Outbuddies DX [Xbox]

Developed by Julian Laufer, Outbuddies DX is a retro styled action-adventure platformer that sees you take on the role of Nikolay Bernstein, a maritime archaeologist and adventurer who, following a shipwreck, has ended up 36,000 ft under the sea in a sunken fortress known as Bahlam. After meeting a member of the Wozan tribe, Nikolay is tasked with rescuing 80 of their miners who have been captured and are being held hostage in locations across Bahlam. You’ll travel around the world, frequently running into areas that are as-yet inaccessible, so you’ll have plenty of backtracking to do as you go.

You have a little Buddy unit that accompanies you, mapping out the areas and having the ability to gain you access to new sections of the world. Co-op mode allows a second player to control Buddy, which can help to make things a little less cumbersome, but isn’t exactly the most exciting for the person playing Buddy. Playing alone, you can switch to Buddy to make use of their telekinetic powers to move objects around, as well as to scan the environment for points of interest, though this can become frustrating due to the size of the map, and therefore how often you’ll be required to do this, just in case you miss anything.

Your suit is Steam powered, and using your powers will cause your Steam gauge to drop, however this will regenerate when in contact with the ground. It can be upgraded as you progress, with new abilities available such as bombs that can be dropped, missiles that can be fired to break down walls and more. You can find items such as Corridium Protocol, which, after finding a few, will unlock new abilities for Buddy, allowing you access to new areas - though between Nikolay and Buddy, and the variety of things that you can do as each of them, the controls can become a tad confusing.

With an interestingly unique retro art style, Outbuddies’ environments look great, though the fairly similar appearance throughout does lead to a lot of confusion as to where you are and where you’re going - especially given how large the map is. There are save points located around the world that you’ll need to activate, but the lack of a well-streamlined map makes travelling around feel unbearable at times, especially with no fast-travel (aside from a few warp points to move from general areas). The soundtrack, by OGRE, is fantastic - and helps to make the long slog of travelling around the map a bit more enjoyable.

The game offers a great level of challenge, with enemies having distinct combat styles and boss battles being enjoyable in their difficulty. Dodging out of the way of enemy attacks feel satisfying and the upgrades you gain over the course of the game make a huge difference to both the combat and overall gameplay experience.

Available on the Xbox Store for £14.99, Outbuddies DX is an impressive feat from the mind of a single developer, but sadly its a title that both of us really struggled to really get to grips with (moreso myself than Allan). If you go any significant period of time without playing, then good luck trying to remember where to go or what you were doing, as there is very little in the way of guidance - and map markers seem to remain in place even after items and such have been collected, making for a very frustrating time.

In the end, we decided to give Outbuddies DX the Collecting Asylum rating of 7.5/10.

Have you played Outbuddies DX yet? What did you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!

- V x

Thank you to Julian Laufer for the Outbuddies DX Xbox review code!