OUTBUDDIES

Review

Welcome to OUTBUDDIES, an intense Metroidvania platformer with a colorful, randomly-generated open world to explore across 5 different domains. The journey will not be easy; not only are there tons of parkour to overcome, but there is a slew of enemies that thirst for your blood. Even the environment will be the end of you, should you falter! You will obtain various upgrades to aid you in your adventure; a quick hand will be needed to defeat all the creatures and boss levels, with secret areas to discover along the way. It has a distinct coop system to balance the game-play for unique two-player adventuring, where you can switch between both characters on the fly.

The action takes place deep in the South Atlantic Ocean in Bahlam in the lost city of the old gods. You are playing as Nickolay Bernstein, a maritime archaeologist who is shipwrecked and ends up at the bottom of the sea. You awaken hurt and not alone, and a mysterious droid has been involuntarily attached to you. You must find out a way out of here, as well as figuring out what brought here in the first place. As you explore the city, you discover you are not the only prisoners here. You will also discover a tribe of beings called the Wozan. They have been imprisoned here for thousands of years by the creatures that have taken over the city.  Can you save them all as you try to find answers and escape to the surface?

Released Oct 15, 2019, by the developer Julian Laufer & published by Headup, it is tagged as Indie, Metroidvania, Platformer, Action, Difficult, and I have Added Pixel Graphics to the tags. It features a vibrant colorful pixel world set on a dark background that is visually pleasing. A lovely mellow soundtrack accompanies the well-done sound effects. A massive open-world to explore with non-linear game-play. A wide variety of challenging parkour to over-come, as well as a diverse range of monsters, each with their abilities. A fun set of mechanics driving the title is fun to learn and master. Wicked Boss fights to challenge your skill level. And a ton of character upgrades and secrets spread around the world to discover. Many hours of gameplay as well as a great re-playability as you become addicted.

A fabulous platformer; I have had a brilliant time discovering everything the title has to over. It is a challenging platformer; I had the hardest time with the jumping mechanics with my aging hands - practice makes perfect, though. The enemies, in general, are not overly difficult until you get further into the game. The boss fights, of course, are more challenging. Exploration does have some puzzle qualities to them, adding to the challenge and fun. I would have liked the tutorial areas of the title to be a bit more in-depth, I often found the animations confusing and hard to see as my eyesight is failing with age. The huge open-world & non-linear gameplay are sure to bring you many hours of entertainment beyond the first time you play through.

Outbuddies: A Sensational Pixel-Art Metrovania Platformer Packed full of Exhilarating Action and Platforming. An Instant Gem for Metroidvania Fans!

Review written by DamageInc.for Zeepond.com!