Few games lately have grabbed my attention and held it like 'Out There.'
I have been watching it since its release but it took my brother to visit (playing it on his android phone) and then a board gaming night (where we played 'Space Alert') to finally get me into the mood to really dig into it.
I turned it on today around lunch; am now on my fourth attempt and have loved every minute (every hour actually, I've clocked 4 I think). Each time getting a deeper understanding of the game and getting a little further.
One of my favorite sci-fi movies is Duncan Jones' "Moon" and this game touches on the same vein and I'm loving it. And until we get a beautiful point-and-click (fan made) version of that movie, this will do...
Firstly the visuals stand out: comic book style eye-popping colours accented with clean fonts but it won't be out done by the sound and music which seems to hold the game in its magical and lonely space journey. I'd love to upload all the screenshots I've been taking but am afraid to ruin the mystery for the players I know who are currently enjoying 'Out There' or who might be (should be) now considering it.
Log entries happen every time you enter a new star system (or dungeon - because the game design is rooted in the Rogue genre) and are interesting, humorous, believable and realistic as they become more and more bizarre the longer our lone hero is isolated in space.
The pace of the game really fits me well at the moment too: no timers, nothing that requires speed. If my kids (or my boss) come to interrupt my game I can simply close the app and continue where I left off - there are no battles (that I have seen) in the way that FTL or Star Command have. The excitement comes instead through the decisions and discoveries you make and risks you take and there are many.
The most original idea is learning an alien language; the more you encounter an alien species the more you learn, slowly working away at it, piece by piece, word by word. It's refreshing and clever and adds to the isolation and strangeness in this deep space adventure.
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