs, it's more boring than intense. Suggestions: Make basic skills like kick and counter strike with lower damage and NO cool-down, let player focus on stamina management.

3. Blocking is useless unless you focus on your enemy, you need to face exactly towards your enemy to block the attack, so if you chose to not lock-on enemy, you need to adjust the facing by walking your character towards the incoming attack to successfully block it. I'm not a big fan of lock-on target because you fight not only one opponent in most battles, you need to quickly glance your surroundings while fighting the melee opponents in front. Suggestions: Make blocking face where the player's camera is looking at, not the character's movement.

4. After you initiated your first attack, it takes 0.5 seconds before you can dodge, which is cool, but it takes about 1 second before you can block, why is that? This makes blocking even more useless, it can't be used in aggressive play style, but only used when you want to close up the range with an attacking enemy, and wait for its opening. Suggestion: Make blocking possible after 0.5 seconds of attack animation, and also in attack wind-ups.

Those are the main problems I see in the combat system, I can't see it as a design decision, because it restricts your combat style, which is against the core idea of this game. In Outward, as my understanding with 12 hours of game play, you can't tank much damage, exchanging hits with enemy is a poor decision, the most viable combat style in this game is to run, dodge and block attacks first, and wait for an opening for attack, also push your luck when enemy is knocked down. This combat system punishes you if you try to play aggressive and attack first, since there's a huge disadvantage for doing it, as I described above.