Outrunner | a Review
originally published on 06/10/2022;
Hello everyone, I am the metal enthusiast, G.E.M.Simov, a marathon runner faster than even Usain Bolt. I’ve sprinted here to tell you about Outrunner.
Simple review details - I rank games on an out of 10 basis, granting up to 3 points in 3 categories, as well as a last, single point from my own self, depending on my experience with it.
Gameplay
This is a simple game. A game very reminiscent of Pinkman (for those of you who know it). It features running and jumping, as well as a variation of jumping - that being wall-jumping. That’s it, so thank you for reading this review!
On a more serious note, that’s it. The player gets to use the A and D keys or the Left and Right arrow keys to move around, as well as the Spacebar to jump. The aforementioned wall-jump works by pressing the Spacebar whilst sliding down a wall.
And that is it. It is very, very simple, but then those were the mechanics of a large part of Super Mario Bros, and Super Mario Bros is an iconic game, as some would say. Thus, we’ve got something that could be good, and the question is… Is it?
Well, the answer to that is mixed. On the one hand, the movement speed of the Player Character (PC) is quite high, and the way the jumping works feels responsive enough. Not only that, but you (the player) can change your trajectory mid-air, which is a good sign - control over one’s character always works towards making the playing of the game feel better.
Then, there’s the mixed part of it all. There’s a measure of weirdness, a measure of jank and a measure of skill acquisition, all housed within momentum. Whereas most games like this don’t really do momentum, Outrunner seems to embrace momentum, making it so the Player Character builds up speed whilst moving. A good thing would be that momentum only matters in the context of the air.
While on the ground, the Player Character does build up momentum for the purposes of jumping - or so it feels - but momentum doesn’t actually affect the PC on the ground. When you (the Player) jump, however, that’s when momentum starts working its magic.
And that’s an interesting thing - that mechanic - because it feels very clunky, yet, at the same time, the Player has been provided with enough in the way of control so as to manage the clunkiness.
So what is the Player’s goal, then? In short, it is to get to the glimmering rhomboid form at the end of the level. There are obstacles - be they spikes, drones moving to and fro or turrets, there are things that need to be overcome. There are also blocks, ones that can be moved by the PC, and ones that move on their own but can not be moved by the PC. There are also trampolines which make you jump far higher, and there are also blocks that disappear after you touch them.
There’s a lot of stuff, and there are many challenges to overcome. A few interestingly weird things - the blocks that move on their own do not move the PC with them. The PC needs to walk as the block moves, otherwise they risk falling off, which reveals that the blocks kill you if they touch you with anything other than their upwards facing side. That’s neat.
What isn’t neat is that spikes kill you even if you don’t really touch them. There’s the issue of spikes being a block, a square, rather than a bunch of cones - as in, their hitbox or collision box is a square, and whenever the PC walks up to them, even if they are elevated slightly, they kill the PC, even if they don’t seem to be meant to do that.
There’s also the weirdness around the wall jump. It works most of the time, but sometimes it doesn’t. Due to the fact that there is no tutorial, nor is there a means of conveying to the player what’s what, other than through sheer game-sense, the Player finds out that they have a wall-jump later on than they probably should, and even then there’s no true certainty to how the wall jump works.
One other neat feature is that the PC can stand on top of a turret without the turret’s projectile touching them as it is fired by the turret. That’s crisp hitbox detection, unlike the spikes.
But is there something else? Well, not really. It’s just that the rate at which levels grow harder and harder is very good, with the latest levels requiring great knowledge of the game as well as being challenging in a very intriguing way.
Aside from the fact that hitbox detection kinda sucks, and that the levels get so hard that you know there’s only one way to beat them - the way the developer intended - this is not a bad game. 2/3
Presentation
This is a very pixelated game. It is such because why not, I suppose? In fact, the means of presenting it - the pixels - really encourage the Player to focus on what matters - that being the obstacles and the trepidations that await. It’s quite genius, minimizing everything but the important stuff…
But, then, there’s something else about this game. Not only does it somehow urge you to focus on the gameplay, it also goes on to blast violent rock / heavy metal instrumentals into your ears. I’m willing to say that this further emphasizes the focus on the important things, even if it also nudges you (the Player) towards feeling a bit more frantic… Or, perhaps, it is intensity that gets shoved into you.
After all, the way the PC runs is astoundingly intense. It seems so due to the pixelation, but the body of the PC contorts in almost unnatural ways as it runs. There appears to be a monstrous intensity, an insane rush, a crazed sprint - and the PC breaks into it at the tiniest nudge. That combines with the music quite well, creating a fantastic conceptual image.
The music, as mentioned, is hard rock / heavy metal instrumentals, and it’s actually quite good at times. There are weird pieces featuring a few funky vocals, and one that features something in Japanese - I’m almost certain that’s the case - but then there’s a large number of fanciful tracks (I say in relation to violent rock).
Overall, the Presentation of this game is its strongest suit, BUT it has a problem. Some levels, for my average in power machine, dropped the Framerate down to single digits. When the game runs well, it runs spectacularly smoothly. When it gets to these levels (which don’t seem to make sense as to why they’re so choppy) it becomes quite unpleasant. Thus, I can’t award it as exemplary, only satisfactory. 2/3
Story
Unfortunately, there is none. One could argue that an emergent story is possible, but there really is nothing to it. 0/3
Legendary Point
Does this game get the legendary point, so craved and wanted by all and none at the same time? After a bit of thinking, and a bit of consideration, I’ll say NO. If it had not been so problematic in the area of Hitbox detection, and if it had featured no issues with framerates, I might have given it the point. But as it is now, unfortunately, it does not earn my praise. 0/1
Conclusion
4/10. It’s not bad, and it is quite good for what it is. Around an hour of platforming fun, with a slight uptick in the challengingness at the end. If you like platformers, this is a game you ought to check out… Unfortunately, though, it is not on the Steam store anymore, because, I suppose, it got clapped by Putin’s actions.
In the bag of mediocrity it will go. It might gather some dust, as will the 100 achievements I got from it.