You can’t move for Metroidvania games these days, and given that a huge percentage of these are indie games with retro-style graphics, we propose a new subgenre called Retroidvania. Outbuddies DX fits rather nicely into this new pigeonhole we just created, and we can safely say that of all the Retroidvania games we’ve played, this is… well, it’s certainly one of them.
After his ship sinks, archaeologist Nikolay Bernstein wakes up to discover that he’s in Bahlam, a sunken city of the ‘Old Gods’ that happens to be located 36,000 feet underwater. On top of this, he promptly finds himself linked up to a ‘buddy unit’, a little drone thing that follows him around. And as if all that wasn’t enough, he soon discovers the Wozan, a friendly tribe of little miner dudes who ask him to help rescue 80 of their people who’re being held hostage by the evil creatures who’ve taken over Bahlam. Probably took his mind off the shipwreck, to be fair.
So begins a sizeable adventure in which you have to explore Bahlam and do all the usual stuff you’d expect from a game of this ilk: shoot enemies, find bits you can’t get past, go exploring somewhere else, find a new ability, backtrack to where you were before, use your new ability to get past that first bit, and keep checking the map like a maniac while you do all this. By and large, there’s nothing here that you won’t have seen in any other Metroi… sorry, Retroidvania game before, with the possible exception of the aforementioned drone chum.
You can switch to your robo pal whenever you like by flicking up on the right stick. You can then use the left stick to fly it around the level – it can pass through walls and the like – allowing you to check out any enemies, obstacles or hidden areas up ahead. If you need a more in-depth investigation you can hold the B button to make it perform a scan; this not only gives you information you should probably be able to figure out for certain objects in the level (spikes are dangerous, switches can be pressed, etc) but also reveals any weak blocks that can be blown up.
Naturally, as you progress through the game you’ll find upgrades that expand your abilities: Metroid-style bombs, rockets and the like. Just as importantly, though, you’ll also uncover new abilities for your drone too. At first, it can use its telekinetic abilities to pick up and move large blocks, for example, but later on, it’ll also be able to turn enemies into platforms, allowing you to use them to reach higher areas. It’s a fairly neat twist on the usual upgrade formula, even if the end result is much the same.
While having a drone accompanying you seems like a cool addition, it’s also partly responsible for one of the game’s biggest issues: its control system. There are so many different abilities and moves you’ll unlock in this game and they’re really not mapped to the controller in the best way. Some of the choices seem completely arbitrary; moving the right stick up switches control to the robot, for example, whereas moving it down toggles between your weapons.
Meanwhile, there’s a special low duck move that’s useful for avoiding projectiles, which is performed by pressing Down and R. The problem is, the R button is also used for a quick evade move, which means if you press R before you press Down, you’ll dash instead. Needless to say, if you’re standing on a narrow platform when this happens you may end up turning the air bluer than Sonic's bum. There’s no option to redefine these controls, and there isn’t even a controls screen in the Pause menu or anything, so should you decide you need a refresher on the convoluted list of commands at any point, you’re out of luck.
The controls aren’t the only notable problem here, unfortunately; the map is a bit of a mess as well. This is a large game – you’re looking at around 10-15 hours to beat it in your first playthrough – and it’s crucial that large games have maps that are simple to understand and make it easy to track your progress. Outbuddies DX's map does neither. Sometimes a room has a gap in the wall, which makes you think there’s a part that’s yet to be explored; when you get there, it’s just a wall. Other times two rooms will be next to each other on a map with no visible connection, yet when you go there you discover you can move from one to the other anyway, because it doesn’t seem to count certain tunnels.
The labelling is hugely confusing too. Some of the rooms have little circle icons, which the map’s legend informs us means ‘Item’. We started losing our mind a little because every time we visited one of these rooms, we couldn’t find an item anywhere. After a number of hours, it finally clicked: it’s showing you rooms where you’ve previously collected an item. What sort of map tells you what you already have, but gives you no indication of what you’ve yet to find? The same goes for more notable upgrades; even after you pick them up their icon remains on the map, meaning hours down the line you can’t remember if they’re new ones or ones you already have.
The other frustrating issue is the general lack of fast travel points. There are a handful or warps dotted around to move you between large areas, but the number of rooms is so vast – and the map makes it so awkward to plot a route through them – that it can take you an absolute age to get anywhere at times. Add to that the fact that many rooms look so similar and it’s very easy to lose track of where you are in Outbuddies DX, and where you were going, and the game makes no effort to give you any hints or nudges as to what you should be looking for next.
Don’t get us wrong, Outbuddies DX has its moments. Combat is satisfying at times, the music is tremendous and boss battles can be suitably epic. It’s just that every time we find something that makes us smile, we find something else that doesn’t; the lack of major plot development, the way some enemies can be turned into platforms but other identical ones can’t because reasons, or the way it drops a random F-bomb right at the start of the game presumably just to seem cool.
Conclusion
Outbuddies DX tries to mix things up a bit with unique features like a playable drone partner. The problem is, it tries to be a little too clever for its own good, and its failure to effectively pull off solid fundamentals like the controls and the map system means that the gimmicks suffer as a result. There's a lot we want to love about this game, but its constant annoyances make that hard.
Comments 17
Halfway through the article I was still interested. Bad controls? It can't be THAT bad, right? The dash/duck shenanigans, though? That's bad.
Also, arbitrary, maybe even buggy maps might make it more of a nightmare than a fun game. I hope they fix it. I'm still interested in the soundtrack, though.
I need to say I really really REALLY love Metroidvanias. This Renaissance of the genre we've been having for a few years now has been an amazing ride for me. You can never have enough Metroidvanias
Well time to wait for a sale on this one, $18 for a 5/10 game is just not for me.
I was waiting for NL's review on this one, cheers!
Sad to hear it disappoints, sounds like something to pick up on a sale one day.
Honestly after reading through the review this still seems of interest of me if the soundtrack is truly as good as it says. Far as I can tell the map and controls were the only major complaints and I'd like to think those are something I can deal with.
Hey Guys, I’m the developer of Outbuddies (DX).
We‘ll have an update with improved tutorials and more hands-on input prompts online soon! I fully agree the map is not that good, but it also gets the job done IMO. The game does no hand-holding when it comes to progression, that’s 100% intended and valued by many players. The gamepad layout may seem a bit strange starting the game, but it will make sense when fully geared up. The controls where shaped with speedrunners from my Steam community over six months since the PC release.
Please keep in mind that the game’s reviews range from 50 - 95 on the Switch, and 86% of my Steam players recommend it.
The last one puts it perfectly in a nutshell: “I have finally found another true metroidvania that values core concepts of the genre - nonlinearity, exploration, challenging boss fights and meaninfull revisiting of areas. I have again felt that strive at first, just like in Hollow knight, where you get to experencie growing more powerful as game progresess, when you stop surviving and start thriving.“
PS: The “low-duck move“ is not meant to be used in combat, it’s just the input to enter the crawling stance before narrow spots and for stealth movement. You can exploit it as an evade strategy, yes, but then you absolutely need to get the input right, that’s true. Make sure to kneel down before pressing R, then no accidential dodge rolling will happen.
Best,
Julian
@Julian_Laufer Sorry, but the large majority of Metroidvania players value at least a little "hand-holding." There's also no excuse for the allegedly bad level (area?) design and a map that's not accurate nor very useful.
I'll wait till it's -10 dollars; I should be paid for playing this
@BulbasaurusRex Speak for yourself. While I cannot say anything about the quality of the game at this point I do appreciate the Dev for respecting the player enough to figure things out on their own at this day and age when more often than not people expect everything on a silver platter.
@Expa0 No, respecting the player means not making them become frustratingly lost with no idea what to do next. The relief of finally figuring it out isn't worth the extreme frustration that leads up to that point for most gamers. You don't have to hand everything on a silver platter, just give enough clues so that it doesn't become frustrating. That's why the original "Legend of Zelda" and "Metroid" are considered very archaic among modern standards and among the worst games in their respective series.
@BulbasaurusRex: The world layout is constructed in loops, so no matter where you go after reaching the central HUB area you’ll always find something useful, even if it will loop you back at some point. There are a couple of sequence breaks possible, as the game fully commits to non-linearity.
I’d say the area design is one of Outbuddies’ strongest points, the map screen clearly not though It’s also obvious that we need better action prompting in the early game, especially to get players used to the Buddy mechanics. Hope the update will pass certification soon!
@Nimnio: I’ve always been in direct contact with my players as well as critics, that’s how the game became what it is today and I deeply appreciate it. The reason I’m only posting Switch scores is simple. The PC version had a lot of issues when release back in 2019, so all PC reviews refer to the game‘s Non-DX version. I used the range cuz the game is very polarizing, which is of course a different picture than having most reviews close to the actual meta score.
Just let the man speak, gosh knows we entertain ourselves enough down here in the comments. It's okay to listen once in awhile, even if not in total agreement. These are good sentiments and a step in the right direction it seems to me.
Will be considering this game since the graphics are to my liking plus the soundtrack is easily worth a (+2) in my book due to the immersion created; especially in a labyrinth to keep the player in the right mood.
Definitely not as bad as the review lets on. Oh no, there is a learning curve.
@acachewowow The review states quite clearly why it got the score it did and the learning curve didn't come into it. A broken map, counter-intuitive controls and a lack of any real signposting have nothing to do with learning curves.
Yeah, the map currently is a pre-baked image with overlaying check marks for found items or cleared rooms (which can refer to a boss, Wozan cage or puzzle). The check marks will always show up the upper left corner of a room, reading from array data. It also lacks zooming capabilities due to some engine limitations. The scheduled update will at least explain the check marks. I’m really considering to redo the map from scratch, but it would be a giant task. Still, I don’t think the map is broken, maybe archaic compared to today’s standards (like myself, haha).
A player is currently crafting a full map, WIP: https://imgur.com/a/RAgjBLZ Maybe helpful for some of you^^
Edit: The usability update is online now! Reworked tutorials, hands-on input prompts, a mini manual that can be called from the in-game options menu, also fixed a pixel shader and Nikolay got a new jump animation.
Here's the control scheme for Nintendo Switch: https://imgur.com/a/br0UXeO
A 5, it sure can't be that bad. I still might download it someday, at a discount.
Very surprised by this score, personally I'm loving it and having no trouble at all with the controls on switch.
As a dev myself I appreciate the amount of effort and many skills needed to create something this good by yourself.
I for one am so impressed that I felt compelled to sign up after reading this review and some of these comments.
I started playing this game a week ago when it was on sale. This is my 275th on the Switch. I played 12 hours so far. My only complaint is the lack of direction on where to go next, but besides that nothing bad stands out really. Controls are not the best but you get use to it. 7.5 out of 10 so far for me!
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