Games By James Plafke Feb. 27, 2014 2:32 pm
If you follow the mobile gaming scene, you have most likely run into a few of*Out There‘s*jaw-droppingly gorgeous screenshots, but might have forgotten about the game because of its obscure release date — the game’s only trailer still says it will be releasing in 2013. Well,*Mi-Clos Studios’ space adventure finally released last night, and it was definitely worth the wait.
Out There will undoubtedly be compared to*another space hit,*FTL: Faster Than Light, but that comparison is only half correct. The way you interact with*Out There*(through simple menus) and the fact that you’re bouncing around the universe are really the only congruencies between the two games. If*FTL is the combat game, then*Out There would be the resource management and exploration game. Despite its presentation as a sim,*FTL is more or less an action game.*Out There is a slow, isolated, melancholic drift through the void in search of a way home.*In either game, you jump from star system to star system looking for resources — basically money, items, and crew in*FTL, and fuel, oxygen, and metals in*Out There*– in order to help you achieve the win condition. In*FTL, the goal is destroying a massive battle cruiser, while in*Out There, it’s surviving long enough to make your way back to Earth from an unknown point in the universe.
A garden planet with a breathable atmosphere that harbors alien life. You get a full refill of your oxygen here.
Both fall prey to the random number generator, but whereas*FTL often felt more like playing a slot machine than a space sim,*Out There*cares more about player input. In any given run of*FTL, it’s possible to hit vendor after vendor and event after event without ever finding items or crew members that will end up helping you in the scenarios generated for that play session — it’s also possible to be utterly destroyed from full health simply because you don’t want to avoid every single random event, and thus, not interact with the game. Some events in*Out There will also smash you, but the outcomes aren’t lethal if your ship is in moderate or better condition. Also unlike*FTL, vital resources and items are easier to come by. This doesn’t mean the game itself is easier, but it means you have more control over what you receive — you never know exactly what is lying within a solar system until you get there, but you can almost always find something to drill or probe in order to discover usable resources.
One area where*FTL has a clear-cut better system — rather than just an incomparable way to handle a similar mechanic — is the way you get a new ship. In*Out There, you have to randomly happen upon one, transfer your cargo, then fly off in the new ship while abandoning the old one. It’s by no means uninteresting — it’s often very exciting — but restarting each play session with the same dinky ship that is in dire need of extra storage space can be disheartening. In FTL, you generally needed a very small finite set of random events to line up — and boy, do they rarely — but once they do, you had permanent access to the new ship. The ships are much more varied in*Out There, though, from a standard grey shuttle that isn’t too harsh on resources, to a gigantic space biodome that barely drains environmental resources but requires a lot of fuel.
A strange obelisk floating in space.
To dispense with the comparisons, Out There is a beautiful game. The hand-drawn screens look more like gorgeous concept art than something you’re actively controlling, and the audio — by award-winning composer*Siddhartha Barnhoorn, who helped craft*Antichamber’s*amazing soundscape — is nothing less than phenomenal. Many games nowadays begin with a little message that insists it is better played with headphones, but*Out There*– which doesn’t even display this message — is one of the few where that’s actually true. The soundscape sets the tone, and creates the perfect atmosphere for the adventure.
Out There is brutal, which goes hand-in-hand with the desperate, melancholic tone. You’ll often cannibalize your ship’s own vital systems in order to power a slightly more vital system just a bit longer. Every now and then, you’ll have to make an excruciating choice between two extremely rare resources, or you’ll come across an amazing new ship with tons of storage space, but is so inefficient managing fuel that you’ll agonize over making your decision. However, after your first few play sessions (and swift deaths), you’ll quickly learn how to manage your resources, and what ends up being higher on the chain of importance for any given session.
Orbiting a garden world.
Though it’s a mobile game, Out There is*really not meant to played on the go. It’s meant to be played where you can become fully engrossed by its atmosphere — likely alone and in the dark, just like the game’s isolated astronaut.*Ultimately, Out There won’t be able to avoid the*FTL comparisons, even though the games look, sound, and feel extremely different when you play them. The comparison narrative is similar to that of Minecraft and*Terraria –*onlookers assume*Terraria is a Mojang clone, but players know it’s barely alike, and so much more.*Mi-Clos’ space adventure is a great game on its own, and some people — myself included — will prefer it to*FTL
Out There is available on iOS as a universal app for $3.99, and is also available on Android for the same price.
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If you follow the mobile gaming scene, you have most likely run into a few of*Out There‘s*jaw-droppingly gorgeous screenshots, but might have forgotten about the game because of its obscure release date — the game’s only trailer still says it will be releasing in 2013. Well,*Mi-Clos Studios’ space adventure finally released last night, and it was definitely worth the wait.Out There will undoubtedly be compared to*another space hit,*FTL: Faster Than Light, but that comparison is only half correct. The way you interact with*Out There*(through simple menus) and the fact that you’re bouncing around the universe are really the only congruencies between the two games. If*FTL is the combat game, then*Out There would be the resource management and exploration game. Despite its presentation as a sim,*FTL is more or less an action game.*Out There is a slow, isolated, melancholic drift through the void in search of a way home.*In either game, you jump from star system to star system looking for resources — basically money, items, and crew in*FTL, and fuel, oxygen, and metals in*Out There*– in order to help you achieve the win condition. In*FTL, the goal is destroying a massive battle cruiser, while in*Out There, it’s surviving long enough to make your way back to Earth from an unknown point in the universe.
A garden planet with a breathable atmosphere that harbors alien life. You get a full refill of your oxygen here.Both fall prey to the random number generator, but whereas*FTL often felt more like playing a slot machine than a space sim,*Out There*cares more about player input. In any given run of*FTL, it’s possible to hit vendor after vendor and event after event without ever finding items or crew members that will end up helping you in the scenarios generated for that play session — it’s also possible to be utterly destroyed from full health simply because you don’t want to avoid every single random event, and thus, not interact with the game. Some events in*Out There will also smash you, but the outcomes aren’t lethal if your ship is in moderate or better condition. Also unlike*FTL, vital resources and items are easier to come by. This doesn’t mean the game itself is easier, but it means you have more control over what you receive — you never know exactly what is lying within a solar system until you get there, but you can almost always find something to drill or probe in order to discover usable resources.
One area where*FTL has a clear-cut better system — rather than just an incomparable way to handle a similar mechanic — is the way you get a new ship. In*Out There, you have to randomly happen upon one, transfer your cargo, then fly off in the new ship while abandoning the old one. It’s by no means uninteresting — it’s often very exciting — but restarting each play session with the same dinky ship that is in dire need of extra storage space can be disheartening. In FTL, you generally needed a very small finite set of random events to line up — and boy, do they rarely — but once they do, you had permanent access to the new ship. The ships are much more varied in*Out There, though, from a standard grey shuttle that isn’t too harsh on resources, to a gigantic space biodome that barely drains environmental resources but requires a lot of fuel.
A strange obelisk floating in space.To dispense with the comparisons, Out There is a beautiful game. The hand-drawn screens look more like gorgeous concept art than something you’re actively controlling, and the audio — by award-winning composer*Siddhartha Barnhoorn, who helped craft*Antichamber’s*amazing soundscape — is nothing less than phenomenal. Many games nowadays begin with a little message that insists it is better played with headphones, but*Out There*– which doesn’t even display this message — is one of the few where that’s actually true. The soundscape sets the tone, and creates the perfect atmosphere for the adventure.
Out There is brutal, which goes hand-in-hand with the desperate, melancholic tone. You’ll often cannibalize your ship’s own vital systems in order to power a slightly more vital system just a bit longer. Every now and then, you’ll have to make an excruciating choice between two extremely rare resources, or you’ll come across an amazing new ship with tons of storage space, but is so inefficient managing fuel that you’ll agonize over making your decision. However, after your first few play sessions (and swift deaths), you’ll quickly learn how to manage your resources, and what ends up being higher on the chain of importance for any given session.
Orbiting a garden world.Though it’s a mobile game, Out There is*really not meant to played on the go. It’s meant to be played where you can become fully engrossed by its atmosphere — likely alone and in the dark, just like the game’s isolated astronaut.*Ultimately, Out There won’t be able to avoid the*FTL comparisons, even though the games look, sound, and feel extremely different when you play them. The comparison narrative is similar to that of Minecraft and*Terraria –*onlookers assume*Terraria is a Mojang clone, but players know it’s barely alike, and so much more.*Mi-Clos’ space adventure is a great game on its own, and some people — myself included — will prefer it to*FTL
Out There is available on iOS as a universal app for $3.99, and is also available on Android for the same price.
- [h=4]Garden world orbit[/h]Orbiting a garden world.
- [h=4]Garden planet[/h]A garden planet with a breathable atmosphere that harbors alien life. You get a full refill of your oxygen here.
- [h=4]Alien encounter[/h]An alien encounter in Out There. Throughout the adventure you translate bits and pieces of alien languages until you fully understand what they say.
- [h=4]Solar system orbit[/h]Orbiting within a solar system.
- [h=4]Rocky planet orbit[/h]Orbiting a world that contains metal resources.
- [h=4]Drilling in Out There[/h]You can drill for metal resources on rocky planets like these.
- [h=4]A supply station[/h]Supply stations will refill either your fuel, oxygen, or repair your hull.
- [h=4]Black Hole[/h]If you have the proper technology installed on your ship, you can travel into the black hole.
- [h=4]Floating Obelisk[/h]A strange obelisk floating in space.
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