Look Outside

An absolutely must play game. Stunning art, awesome enemies and bosses, such great world building, and so much more. Love it.

Great game

I've decided to rewrite my review of this game, seeing as I'm now on what is technically my fourth play-through. Here's my up-front caveat: I think this game is DRASTICALLY more enjoyable on Explorer difficulty. My first crack at it was on Survival difficulty, and the amount of repetition I was forced to endure by its punishing save system made Look Outside pretty much an automatic 5/10 for me. I am the kind of gamer that likes to experiment with minimal min-maxing ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ outside of what I can fluidly manage while still having a good time. Save scumming is a crucial ingredient for this type of gameplay, and Explorer allows that without diminishing anything else about the game. Take that as you will. Now, onto the rest. Look Outside has continuously surprised and delighted me with its story and its writing in particular. The prose describing what you're experiencing is florid in the best way, and pairs wonderfully with the horrific, surrealist art and design of the many, MANY unique creatures you'll run across, both as friends and foes (and sometimes both!). The music is in the MIDI style we've all come to expect from games featuring pixelated graphics, but even if that's not your jam (like me), it still works because the compositions are rock solid and vary wildly, creating tension in one moment and stupefying dread in the next. What I have to praise above and beyond all else is the sound design. It is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ disgusting, and it works SO WELL to sell the setting you're exploring. Every snapping bone, every squish and splash, every pained moan, the rustling, the hissing, it's CONSTANT and really makes you feel like you're trapped in a place that is rapidly becoming unrecognizable to you. There are some jump scares, but they used very sparingly, and some I would argue barely count as jump scares because, if you're paying close attention, they are telegraphed to you in one way or another. That's another beautiful thing about Look Outside: the cohesion AND the chaos. No two of my runs have been the same. I've found different companions, weapons I'd never seen, discovered special moves I didn't know existed, and my last run made it clear eventually that I'd done some things REALLY early and other things REALLY late, which now explains why some of the boss fights seemed damn near impossible while some of the ones the game basically TELLS you are going to be tough, I just breezed through. There's limitations, but the elasticity of the narrative is mind-blowing at times. There's so much you could easily just overlook. It reminded me a lot of Silksong in that vein. Provided you have no issue with playing on "easy" mode (the game is still plenty challenging), I would say Look Outside is a 9/10 experience for me due to its uniqueness, its willingness to take bold risks, and its profound love for player experimentation within its world and narrative. Plus, as a cosmic horror aficionado, this game was like catnip to me from the first time I heard about it, and good lord, it does NOT disappoint. Give it a try. Go on. Look outside.

First off, definitely play on Explorer (Easy) for your first playthrough. It's like Fear & Hunger, but not quite as punishing; absolutely still difficult, but you don't have to worry about getting your arm chopped off from some random guy (funnily enough there actually is an event where you can choose to [spoiler] sacrifice an arm instead of another thing [/spoiler] ). The saving is still restrictive but not nearly as much, and on Easy mode you can save almost anywhere any time. The pixel art is great, unnerving, as it should be for a game like this. The music is solid, and like Minecraft, there will be times when the music is completely silent, only hearing the sound of movement and your environment. It's odd that a game this new doesn't have a borderless windowed option, but not a big deal at all. The game loads extremely fast, which you might expect nowadays especially for a game like this but it's still a positive. I like the characters a lot, got kissed by a guy for some paper and was beaten to a pulp and robbed of my candy by an invisible child, after agreeing to pick up laundry for a conspicuous lady in a trenchcoat. Later on a giant killer mushroom became friendly when I gave him honest feedback about his standup routine and I meet a clown who helped the MC through his fear of clowns via exposure therapy. I'm aware there are various endings so I could see myself getting a lot of playtime outta this. At this point, after getting to 2 versions of 1 of the endings, I'm planning on replaying this until I 100% the achievements, that's how much fun I'm having with it.

One of the best Indie RPG games I have ever played I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of this game. It isn't the type of horror game that gets you by throwing jump scares at you instead its a slow burn ambient horror that you can't help but fall in love with. I found myself caring for the characters and trying to find every secret. plus as a bonus it has quite a bit of replayibility definitely recommend.

very cool

mocne