Telling On Outbound
I wrote a review on Steam for Outbound and want to add it here. Having aggregated the other negative reviews and their stories, I feel this backlash is more than personal opinion over a perceived bad game. Outbound is false advertising and should not be supported until the devs invest in a complete product.
What's more, many people on Steam have pushed back on the negative reviews. In doing so, they dismiss false advertising as personal preference rather than a profound problem. Alienation when one feels scammed needs to be seen by the community, especially give that this is not an isolated issue.
Outbound is false advertising and, at its worst, a scam. The community has every right to feel alienated.
-
>No Spoilers, per se - I describe expositional elements, light inventory-related spoilers, and the general mechanics of the game
I just found the cozy genre.
My last game was Wanderstop, the most gorgeous "cozy" existentialist game I may ever play in my life. Before that was Camper Van: Make it Home. Fantastic. Cozy. Everything they advertised. And the Memento demo? Priceless. Can't wait for that release.
Although I am newly attached to cozy as a genre, I don't think it's opinion to say, "Outbound is not a cozy game."
Now, you who are my cozy brethren, what is a cozy game? It's generally one in which you don't have stress, right? A game in which the mechanics, themes, and environment are not fussy, debilitating, or even really a consideration. Unlocks come naturally, as does discovery and tonality.
Outbound is not the aforementioned qualities. It's fussy. Very fussy.
This is a Trojan horse, my burrito blanket'd brothers and sisters and amalgamations. This is a loop on steroids and no one is safe from fussing. You find yourself on your car. It stopped raining. You drive somewhere. You get out. You light a fire. You celebrate mankind's mastery over nature. You pick stuff up. You put it in the car. You move the car. You find a Main Objective. You get out of the car. You pick the three assets up. Curiously, these are the same assets from the last Main Objective. You might read what seems to be a story, but that's another Trojan horse, you dreamy, snooze-pilled wonder, you. You head back in the direction of your car (or $3 school bus). You pick up a mushroom. Suddenly the world doesn't pass as quickly as it did. Why? Don't wonder too long, sleepy goose: like an inebriated gazelle, you slow down. Your character exclaims how heavy her backpack is. You open your inventory to investigate. You didn't realize the tickets the game forced you to lock to your inventory are literally the same weight as huge metal pieces. Why would they make THAT a mechanic in a cozy game? Dunno. This is a survival cozy game. It's getting dark. Your legs are molasses. Fear. You drop resources. You can run again. Thank god. But wait, the sun has fallen. Remember how this is a survival cozy game? Surprise, you nap-cored, blanket-forted cherub: your legs turn to jelly in the dark. But wait, you're SUPER slow now. You just dropped all that stuff 50ft away. 1+1=2, you might as well grab your stuff again. So you go back. Slowly. You pick up the stuff. Quickly. You turn around. Slowly. Back in the direction of the car you go. You scream to the Heavens for an absolution. You are Booboo the Fool. You wonder why are you still here? Just to suffer? Every night, you can't light a campfire because it's raining again and where did your $25 go, my gentle slumbercel? You goofy goober. Yo̶u cap̷itall̷̹̈́̒i̸͎̋͂ͅṡ̸̨̭m̴̰̙̾͊ ̸̟́͝w̶̨̒h̷̡͐o̷͉̿̒ṙ̶̖̱r̴͎̮͗ṟ̷̡́̑
Outbound promises it's Raft on wheels without the man-eating sharks. Drive around. Gather resources. Find iconic locations. Build your base.
Smooches to Raft - great game.
"If great game and same game, why problem, Kimno?"
If you remove the sharks from Raft and modify zero of the mechanics, that's still a STRESSFUL game.
The worst thing I can say about any media is "it's boring." It means I haven't found something to grab onto, like thoughtful mechanics but poor delivery, perhaps a story that isn't told well but has something to say.
Outbound is boring.
→ At worse, it's a scam.
Through lack of anything to hold on to, I asked for a refund.
I understand that the team has a roadmap but this should have stayed in development, certainly not with a $25 price tag, $32 with the DLC. I know I didn't see it to the end, but much like anything, the sunk-cost fallacy is a fallacy for a reason: I should not have to labor for enjoyment when I have traded money for the joy.
I'm not sure what went on behind the scenes to set this to launch. Maybe it was rushed. I don't know. All I know is that I have had my time wasted. This is alienating.
And so, Outbound, we're fighting. Until I get that time back through some allowance of joy, I've drawn a white line in the center of the room. I've got the fridge on my side. No snacks until this is better.
-
>This is the edit to my review on Steam after reading others' negative reviews and the dismissive comments underneath. I opened the comments in my review before posting here, although it's weird someone would call me out for not doing so. The internet isn't exactly kind, as I gesture non-passively to the comments in this post.
If you liked this game, no one is attacking you. Most of these reviews are not angry at a perceived problem or personal offense, such as difficulty or mechanics. The negative reviews reflect a mass of people who feel alienated. It's clear they want to like this game and feel disappointed.
To everyone who rated this down with a heavy heart, I see you. It's not easy to rate anything down especially when you waited so long, when it's a small dev team, and you want to like it. In addition, I was unaware of the Kickstarter element as of writing the above and I'm sorry to hear the alienation behind your thoughts - what happened it not right. Really, really not right.
Let's visit The Silk of Song. People bitched about SKONG. "It's too difficult. X boss made me cry. A GIRL bug? In this economy?" All personalized feelings that regard mechanics and perceived problems. All valid. All useful.
I enjoyed SKONG. That's my experience. And everyone is not me: we enjoy things differently, That's okay. Personal preference has every right to be in the conversation.
However, the Outbound backlash is not about preference: this is a scam even if unintentional.
Take a peek at Outbound's marketing. Open world. Cozy. Iconic landmarks. Diverse biomes. You can read my review above for my experience and why I take issue with these features. In summation: it delivers none of these primary features. None of them. You could fight me on biomes, but that's reaching for a single tree in a forest of issues.
This is an inventory manager and Kickstarter letdown masquerading as Raft without sharks. The issues are more profound than "I didn't like this game" and you need to spot the difference.
I am allowed to dislike the thing you like. You are allowed to like the thing I dislike. But you cannot debate how someone feels, nor how alienating it feels to get scammed. The community has every reason to be pissed and any dismissal of that is gross: we paid money for a product. The product isn't as advertised.
If you're okay with what Outbound is, neato. I've got zero issue with your enjoyment. But do not seek out alienated people and debate them.
Additionally, the Kickstarter supporter reviews speak for themselves. Y'all are out of your mind for debating them and shifting the blame on Kickstarter themselves. If evidence changes, alright, we shift our perspective. But that doesn't mean the alienation disappears overnight. Again, that's a tree in a forest issue.
To those who feel like a thumbs down is disrespectful to the devs, consider the content of the reviews before you beat your chest.
→ We know this is a small team.
→ We want to like this game.
→ A lot of people were so excited for this, and profoundly let down.
In addition, consider that it's disrespectful to publish an unfinished asset, yoink $25 with the promise of more to come, and ask people to take their negative reviews down if they give them a refund. It's WILD more people aren't upset about that.
These issues matter to people who still have that $25 bill in their pocket. Do you want them to feel scammed? do you like it when people make uninformed decisions? or is this more an issue of your ego?
People who wasted their money have *every right* to name their frustrations and protect other people, you gosh darned silly goose ding dong goober.
I hope the dev team listens and improves. God knows No Sky's Man is the ultimate underdog story: they were the good guys in the end. There's no reason this team can't take the money and build something great.