FacePalm Entry: October 26, 2009
I was only able to play through one level on Saturday called "The Arboretum", but I think I got a feel for what the rest of the game is like. The first thing I noticed about this level was the interface. No HUD, no on-screen prompts, no tutorial, no note stream, no clutter to cloud the screen at all. And it was surprisingly intuitive for having no real direction. I was given a map though, which might as well have been written in Chinese for how useful it was. At no time did it ever display an arrow on the map to indicate where I currently was. No matter how many times I looked at it, it never updated to show where I've been or my current status. It was just a map and I guess it served its purpose although not as friendly as other in-game maps I'm accustomed to.
Having stowed my map, I was now blown away by the graphics. Bright colors, no pop-ins, beautiful texture maps, full 1080p HD resolution. It truly was stunning. So the game designer really put a lot of work into this feature and I was very impressed throughout my gameplay experience. I was also told that the colors I was seeing actually change depending on what time of year you play the game at. That is a cool option, although I can't see how you can possibly improve on the vivid yellows, oranges and reds I was seeing, it would be cool to visit this level again in the Spring just to see how it looks then.
Since there was no tutorial to be found, I had to surmise that the basic goal of the game was to get from point A to point B and to take pictures along the way of various landmarks. The pictures were supposed to accumulate points, but nowhere did I ever see a running total, nor did they display the final point count at the end of the level. Maybe I'll be able to find that out online or through another menu I didn't see, but in-game it was non-existent. Not a big deal I guess, but I would like to have been able to compare my score with others, especially my wife's score. (I'm sure she slaughtered me in this area)
Also of glaring concern was that at no time did I unlock any achievements (or trophies for you PS3 users), but that is only a small gripe. The controls were similar to that of the Wii. Lots of movement, but no controller required.
The sound was full stereo, Dolby-digital and really immersed you in the environment. You could almost feel the wind it sounded so real. The voice-acting, however, was very poorly done. Most in-game characters just said, "hey" or nodded. The children in the game though were so life-like I was getting annoyed just being near them. But, like I said, at no time did any of them serve a purpose or send us on a quest or ask us to help fetch a certain item for them... nothing. They really had no point in the level.
The game did feature a local multiplayer, which I played alongside Tracy, but I did not see an option for playing online at all. So if you are looking to play with someone across the state or country, you can't. Which is a big downside for this game.
The level, although probably pretty early in the game, was VERY easy. I tried upping the difficulty to expert, but it didn't seem to change anything except maybe decrease the temperature a tad.
Overall, I was very impressed by "The Outdoors". If you ever find yourself without an Xbox or a PS3 for any given time, I'd highly recommend giving this a shot. While not terribly hard, the levels are immense and gorgeous to view and this is a game you can actually get your spouse to play with you. I even think Tracy enjoyed it more than I did, which is really something. While the characters, map and point system could use a bit of work, you do get to keep the photos you take in each level and can store them to your hard drive for later viewing.
Final verdict: 9 out of 10
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