Outward - Preview @ IGN

IGN checked out the open world RPG Outward:

Outward's Open-World RPG Makes You A Nobody...and Treats You Like It

Outward is coming to Xbox One, PS4, and Steam on March 26 from developer Ninedots and Deep Silver.

In the two hours I spent playing Outward, an upcoming open-world RPG from developer Ninedots, I got the feeling that this was the kind of fantasy game made just for me. It’s not outwardly accessible -- no pun intended -- but that cryptic charm is something that I tend to really appreciate about the games I want to really dive into. In addition, Outward is completely playable with a friend, in online or local cooperative multiplayer.

There are a number of things I like about Outward, mostly because I’m a huge fantasy nerd and love games that make you work for it, and that marriage is immediately evident in the opening hours. The premise of Outward is thus: rather than being The Chosen One, or The Inquisitor, or The Dovahkiin, you’re just a normal schlub.
[...]
To combat this, you’re able to drop your backpack with the push of a button, and then once you’ve won, or retreated, you can go back and pick it up. But the catch is you’re essentially trading quick access to everything in your backpack for the sake of being more nimble, or vice versa. But knowing what’s worth carrying is harder than it sounds, because items you pick up don’t have values attached to them. You think that sword you looted is probably worth something, but it weighs 25 pounds, so is it worth more than 25-pounds of the other stuff you’ve already collected? The only way to know for sure is to see what a trader will give you for it. That’s pretty cool to me.

It’s those sorts of little design elements that I really appreciate in Outward – like the fact when you’re “killed” there are a number of different, dynamic outcomes that could happen to you (like your “killers” looting your body and leaving you for dead, as you awake hours later alone in the dark trying to get to safety).

I’m intrigued in what Outward seems to be. And it’s really delightful to see something like this come from a small, relatively unknown developer. I’m eagerly waiting to pull up a couch and jump in with a friend when it’s out in a few months.