We played an early demo of Outbound and while it looks cozy, we’re not fully convinced yet

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During Gamescom, we had the opportunity to get a hands-on preview of Outbound, a cooperative open-world exploration and survival game that blends a cozy, relaxing atmosphere with a deep crafting and building system. It puts you in the driver’s seat of an electric camper van, which serves as your mobile base, as you journey across a colorful, post-utopian world. The game’s primary focus is on a mix of exploration, resource management, and creative expression through vehicle and base customization. You can find this game on Steam.

An Open World with a Cozy Twist

The first thing that stands out when you start playing is how simple the game looks. You can choose to drive in first or third person; I recommend the latter so you can look around and pick up resources when you spot them. You begin with a basic, empty van and are tasked with turning it into a comfortable and sustainable home. The demo starts with a simple introduction: you drive to a blocked area and collect items, find chests, light a firepit, and find a computer. This computer allows you to unlock new things, like tools (an axe or pickaxe), machines (a sawmill or recycler), and even farming equipment.

Your task is to find landmarks and watchtowers that contain computers, which unlock new items as you progress. Since the world is open, you’ll come across obstacles and resources to collect, such as logs, rocks, and berries for food and healing. You can store all of these items inside your camper van, which is also used to place the machines you unlock. Although the demo only gave a small taste of the full game, I assume you will be able to expand the van everywhere.

In other words, Outbound features a modular building system that lets you customize your van inside and out. You can add walls, furniture, workstations, and even multiple floors on top of your vehicle. A key aspect of the game is managing energy for your electric van, which can be sourced from sustainable methods like solar panels, wind turbines, and water generators. The demo doesn’t show this perfectly, but it does show that it’s possible.

Unanswered Questions

Everything about this game is designed to be cozy and wholesome. You can feed berries to bunnies (and you can’t kill them), explore the world at your own pace, and find new areas and hidden items like gnomes. Even the driving is easy to get the hang of, and the animations for opening the side of the van to store things or the back for crafting have a really nice touch.

As you explore and gather resources, you can craft advanced workstations and research new technologies. This allows you to refine materials and create more complex items, which expands your building and crafting options. The demo only gave a hint of this system. For example, to start farming, you must first unlock the plot and then the watering can. I’m not convinced this is the best approach, because it sounds like it could require a lot of grinding. With each computer only unlocking one new technology (for now, at least), progress might feel very slow.

This is where some questions arise. The world seems empty, with most things being more for aesthetics than useful. I’m also unsure how progression will work. Will we just be fixing bridges and other things to get from one area to another? That would limit the open-world feeling. It’s also unclear how repetitive the watchtowers and landmarks will be. Since the co-op wasn’t supported in the demo, I’m not sure how well it will function too.

Still, this is a very promising title. The only things that bother me are the questions the demo didn’t properly answer, particularly concerning repetition. The game seems to focus almost entirely on its systems and environment, with little to no overarching story to guide your journey. You’ll mostly be doing objectives. Other than that, I firmly believe all the different biomes and areas will be worth exploring. If you’re looking forward to this game, you likely won’t be disappointed.