Outward Definitive Edition Review: Half Redemption

In 2019 Nine Dots Studio has released a bold and fiercely hardcore RPG on PC, whose good insights have had to contend with a rough realization. Son of a budget definitely below the Canadian team’s ambitions, over time Outward it was a courageous title, thanks to the satisfying survival experience that it knew how to offer but not for this without qualitative fluctuations related to the technical sector and the combat system.

The arrival on the next generation consoles of Outward Definitive Edition – which includes the DLCs published over time – therefore marks an opportunity for redemption for Nine Dots, a sort of second chance to offer an unprecedented audience the good things in the original experience, which for the occasion was partially filed. The result, unfortunately, did not convince us very much, and now we explain why.

What’s new?

Once you have started the game and created your character with the few tools made available by the editor, you will find that the incipit of Outward has remained what it once was. Having escaped a disastrous shipwreck, we are informed of the “blood price“, that is a large debt that we will have to repay in gold coins within a certain period of time. Without further clues about the fate of our alter-ego we will therefore have to get busy exploring the game world and completing the various quests assigned to us to collect the money required, all in a context where the information about the progression of the adventure is sipped almost like in a soulslike.

In any case, considering that the base game is the same, we refer you to our review of Outward to learn more about the details of the formula devised by Nine Dots. That said, the main course of this new edition are the DLC The Soroboreans and The Three Brothers, which extend the content of Outward in a rather generous way. The first takes us to the Sorobor Academy, a historic institution where Aurai’s brightest minds meet to “create” the future of the world. With this trick, spells are inserted (which can improve weapons and equipment by applying buffs of various kinds), two new skill trees, vampiric weapons, the corruption a new type of status to constantly look after as well as fatigue, hunger and thirst, and above all a series of quests related to the new region of the Ancient Plateau.

The refined level design of the new explorable areas and the light, pressing and never too didactic writing make this DLC a precious addition both in quantitative and qualitative terms.

Even more significant, however, is the contribution given by The Three Brothers, which introduces the mechanics of city ​​building – which will allow us to rebuild the Sirocco refugee camp – and the new area called Caldera, full of treasures, secrets to reveal, tough bosses, etc. There is no shortage of news regarding the arsenal available to our fearless hero – who can now also count on grenades and advanced arrows for his bow – and secondary activities such as the gladiator arena.

New version, same problems

If it is true that the DLC contained in Outward’s Definitive Edition help to expand and make the playful offer of this unique survival role-playing game even more attractive, it certainly cannot be said that the considerable naivety that afflicted him since his childhood has certainly been overcome. first cries. Unfortunately, the new edition retains all the problems of the past and turned out to be an even more anachronistic production than it already was in 2019.

The first major stumbling block that undermines the overall experience it’s the crude and cumbersome combat system, which makes it difficult to read enemy attack patterns and relies on problematic hitboxes to say the least. While not the pillar of the playful structure as a whole, a combat system that trudges so visibly can only often be frustrating, to the detriment of what could otherwise be an exploration capable of generating enthusiasm. However, it is clear that, at least on the technical front, there was the desire to correct the shot a little, but not on the front of the general polygonal size.

If we add to this the animations of the characters, which to date are even more clumsy than in the past, and the obvious problems of fluidity, with a frame rate that has remained unstable and capable of ruining the pleasantness of the action on numerous occasions, it is clear that the title of Nine Dots Studio has failed to make significant progress.

In short, if on the one hand we have found a great variety of contents, now extended even more thanks to the DLC and a wide range of playful options, which were already appreciable in the original version, on the other hand we came across a sector poorly optimized technical and a fair amount of bugs and glitches.