H.P. Lovecraft and Metroidvania – not two words you would expect to see side by side. Even less likely is the existence of a game blending the cosmic horror mythos of Lovecraft’s works with the explorative nature of those old 2D platformers… yet that’s exactly what we find ourselves looking at with Outbuddies DX. Even now it seems like something out of my dreams, combining my love for games such as Hollow Knight and Axiom Verge with the deep dread of the great unknown – So does the game soar, rising to meet its revered predecessors in the hall of video game majesty, or does the weighty Lovecraftian mythos prove to be the straw that broke the camel’s back with this ambitious little indie game?
Developed primarily alone by Julian Laufer and published by Headup games, Outbuddies DX follows Nikolay Bernstein, an adventurer and archaeologist (a real Indiana Jones, type) as his airship crashes and he wakes up at the bottom of the ocean. Realising he is connected to a sentient Buddy-Unit, an old relic of the city he finds himself in, Nikolay sets out on a journey of adventure and discovery into Balham, the city of the Old Gods, to find his way home.
Setting The Scene
Upon starting up the game it was a pleasant surprise to find an incredibly streamlined and clear yet relatively extensive set of options in the main menu. Alongside the standard affair, I was grabbed by two options in particular – the ability to grayscale the background colours and the ability to emulate the look of an old television screen. Both of these excited me greatly as one thing became obviously apparent – I was playing a game made my people who love the retro style games of the 90’s.
Gameplay wise, Outbuddies DX is very much your run-of-the-mill Metroidvania – run ‘n’ gun, fight a boss, find a new item unlocking paths previously inaccessible, rinse and repeat. I was pleasantly surprised to find the game seriously challenging in places which kept me on my toes for the entire run time, sometimes enducing rage the likes of that which ‘Hollow Knight hit.
The game is incredibly responsive most of the time on the Switch both docked and handheld, with only a few noticeable setbacks – delays firing weapons during jump animations becoming the foremost annoyance. As a result of this simple core loop, the game often runs the risk of becoming monotonous. Luckily however, the game manages to continuously keep itself fresh with its immersive, expansive environments as well as a couple of unique gameplay mechanics.
Two’s Company
The afore mentioned Buddy-Unit acts as a second playable character, implementing a couple of interesting ideas such as the ability to lift specific blocks in the world to access new areas, as well as transform enemies into useful assets i.e. flying enemies becoming platforms to carry you to new areas. This adds an interesting new layer to the game as on top of the simple loop of finding a new item and continuing on, the environments become a lot more interactive, requiring more attention from the player than a Metroidvania usually would.
A Feast For The Eyes?
So, as you’re spending so much time combing through these environments for new paths and secret items, it’s fair to ask whether or not your eyes will be blessed with gorgeous vistas as you play. Expansive, ancient caverns? Aged, ominous ruins? Well, the answer is… complicated.
Although it is undeniable the craftsmanship that has gone into some of these unique environments with beautifully rendered layered backgrounds, pixel-perfect textures and a colour palate which is an absolute feast for the eyes, these grand Lovecraftian environments only show up to impress around half of the run time. For the rest of the game all of the locations you run around largely blend into one, a series of one-note deep blue caverns and corridors. This lack of frequent variety was the most disappointing aspect of Outbuddies DX as it certainly isn’t distractingly bad, it just evidently could be so much more consistent. This paired with the 15-20 hour runtime of the game will inevitably impact upon both player satisfaction and replayability.
The replayability of the game is further hindered by its soundtrack. Developed by OGRE music, there is only one track from my time with the game that I can remember – an extremely bassy, rumbling track that followed me everywhere for almost 15 hours and left me praying for the occasional silent sections of the game. Similar to the environments of the game, it’s not that it’s bad… just that it could be so much better.
Caves, Caves, Caves…
However, none of this mitigates the fact that the true star of the show here is the exploration on offer. On top of the multiple new paths that the Buddy-Unit unlocks, the amount of levels to this game and the variety of paths that you can take are truly breath-taking. Upon starting up the map screen for the first time, it is completely overwhelming.
Around 30 minutes in as you begin to feel yourself making good progress, you happen to discover the map screen for the first time… only to realise that you’re approximately 4% of the way through the game. It truly is exhilarating uncovering the multitude of paths laid out before you and it was a treat discovering all of Balham’s secret twists and turns. The map screen does a lot to emphasise this feeling as excess blank blue corridors excite and invite. However unfortunately, as you continue to progress, this screen morphs from intriguing to simply confusing with an almost non-existent legend leading to deep confusion at what you are even looking at.
This point is not helped by the fact that despite the endlessly winding caverns of Balham being endlessly intriguing throughout the roughly 15-hour runtime, the path forward is often unclear, and I found myself getting severely lost on a multitude of occasions due to the lack of any real hints at where to go.
In this sense though it really feels like one of those old Metroidvania’s, having to rely on your own ingenuity and skill to discover new areas. This provides a real sense of accomplishment throughout the experience and demands your attention more than most modern games do, rewarding the player with a frequent sense of achievement from start to finish… if, of course, you can stomach it.
Conclusion
Outbuddies DX is a game unlike any other of its kind. Taking the Metroidvania structure and blowing it up into one of the most expansive games of the genre is an accomplishment in itself. The fact that it manages to simultaneously keep you engaged with a variety of interesting puzzles and enemy types for its lengthy runtime makes it a commendable achievement.
Although it certainly isn’t for the faint of heart and the environments occasionally grow bland and stale, it is clear that there is a deep love of videogames coursing through the lifeblood of Outbuddies DX. Julian Laufer is definitely a promising new developer to keep an eye on, and for his first full outing this is a successful project that I would recommend to fans of the genre.