Exploration is a great thing to build your game around, assuming you have something interesting to explore. This Outbound review will give me a chance to try out a game all about slow-paced exploration and enjoying a scenic hike through nature. Is that enough to build a game around? Well, there’s really only one way to find out.
What Is Outbound?
Outbound is a camping simulator/survival-crafting game that sees you driving your choice of magical
camping vehicle (car, small camper, large camper) around the wilderness, discovering landmarks and
learning new crafting recipes. You’ll have a token water and food meter to keep an eye on, but they’re
pretty slow-moving, and it doesn’t take long before they mostly fall into the background. Overall, the
focus is on enjoying the exploration and not on a hardcore survival experience.
That’s not to say that some of it won’t be familiar. Early on, you’ll have to collect a hell of a lot of rocks
and sticks, though things do diverge a bit from there. For instance, there’s no chopping trees down as the
game also features an environmental message front-and-centre, and it would ruin that somewhat if you
were going around committing mass deforestation. You’re also gonna’ have to get used to picking up a lot
of random trash as you go around.
An Environmentalist’s Wet Dream
As well as the aforementioned lack of tree-chopping and picking up trash, Outbound has a few other solar-punk vibes going for it. You’ve got access to an electric vehicle that runs on bio-fuel from the outset, and as you go, you can get wind turbines and solar panels too, so it’s pretty conceivable that you’ll end up with a sustainable use of energy after a few hours of exploration. You also tend to leave no trace behind you as you camp, something all campers could probably do with learning.
That’s not to say that there isn’t any technology on display. You’re constantly having to scout around for a memory stick, a floppy disk (for some reason) and a password to unlock terminals that contain key new
crafting recipes for you to use. It’s a bit of a mystery why this valley filled with eco-hippies have so many old-school computers lying around, but why should we let good sense get in the way of a good time?
On the Road…Again
It doesn’t take long for Outbound to settle into a comfortable routine. Early on, you might have yourself a bit of trouble keeping the resources you need in your inventory, but that need is honestly pretty fleeting. After a while, you’ve got a comfortable handle on resources, and the focus very much shifts to a solely exploration-based experience. You wake up in the morning, drive around new areas until you figured out where the next big landmark is, then explore it until nightfall. Lather, rinse, repeat. How much you’ll actually enjoy the game depends on how much you enjoy constantly wandering around natural environments picking up items and trying to discover new things you’ve not seen before. The truth is that this game is very much a one-string bow. You explore to find stuff that makes you able to explore more. There’s no major storyline, no big mystery to discover, and there are no major changes to the gameplay to keep things feeling fresh, outside of picking up the animal companion promised by the key art.
Calmness & Peace, with a Tedium Side-Salad
If your primary focus when searching for a game is a non-combative, peaceful time, then you’ll certainly find that in Outbound. It’s not unenjoyable, for the most part, and the areas you get to check out are pleasant to explore, but they’re not enough of a draw on their own to make for a whole game. You either have to be an avid listener of podcasts or have some friends to co-op with for an improved experience. A solo journey isn’t horrible, but you’ll find yourself cursing and groaning each time you schlep a long road to a location, only to then realize you left a vital piece of equipment all the way back in your van, and there’s no other player to commiserate with or to help bring extra supplies along.
Slight gameplay hurdles aside, the graphics and sound do a decent job of keeping the vibe, and there’s every chance that you’ll have a whale of a time with Outbound. On the other hand, while it’s a very chill time, it’s not likely to leave much of an impression on its own, and no one could blame you for getting bored with it inside a couple of hours.
The Final Word
Outbound has plenty to offer the right person but is far from enthralling on its own back. The design is good, and both visuals and audio serve their purposes just fine, but that’s not the description of a jaw-dropping experience that will stick around in your head. While it can be improved with either friends or by adding your own entertainment, any game that relies purely on those things without them being an integral part of the design is a game that has stumbled somewhere along the road.
Developer: Square Glade Games
Publisher: Square Glade Games
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, PC
Release Date: 11th May 2026
