Explore a strange world torn apart by warring evils as you attempt to return back to your mundane life in Out of Place.
Little floating companion have been the new cool since Destiny revitalised the concept following a period of dormancy brought on by the nagging Navi of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Out of Place is more than just an action game riding on a gimmick though, there’s a true, atmospheric mastery to be found in the stark low-poly areas which dominate its environments.
Bagpack Games‘ debut title, Out of Place, is a fusion of adventure and action which ends up making it feel a lot like a modern take on the cinematic platformer genre. For those unaware of the genre, it featured, games like Prince of Persia (1989), Another World and Heart of Darkness which all featured slower-paced, deliberate platforming interlaced with impressive visual moments. Unlike those games, Out of Place features a third-person camera which stays tight to the protagonist, Simon, as you carefully steer them around the deadly world you must explore.
Combat is tight and tactical, with melee combat always feeling extremely geared against you. Making careful movements and keeping amble distance is the best way to find security. While all of the enemies which I faced when playing the demo at Gamescom were clearly designed to be cybernetic in appearance, there was also a focus on lighting in their design. By this I mean that many of the creatures glowed in the same bright colour as your companion and a lot of the shapes which occurred in their design mimicked that of how we draw the sun. For example, the larger creature in the trailer above.
Enough on the combat though. Out of Place does something which few other games seem to do now — it regularly takes steps to have you pause and observe the beautiful environments around you. Sections of the demo, and indeed the full game, remove your ability to interact with objects in the world and instead has you walk along and around vistas. It’s a design-led moment, rather than a camera or cinematic-led one and so it feels extremely natural and fresh.
Out of Place is in development for unconfirmed platforms. You can follow its development on Twitter.
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