Outward
PREVIEW
plunge back in. Outward auto-saves for
you constantly, meaning there is no going
back. Make a bad choice and you’re stuck
with it. Lose a battle, and you’ll have to
pick yourself up and find your way back
to it to try again.
After a defeat you can wake up clear on
the other side of the map, so it can take
ages to pick up where you left off (and
there’s no fast-travel, either). I failed a
timed quest because some monsters beat
me up and I woke up too far away to return
to the quest giver in time, which was a
considerable setback. The lesson is clear.
Don’t start fights unless you need to. Flee
when you have to. Make choices carefully.
Always be prepared. Losing isn’t fatal, but
it can certainly be a headache.
I also acquired my first magic spells in
those dozen hours, after a considerably
tricky journey to the center of a mountain
to meet some wizards. And even using
spells is a bit of a survival challenge. To
begin with, you need to permanently trade
some of your maximum health and
stamina to even acquire the mana needed
to cast spells, making yourself physically
weaker in order to become more
spiritually powerful.
And as for the spells I learned, one is
called Spark. It’s weak. It’s wimpy. It does
a bit of damage, and burns enemies a little
over time, but it’s like flicking a lit match at
someone and hoping it overwhelms them.
To really put it to use, I need physical
components. I can mine mana stones
from glowing mineral deposits with a
pickaxe, and then use an alchemy kit
(purchased) over a campfire (crafted) to
mix oil (found or purchased) with those
magic rocks to create fire stones.
With those fire stones in my inventory,
I can cast a flaming sigil on the ground,
and as long as I’m within that burning
magic circle, my wimpy Spark spell will
now burst with power.
It’s a lot of work to cast spells, in other
words, and that work makes it enjoyable.
In Outward spellcasting is a process, one
of preparation and crafting and ritual. It
makes spells feel weighty, makes you
deliberate before using them, and having
used them, feels like an accomplishment
(or a waste, sometimes, if you use them
on creatures that perhaps didn’t justify it).And all this for a simple, low-level fireball
spell, which most RPGs give you as a
matter of course so you’re not out in the
wild with empty hands.
That design follows through with just
about everything you do in Outward. You
need to keep yourself fed and hydrated
and sleep regularly or begin to suffer
negative effects on your stamina and
health. You can lay down a simple bedroll
at night, but you won’t rest as well as you
do in a tent or a bed, and you may be
ambushed in the wild unless you devote
some hours to standing guard—meaning
less replenishment from sleep. You can
get too warm and too cold, depending on
the weather and circumstances, meaning
you’ll want fur clothing for cold climates
and desert gear in arid ones.
Want to visit another region? Prepare
travel rations by cooking meat and salt in
a pot, carry any number of restorative
potions, bring anything else you think you
might need because it’s a long, slow trip
back if you forget something. And all of
that gear weighs you down, right down to
how much water is in your waterskins and
how much money you have on you. Sure,
it’s great to have a few hundred pieces of
silver to spend in the next city, but the
more silver you carry, the less you can
carry of everything else.QUESTS GALORE
I haven’t even mentioned the story! There
is one, and I’m enjoying it, though I’m not
far into it yet. There are lots of NPCs, a
main quest, side quests, plus dungeons,
forts, and caves to explore. I haven’t talked
about weapon skills—you can learn them
by helping NPCs with quests or
purchasing them from experts (I can
throw my lit lantern at someone for a
makeshift fireball if I’m desperate and
can’t cast my Spark spell). You can
increase your health and stamina and
mana, usually by visiting trainers and
plying them with silver.
There’s dozens of recipes for cooking
and alchemy and the crafting of weapons
and armor. There’s a lot going on in
Outward. There’s even local and online
co-op, which I have yet to try. For now I’m
mainly taking pleasure in the survival
elements, the preparation that I perform
before stepping outside the safety of city
walls, my lovely backpack filled with
potions I’ve brewed and food I’ve cooked
and weapons I’ve crafted and repaired,
and maybe some silver to spend in the
next city. If I make it there in one piece.
Chris LivingstonTHE MORE SILVER YOU CARRY,
THE LESS YOU CAN CARRY OF
EVERYTHING ELSEYou’ll need to stay
warm on frosty nights.