Visual Out is a solid metroidvania
Visual Out is a solid metroidvania with cool visuals, cool music, and directionless exploration. If that sounds up your alley then you should give it a shot.
(Note this review will have minor spoilers and that the dev and I are mutual follows on Twitter.)
I’ve been loosely following game for a few years now. Other than the appearance I didn’t really know what to expect when going into it. What I found is a very solid metroidvania that has some unique twists.
This game is probably most similar to something like Axiom Verge or Environmental Station Alpha. It’s use of shaders, the opaqueness of some of its puzzles, and themes are similar to those two games. However, it unique enough to not be derivative. Visual Out challenge doesn’t come from precise platforming or tough bosses, rather it’s more about giving the player enough information to figure out where you can go.
Example. Late in the game when I was looking for all the final upgrades, I noticed one peeking in at the top of screen in this one room. I couldn’t get to that point in the room from where I was so I opened the map and looked for other entrances. That took me to one room that required the use of one ability to hold open the door to where I would find the upgrade.
This game has a lot of stuff like that. The map in available to you right from the get go. You even see where all the doors are. You only get an indicator of where you are when at save points, but it’s not large enough for you to get easily lost. “Wait there’s another exit to this room? OH the texture on this wall is different. Yeap, it’s a false wall.” That’s essentially what a lot of Visual Out is. You have a good chunk of the information, you just need to figure out how to apply it.
This game has some fairly unique abilities. There are the common stuff like double jump and air dash, but you also get stuff like a rope that lets you manipulate objects and an ability called jammer that does different things depending on what it touches. These two abilities allow for some fairly interesting puzzle design.
This is exemplary in the boss battles that are unique, but bizarre. They are probably the most opaque thing in this game. Often times I spent a lot of time going “what am I supposed to do here?” until eventually figuring it out. Some of them are easier than others, and some of them are way more interesting than others, but all and all they’re pretty cool.
This game does have some roughness to it. During the final boss I had a bug where the music stopped playing. Which was real unfortunate as the boss music was real good! At another point, I found myself stuck in an area that has this guys that create or destroy blocks. Some of the level design is a bit of chore. You have to turn off or on power of an area to open certain doors and that makes exploration a bit cumbersome at times. The world isn’t that large so it’s not a major thing, but it does get in the way.
I enjoyed my time with Visual Out quite a bit. I spent about 5 hours and got 98% of the upgrades. If you’re a fan of metroidvanias and am looking for something to play, I’d highly recommend Visual Out. It’s on itch.io and Steam.