It’s not very often that you can put titles like Super Metroid and cult shmup Ikaruga down as influences on a title but with Outland, the latest PSN and XBLA release from Housemarque, the creators of the sublime Super Stardust HD have managed to combine such disparate influences to create something truly unique.
The player controls a warrior who is haunted by visions from the past, visions of a hero who keeps the world in balance by harnessing the energies of both light and dark. With this in mind, he sets off after consulting his shaman in an attempt to save the world and hoping to preserve his sanity in the process. Flimsy exposition for sure, there’s just enough to set up the adventure that follows.
As intimated in the introduction there are many influences present in Outland, but crucially it seems to make each one of them its own thing. Best described as a Metroidvania-style 2D adventure, with colour-switching puzzles and challenges to conquer, written down Outland might sound like a slap-dash approach at broaching genres, but it doesn’t even begin to convey just how well it all comes together. In keeping with the likes of the Castlevania/Metroid titles, each new ability that is bequeathed to our silent protagonist will help navigate hitherto inaccessible areas of the map.
Controls are intuitive, but also responsive, making Outland an absolute joy to play. The player will throw their warrior around the environment with abandon as he slices, climbs and wall jumps with flawless execution. There’s a grace evident in how our hero moves, and if a move is mistimed or a jump is missed then it will be the player’s fault rather than the game, something that is pretty much essential in a title like this.
The nod towards the much-vaunted Ikaruga is that the world is littered with areas and enemies that are colour coded, either blue or red. The player will need to switch to the appropriate colour to inflict damage on an enemy (red if the enemy is blue and vice versa) and to avoid taking damage, switch to the matching colour. But it’s not just enemies that have this colour coding and there are puzzles to be negotiated along a similar vein, with moving platforms that only become active when the player is the corresponding colour and requiring split-second timing in places. Even when they make an appearance, boss fights adhere to the same system and while not terribly taxing, avoiding their attacks and switching polarity at the same time will test the player’s dexterity.
There’s a real sense of class and presentation permeating through Outland. There are numerous secret areas and spoils contained within to discover, along with portals for use in co-operative play modes with a friend online. The minimal HUD conveys exactly what’s required with no clutter, with a health meter that depletes from each strike from an enemy. Even the way checkpoints and saves are handled is exemplary, never too far apart and always in just the right place to afford the player some breathing space after a particularly taxing section. It all feels well planned out and lovingly executed.
To say that it all looks beautiful would be something of an understatement. The almost shadow puppet style means that backgrounds look like layered cut-outs placed in front or behind each other, punctuated with rich colours and a level of detail and crispness that static screenshots cannot do it justice. There’s an almost Polynesian tribal look to the architecture and surroundings which helps make it look all the more distinctive and the main character has a grace of movement that is beautiful to watch; all swinging, jumping and generally looking the part. This animation extends to enemies that the player will encounter too; the giant ant like creatures have a menacing gait to them, and the shuffling warrior types disguise a brutal charge attack that, while being heavily telegraphed, is not to be taken lightly.
All of this combined makes for a well executed, albeit linear, experience but one that has some leeway built into proceedings in the form of exploration and finding hidden areas. The completionists out there will want to find all the secrets or work out exactly how to get to those tantalising out of reach areas, sating their OCD tendencies as some can be devilish to solve.
Tight, highly focused and brimming with confidence, Outland is an excellent experience that skilfully manages to fuse different genres together in an adventure that will live long in the memory of those who enter its strange and unique world.
