Outbound Review: The Most Relaxing Outdoor Adventure (PS5)

I like cozy games such as The Sims and Animal Crossing, but I also enjoy adventure games like Uncharted and Red Dead Redemption. It doesn’t always seem likely that the words “cozy” and “adventure” are going to mix that well; cozy games are supposed to be relaxing, and adventure games are more action-packed, but as they often do, video games prove me wrong. 

Outbound is one of the best cozy adventure games I’ve played. It’s not perfect, but its relaxing van life gameplay, scenic exploration, and satisfying crafting mechanics make it an early Game of the Year contender.

Outbound is now available on PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2 for $24.99. You can also get the DLC School Bus Adventures for an extra $2.99.

Story – Just You, Your Van, and the World

Outbound isn’t bound to a strict story. It’s one of those games where the gameplay is the driving force, not the story. It’s not so much a story but a set-up. The scenario is that you are driving around various different places in a van, which has been adapted for you to live in. It’s simply embracing the joys (as well as the pitfalls) of van life. This isn’t a vacation necessarily; it’s a way of life.

Van Life

Van life culture has become very popular recently, and Outbound allows you to experience just that in video game form. You don’t need to worry about real-world things like money and looking for work. You’ll be focusing on driving around, keeping your van fuelled up, gathering resources, crafting items, upgrading your van, downloading blueprints, exploring, and fixing stuff.

A Soft Set-Up Instead of a Story

The lack of story in Outbound is not a negative aspect at all. In fact, this was probably a good move. It means you can focus solely on van life, crafting your own adventures, telling your own stories.

An Uninhabited and Lonely World… or Not?

Outbound currently lacks NPCs you can interact with. While it does sometimes make the places you explore feel a little empty, the game does cleverly explain away the absence of other people.

Whenever you explore a landmark, you may find a note from the owner stating that they’re away and you’re free to explore and help yourself to their resources and fix whatever needs fixing. This does invoke a sense of human presence, even though they’re not there.

All the locations are also designed in a way that makes them look and feel lived in, with bits of litter and leftover food lying around, implying you’re not the only person to frequent the places you visit in your travels.

As a minor spoiler, the final map does in fact feature people, where they provide a fitting end to the game and its overall theme, but they sadly cannot be interacted with (yet!).

Letters can be found from fellow travellers, indicating that although they’re not there, they are “there”.

Gameplay – Boundless Freedom

One of the biggest strengths with Outbound is its incredible sense of freedom. Since you’re not tied to a story, you can go off and do your own thing in your van, getting out into the world and seeing what there is to discover.

This isn’t to say there are absolutely no limits at all. If you want to make it to the very end, you’ll need to overcome obstacles and make detours along the way – but with every hurdle, you grow stronger and more experienced.

Home Sweet Van

The van is probably the most important part of Outbound. It’s not just your vehicle to get around in, but also your home and your mobile workshop.

Pick Your Van

At the very start, you can choose what type of van you drive around in. You have to pick wisely though, as unless you begin a whole new game, you’re stuck with the model you go with.

There are several vehicles to choose from, plus a school bus if you’ve purchased the DLC. They vary in appearance and specs such as building space, carrying weight, and handling, but the choice mostly comes down to the style of van you want to drive and live in for the game’s duration.

You can also customize your van. Not just the color, but you can also create your own license plate, which is pretty neat and makes it even more personalized.

You can also customize your own character, but it’s used more for multiplayer purposes.

Van Customization

One major aspect of your van is being able to turn it into not just a home, but a workshop. You can build on top and around the outside of your van, getting seriously creative with all the building tools, upgrades, and custom pieces you can collect and unlock along the way. The only limit is your imagination – and the weight and size capacity, and your resources. 

You need to reserve space in the van for the various tools and workstations needed to craft items and get upgrades. With roughly 20 to 30 pieces of equipment, layout is a customizing challenge.

However, it’s not just tools you can place, but also homely touches such as furniture and decorations to create a cozy space to chill out in while you wait for your van to finish refuelling or items to be crafted.

Your van needs to be practical, but it can also be homely.

A Steady Drive

As well as being a home and a workshop, the van is still a van, which means you’ll be driving around in it – a lot! However, this is one of the more pleasurable parts of Outbound. Don’t expect the van to go very fast! It trundles along at a steady pace, going faster downhill but slowing down while climbing. There are no upgrades for faster speed either, so get used to the slower driving style!

But Outbound isn’t about getting places as quickly as possible. It’s not a race. The whole purpose is to encourage you to slow down and take things in, and it’s quite easy to miss stuff if you go too fast.

You can’t get anywhere fast in Outbound, but maybe that’s the whole point? A slower van means a slower pace of life.

Fuelling Up the Van

However, as relaxing as the driving is, there are some things to watch out for. The van has to run on something, which means you have to keep it fuelled up. If it runs out of charge, it will die and stop immediately.

As you play Outbound, the van will evolve with new upgrades for the fuel sources. You’ll start off feeding it with wood, until you discover that you can charge it up thanks to the power of the sun, wind, and rain with new power sources, sparing the wood for other projects. Just remember to set up camp to access these sources! You can also upgrade the van’s battery overtime so the battery lasts longer.

There are also free charging stations, one in each biome, that allows you to charge up the van to full. You can only use it at least every 15 minutes in real time though, so it has to be used sparingly!

Your van doesn’t run on nothing. You need to keep it charged up if you want to keep going.

Heat and Hill Challenges

You need to look out for other upgrades for your van as well. At one point in the game, you enter a biome where the engine can overheat if you drive for too long in a certain area. You quickly learn to prioritize this particular upgrade lest you want to stop and start every 100 yards!

Also, throughout the game, you’ll need to upgrade the motor so it can withstand steeper climbs. Failure to do so halts progress in exploration and the game as a whole, making this another priority upgrade.

Exploration

One of the purposes of Outbound is taking the van out into the world and seeing what you can find and discover. As it happens, there’s a lot to find and discover in Outbound.

The game has a total of four completely unique maps, or biomes, to explore. You start off in a forest setting, before moving onto the coast, then the vast hot canyon, and finally heading up into the lush mountain.

Each biome has something different to offer; places to explore, resources to gather, blueprints to download, and collectibles to find. No place is the same.

If you want to get everything out of each location, you’ll need to upgrade your van, as well as your tools, as you traverse new terrain, as well as deal with new resources.

Outbound is full of wonderful and intriguing places to discover and explore.

Blueprints, Signal Towers, and Terminals

Blueprints unlock new items that you can craft in Outbound. These range from tools and upgrades, workstations, as well as furniture and decorations to outfit your van and make it more homely and personal.

These blueprints can be found at two key points: signal towers and terminals. Signal towers are scattered across the map, while terminals are found at key locations.

At a signal tower or terminal, you get to choose from up to 3 different blueprints, which can unlock a variety of features. You have to choose wisely though, as you can only pick one per tower or terminal.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell just what you need to unlock or upgrade, to access a new location or resources. Picking wrongly might mean having to locate another tower or terminal to get the right blueprint.

Deciding what blueprint to go for can be tricky.

Terminals include a small scavenger hunt before you can download a blueprint. You have to first find three small items hidden among the clutter, which can make the unlock feel more involved than just stumbling across a signal tower.

Additionally, every 24 hours in-game, you get a signal from a previously-accessed signal tower, in which you can download blueprints, usually for van furnishing and decorating. This extra blueprint bonus is a welcome addition, but there is a downside.

The signal tower is picked completely at random and could be far away from your current location, even on the other side of the map! Plus, you cannot download more blueprints this way until you’ve accessed the tower, which puts a little pressure on you to head over there immediately to get the blueprint, even if it means doubling back and taking a long drive to the tower.

This can be very distracting if you’re currently working on a task in a different location or getting to the signal tower isn’t quick and easy.

Signal towers are the key to new blueprints and new items to craft.

Stop and Rest

Outbound can have an unusual influence on you as a player, subtly changing how you approach the game. Between van charging, resource gathering, crafting, sleeping, and stopping to enjoy the scenery, the game keeps giving you reasons to pull over rather than rush around.

Chairs and benches can usually be found at beaches, campfires, or other scenic spots, turning a practical stop into a reminder to absorb the atmosphere that Outbound provides before moving on with your adventure.

After all that driving and exploring and gathering, why not sit down for a moment and enjoy the view?

Gathering and Crafting

Another big element of Outbound is gathering resources and crafting items with them. Without collecting and crafting, progress is at a stand still. A lot of the time, you spend it going around gathering different resources, as well as crafting items, whether you’re constructing new furnishings or upgrading your tools.

Harvesting Resources

In every location, there are different resources to find. These include wood, metal, ore, food, water, and more. You are compelled to collect everything you see – as much as possible, lest you need it later. 

Resources are often tied to their biomes. For example, there’s a different type of ore in each biome. Collecting as many of these while you are in the biome is important if you want to avoid frustration later because you don’t have enough or any of a resource found only in a previous location.

Fortunately, Outbound is not a linear experience, so you can travel back to previous areas if you missed something or want to gather more resources there.

More specifically, certain resources can only be found in certain areas in a biome. For example, clay can only be located by the water in the gorge of the canyon area, and grain is only found in the wheat fields of the forest biome. You’ll find yourself noting these resource locations as you play so you know exactly where to go to collect them.

You’ll need tools to gather from bigger, stronger sources.

Crafting New Resources and Items

Once you’ve gathered enough resources, it’s time to put them to good use by crafting. Craftable items include tools, workstations, upgrades, and furniture. You may also stumble across items in the world that need repairing, such as a bridge.

You can only craft something if you have the blueprint for it, obtained at signal towers and terminals. After accessing a blueprint, you need the required resources to build the workstation. You can then produce items at that workstation for other DIY projects.

It becomes a bit of a rabbithole of crafting, but all the hard work pays off.

After discovering a new workstation via blueprint, you still need the parts to build it.

Food and Hunger

It’s not just your van that needs fuelling up: you as the player need to stay fuelled up as well. You have a hunger meter throughout the game, which slowly declines over time, more rapidly so if you’re busy chopping and hammering and slicing.

Luckily, eating food to stay replenished isn’t hard. You can harvest food throughout the world, which you can then either eat right away, or use in a cooking recipe. There are several cooking workstations where you can make a variety of satisfying meals, as well as beverages, to keep your hunger satisfied.

The hunger meter doesn’t feel like an annoying distraction in Outbound. It supports the van life scenario by giving you a reason to cook while on the road, whether you’re making coffee, bread, cake, soup, jam, or another cozy refreshment.

You can unlock new cooking appliances to access new recipes to fill your hunger.

Collectibles

Outbound hosts a number of collectibles that can be found across the four biomes, which can keep keen collectathon players busy. Alongside signal towers, blueprints, and resources, you can find cute gnomes (100 in total), beautiful paintings, campfires, cairns, and bottle caps.

Bottle caps are unique in that these are used specifically for Cap ‘n’ Snaps, in which bottle caps can be exchanged at special booths to win unique prizes to decorate your van with, including bobbleheads, plushies, kites, and hanging mirror decorations.

Cap n Snaps unlock cool and unique decorations for your van.

Dog Companion

One feature in Outbound allows you to adopt a dog, a companion to join you on your journey. This isn’t unlocked straight away; you have to wait until the beginning of the second area to get one. You can pick from a few dogs at the shelter, but they are all the same breed. You can at least name them.

Dogs provide some companionship in Outbound, especially if you plan to play alone. Fortunately, dogs aren’t a huge burden and don’t require a ton of care and attention to keep them happy. You don’t need to worry about feeding them, for example.

You can command them to stay or follow you, although they can’t go with you to all locations. Thanks to research, you can also train dogs to gather resources for you and stow them away in your van.

There are a few flaws to dogs. It can be easy to accidentally leave them behind, as you need to wait for them to join you in the van after getting in to drive. Also, you can accidentally lose them as they wander off a moving platform such as an elevator, forcing you to go back for them.

While dogs aren’t a huge chore to care for, they can be a bit of a distraction, especially if you’re not too worried about having one to begin with.

The dog is a cute and loyal companion, but don’t lose them!

Bugs, Crashes, and Overall Stability

Many who are considering getting Outbound may be wondering if it’s bug free. While still a fantastic game, Outbound is not a totally flawless experience. In my 30+ hour playthrough, I did encounter a few bugs.

Balloon Glitch

During my second hot air balloon ride in the canyon, I wasn’t locked into place in the basket like the first time, causing me to slide about and shake rather alarmingly, and then as the balloon made its descent, I was still hovering in the air slightly above the basket, not quite falling in time with it. I ended up bailing out of the basket early, fortunately almost at my destination.

The first balloon ride was fine. The second one was a little rougher!

Missing Campfires on Map

Also, after the most recent update for PS5, unfortunately all the campfires previously marked on the map vanished. This was a bit inconvenient giving that I was missing one lit campfire, but thanks to the new counter, I at least know what biome it’s in.

This map is from before the update, when the campfires showed correctly.

Crashes

I also experienced three separate crashes during my playthrough of Outbound, which took place in the last two biomes. Luckily, the game autosaves quite frequently, and it’s quick to jump back into the game, and nothing got corrupted, so there was no real harm done. It was more of an annoyance than a tragedy.

Did It Hurt the Overall Experience?

Hopefully all these issues can be ironed out in updates, which I’m quietly confident they will be. Nevertheless, these fortunately didn’t ruin the experience for me overall.

Graphics & Audio – Scenic, Relaxed, and Atmospheric

With Outbound being set outdoors and with plenty of sights to see on your travels, the setting needs to be attractive to look at. Thankfully, it is. Outbound isn’t a photorealistic game, but this doesn’t stop the world from looking gorgeous.

Lush forests, expansive fields, golden beaches, vibrant canyons, and stunning mountains support the slower pace of Outbound. The scenery gives you a real reason to pull over, sit down, and take it all in instead of treating each location as a checklist and rushing off to complete a task.

The world design of Outbound is simply beautiful.

Soundtrack and Sound Effects

Outbound also features its own soundtrack, with musical snippets playing now and again as you go about your adventure. It’s not on constant play, so it doesn’t create any earworms. It’s just present enough to create a relaxed mood, a reminder of what the ultimate goal is: to get out there in your van and see the world and enjoy the slower paced life. 

The sound effects do their job well, too. A notable example is when gathering resources. A sound is played to match the type of resource collected. Picking up scrap makes a satisfying metallic clang, while swiping at bushes makes a swishing sound. It’s also satisfying to listen to the workstations whirring and clanking away while they create something.

Outbound was played and reviewed on the PlayStation 5.