Outsider: After Life

[b]outsider: after life[/b] is an overpriced mobile port of a short sci-fi point & click adventure. it's done better than most lazy ports, but it's still far from ideal and nothing justifies the price difference. it started its life on pc as a $10 game, which was clearly insane, as [b]it's $1 on mobile[/b], but hey, what's a tenfold increase between platforms, eh? fucking ridiculous... only a month later it was already reduced to $5 permanently, and a couple months later it got a 50% discount, that's when I picked it up. it's about a robot trying to escape a hostile planet and save the universe. I'd say why bother, might as well start over at this point, but whatever. it's [b]completely and really badly voiced[/b], the robot's performance is the best and it was made with text-to-speech. puzzle variety is good enough, though it's kinda limited by the swiping controls of a phone. and [b]you have to do everything multiple times and some of them are really annoying and can't be skipped[/b]. like syncing up particles, recreating constantly rotating constellations, charging fast-moving satellites, or wiping a board or the floor. what the fuck was that about? literal cleaning up, every last bit. then there are a bunch of 'recreate these shapes by moving all the pieces around at the same time' puzzles, interrupted by a weird text adventure for some reason. the final set of puzzles consists of 11(!) levels of the same thing, with line endings overlapping each other, making it really hard to move what you want to move. at least there's undo or reset where necessary. controls are simple: left click to move and interact (double-click doesn't move faster, can't skip dialog either if you're a fast reader), hold to swipe, right click for the [b]hotspot indicator[/b], and there are toggles for a slightly more helpful cursor and text descriptions during puzzles if you're new to this sort of thing. mostly good presentation, too much orange though, and the occasional screen shake. [b]great soundtrack, easily the best part.[/b] settings include separate volume sliders, but speech is bundled with effects and [b]some of the audio is much louder despite the settings[/b], it's incredibly annoying. resolution options but no windowed mode, alt+enter doesn't work either, plus v-sync, anti-aliasing, various languages and subtitles. [b]no manual saving, only autosaves who knows when[/b], there is no on-screen indicator. it's [b]about 2 hours long[/b], but only because walking speed and zooming in and out of scenes are slow and there are [b]too many annoying puzzles (and cleaning up) to do too many times[/b]. can't recommend it, but even if I did, it would only be on a deep sale, since the mobile version only sets you back a single dollar, making 5 here way too much. [b]there's a demo[/b] to try, which is always nice.

Short but great game. All the puzzles carry something unique in them and they are very visually appealing. Addionally, the story is quite intriguing.

Let's start this review by mentioning something important about this game: Outsider is a mobile game that the devs ported over to PC. This is particularly important not only because some people simply don't want to play phone game ports, but the pricing is different. The game is about 1.39 dollars Canadian in google & apple's stores. By contrast, it's 3.39 on steam. Not a whole lot of money either way, but still. Why would you buy this on steam when you can just buy it on your phone? So, first up is the story. The story takes place after humans are extinct. It seems somewhat interesting, but after you leave the planet you awaken on, the story gets nonsensical. In fact, it rapidly makes the initial part of the story irrelevant near the end and sort of just does it's own thing. You can read the spoilers below if you want, but without giving anything away, It's really dumb. Want to know how this story goes? [spoiler] You fix yourself/equipment and discover a signal coming from a faraway planet. Heading there, you fight off this giant robot with a virus and suddenly have to restart the universe. Then the game ends. That's it. The start of the game briefly hinted that something was screwing up the universe, but certainly didn't elaborate on it. [/spoiler] The story definitely seemed like it could've been quite interesting, but it probably needed a lot more than 2 hours worth of gameplay and/or a different, more story-friendly format. The puzzles are ok I guess. They are pretty simple. Varied, but still simple. Also easy. That said there was a bit of challenge at times. You often have to do the same thing multiple times, which can get a bit old depending on how much you have to do it. More than a handful were not fun to get through too. They were a time waster. So yeah, wouldn't say the puzzles were good or interesting though. That's basically what's worth mentioning. There are better puzzle games to buy. Bad story, meh-ish puzzles.

Just finished playing. Was a nice experience. Various puzzle types / nothing very hard, 3.0hr playtime. Some of the puzzles went on a few iterations longer than I would've liked, but again, overall nice experience. Was a good short game if you're in the mood for sci-fi theme and light puzzles. I enjoyed it.

Outsider: After Life is a neat indie puzzle game made in Portugal. It takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting, where you control HUD-ini, an android. The atmosphere is pretty cool, because graphics, animations and music are well done. It’s even emotional a few times. Gameplay consists of solving dozens of small, varied puzzles. And I think they are well-designed, because some of them can be challenging at first but never overwhelming. It’ll take you around 2-3 hours to complete the entire game. Oh, and all of that happens in one continuous camera shot, which is a cool touch as well. It’s sold cheaply and, most importantly, doesn’t waste your time. So, I can recommend it, even if you’re not a fan of puzzle games. Set aside a few hours and enjoy this gem.

The emotional journey of a robot with multiple puzzles to solve along the way. As a mobile game, it was a nice play, much more enjoyable on a bigger screen. The game is about 2 to 3 hours long and puzzles were relatively easy, but the atmosphere and soundtrack were quite engaging and I found the simple graphical art style used to depict the sci-fi world beautiful and very well-done. I enjoyed it.

Great story and atmosphere, every puzzle mechanic is unique

The game is short and easy, but incredibly cute. Puzzles are mostly basic, but original. Buy on sale to not regret about it's shortness. Totally worth it with 50% discount, but you can try demo first (like I did)

Great puzzles, great art style and unexpectedly emotional journey

Cute game with fairly simple puzzles that move the story forward. Very chill and melancholic.

Very simplistic game with very easy puzzles. $10 for something barely 2 hours long, feels like it was made just to get you past the 2 hr mark so you would not be able to refund.

'Outsider: After Life' is a science fiction, puzzle adventure game. Set after a cataclysmic event you have to rebuild a robot named Hud-ini and escape the planet. The game has a great range of puzzles all of which are framed within an intriguing story line. The music and artwork are at times breathtaking, truly creating an atmospheric and poignant experience.