Outland

[HotChops]

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/review-pod-outland/713467

 

Has anyone else gotten this? It's fantastic. This vid sums up the gameplay pretty well. What's really worth mentioning in my book is how beautiful this game is. It has to be one of the best looking side scrollers ever... if not the best.

 

 

 

[SomTervo]

Okay, so I started writing a new post about this before realising it was meant to be Multi-Platform and thus it was in this thread! Doh!

 

Here's what I had written:

 

 

This game is awesome.

 

It's a 2D adventure/ platformer that ties a load of great elements together. The sword/combat style of Zelda or Castlevania, the progressive item and equipment collection of Metroid, the changeable blue/red (or black/white) and bullet-hell gameplay mechanic of Ikaruga- and ties all of it together with a beautifully unique look and style that's part Limbo, part Jungle-Book.

 

It's by Housemarque, the peeps who made Super Stardust and Dead Nation. It's definitely one of the better XBLA/Download-only games I've played in a while; the combat and platforming are brilliantly tactile and satisfying, it's challenging at times but never frustrating, it looks goddamn beautiful, and it's a great open-world design adventure like Metroid or Castlevania.

 

The story is maybe the only thing about it that's lacking, a simple fare about goddesses who represent light and dark returning to destroy the world, and the player who picks up the mantle of a hero to save the world from their destructive tendencies. But the style of it is so tribal and flourishingly artistic and unique that I just don't care if the story's a tad on the basic side.

 

I haven't tried the co-op but it's meant to be great too.

[HotChops]

I've done co-op and it's good. It's online co-op only, but there's no lag and they give each player a good bit of freedom to wander off from each other. You don't want to split off too far though, because there are plenty of doors, switches and elevators that require both players to activate. When one player "dies," the other has 30 seconds to revive them. If both die, then it's back to the nearest checkpoint (which usually isn't far.)

 

The co-op is basically the single player game with two players, but there are these occasional "co-op challenges" which are timed mini levels that require heavy teamwork and provide plenty of challenge.