When a friend of mine recommended trying Going Outside: You Know, Real Life?, I was a bit skeptical because I wasn't familiar with the title, and I was a bit leery of independent games after my friend Jigsaw invited me over to his place to play a game, but that's another story.
Let's start off with my likes for this title: First, the graphics are really good. I really felt immersed in the environment and quaint little neighborhood in the first level. I know other games have pretty good graphics, but Going Outside: You Know, Real Life? takes it to another level, because when you look closely at an object, instead of seeing blurry pixels, the developers made a point to add really fine details. The levels in this game are huge; there's plenty of areas to explore and lots of NPCs to talk to.
Unfortunately, with a game like Going Outside: You Know, Real Life? spending so much of it's budget on graphics, there are some significant holes that really let me down and just kind of ruined the game for me in general. While there are a lot of NPCs you can talk to, they have very limited dialogue, to the point where it's hilarious (reminding me of the guards in Skyrim) where you can ask them about the weather, ask them what they do for work, and introduce yourself. Most of them just awkwardly and unrealistically walk away after you talk to them, and if you try to talk to them again, they usually go "Leave me alone" or "I really need to get going". So basically, the game is filled with anti-social individuals who have an insane amount of business to attend to in a suburban neighborhood? What could possibly be so pressing that everyone is too busy to talk to? It's almost laughable, but I can't blame the game designers for not being to program everyone to have a personality of their own, but why make it so you can interact with so many different NPCs who are useless to the gameplay? I don't know, it seemed pretty redundant to me.
There aren't really "enemies" per se in game, except for maybe the domestic dogs that chase after you, but they don't really deal damage with their attacks. There's no real sense of peril except for the two energy bars: "bladder" and "Hunger". If the bladder bar reaches zero, your character simply pees their pants, and you just run back to the spawning point in your house, get a new set of clothes, and move on. Again, it seems like an interesting little quirk to the game to make it more realistic, but doesn't really have any impact on the story, whereas if the Hunger bar reaches zero, your character passes out. I couldn't find any weapons in the first level, but there were no enemies to attack anyhow. The worst thing about the interface is that there is no mini-map, which seems like an unusual oversight for a game with such a huge area to explore, so it's easy to just get lost, and soil your character's pants several times before finding your house again to get a new set of clothes.
The real deal-breaker of this game is it's slow storyline; nothing is explained in the first level, you just start on your front door's porch with no objectives or mini-map. The NPCs don't give you any clues on what you're supposed to be doing, you're just forced to figure it out. The huge area is interesting, but as impressive as the graphics are, it seems wasted on a very "average" environment that doesn't really give the player any "Wow" visuals, like huge machines or supernatural events. I couldn't figure out how to get past the first level, because it was so time-consuming to figure out what to fucking do. There were other neat little features to the game, like how it goes from day-to-night in real-time, but this game is generally boring, uninspiring, non-engaging, and just bad in general. I give it 2 out of 5 dildos, but only because the graphics look pretty. Beyond that, just pass this one up, it's not worth playing.
Hey man, great review! I've given this game a little time myself, and although I'm pretty bad at it, there are a few points I'd like to make in response to your observations.
You seem to be looking at this game and wanting something to do/fight, but what I've often found is that it's better to treat it as an open-world/sandbox universe, where you can explore and develop your character through interactions with the environment and other characters. The story isn't given to you from the beginning, rather, the plot is extremely open-ended and versatile to the decisions you make. Even your relationships with other characters (which you can create if you interact with them for long enough!) shift depending on your overt or ever so minute actions. In this day and age where games are praised for being able to customize and personalize the plotline for each player, GO:YK,RL? really excels.
It's true that the storyline is very slow, and there seems to be few cutscenes or jumps to the more relevant points of gameplay. Sometimes I feel like the Bladder and Hunger meters are rather trivial, and more of an annoyance than something that actually adds to the game (one could express similar annoyances, for example, about the supply factor in StarCraft). I've heard, though, that such mechanics as Hunger are actually quite intricate, and how you react to it can integrate into your character attributes as well as your relationship meter with other NPCs. It's something I'd recommend further exploring before really making a judgment.
Anyway, that's all I have for right now; any other thoughts have presently slipped my mind. Although I think a score of 2/5 dildos is probably too harsh, I can see why someone would give it that rating. Even so, consider playing GO:YK,RL? some more and looking for the little details and the open plot that it can offer.
P.S. The developer of GO:YK,RL? is actually VERY famous, whether in a good light or bad. It may seem like an indie game, but really its makers have been around for a long time. I thought that was interesting when I found out.
The game is fairly okay from what I've played through, but there are certainly some OP characters (e.g. celebrities and the wealthy) which isn't fun because the in-game economy is so broken. Sucks there is only one life in the game, regardless of how much you pay. Doesn't help it takes so long to gain experience. Overall, fairly entertaining, but much more to improve.
As a DLC you can get a smartphone and data plan. It's quite expensive but it will give you a minimap on your HUD. But when you use it you kinda zoom in and are unable to navigate with the map on.
Also my character really sucks. Wish I could reroll stats T_T
On April 17 2013 11:07 PhoenixVoid wrote: The game is fairly okay from what I've played through, but there are certainly some OP characters (e.g. celebrities and the wealthy) which isn't fun because the in-game economy is so broken. Sucks there is only one life in the game, regardless of how much you pay. Doesn't help it takes so long to gain experience. Overall, fairly entertaining, but much more to improve.
I have to admit this is unfortunately true. Somewhere along the way the world's mechanics got really screwed up. (Unless that was what the developer had intended all along??? But I feel hard pressed trying to justify the resulting steepness in difficulty to have really increased entertainment value. Maybe there's something deeper that I'm missing.)
this game way too OP. was playing for a bit on and off but decided to quit because off all the imbalance. Keep spamming the forums of the deities of the universe to nerf some much needed things but it hasn't been happening.
stopped playing for now but everyone that plays this keeps telling me I'll be back to this game in a couple of years. I'm pretty skeptical for now.
While it's technically free to play, it's still pay to win and I dislike that business model that the developer chose. Having said that, if you do pay, you do win pretty big!
I can't wait for GO:YK,RL part 2, I heard they removed the hunger and bladder bar for good.
As for part 1, I find it too time consuming to raise stats and that if your stats aren't maintained then they deteriorate. Also my weapon of choice is a plastic bat. I find that different weapons allow you to have different dialogue options and open up new levels. Like in order to pass level 1 you can commit a crime and go to level 1b which is the prison.
A few improvements that should be made:
Quick Travel Sleeping in a bed to raise your level
On April 17 2013 11:16 shizaep wrote: this game way too OP. was playing for a bit on and off but decided to quit because off all the imbalance. Keep spamming the forums of the deities of the universe to nerf some much needed things but it hasn't been happening.
stopped playing for now but everyone that plays this keeps telling me I'll be back to this game in a couple of years. I'm pretty skeptical for now.
Yeah, the die-hard fans are always trolling forums and stuff, going "Go outside, get a life". It's pretty annoying, but I didn't want to let my feelings towards other people influence what I wrote. A lot of people will say I'm not being objective because I'm "not giving the game a chance", but that's not the case at all. It's just not that great of a game.
If you can get your hands on some double dollars, you could get yourself a map of the area you're currently in from one of the many shops. It's a great help ^_~
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/7zylNjE.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/YQLwQgl.png)
