Outer Terror | PS5 Review

Coming at you like a cosmic horror comic book with a survivor-like gimmick, VoxPop Games', "Outer Terror" attempts to deliver the fiendish frights alongside mission driven objectives spanning across 4 different horror stories. 

As a one or two player experience you'll choose the role of one of 10 unique survivors in cover art inclusive issues of "The Grey Death", "Frost Bite", "Killswitch", and "Other Side". Each character playable in the respective plots, and each with their own main weapon as well as special ability from the start. It is with weapons, and upgrades that these unlikely heroes and heroines will stack their arsenal of defensive and offensive options in an attempt to defeat the old gods who have returned to haunt humanity in the worst of ways.

The Mechanics ...

Like any survivor-like the attacks made available in "Outer Terror" happen automatically at given intervals around your character of choice. As you kill mobs of enemies with said character you will earn XP which is used to fill up a meter that when full offers up upgrades in the form of three randomized weapon, health, or defensive choices per upgrade turn. These upgrades include everything from guns of varying sorts to melee weapons, and even arcane spells. You can have up to 8 different weapons or upgrade items on hand, and can level them up several times each increasing their underlying performance stats as you progress. Once all 8 upgrades are fully leveled you are stuck with that setup until you complete the current story arc, and it's given NPC oriented objectives.

The Creative Differences ...

What sets "Outer Terror" apart from other survivor-likes in the genre is the story driven objectives that are complimented by story panel conversations. All of which is done up in a pseudo-comic book fashion with 2D sprites representing the characters, and enemies while 3D polygons make up the environmental set pieces in-game. As you make it to safe zones on the large obscured map of each issue, and converse with other survivors therein you'll be met with collect-a-thon quests, and death/destruction requests, as well as relay run missions wherein finding a certain something or someone is necessary to forward the plot past the point of the initial upgrading phase. 

You'll find that each story arc, which is accessible via titled comic book covers, has it's own cosmic horror theme as well as it's own unique world to battle through. Complete with unique enemies tied to each terrifying tale. Who you choose to play as in these comic book issues will effect how the game is played as each character harbors their own unique base weapon, and limited use special ability. The latter of which relies on a cooldown after usage. Not only do these things differ but some of the available upgrades also differ per character ultimately creating distinctly different playstyles for each choice. Characters in the available roster include your traditional rough and ragged survival horror archetypes as well as a female jester, and a cultist of all things. 

Speaking of the Characters ...

While leveling up in "Outer Terror" is done on a per story, and per character basis some permanent upgrades are made possible through main menu purchases that use a gold currency earned in repeated playthroughs from defeated enemies. Failed or won. These costly permanent upgrades unlock bonus weapons, minions, and even bullets with bonus effects. It incentivizes multiple playthroughs, and gives you a reason to grind the game's limited array of story options multiple times over.

The Presentation ...

Outer Terror, as it were, is a voxel made isometric survivor-like with 2D character/minion sprites placed and animated on a polygonal 3D playing field. Something reminiscent of a PS1 era design. It comes complete with an optional CRT filter, GIBs scaling, and is accented by comic book worthy art that has a late 90's to early 2000's aesthetic. Contextual, and textually driven conversations play out on story panels, and through character conversation bubbles when prompted. All of which has to be clicked through in real time to read. Outside of that the soundtrack is fitting of the Lovecraftian horror theme. It has audio distortions set to spacey sci-fi tunes that reverberate and repeat as you play on each map. Each issue, and each story map having it's own distinct music.

The Verdict ...

As much as I want to praise "Outer Terror" at the time of writing this review, especially for it's artistic design choices, I can't in the current state it's in. The game is buggy, and broken at times creating situations where you cannot complete objectives or where you get frozen up unable to get back to the action. It needs a serious patch, or patches. Thankfully I have some good news to that end. The developer is aware of the issues, and will be issuing a patch or patches to fix the problems on day one. I hope when this releases for everyone you get to see the potential that I saw in it. It's a very cool horror indie with a truly innovative take on the genre.