Released last year on PC, Outer Terror might be easily described as another Vampire Survivors clone but with more story and mission objectives tied to the narrative.
This is a randomized auto-shooter based around survival, killing a ton of monsters, and leveling up along the way. Broken down into episodes, each stage can be tackled with the cast of ten characters, each with their own pros/cons, and is random each time. Starting with a simple peashooter, the player will usually want to try and find the safe area first to unlock side missions until the stage ending boss appears. It is a fun and easy loop to understand, one that changes each time.
Although your character auto-shoots, the player has direct control of a super ability, which is on a cooldown timer, and can find optional items on the corpses of deceased townsfolk randomly throughout the environment. Giving the player access to more abilities is what makes the moment-to-moment gameplay entertaining. Unlike Vampire Survivors, players can select their new abilities without pausing from the action too.
As fun and arcadey as the gameplay is, I do have a complaint about the spritework. From the playable character to the thousands of enemies you’ll destroy, each one looks like there designed on an 8×8 tile but then expanded to a 64×64 size. The blurry mess that are the sprites in this digital download is jarred and unnecessary, especially considering the environmental tileset is much more detailed. The comicbook-style menu presentation is also nicely done. So why use such ugly, low-res sprites? Also, bosses just randomly appear within each stage and constantly stays within the player’s shadow. It can be a little annoying and unbalanced at times, and I wish there were clearly defined enemy health bars, but at least most of the things its does comes from its own personality.
I’m not going to say that Outer Terror should replace Vampire Survivors. However, I think Outer Terror is a solid alternative within the auto-shooter survival genre. It isn’t the best but the higher emphasis on completing side missions, which enhances the plot, provides a taste all its own.
Much Better Than: Xatrom Command
Also Play: Stickman’s Arena
Don’t Foret About: Geometry Survivor
By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com
Twitter: @ZackGaz
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(Code sent by PR Hound on behalf of Ratalaika Games.)
RATING
OUR RATING - 7.5
7.5
SCORE
Basically a Vampire Survivors clone but with a higher emphasis on plot beats and side missions… and with much blurrier character sprites.