Recent reviews by random.cat

The story starts off pretty slow, with a prologue that eases you into the world of Expedition 33. It gives you a safe space to get used to exploring and learning the basics of combat. You get small rewards for talking to NPCs — some even have little challenges or quests you can pick up from markers on the ground. Toward the end of the prologue, the tone shifts and starts to swing between serious, comedic, and casual depending on what’s currently happening in the story.
As the game moves into each act, the pacing picks up. You meet new party members, fight tougher enemies, unlock new mechanics, and explore different areas. The weird things important characters said earlier start to make more sense, and over time, the characters themselves get more depth. You start to understand what drives them.

I ended up loving turn-based combat, and once I got the hang of it, it never got in the way of my enjoyment. That said, it can feel pretty overwhelming at first. Each character has their own weapons, skills, stats, and lumina points to manage — and on top of that, there are tons of pictos that have to be unlocked as lumina before they can even be equipped across your team. It’s not a bad system, but it’s definitely a lot to take in early on. I’m pretty sure my character builds had terrible synergy, but I was still having a great time. Also, I didn’t even bother trying to parry at first. It felt too risky compared to just dodging, so I stuck with what felt safe. It wasn’t until later that I started using parries and realized how much more satisfying and useful they were once I built up the confidence.

When exploring the map, it’s easy to forget you can actually jump. Parkour moments aren’t super common, and when they do pop up, they can feel a little awkward — probably because of the third-person camera. It’s just not as intuitive as using the expedition grapple or climbing indents, which are clearly marked and simple to use.

Overall, my experience with the game was really positive, and I’d strongly recommend giving it a shot. I honestly didn’t think I’d enjoy it — but it completely surprised me, in the best way.

One playthough is all you really need if you just want a story, but will require multiple if you actually want to learn more about the characters or the lore behind everything that's not immediately obvious. The main character remembers what you do in previous playthroughs and able to abuse that information in new ones.

I actually do enjoy the card system a lot. So simple yet gets extremely challenging and complex as the game progresses. Could use gear, consumables, or power through at the cost of extra stress to turn things in your favor. Needing to rest more often isn't entirely a bad thing and it builds up relationship to specific character depending where you rest at, and you able to forget a card if you wish.

Its not just cards either, there's a individual relationships and an overall colony reputation system to manage. Even some hidden stuff like food supply and the overall state of colony defenses. Wont be able to see where you stand overall in food or defense but you'll know when it increases or drops.

I admit, I actually enjoyed this game for what it is. Though I can't see myself playing it long term. Which given its low price tag (or if your lucky enough to claim a free code which they gave a ton of). It shouldn't be surprising. Might try my best to 100% then I'll likely never touch this again.

Could become interesting if they added more content, but I doubt they have any plans on doing so. It is clear from the start that this was never a serious project. I left a positive review keeping that in mind.

Personally really enjoyed The Outlast Trials and even made me want to play the first game again. Content feels a bit lackluster (Only 3 Programs at launch), but every update has been enjoyable. Recently Program 4 was introduced, with more planned as far as I know.

Take it with a grain of salt though... I skimmed through the developer updates. I likely have no idea what I'm talking about.

Multiplayer is a blast and its helpful having teammates but is definitely not required!

Fun while it lasted.

Fantastic game! Played with a friend of mine and it took us a good 5 and a half hours to complete one play through and going to play another one soon. There was 2 minor visual bugs but it doesn't affect the game all that much.

It's more like a movie them a game, super story driven with no difficulty settings.
(At least non I seen)

I'm a huge fan of survival games and I got to say this one was super fun. Its not easy and can be pretty frustrating at times, but other cool features make up for it. You have no idea how many times I died to wolfs, trolls, and myself. On top of all that I have to travel far away to recover my things trying to avoid another death with no clothing.

When you launch the game for the first time you start with the main menu, create a character, and create a new world. The tutorial feels natural and only pops up after discovering new things, there's story to follow and huge worlds to explore. As well as a good chunk of content to work through for a early access game.