Poll of the Day > Reviewing 'Outside'

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Unbridled9 12/08/21 4:46:47 AM #1:	I've been trying this new game called 'Outside' or, as known by it's fanbase, 'Real Life', and I have to say it's quite atrocious! Whoever designed this game should be fired from the industry and never allowed to return! For starts, character creation. The loading servers are so massively laggy and ineffecient that it literally took me 9 months to simply get my first character! 9 MONTHS! FFXIV is catching massive flack for 1-2 hours but this dev is at a 9 month log-in time! Once I finally got to the character creation screen I was shocked and disgusted by the fact that all characters are semi-randomized with the ability to actually customize a character being out of the players control. I'm no stranger to set characters in a game (obviously) and even a lack of options for games with 'customizable' characters, but I didn't get to pick any of my features and they were picked at random. This is horrible game design! I can't even choose between a male and female randomized. It's one and done and I have to delete the character entirely to get a new one. I've heard it's possible to adjust features later on in the game but the cost to adjust even a small feature is stupidly expensive, let alone do something like change my character's gender. But okay. Fine. I finally spawn into the world only to find out that the game is MASSIVELY tutorial obsessed and hand-holdy. They won't even let you use the chat function until you go through a lengthy tutorial on it's use and even then it's only a few basic words they'll let you type. You have to wait several levels to gain full access. I suspect this was put in place to stop gold farmers but it was just so annoying. And then it was another long movement tutorial. While I applaud their dedication to realism it took way too long to complete this tutorial along with several other, basic, tutorials. And then what do I get for completing this? ANOTHER tutorial! Not even one related to what I planned to do in the game, but rather a tutorial on the games lore and providing a primer on the various classes, systems, and the like. Worse, this was a tutorial I couldn't just skip through as they provided tests to ensure you understood the material. This was so annoying and a needless irritation. I had planned to specc into a tec-priest and here I was being tested on what the heck the powerhouse of the cell was. If I wanted to be a cleric I would have rolled a cleric! Then, at long last, I FINALLY finished the tutorial and got set out to explore the world. On the plus side it is advertised as being massively open-world with self-determined objectives and the like and the game delivers there. It seemed wonderful and like I would be allowed to explore and do whatever I wanted (I wanted to see if my tech-priest could punch out a bear or at least go exploring). Then I got SLAMMED with a wall of surprise mechanics that got introduced over the years and, for some reason, didn't get brought up in the lengthy tutorial. More on that later. The first terrible thing I discovered is that this game is divided into a multitude of factions. Worse, you don't get to choose your faction alignment. It's set when you spawn and it's extremely difficult to change it. The faction demands tribute in the form of gold and you have no choice but to pay or else the faction becomes hostile to you and may even kill your character. It's only optional in the sense that you can choose to run and hide like a coward and maybe not be found by the guards. Within these factions there are a series of guilds of various sizes and the like. They tend to require their members put in effort to handle tasks but are at least willing to pay gold for it. So because I didn't want to aggro my own faction I immediately applied to the first guild I could find 'Order of the Golden Fries'. The guild was HORRIBLE! I had to grind up my cooking skill (Why is there always a cooking skill) or serve as a front-line tank against hostile mobs. I then discovered that the guilds don't let us keep the loot drops from these mobs but, instead, take it for themselves and give us a small portion back. I suppose without them I wouldn't be able to run this dungeon, but I feel cheated still. Worse, the dungeon boss Kah'Reen of the Thousand Screeches was obscenely difficult. My character is a tech priest and had to function as a tank against one of the hardest bosses in the game! I left that guild before long and found a new job at 'River Deliver'. They seemed to offer a much better amount of gold until I found out that they demanded a simply obscene amount of effort for their dungeons. So much effort that the only way to get promoted was to suck up to a higher-ranked guild member or backstab another guildee to seem better by comparison. This was even worse than the first guild. I noticed I was now suffering a debuff from a lack of food and shelter. I was surprised at this as, while games usually take away a bonus if you don't have those things, they've never debuffed me before. I found out that this was ignored during the tutorial for the sake of new players but now that I was out of the tutorial... I tried to get some food and found some 'noodle soup' on the cheap. I thought it was a good idea and, while it did eliminate the hunger debuff, it gave me a different (though less bad) debuff called 'poor diet'. I then looked for shelter. I didn't expect to get player housing on the cheap, but if there was a debuff for a lack of shelter I expected that there would at least be a simple house or the ability to create my own. Nope. Not only does building your house require an entirely different skill set than what my tech-priest had, I couldn't just build it anywheres (and acceptable locations were expensive or extremely remote) and it required so much time and effort it usually took teams of people to do. As for basic housing that was also a no-go. While there was a cheap 'tent' item it was illegal to use it in city limits and it didn't actually remove the debuff and, instead, just stopped some of the additional effects. I tried for a small house at last and found I didn't need to pay it all up front (which sounded wonderful) but found it had it's own subscription fee. One well beyond what my character could afford. Thankfully some fellow players qued me in that there was a loophole in the games design that allowed me to use my mount to keep the debuff at low levels even though I'd need a proper house if I wanted it gone for good. I finally found a job my tech priest could actually do. A guild was hiring for support classes and my class just happened to fit the bill. So I finally got into a guild where I could actually do my thing. Sadly it was full of dumb tanks, DPS, and raid leaders who didn't understand the value of support but I was at least using my skills and earning enough gold to finally afford temporary housing and remove both the food debuff and shelter debuff. Then my faction came around demanding the gold tribute. That destroyed what little gold I had, but at least they weren't aggroing me. <cite>Unbridled9 posted [p:960722430] in Reviewing ... [t:79800472]...</cite> <quote>I've been trying this new game called 'Outside' or, as known by it's fanbase, 'Real Life', and I have to say it's quite atrocious! Whoever designed this game should be fired from the industry and never allowed to return! For starts, character creation. The loading servers are so massively laggy and ineffecient that it literally took me 9 months to simply get my first character! 9 MONTHS! FFXIV is catching massive flack for 1-2 hours but this dev is at a 9 month log-in time! Once I finally got to the character creation screen I was shocked and disgusted by the fact that all characters are semi-randomized with the ability to actually customize a character being out of the players control. I'm no stranger to set characters in a game (obviously) and even a lack of options for games with 'customizable' characters, but I didn't get to pick any of my features and they were picked at random. This is horrible game design! I can't even choose between a male and female randomized. It's one and done and I have to delete the character entirely to get a new one. I've heard it's possible to adjust features later on in the game but the cost to adjust even a small feature is stupidly expensive, let alone do something like change my character's gender. But okay. Fine. I finally spawn into the world only to find out that the game is MASSIVELY tutorial obsessed and hand-holdy. They won't even let you use the chat function until you go through a lengthy tutorial on it's use and even then it's only a few basic words they'll let you type. You have to wait several levels to gain full access. I suspect this was put in place to stop gold farmers but it was just so annoying. And then it was another long movement tutorial. While I applaud their dedication to realism it took way too long to complete this tutorial along with several other, basic, tutorials. And then what do I get for completing this? ANOTHER tutorial! Not even one related to what I planned to do in the game, but rather a tutorial on the games lore and providing a primer on the various classes, systems, and the like. Worse, this was a tutorial I couldn't just skip through as they provided tests to ensure you understood the material. This was so annoying and a needless irritation. I had planned to specc into a tec-priest and here I was being tested on what the heck the powerhouse of the cell was. If I wanted to be a cleric I would have rolled a cleric! Then, at long last, I FINALLY finished the tutorial and got set out to explore the world. On the plus side it is advertised as being massively open-world with self-determined objectives and the like and the game delivers there. It seemed wonderful and like I would be allowed to explore and do whatever I wanted (I wanted to see if my tech-priest could punch out a bear or at least go exploring). Then I got SLAMMED with a wall of surprise mechanics that got introduced over the years and, for some reason, didn't get brought up in the lengthy tutorial. More on that later. The first terrible thing I discovered is that this game is divided into a multitude of factions. Worse, you don't get to choose your faction alignment. It's set when you spawn and it's extremely difficult to change it. The faction demands tribute in the form of gold and you have no choice but to pay or else the faction becomes hostile to you and may even kill your character. It's only optional in the sense that you can choose to run and hide like a coward and maybe not be found by the guards. Within these factions there are a series of guilds of various sizes and the like. They tend to require their members put in effort to handle tasks but are at least willing to pay gold for it. So because I didn't want to aggro my own faction I immediately applied to the first guild I could find 'Order of the Golden Fries'. The guild was HORRIBLE! I had to grind up my cooking skill (Why is there always a cooking skill) or serve as a front-line tank against hostile mobs. I then discovered that the guilds don't let us keep the loot drops from these mobs but, instead, take it for themselves and give us a small portion back. I suppose without them I wouldn't be able to run this dungeon, but I feel cheated still. Worse, the dungeon boss Kah'Reen of the Thousand Screeches was obscenely difficult. My character is a tech priest and had to function as a tank against one of the hardest bosses in the game! I left that guild before long and found a new job at 'River Deliver'. They seemed to offer a much better amount of gold until I found out that they demanded a simply obscene amount of effort for their dungeons. So much effort that the only way to get promoted was to suck up to a higher-ranked guild member or backstab another guildee to seem better by comparison. This was even worse than the first guild. I noticed I was now suffering a debuff from a lack of food and shelter. I was surprised at this as, while games usually take away a bonus if you don't have those things, they've never debuffed me before. I found out that this was ignored during the tutorial for the sake of new players but now that I was out of the tutorial... I tried to get some food and found some 'noodle soup' on the cheap. I thought it was a good idea and, while it did eliminate the hunger debuff, it gave me a different (though less bad) debuff called 'poor diet'. I then looked for shelter. I didn't expect to get player housing on the cheap, but if there was a debuff for a lack of shelter I expected that there would at least be a simple house or the ability to create my own. Nope. Not only does building your house require an entirely different skill set than what my tech-priest had, I couldn't just build it anywheres (and acceptable locations were expensive or extremely remote) and it required so much time and effort it usually took teams of people to do. As for basic housing that was also a no-go. While there was a cheap 'tent' item it was illegal to use it in city limits and it didn't actually remove the debuff and, instead, just stopped some of the additional effects. I tried for a small house at last and found I didn't need to pay it all up front (which sounded wonderful) but found it had it's own subscription fee. One well beyond what my character could afford. Thankfully some fellow players qued me in that there was a loophole in the games design that allowed me to use my mount to keep the debuff at low levels even though I'd need a proper house if I wanted it gone for good. I finally found a job my tech priest could actually do. A guild was hiring for support classes and my class just happened to fit the bill. So I finally got into a guild where I could actually do my thing. Sadly it was full of dumb tanks, DPS, and raid leaders who didn't understand the value of support but I was at least using my skills and earning enough gold to finally afford temporary housing and remove both the food debuff and shelter debuff. Then my faction came around demanding the gold tribute. That destroyed what little gold I had, but at least they weren't aggroing me. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Unbridled9 12/08/21 4:46:55 AM #2:	After this I found out the game DOES have, not just one, but TWO PvP systems! Not only can I engage in open-world PvP (though the guards will arrest you if you do) but there is a special social arena. I tried it just to see how it was and it was easily the most toxic community I've ever seen in a PvP game. LoL and CoD have nothing on this. I decided it was best to stay away but I kept getting messages and whispers from those guys insulting me. Then the next task popped up where I had to 'find a mate'. Well, frick. I had no clue what that was or how to do that. Needed to look up a guide and found out I needed to convince another player to form a party with me for the rest of my playtime. It gives you a buff but it seems to heavily favor parties with the opposite gender, which I didn't get to choose at the start of the game. One gender seemed to have a massive edge in this department. In fact the balance was massively out of whack. Your gender and features, which were randomized and obscenely expensive to change, could massively advantage or disadvantage you. I won't reveal what I got or which end I was on, but I will say it was nice to finally have the playerbase responding positively to me for a change. It took a lot of work but I eventually found another player who was willing to party with me. The game finally seemed to be going smoothly and I was even starting to enjoy it. We could pay our faction tribute, managed to pool our gold to afford private player housing, and even got some bonuses. Then we got a new quest where we had to tutor a new player. A player that also had to suffer through that massive log-in time. Then go through the tutorial on their own. Both my party member and I were achievement hunters and we managed to tutor four players through the tutorial for the 'large family' achievement (I also got the MILF achievement but I have no clue what that means or was about). We even managed to afford some carries through some of the more exotic dungeons. The players we spawned in paid us back for helping them and I realized I hadn't done that to the player who helped me... because I thought they were NPC's. Oh well. Too late now. They'd quit the game. It was then that I discovered that we had limited play-time on each character. The default end time was level 75 but you could purchase game time extensions for character, but they stopped at level 100. Thankfully my party member and I were still about level 40 and the players we helped were about level 20 so we had plenty of time. I helped one more player get through the tutorial and even managed to get a officers position in the guild. However I couldn't stop the passive EXP gain and, eventually, my tech priest reached level 75, then 80, then 90, then finally level 100 as I used my copious amounts of in-game gold to purchase more gametime. Once I was done I wasn't sure what happened next. Would I be allowed to play again? Sent to a bonus level? New Game +? I don't know if I want to find out yet. All in all, 3/10. Too much is left up to random chance, poorly explained systems, and brutal unfairness. But it does have some redeeming features and I can't deny I had fun. If the devs had just focused on basic QoL features (such as easier ways to deal with diseases) and been less hand-holdy before suddenly removing all tutorials when I actually needed them, it could possibly hit a 7 or 8; but it feels more like some self-absorbed art project by some guy who wants to be praised simply for making something unique instead of a legit effort for a good game. <cite>Unbridled9 posted [p:960722432] in Reviewing ... [t:79800472]...</cite> <quote>After this I found out the game DOES have, not just one, but TWO PvP systems! Not only can I engage in open-world PvP (though the guards will arrest you if you do) but there is a special social arena. I tried it just to see how it was and it was easily the most toxic community I've ever seen in a PvP game. LoL and CoD have nothing on this. I decided it was best to stay away but I kept getting messages and whispers from those guys insulting me. Then the next task popped up where I had to 'find a mate'. Well, frick. I had no clue what that was or how to do that. Needed to look up a guide and found out I needed to convince another player to form a party with me for the rest of my playtime. It gives you a buff but it seems to heavily favor parties with the opposite gender, which I didn't get to choose at the start of the game. One gender seemed to have a massive edge in this department. In fact the balance was massively out of whack. Your gender and features, which were randomized and obscenely expensive to change, could massively advantage or disadvantage you. I won't reveal what I got or which end I was on, but I will say it was nice to finally have the playerbase responding positively to me for a change. It took a lot of work but I eventually found another player who was willing to party with me. The game finally seemed to be going smoothly and I was even starting to enjoy it. We could pay our faction tribute, managed to pool our gold to afford private player housing, and even got some bonuses. Then we got a new quest where we had to tutor a new player. A player that also had to suffer through that massive log-in time. Then go through the tutorial on their own. Both my party member and I were achievement hunters and we managed to tutor four players through the tutorial for the 'large family' achievement (I also got the MILF achievement but I have no clue what that means or was about). We even managed to afford some carries through some of the more exotic dungeons. The players we spawned in paid us back for helping them and I realized I hadn't done that to the player who helped me... because I thought they were NPC's. Oh well. Too late now. They'd quit the game. It was then that I discovered that we had limited play-time on each character. The default end time was level 75 but you could purchase game time extensions for character, but they stopped at level 100. Thankfully my party member and I were still about level 40 and the players we helped were about level 20 so we had plenty of time. I helped one more player get through the tutorial and even managed to get a officers position in the guild. However I couldn't stop the passive EXP gain and, eventually, my tech priest reached level 75, then 80, then 90, then finally level 100 as I used my copious amounts of in-game gold to purchase more gametime. Once I was done I wasn't sure what happened next. Would I be allowed to play again? Sent to a bonus level? New Game +? I don't know if I want to find out yet. All in all, 3/10. Too much is left up to random chance, poorly explained systems, and brutal unfairness. But it does have some redeeming features and I can't deny I had fun. If the devs had just focused on basic QoL features (such as easier ways to deal with diseases) and been less hand-holdy before suddenly removing all tutorials when I actually needed them, it could possibly hit a 7 or 8; but it feels more like some self-absorbed art project by some guy who wants to be praised simply for making something unique instead of a legit effort for a good game. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Unbridled9 12/08/21 4:55:20 AM #3:	For what it's worth, here was my, sadly randomized, stats. STR: 8 DEX: 10 CON: 9 INT (essential for my tech priest): 18 WIS: 8 CHA: 18 (I rolled really highly here appearently). Class; Tech Priest Specialization: Software Development/Tech Repair Notable skill ranks: Engineering 300/300 Cooking: 90/300 (thanks Golden Fries. I REALLY wanted this one. /sarcasm) Faction: United Freedom Alliance Guild: iSnapple Final officer rank: Chief Tech Priest of Regional Software development. Players helped: 5 Party length: 55 levels (he quit when he was level 75) Best friend: Kelsy from Human Resources Hardest boss defeated: Kah'Reen of the Thousand Screeches (Extreme) GPA: 3.5 PvP: 0 kills, 5 arena matches (3 W, 2 L) <cite>Unbridled9 posted [p:960722499] in Reviewing ... [t:79800472]...</cite> <quote>For what it's worth, here was my, sadly randomized, stats. STR: 8 DEX: 10 CON: 9 INT (essential for my tech priest): 18 WIS: 8 CHA: 18 (I rolled really highly here appearently). Class; Tech Priest Specialization: Software Development/Tech Repair Notable skill ranks: Engineering 300/300 Cooking: 90/300 (thanks Golden Fries. I REALLY wanted this one. /sarcasm) Faction: United Freedom Alliance Guild: iSnapple Final officer rank: Chief Tech Priest of Regional Software development. Players helped: 5 Party length: 55 levels (he quit when he was level 75) Best friend: Kelsy from Human Resources Hardest boss defeated: Kah'Reen of the Thousand Screeches (Extreme) GPA: 3.5 PvP: 0 kills, 5 arena matches (3 W, 2 L) </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
hockey7318 12/08/21 9:03:52 AM #4:	Holy christ, that is a lot of writing. You can't expect people to actually read all of that, but good for you for spending the time to do all of that. <cite>hockey7318 posted [p:960725231] in Reviewing ... [t:79800472]...</cite> <quote>Holy christ, that is a lot of writing. You can't expect people to actually read all of that, but good for you for spending the time to do all of that. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Cruddy_horse 12/08/21 11:25:41 AM #5:	This reads like a bad internet joke post from 2006. Also how much of this is copy/pasted? I've seen these exact lines elsewhere. <cite>Cruddy_horse posted [p:960728127] in Reviewing ... [t:79800472]...</cite> <quote>This reads like a bad internet joke post from 2006. Also how much of this is copy/pasted? I've seen these exact lines elsewhere. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Unbridled9 12/08/21 1:24:14 PM #6:	hockey7318 posted... Holy christ, that is a lot of writing. You can't expect people to actually read all of that, but good for you for spending the time to do all of that. Good reviews are important. Cruddy_horse posted... This reads like a bad internet joke post from 2006. Also how much of this is copy/pasted? I've seen these exact lines elsewhere. None. <cite>Unbridled9 posted [p:960731360] in Reviewing ... [t:79800472]...</cite> <quote>hockey7318 posted... </cite> <quote>Holy christ, that is a lot of writing. You can't expect people to actually read all of that, but good for you for spending the time to do all of that.</quote> Good reviews are important. Cruddy_horse posted... </cite> <quote>This reads like a bad internet joke post from 2006. Also how much of this is copy/pasted? I've seen these exact lines elsewhere.</quote> None. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
adjl 12/08/21 5:05:42 PM #7:	hockey7318 posted... Holy christ, that is a lot of writing. You can't expect people to actually read all of that, but good for you for spending the time to do all of that. Pretty much this. Kudos for committing to the joke, but I'm afraid that's way more effort than I'm willing to invest in a joke that's been pretty much exhausted for years. --- This is my signature. It exists to keep people from skipping the last line of my posts. <cite>adjl posted [p:960737233] in Reviewing ... [t:79800472]...</cite> <quote>hockey7318 posted... </cite> <quote>Holy christ, that is a lot of writing. You can't expect people to actually read all of that, but good for you for spending the time to do all of that.</quote> Pretty much this. Kudos for committing to the joke, but I'm afraid that's way more effort than I'm willing to invest in a joke that's been pretty much exhausted for years. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
sodium-chloride 12/08/21 5:39:51 PM #8:	Cruddy_horse posted... This reads like a bad internet joke post from 2006. <cite>sodium-chloride posted [p:960738057] in Reviewing ... [t:79800472]...</cite> <quote>Cruddy_horse posted... </cite> <quote>This reads like a bad internet joke post from 2006.</quote> </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Unbridled9 12/08/21 11:39:53 PM #9:	adjl posted... Pretty much this. Kudos for committing to the joke, but I'm afraid that's way more effort than I'm willing to invest in a joke that's been pretty much exhausted for years. Honestly, it became more and more fun to write it as I continued on. I think somewhere around the second paragraph I simply kept going because I was legitimately enjoying it regardless of the joke. <cite>Unbridled9 posted [p:960747353] in Reviewing ... [t:79800472]...</cite> <quote>adjl posted... </cite> <quote>Pretty much this. Kudos for committing to the joke, but I'm afraid that's way more effort than I'm willing to invest in a joke that's been pretty much exhausted for years.</quote> Honestly, it became more and more fun to write it as I continued on. I think somewhere around the second paragraph I simply kept going because I was legitimately enjoying it regardless of the joke. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Metalsonic66 12/09/21 1:28:21 AM #10:	adjl posted... Kudos for committing to the joke, --- PSN/Steam ID: Metalsonic_69 Big bombs go kabang. <cite>Metalsonic66 posted [p:960749116] in Reviewing ... [t:79800472]...</cite> <quote>adjl posted... </cite> <quote>Kudos for committing to the joke,</quote> </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Zareth 12/09/21 2:22:19 AM #11:	I ain't reading all that I'm happy for you though Or sorry that that happened --- In my opinion, all slavery is wrong, even the really fancy kind - Mead <cite>Zareth posted [p:960749820] in Reviewing ... [t:79800472]...</cite> <quote>I ain't reading all that I'm happy for you though Or sorry that that happened </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
adjl 12/10/21 9:04:56 AM #12:	Unbridled9 posted... Honestly, it became more and more fun to write it as I continued on. I think somewhere around the second paragraph I simply kept going because I was legitimately enjoying it regardless of the joke. Good on you, then. I'm glad you had a good time and don't feel like your time was wasted. --- This is my signature. It exists to keep people from skipping the last line of my posts. <cite>adjl posted [p:960789264] in Reviewing ... [t:79800472]...</cite> <quote>Unbridled9 posted... </cite> <quote>Honestly, it became more and more fun to write it as I continued on. I think somewhere around the second paragraph I simply kept going because I was legitimately enjoying it regardless of the joke.</quote> Good on you, then. I'm glad you had a good time and don't feel like your time was wasted. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
wwinterj25 12/10/21 12:15:49 PM #13:	I probably should give this game a try. I've never heard of it. --- One who knows nothing can understand nothing. http://psnprofiles.com/wwinterj <cite>wwinterj25 posted [p:960793778] in Reviewing ... [t:79800472]...</cite> <quote>I probably should give this game a try. I've never heard of it. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
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Poll of the Day > Reviewing 'Outside' (+) Yeah! (+)

Poll of the Day > Reviewing 'Outside'