Salt & Pixel and VoxPop Games have created a bullet hell that combines 80s and 90s comics with cosmic horror elements. This is Outer Terror, a bullet hell rogue-lite game that can be played solo or with a friend as you face hoards of otherworldly terror.
When it comes to the game’s controls, they’re limited as the attacks by the characters are automatic and all you pretty much have to do is aim the crosshairs where you want to attack. It strikes me as a callback to old arcade games you played on PC (if you know you know). The sound is a bit annoying as it’s repetitive at times and depending on what weapons you are using you may end up wanting to either lower the sound volume or mute it completely.
When it comes to the game’s art, it’s a bit rough. I really like the comic book look when it’s used in cinematic moments and dialogue, but when it comes to the look of gameplay itself, yikes. I was hoping it would grow on me after a while but I can’t really put my finger on what I don’t like about it, it just looks and feels off visually.
When it comes to Outer Terror‘s gameplay, you pick a level, pick one of 10 characters, and try to survive as long as possible while fighting off monsters and completing missions and side quests. As you play the level you earn upgrades and buffs (like other weapons) that stack in your inventory and become stronger. Depending on the character you choose and how you play, don’t be surprised if you don’t last long, which is part of the game: fight, die, repeat.
As you kill enemies you pick up money from them which you can then use at the main menu to buy upgrades, but the ballache here is that you could have played a level for almost an hour, and collect a lot of money icons, but you have jack to buy any updates… OK, that’s not a hypothetical, that happened to me. How much are those money tokens, 0.05?!
This was a rough one for me. I didn’t care much for the mechanics, the graphics, the sound, and worse of all the repetitive gameplay. I’ve played and reviewed a few Roguelike and Rogue-lite games, and they were fun or engaging, Outer Terror feels like a chore to play as the repetitive nature hurts it as there feels to be no real reward to dying and starting over.
With that said, on my scale of 1-10, I had to give it a 6/10.
Outer Terror comes to Earth on April 12th for PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch.
