Burnin’ Out Your Fuse Out There Alone Is Even Harder Than You Think [Review]

By

Out There

The cosmos has a bunch of ways to kill you, and in Out There, one of them will probably succeed. And it’s just as well, really, because I have it from a reliable source that it’s lonely out in space.

Out There by Mi Clos Studio
Category: iOS Games
Works With: iPhone, iPad
Price: $3.99

But if you insist on surviving, you’re in for a challenge because this game is as cruel and random as life itself. You play the role of a lone astronaut who wakes up from cryosleep to discover that your circuit’s dead, and there’s something wrong. And now, you’re stuck in uncharted territory with limited resources.

It’s up to you to get the stranded hero across the map, but it’s not at all easy.

Out There is more or less The Oregon Trail in space but with catastrophic hull breaches instead of dysentery. You leap from star to star, mining planets for fuel, oxygen, and resources that you can use to build new technology. You meet other life forms who speak a language you pick up as you go and who may or may not help you based on blind luck and chance.

And eventually, you will probably die. The first few times I played, I ended up either stranded without fuel on a planet or burning up while trying to orbit a star. This game is hard, and it doesn’t care about you.

It’s more or less The Oregon Trail in space.

But that also means that when things go right — like if you find a garden planet that allows you to refill all of your oxygen — it’s incredibly satisfying. Your relief that you’ll live to get to the next star is very real, and you might even build up some optimism that may or may not dissipate immediately when you, say, run into a random meteor shower and lose a sizable chunk of your hull integrity.

The scenarios and map are random every time you play Out There, so very little of what you learned from failed attempts carries over into new games. But that also adds a lot of challenge and replay value, and even after you fail, it’s worth starting a new game just to see if you fare better this time around.

Out ThereGame Name: : Out There
The Good: Lots of replay value, variety, and real tension.
The Bad: The game wants to kill you. I swear.
The Verdict: If you’re of a disposition to play a game that works against you this much, you’re in for a treat, but be prepared to fail.
Buy from: App Store – Out There – Mi Clos Studio

[rating=game5]

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