Beginning Outward (Musing)

The opening hours of Outward are fascinating to me.

When you first start the game, assuming you’re coming to it mostly blind, you begin with nothing and are forced to learn the intricate systems by trial and error.

My first play, I managed to get enough supplies to step outside the gates, got mauled by hyenas and woke up in a random spot on the map. I discovered that the map had no marker for my location, and I had barely stepped outside Cierzo so I had no context or landmarks to go by. My character was hungry and thirsty and infected, and the location I awoke in was a hyena den. It took me hours to get back to town, fleeing across unknown landscapes vaguely westward in the dark. In the end I lost my first backpack, not noticing it at my feet due to having no lantern or torches prepared, and completely botched the very first quest.

Getting my first 50 silver and buying a passive upgrade was an achievement! Everything slowly began to open up and become manageable as I learned more and more. It was an experience not unlike Dark Souls, though I hate to make the comparison.

Now, I have sunk many hours into the game and have used multiple builds to finish each of the faction quest lines and some of the “DLC” content (I’m playing Definitive).

The opening hours are like meditation, now. I know where everything is, how to skate by most of the quests through preparation, how to abuse cooking and alchemy, and I have a good grasp on the combat mechanics. I’ve run from Cierzo to Berg so many times I could do it in my sleep. I understand the crafting better. I utilize the blacksmiths.

It’s a game in which the difficulty and the “fun” are scaled by your knowledge of the game, and it’s been infinitely rewarding to try so many things and to see how each part interacts and intersects.

I love Outward. I imagine many people bounce off of it in those opening hours. But I am equally sure those that stuck with it are generally happy they did.

Curious about your first time experiences. Did you run out blind like me? What sort of adventure did you have on your first time beyond the walls of Cierzo?