Outland Review

Outland arrived last week on Xbox LIVE Arcade and should be arriving on PlayStation Network soon. The title was developed by a personal favorite studio of mine, Housemarque, who is best known for Super Stardust HD and Dead Nation on PSN. Outland is published by Ubisoft and it offers a mix of platforming aspects similar to Prince of Persia plus an open world style like Super Metroid while adding in a polarity factor similar to Ikaruga.

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At first glance I thought this game was “LIMBO on speed”, but I quickly learned that puzzles aren’t necessarily the main focus of the gameplay. Though it really changes things up as you progress, the basic premise remains the same. You must reach specific points in levels, hit switches, pick up a Guardian key, and defeat a boss. Each area is filled with enemies, traps, and a mix of red and blue ‘energy’ dispensers. Shortly into the game you’ll earn the ability to switch between light and dark polarity at the press of a button, and will be an integral part of the game as you progress.

Destructible enemies including spiders, swordsman, and a slew of others will appear in both light and dark polarity, and you’ll have to defeat them using the opposite polarity. Red VS. Blue …. Vice versa, and no I’m not talking about the HALO series. Does it sound simple? Sure, it starts that way, but after the second level the game difficulty really starts to ramp upwards and you’ll be travelling through puzzles traps that include a mix of spike traps and constant flows of alternating red/blue walls that require precision timing of polarity changes, but continuing to run. At the end of each level, which by the way is noticeably long in length, you’ll battle a boss. Granted I’ve only completely two boss battles so far, but the scope of the battle was great, and it’s been a long time since I enjoyed boss battles this much.

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In addition to everything mentioned so far the game has yet more to offer! If you search high and low during the game, you’ll find items known as the “Mark of the Gods” though I have yet to learn their purpose, aside from the relation to achievements/trophies. Plus you can earn coins from both enemies and vases which can be broken, and in certain areas you’ll have the option to ‘donate X amount of money’ to upgrade your energy, health, etc. Your health is displayed by green hearts and can each hit takes one heart away. Commonly enough you’ll get hearts dropped by enemies, more frequently when you’re low on health. Energy is used for a special beam cannon (DBZ fans, see what I did there?) that annihilates enemies, and it’s energy is separate from the health, and can be replenished by killing enemies or from giant restoration crystals of which there seems to be one in each level.

Aside from the single player, Outland also features a two player co-operative mode where you can play over Xbox LIVE and PSN with other players in a variety of matches. You can choose from the story itself, or you can play the story levels in ‘Arcade Mode’, and you even settle for exclusive co-op challenges. While I’d love to go into detail about this mode, I really haven’t had the opportunity to play it as my work schedule has been conflicting with the common times for people to be online.

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The art direction in the game is truly exquisite and slightly similar to LIMBO it uses a silhouette style, but it adds a mix of various colours and extra layers to the background. I really can’t compare Outland to anything else out there in terms of its visual style, but the mix of light and dark in this shadowy world works extremely well, and you’ll travel through some absolutely surrealistic areas.

Ambient sounds and music are calming at times, but there’s also some very jungle-style drum beats that you’ll hear and these tunes blend perfectly well with a handful of enemies and traps to defeat and maneuver through. The soundtrack combined with the visual style feels like each aspect is meant for the other.

Outland is a truly gorgeous title with very challenging gameplay and should last a solid 15-20 hours if not longer. While the demo slightly represents the full game, it does feel rather empty and simplistic, but be warned this game really gets more intense as you progress, and you won’t find yourself ‘bored’ for any reason. Outland is very much worth the price of admission if you enjoy platformer titles.