Bite Sized Reviews: Outpath

We’re rapidly approaching Christmas! That means lots of food, comfortable PJs, and watching endless things while sitting like an upturned turtle after all that food.

My 2023 GOTY event is approaching its end. There should be only one episode to go — my finale. However, there’s still life in the old dog. I’ll be putting up more Bite-sized review episodes as I find time to write them. One consequence of all the health problems this year has been the backlog: finding the energy and time has been challenging!

Today’s little snack is the excellent early-access game Outpath. With a popular prologue launched earlier this year, developer David Sanchez has tirelessly worked on the game all year. It truly is a thing of beauty, and while he has a few games under his belt, Outpath is by far the best game he’s created so far. Overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam seem to reflect that, and after the fun I’ve experienced playing Outpath, I agree with those sentiments. I received Outpath a little too late for it to join my GOTY discussions, unfortunately. It would have made my Best of Early Access list without any doubt. I have an interview with David that will be going up in a few weeks, but in the meantime, enjoy this little snack of a review!

Outpath plays a little like Forager, that odd game from a few years ago. There’s no combat, just gather the resources and grow. Combining that gentle resource-gathering genre with idle clicking and plenty of unlocks, Outpath ensnared me from the start. That wasn’t what I expected at all!

I don’t play many idle clickers — Cookie Clicker is one I enjoy playing from time to time, but I prefer other options as a timesink. Outpath breaks that trend in a few ways. One is the gameplay. Yes, it is an idle clicker game with an endless loop of content, but drawing players in with its comfortable graphics and mini Minecraft-esque gameplay is fantastic. You don’t click on menus — you are the menu. No wonder I got addicted to Outpath so quickly.

Endlessly clicking on things for progression can get irritating over time. That’s the case for anything, especially games. Fortunately in Outpath, there are ways around that. While an accessibility option allows a player to automatically gather resources without clicking anything, you can just unlock an item early on that allows for a one-button click. There are some basic survival mechanics to manage like hunger and energy — nothing heavy and easy to manage. Don’t want them? Turn them off, easy.

It might be ‘Early Access’, but it’s already a complete experience. I would like to see full Steam Deck support someday, but it is playable on handheld consoles already. This might be a short review today, but I only have good things to say about Outpath. David has created something truly special.

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