I was venturing into a new biome to deliver a ledger to a shopkeeper in Berg, a distant city. This was mostly an excuse to get out of the cold weather in my home biome that had recently turned wintery. Cold-proof armor was too expensive and other cold-combating methods weren't long-term solutions. The journey to the new area takes the better part of a day, during which I nearly freeze to death. I step over to the new area and find myself in a bright, sunny forest.

Within a few steps I see a purple glowing spirit, a new enemy type. I was feeling moderately confident with my combat abilities, especially since this was just one enemy. Bad idea. I get him about halfway down, but a couple of hits knocks me out. I wake up in a subterranean cave, kidnapped by impish monsters. I recover my gear and slowly sneak my way out, killing a few enemies along the way as carefully as possible. I run out of arrows and have to craft more, I run out of mana potions, and it seems like I'm heading deeper into the cave before I'll be able to get out. In the distance I hear the sounds of fighting. They're not after me, something else is fighting. By the time I arrive, all of the rest of the imps are dead, along with something called a manticore. All the bodies provide enough loot to fill my pack, and I find the exit to the cave.

I'm back out in the forest. Some of my food has spoiled and it seems to be a different day. What's worse, I'm in a completely unfamiliar part of a completely unfamiliar environment and the map, while detailed and useful, does not indicate where your character is. So, low on supplies and loaded down, I have to figure out where I am by cross-referencing the map with things I can see in the environment. I'm between a large lake and some ruins up on a mountain, and that's enough to tell me that I still have a long journey ahead of me before I reach the city of Berg, and the shopkeeper waiting to pay me.

It's a long walk to Berg, at least travelling carefully like I felt compelled to. If I ran into an enemy that bettered me, I wouldn't die. I'd potentially be moved again. I'd perhaps lose food and bandages to heal back up. And I'd have to find my place in the world again. So we're travelling carefully, not venturing far from the path. I do find some new armor befitting Waymore's spellblade build in a roadside chest. I have to sneak around trees and hills to avoid roaming pairs of bandits. I'm continuously keeping eyes on the magic pylon to the west, knowing Berg is just north up the path. Finally, after a few days in game and a few hours in my seat, I arrive at Berg, unable to remember the last time I was so happy to get to a city in a videogame.

If it was your bog-standard open world game, so many little things that made this journey so harrowing and satisfying wouldn't have happened. In most games, I'd never be forced to relocate to a different climate on account of bad weather. I wouldn't feel compelled to travel multiple days away for a random quest given by a merchant, but guaranteed paydays in Outward aren't terribly common. In other games, running into a new and powerful enemy would simply result in my death and reloading instead of being kidnapped and dragged to a completely different part of the map. And most games would be more than happy to tell me exactly where I am on this new map and likely give me a fast-travel option to get to the city quicker. I'm not saying all games should be like this, but I'm glad Outward is like this.

Compelling writing, well done! I've been somewhat intrigued by this game, and this certainly increased my interest. Although I might appreciate this sort of "harshness"/less forgiving nature and commitment to exploration and mystery more in theory than in practice - at least, it has to be done really well and propped up by satisfying systems. But I also really appreciate that there are games like this.

@manburger: Thanks! It's decidedly a very inconvenient game in several ways. Encumbrance is rather harsh and gradually slows your movement until even your sprint is a walk and drains your stamina faster. But it puts me in the mindset of bringing only what I need for the specific journey I'm taking. Mana only automatically regenerates after your character becomes sleepy, so it makes the days longer. But it also feels like your character has given something away for the ability to cast spells. The failure system is really interesting in that you'll never die, but you might find yourself in a situation you'd rather just reload from, but you can't. It forces you to deal with your failures and hasty decisions in a way few games do.

Bad open world games: Marker Pox Maps to-do lists

Good open world games: sheer pants-filling terror you must tame