Outward Definitive Edition (PC)

Outward Definitive Edition is the rare RPG that actively refuses to make you feel special. You play as an ordinary person burdened with debt, dragging yourself across the continent of Aurai while managing hunger, sleep deprivation, body temperature, and infections alongside the usual business of fighting monsters. Nine Dots Studio built something genuinely unusual here: a survival-RPG hybrid where the world does not scale to your level, fast travel is limited, and dying has consequences that range from 'you woke up in a bandit camp' to 'a stranger dragged you to safety and now you owe them.' The systems stack in ways that are either deeply satisfying or deeply irritating, depending on your tolerance for friction. Combat is deliberate and stamina-gated, closer to slow-burn action RPG territory than anything twitch-based. You build characters through three interconnected skill trees tied to faction choices, and the class combinations open up some genuinely inventive playstyles: a shamanic summoner who hexes enemies before a rogue friend backstabs them, or a weather mage layering elemental priming for combo detonations. The build variety does hold up past hour 40, particularly with the two DLCs (The Soroboreans and The Three Brothers) included in the Definitive Edition, which add new regions, new factions, and additional skill trees. The faction questlines are not BG3-tier writing, but they carry real structural stakes because your faction choice permanently closes off content in a single playthrough. Choices matter mechanically, even when the prose is workmanlike. The co-op is local split-screen and online, and it genuinely transforms the game. Solo Outward is a slow, lonely slog through a world that wants you dead. Co-op Outward is a chaotic comedy of errors where one person sets themselves on fire while the other frantically boils drinking water. Both modes have value, but the game's design clearly breathes better with a partner. The quality-of-life updates in the Definitive Edition smooth some of the rougher edges from launch, though the UI still feels clunky, the dialogue is sometimes stilted, and certain zones involve more backtracking than anyone with a job should tolerate. This is not a game that respects your time, and it knows it. Who is this for? Players who loved Dark Souls for the deliberate pace and sense of earned progress, but wish it had more camping mechanics and less spectacle. Fans of old-school CRPGs who want survival systems layered on top. People who read 'you can die from a bad night's sleep' and find that exciting rather than exhausting. If you want a smooth narrative-led experience with sharp writing and hand-holding quest markers, look elsewhere. Outward's story is a backdrop, not the main event. The main event is surviving long enough to become competent, then using that competence to experiment with weird build combinations across two full DLC campaigns. Mixed Steam reviews with 73% positive across nearly 31,000 ratings tells you everything you need to know about its polarizing nature. The people it clicks for tend to become genuinely obsessed. The people it doesn't click for bounce off within five hours. Knowing which camp you fall into before purchasing is the only real question. Monika, Scout Team