This is attempt number two, after wordpress ate my original review. Basically because I was so frustrated, there haven't been any updates in a little while. So, sorry about that.
I can't help but look at the XBox Live Arcade's selection of platformers and feel a tiny twinge of irrational anger. The service is overstuffed with games that essentially ape NES and SNES platformers without really pushing their design forward in any meaningful ways, instead relying on their aesthetics and self-consciously "artistic meaningfulness" to convey just how important they are. Of course, I'm talking about the game Sonic the Hedgehog. Just kidding.
Anyways, when images of Outland were released, I couldn't look at the game with the same excitement that I usually feel for platformers. Besides its aesthetics, it looked super boring, playing with the same tropes that have been a part of the genre forever. And while Outland doesn't break any particularly new ground, it shocked me by completely succeeding at synthesizing its various elements into a more-or-less cohesive whole that is outrageously fun to play.
Let's get this out of the way first: Outland's strength lies not in its originality. The structure of finding your way through an interconnected world is lifted pretty much verbatim from Super Metroid; its platforming and the way the character moves is highly reminiscent of the 2D Prince of Persia games; the combat is lifted out of something like Castlevania and dropped right into this game; the aesthetics are reminiscent of Limbo (and Tron); and the one aspect of the game that seems like it might be somewhat original (being able to transform your character from one colour to another colour, to absorb hits from like-coloured enemies and projectiles, or to be able to damage enemies of the opposite colour) is also taken from classic gaming – Treasure's Ikaruga. The reason why this works, though, is because Outland is less about lifting these ideas and hoping the audience thinks it's enough for the game to reference other, older, and for the most part, better games, but to make all of these elements feel seamless. And Housemarque, the Finnish company behind Outland, succeeds for the most part.
Like the NES and SNES games it lifts from, Outland is all about its gameplay, and it's here where it succeeds most fully. Traversing the landscape, fighting enemies, solving puzzles, and navigating its sometimes "bullet hell"-ish chambers is joyous, simply because the controls are so finely tuned and every element has clearly been poured over by the development team. In fact, some of these elements are some of the very best I've encountered simply due to the level of craft that's on display. This is a game all about action, about movement, and in those moments, it's totally amazing
But it's also pretty simplistic – the most intellectually stimulating that Outland gets is in its bullet hell moments, where you have to carefully consider how to change from red to blue without taking damage. Less successful are the aforementioned Super Metroid elements. While Outland is reminiscent of those SNES classics of yesteryear, it also attempts to court the modern, HD console-owning gamer, and that means that a lot of player agency in terms of actually finding your way through the world is eliminated in favour of objective markers and directional pointers, which is unfortunate. The purpose of Super Metroid's intentional directional obfuscation is to instill a sense of both panic and necessary exploration. By taking this aspect out, Outland has absolutely no depth behind its neuron-pleasing smoothness of gameplay. The progression is simply: "go here, do this thing, go here, do that thing, pick up a new powerup," etc. etc. By taking the onus off of the player to collect new powerups to progress, and instead making it more of an optional affair, Outland is far less compelling than the best Metroidvania games in an intellectual sense.
Also disappointing is the game's insistence on a narrative, when incorporating no overt narrative clearly would have been the better option. Not to belabor the Super Metroid comparison too much, but in that game, the setup is all that's required, leaving much more to the player's imagination as suggested by the immaculately constructed levels. In Outland, though, the game's portentous narration (almost as bad as a similar trick seen in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow) consistently sticks its nose into the proceedings when the game's aesthetics seem to do a pretty good job of conveying a narrative. And unfortunately, the narrative that is brought up is a motley collection of pseudo-tribal mumbo jumbo that unfortunately recalls similar tricks seen in Avatar.
So Outland isn't original, has a weak and unnecessary story, is completely devoid of catchy music, and isn't very intellectually stimulating. I think I must be playing a lot of shitty games, though, because I found Outland to be some of the most fun I've had this year. It may be wrapped up in "art game" clothing, but it's a summer blockbuster through and through. There's still no substitution for craft and polish, and Outland exudes these things to an extremely high degree. It was never going to be one of my favourite games, but when you're flying through the air, absorbing bullets and slicing through enemies, Outland just feels great, and that's something that's undeniable.