Game review
Outward Definitive Edition
6.5 / 10
- Developer
- Nine Dots Studio
- Publisher
- Prime Matter, Deep Silver
- Released
- 17 May 2022
- Platforms
- Windows
- Genre
- Survival RPG
- Monetisation
- One-time purchase, all DLC included; no in-app purchases
- Players
- 2-player online and local co-op throughout the full campaign
The short version
Outward Definitive Edition commits to a premise few open-world RPGs attempt: the player character is never a chosen one, never levels into godhood, and survives failure through capture or debt rather than a game-over screen. Reviewers who click with that philosophy describe it in genuinely rapturous terms — "one of the first games in years I've put this many hours into," reads one representative account — while others describe the exact same systems as punishing for its own sake: "Outward is a game that is deeply in love with its own philosophy, unfortunately at the total expense of the person playing it," reads a 215-vote review. What complicates both positions is a specific, well-documented bug: 23 of the 100 most-helpful negative reviews mention the player's backpack, describing it disappearing along with its full contents, a report that recurs from launch through as recently as February 2026 — years after the Definitive Edition shipped. Recent sentiment (68%) sits notably below the 72.6% lifetime score, suggesting this divisive game's reception has softened rather than stabilised over time.
Biggest strengths
- A genuinely distinctive premise among open-world RPGs — no levelling into invincibility, no fast travel, and failure resolved through in-world consequences like capture rather than a death screen — that reviewers who connect with it describe as deeply rewarding
- A well-regarded, physical, preparation-focused combat and magic system that rewards planning over raw stats
- Two-player co-op runs through the entire campaign and draws specific, repeated praise as one of the better cooperative survival RPG experiences available
Biggest weaknesses
- A specific, well-documented bug causing players to lose their backpack and its full contents is reported by 23 of the 100 most-helpful negative reviews, with reports continuing as recently as February 2026 — years after this Definitive Edition's 2022 release
- A significant share of reviewers describe the game's difficulty as busywork and friction rather than meaningful challenge, a sharper critique than ordinary "too hard" complaints
- The lack of a conventional manual save system is a deliberate design choice several reviewers say compounds badly with the game's bugs, risking real lost progress
Who it's for: Survival RPG fans who want genuine stakes and preparation to matter, ideally with a co-op partner — a poor fit for players who want combat power fantasy or conventional RPG progression.
Our recommendation: Buy if the "no chosen one, no fast travel, no easy saves" pitch appeals to you specifically; back up saves manually given the persistent item-loss bug reports.
6.5 / 10
The pitch
Outward Definitive Edition is Nine Dots Studio's open-world survival RPG, bundling both DLC expansions from the 2019 original. The player begins as an ordinary villager in debt rather than a destined hero, and rather than dying on defeat, is captured, robbed, or rescued into new situations — preparation, resource management and route planning matter as much as combat skill.
A premise reviewers describe in genuinely personal terms
Reviewers who connect with Outward's philosophy describe the experience in unusually enthusiastic terms. "For years I assumed, because of the mixed reviews, that this game was a clunky, unfinished, frustrating mess... I'm now thirty hours in and I'm having an identity crisis because this might be one of my favourite games ever," reads a 485-vote review. Another, with over 200 hours logged: "Outward is a mix of survival game and open-world action RPG... you'd think a recommendation goes without saying." The co-op experience draws particular praise: "I was looking for a good co-op RPG for so many years. Now I found it," reads a 431-vote review, listing the deliberate absence of map markers and multi-step spellcasting as features rather than flaws.
The sharper version of "too hard": busywork, not difficulty
Set against that praise, the most serious critical framing in this corpus isn't about difficulty in the ordinary sense — it's about whether the friction is meaningful. "Outward is a game that is deeply in love with its own philosophy, unfortunately at the total expense of the person playing it... the developers at Nine Dots Studio claim to offer a 'hardcore' survival experience," reads a 215-vote review titled "A Masterclass in Respecting 'Vision' More Than Players." Another, from a reviewer who says they installed borderline-cheat mods specifically to test whether the frustration was worth pushing through: "The problem isn't the difficulty; it's that every system feels engineered to be a chore." This is a more specific complaint than simple difficulty aversion, and it recurs consistently enough across years of reviews to be treated as a real, distinct critique rather than a minority reaction.
The backpack bug: years old, still reported
The single most concrete, recurring technical complaint concerns a specific item-loss bug. "Your game is also gloriously buggy. In co-op, there are consistent disconnections... Things break. When they break," reads one detailed 646-vote review from 2026. Another, from 2020: "I bought this for me and my husband to play together... we noticed that we were losing items for no reason, turns out it is a well known bug and it just hasn't been [fixed]." Across the 100 most-helpful negative reviews, 23 specifically mention the backpack, and reports of the same category of problem continue as recently as February 2026 — strong evidence this remains an active, unresolved issue rather than a launch-era problem that's since been patched out.
The save system, by design
Compounding the bug concern, Outward deliberately omits a conventional manual save system in favour of periodic automatic checkpoints — an intentional choice several reviewers connect directly to the item-loss reports, arguing the combination makes real progress loss more likely than in a game where players could simply save before a risky action. This isn't presented as an oversight in this corpus; it's treated as a deliberate design decision that interacts badly with an unrelated, persistent bug.
Where sentiment sits now
Recent English review sentiment — the 100 most recent reviews, spanning late June to August 2026 — runs 68% positive, notably below the 72.6% lifetime score. That gap suggests reception has softened over time rather than stabilised, consistent with a persistent bug report and a divisive design philosophy that continues to split newer buyers rather than settling into a smaller, self-selected audience. Achievement data reflects the game's steep learning curve starkly: the median across 72 achievements is just 3.7%, though the earliest milestone sits at 96.1%, showing most buyers start the game but relatively few progress deep into it.
Value
At NZ$66.95 with both DLC expansions included and no in-app purchases, this is fairly priced for a long, systems-dense survival RPG; the main value concern in this corpus is risk of lost progress from bugs rather than price or content volume.
Verdict
Outward Definitive Edition delivers on a genuinely distinctive premise — a survival RPG that refuses conventional power fantasy and rewards preparation over stats — and its most invested fans, particularly in co-op, describe it as a rare, deeply personal favourite. Its real, unresolved problem is a specific, years-old bug that deletes player inventories, compounded by a save system that gives players little protection against it. If the philosophy appeals to you specifically, this is worth playing; go in backing up your saves manually regardless of what the game itself offers.
Pros and cons
Pros
- A genuinely distinctive premise among open-world RPGs — no levelling into invincibility, no fast travel, and failure resolved through in-world consequences like capture rather than a death screen — that reviewers who connect with it describe as deeply rewarding
- A well-regarded, physical, preparation-focused combat and magic system that rewards planning over raw stats
- Two-player co-op runs through the entire campaign and draws specific, repeated praise as one of the better cooperative survival RPG experiences available
- All DLC included in a single purchase with no in-app purchases
Cons
- A specific, well-documented bug causing players to lose their backpack and its full contents is reported by 23 of the 100 most-helpful negative reviews, with reports continuing as recently as February 2026 — years after this Definitive Edition's 2022 release
- A significant share of reviewers describe the game's difficulty as busywork and friction rather than meaningful challenge, a sharper critique than ordinary "too hard" complaints
- The lack of a conventional manual save system is a deliberate design choice several reviewers say compounds badly with the game's bugs, risking real lost progress
- Recent English sentiment (68% over the last 100 reviews) sits notably below the 72.6% lifetime score, and a steep achievement completion curve (median 3.7% across 72 achievements) reflects how few players get deep into the game
Screenshots
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Outward Definitive EditionImage: Prime Matter via Steam -
Outward Definitive EditionImage: Prime Matter via Steam -
Outward Definitive EditionImage: Prime Matter via Steam -
How the review scores each part of the gameWanderer Editorial -
The game at a glanceWanderer Editorial -
The short versionWanderer Editorial