Outbound

Do you dream of escaping the mundane of everyday life and exploring the great outdoors in a kitsch campervan? Then look no further than Square Glade's cosy camping sim Outbound. With launch almost here, we've got a taste of what Outbound has to offer and it is definitely more than meets the eye!

From the surface, it would be safe to assume that Outbound was a story-driven game in which players explore the countryside in their campervan, but Outbound is so much more complex than this. Opening with a scenic drive throughout the countryside, the tone of the game is set immediately as birds chirp and the sun beams through the window. It's peaceful and relaxing. After a short drive, you are asked to set up camp somewhere within the forest and one of the first things I did was find the nearest bush, pick some berries, and feed them to the bunnies that were loitering around my campervan. This was a small but lovely detail added by Square Glade, which I think sums up the game perfectly, and they definitely know their audience.

The open-world aspects of this game are exciting, and your nifty to-do list always keeps you in check. Areas require unlocking; for example, a bridge may need 10 planks of wood, or you may need to obtain a blueprint from one of the signal towers to gain a crafting recipe to fabricate certain items to unlock areas. Leading on from this, the crafting system is easy to navigate and very beginner-friendly. I found that it wasn't hard to grasp what to build and how to build it, and I had a ton of fun customising my little campervan.

Another aspect of the game that was really enjoyable was exploring all of the important landmarks on the map, such as the Windmill and the Treehouse, both of which contain puzzles in order to unlock signal towers to download blueprints to progress the game. I liked the core foraging aspect of this game, and it never got too repetitive having to find fibres or wood to power my car, and it felt rewarding collecting enough materials to create a cog to power the Windmill, for example. The lack of stakes to this, however, made it so that crafting food did not become a priority for me, as when it gets dark, Sprint Boots are enabled, which allow you to run across the map and back to your van to get to sleep. Even if you don't make it back in time (which I have yet to do), your character faints and awakens back in the van anyway. This negates any need for food or planning in order to ensure that trips out of the safety of your RV and into the wilderness are well prepared for in order to make it back before nightfall.

I also found that the inventory space was too small, and this meant I had to rely on my campervan being near me at all times to deposit anything that I picked up. This became difficult quickly as the van devoured electric charge at rapid speeds, meaning you can't drive very far until you have to stop and forage for more materials to recharge it. I became tethered to my van at some points due to a lack of inventory space, and I would have preferred having the option to explore the map further on foot with a larger inventory, as foraging is such a core aspect of the gameplay in Outbound.

The world itself is quite simplistic and easy to navigate, which is useful for trips in your campervan but also quite stagnant, with the same biomes and areas being repeated across the entire map. In addition to this, there is little to no soundtrack, which can be nice for those who wish to play with a jaunty personalised Spotify playlist in the background; however, this adds to the isolation felt throughout the game, making it quite bland. The lack of NPCs within the game did make it feel slightly empty, and the only communication is through letters that are scattered throughout the map that the player can read, exclaiming that the homeowner has gone to the flower festival or that the area needs repairing, and they hope that you can figure it out on your own. This did make the world feel slightly isolating, and I think that the game may have benefited from the addition of some quirky NPCs or companions.

The game is peaceful, almost too peaceful at times... Leading me to want something more from the game, like a run-in with some forest creatures or an interaction with another camper. In a similar vein, the voice acting is mediocre but nothing overly annoying or repetitive, just bland, leading me to eventually switch it off in favour of the chirping birds and babbling brooks.

If you are a newcomer to gaming and open-world games, then Outbound is a reasonable first recommendation for you to play. It's simplistic, low-stakes, cosy camping fun with accessible puzzles and foraging elements that are even better experienced as a multiplayer game. Yet, I do feel that there is something missing, as it's almost too simplistic at times, lacking any real dialogue, soundtrack, or NPC interaction. Sadly, Outbound falls short for me in terms of creativity and innovation, and I was hoping for something more.