Outbound was provided by Square Glade Games for review. Thank you!
Roadtrips have a certain appeal, and honestly, I wish more video games featured them as a core narrative. While I am not the biggest fan of driving games due to all my childhood trauma of sucking at Mario Kart, they still have a certain appeal depending on the game design.
Outbound is a game I’ve been looking forward to for a while, and it is the latest in the cozy driving game genre that is surprisingly big in the market. Pacific Drive, Keep Driving, and Euro Truck Simulator are all games I love, although Pacific Drive is less about wholesome driving and more about surviving an anomaly hellscapes while inside a sentient car. It is like Nightrider on drugs, although it was still one of my favorite games from 2024!
Outbound is developed by indie dev Square Glade Games, and this is their second game after their interesting debut, Above Snakes. Big thanks to them for providing us with review codes, and the greater ambition really shows with this new game. Outbound is a relaxing and impressive experience in both gameplay and design, and it runs pretty well on the Steam Deck, too.
The game blends several simple mechanics together to create a core gameplay loop that somehow makes up more than the sum of its parts. After customizing your character, the goal of the game is to explore the large, open wilderness while surviving and kitting out your RV. That is pretty much the gist of it, mixing exploration, survival, and crafting together into something surprisingly fresh. Now, there are more survival crafting games than there are atoms in the universe, but I love how Outbound keeps its focus. All of these gameplay systems fuel the desire to live in the mountains, with everything moving that state forward.
I have been a growing fan of the cozy game genre for years now, and Outbound is getting close to achieving the perfect balance I have been looking for. You explore the map at your leisure, keeping hunger at bay and managing your mobile home. That doesn’t mean there is no challenge at all, as there are obstacles to navigate, including the mountainous terrain and blockades that must be repaired, such as repairing broken bridges.
Outbound hasn’t got the common pitfall in these games where things are so relaxing that they sacrifice progression, which is great. Give me something like Hardspace Shipbreaker, where I can die by falling into a furnace or by suffocation, at least with a small risk. By climbing towers and accessing download points across the map, you can get a vision of locations and download blueprints. The latter is randomized to a degree for added replayability, unlocking a ton of things you can build in your mobile home to make your new life easier. It’s a great gameplay loop.
The visuals are rather pleasant to look at, although I didn't expect something like Crimson Desert. The rolling hills, forests, and rivers are enjoyable to explore, and the sound design is also very immersive. Camping by a river while listening to the rushing water and the crackling of a bonfire is just glorious. It is the little things in life I enjoy most, and I think Outbound does a solid job of making things relaxing without boredom. The survival mechanics are fairly light in terms of food and health management, and while you do need to keep an eye on them, they aren’t particularly punishing either.
While I enjoy the core gameplay, all this exploration and vibing in the wilderness come with a small cost: narrative. You can make your own character and explore, but I didn’t really get much in the way of a story while playing. That’s not a big issue, to be honest, but it was something I had to note. My guy has a very annoying habit of voicing his internal monologue whenever I do anything even remotely noteworthy. While entertaining the first few times, it got grating the thirtieth time he said ‘A perfect spot to set up camp’, only for me to just drive past the camping site. Fortunately, you can mute the voice narration, which helps.
This is only a minor problem in the grand scheme of things, and I'm a grumpy old man. The casual mix of survival, crafting, and base building while taking that home on the go is a wonderful thing that more games need to do, and the atmosphere in Outbound, combined with the core gameplay, makes for a deeply absorbing experience.
Ahead of its release, we did get more information about Outbound‘s performance on the Steam Deck. Based on the default settings from the developer, it was estimated that it would run between 30 and 40 FPS. This is something I really appreciated, since most developers will just stand by the verified badge they get from Valve and not go into details about how it actually runs on the Deck.
So, I went in with realistic expectations, and their estimates were primarily accurate. With the default settings, which include low settings with a medium level of detail and 100% render scale, it sticks between 30 and 40. I also noticed that when looking in certain areas while walking around or driving, there is some throttling where the framerate could drop down to 22 FPS temporarily. I also tried bringing down the settings to their lowest to see how high we can get the frame rate, and while there are a lot of spots that hit 60 FPS, it fluctuates down to 40 consistently. And with the sacrifices to visuals, I wouldn’t consider it worthwhile.
I also noticed that the shadows on the default setting, which is on low, flicker a little bit. This can be fixed by bringing the shadows up to medium (default), but the throttling appears more often. On top of that, battery drain will go up in most scenarios, causing more drops. So, I would say keeping them at low levels will be the best for playing on the Deck.
For the most stable experience, I recommend keeping everything at the default, but turning the rendering scale down to 90%. This keeps the game looking great without the frame rate fluctuating downwards. This, coupled with a 30 FPS cap, makes it quite playable and enjoyable with solid visuals. This is going to be the most stable way to play while minimizing the number of times the framerate throttles. The battery drain will fluctuate, but generally stays on the higher side, so I wouldn’t expect more than three hours of battery life with the game.
Outbound is available in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish (Spain), Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Spanish (Latin America), Japanese, Korean, Ukrainian, Dutch, and Indonesian. That is a lot of languages supported, although only English has full audio support for the time being.
Outbound is blessed with a large number of accessibility options. There is full controller support with the ability to change keybinds, v-sync, and anti-aliasing, render scale, and change language. There is a dedicated accessibility page with further options, including the ability to adjust or turn off narration, UI scaling, camera animations, flash effects, and the day/night cycle can also be freely changed.
Overall, this is a great mix of options, although there is a lack of colorblind support in the game for now.
Outbound is the equivalent of sitting in the countryside during late summer, knocking back a cold drink with ice, and relaxing while watching the sunset. This game may have the guts of the usual survival and crafting games that crop up all the time, but Outbound has done a great job avoiding many pitfalls in the genre.
The combination of mobile base building, relaxing atmosphere, and exploration turns Outbound into something much greater than the sum of its parts. I’ve played games with better base building and more engaging exploration, but there is something about taking your home with you wherever you go that appeals to me. The performance can be a little rough at times, and the lack of focus on story is noteworthy, but Outbound is a great experience, whether solo or co-op.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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Outbound is a deeply enjoyable adventure game, with the right mix of systems for a satisfying gameplay loop. It is also pretty solid on the Steam Deck.
