Quick Look: Out There: Ω Edition

neat!

Yus!!

The summary of this game on steam sounds pretty cool: "Out There is a space exploration game blending combat-free roguelike, resource management and interactive fiction in a 50's sci-fi setting."

Still not sold though, hopefully this quick look will clear things up for me.

Or as Dan Ryckert calls it Out There: God of War Symbol Edition.

Oh, I thought it was Ohm edition. I had some resistance to the idea that it was anything else.

...I'll show myself out.

I like this.

Dad jokes...

Ohmega

I adored the mobile version of this game. A lot of fun and the game that sold me on the idea that mobile games can be 'good'.

Also, the joke at the beginning about brain pregnancy reminds me very much of one of my very favorite pieces of media. Won't name names (cause do to so is a massive spoiler, which you couldn't even know was being spoiled until you saw it). But hey, if you got the same reference I did, hooray for us!

Also, this game is like FTL in one other major way. Once you understand the systems, you get better at it.

Like, space becomes less of an issue when you realize that no you don't need to keep every single mineral you find. Fuel and Iron yes, everything else, can be tossed unless you already have a system that needs it to be build/repaired. Even 02, which is the 3rd most important thing, is easy to refill. There is a mechanic to split stacks so you can dump only half your iron into repairing, instead of all of it and etc etc.

The game can be played real fast and loose. You don't need to/are not expected to stop at every planet in every system. Jumping 3 systems one right after the other, refilling at a gas giant and repeating is a viable strategy. You see more random events, you have the chance to run into more free-refill/abandon ships and so on.

I really liked the original version of this game, played it on a tablet, it was a nice surprise(played it before playing FTL). One thing they didn't happen to come across in the Quick Look is that you can find other ships to migrate to, some that have more room for storage, some have less room but beneficial tech. Overall its a pretty cool game that you can put headphones on with the lights out and take it in...or it also does well in a multitasking environment, casually taking action turns while watching tv or something.

This looks kinda awesome.

Played several hours of this on iOS and thought it was really neat. The atmosphere is real dense.

When I bought this, I got burned a bit thinking it was more of a rogue-lite than it actually was.

That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed this game. As a PC gamer I usually try to stay away from mobile games that are ported to PC as they're usually not great. But this game is a good, even if it's originally a mobile game.

It can be frustrating when you're first starting out. However, once you get a grasp of the gameplay, it is pretty great and vague enough that forces you to figure things out and get a game over to figure out additional information.

Space is the place.

I think I'll check this out on my android device. Looks like a lot of fun.

The style of this game reminds me of Flotilla. Might have to check it out.

I just downloaded this and played a couple of hours of it. It's fun. It's really damn fun. Especially when you figure out how to min-max your resource expenditures, it's really fun just trying to piece the story together

BUT

There is a game-breaking bug where suddenly you become completely unable to click on menu buttons, requiring a force-kill. The bug, strangely enough, persists throughout the save, and I've had it on every save I've gotten far enough in. It's a pity, it's a really great game, but that bug renders it completely unplayable. I'd say stay away until they get that patched up.

Good on the developers for securing the elusive Scooby-Doo license for the main menu!

I played the original Out There on my iPad a year or so ago but I didn't really like it after a couple of hours. It just sent me running back to play more FTL.

This is also on Android... but who cares about Android, right? ;)

When I played this, literally every element I wasn't actively using then and there got junked. Carbon, gold, no systems using it, don't care, get in the airlock.

@bonzaiimonkey: Bravo, sir. Bravo.

Reading is for nerds!!!

I want to bury my face in the bosom of this game's soundtrack.

Cracking some Ohm's based humor. Nice

Were you hoping it was more Rogue or more lite?

Ωy god, I love you.

...aaand I just got to Vinny's ool/latinum joke. Goddamn, this is the bestworst nonsense ever. Love dem doofy goofs!

"In case I had played the other versions" what?! @vinny@alex I think the ending got cut off on the Youtube version?

I was so proud of myself when I spotted that it's just the periodic table of elements.

I need friends.

Inventory management the game?

Unable to just toss harvested mats straight into the ship seems cumbersome.

@lockonandfire said:

Yeah, at the start, it's only worth keeping hydrogen/helium and iron on your ship at all times. Multiple stacks of hydrogen/helium and iron, even. But when you get late game and have a bunch of different systems that require the other elements should they break and need to be repaired, it gets a little trickier. Early game like Vinny was, there is no reason to carry around carbon, thorium, platinum, etc. It's only worth getting that stuff after you randomly find a blueprint and actually need any of it. Also Vinny's double drilling/probing is crazy; I generally drill/probe once (at like 9 or 10) then move on. I'm pretty sure it halves the yield each time, so Vinny drilling like 3 or 4 times is just a waste of time. The diminishing returns on what you get out of repeated probes are probably why Vinny finds himself running out of fuel.

Also, halfway through each playthrough, the malevolent force shows up and "occupies" like half the planets you come across, meaning you can't land on them. Which makes the game even more RNG because sometimes they just fuck you over and occupy every "life planet" so you have nowhere to get oxygen from and you just die.

I still think that's a lame way to make the second half of the game harder, unless they've changed it since I played the mobile version.

Also, @brad might like this game? It hews into hard sci-fi in some interesting ways. Like most of the endings are pretty grim, because the main character acknowledges that he has been floating in space for months (years?) in a space ship that wasn't designed for that kind of exposure, so the cosmic rays have hopelessly irradiated him and he probably doesn't have a great lifespan.

Not a lot of sci-fi games get into that kind of stuff.

Love the vibe in this one.

Man, that voice-over for the intro sounds a lot like Christian Slater to me. Kinda unnerving...

this looks dope. imma get dis

balls deep, haha

The art style is absolutely amazing. Not sure I could get past that inventory system though.

@vinny@alex If you guys enjoyed this style of game you should check out 80 Days. It's excellent.

Video notes?

Yeah, I see that too. @vinny, what is this?

Aaaaaaaand bought.