Outpost 13

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"The scam’s The Thing"

Has not been updated in years. Looked like a decent game but it most likely never will be.

Game is unfinished and buggy.

Only Act 1 is available, with a total duration of less than 1h. Even in such a short time, I encountered bugs that made me restart the game (i.e. teleported to my room when interacting with objects, unable to Temper in the Lab, etc.)

0/5 stars.

Nice short indie pixel game. Reminds me of The Thing. It is intresting story. You can choose a cat or a dog and then you go and kill people. The music is epic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CBybuPy3AY&t=6s

Dev Scammed everyone who took part in the kickstarter. This is abandonware, and should be removed from Steam.

Here's the company's public info: https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_tx/0802100101

They have a residential address registered for their corporate address - big red flag.

This game was released in a very buggy and incomplete state. An "Act 2" was promised. It never arrived, and the dev has been silent for a couple years. I got it on sale for 99¢, and it was still overpriced.

Not recommended.

Half-finished abandonware. The second half of the (frighteningly short) game is a year overdue, and the dev has moved on.

Has a game engine and around two puzzles, one of which requires you to wait around doing nothing for ages. If I look into it too much further I won't be able to get my refund.

The concept's okay, the execution is mediocre at best. Could use a lot more polish and a lot more development time.

This game was buggy from the start, very prone to needing extreme trial-and-error to progress, and then is an incomplete story on top of it all.

I decided to wait to file this review, hoping that the developer would finish the story. They have not, and there hasn't been any movement or communication as to this project's end.

This game is dead, learn from our mistakes and get far, far away from this game.

I love 80s horror and that made me buy this game despite the warnings. It is an awesome idea, but my God execution is horrible.
The game is buggy as hell, in the sense that it f**ks up progression buggy. Especially that God damn science lab part.
The second bad thing is that it's short, and i don't mean 2-3 hours short. I mean 20 min short.
The third and worst damn thing is that the game opens and a narrative is set up. An interesting story. Then apparently the developer decided that he was too busy shoving potatos up his ass to actually put the story in it. You don't even get to kill al the people and the game ends abruptly because "f**k you i already taken your money!"

I want to love this game, cause it has an awesome premise, but it's the most dissapointing piece of s**t i bought this christmas sale

0/10 : This is not a game. This is a flash animation POS that suckers you to give them money.
DO NOT PURCHASE WASTE OF TIME

Very short that was dissapointing but i bought it when it was on sale so it was real cheap,
You should do it too if youre interested. its a 5/10

I am going to give this game the benefit of the doubt at the moment. Simply because the funding problems it has been though.

I understand that the game is still in development, it has struggled on Kickstarter and it’s still struggling now.
But I can’t help but feel disappointed in the lack of features the game provides. I know that some things will be cut from the Alpha stage and such but I was looking forward to the ability to sneak through vents in the halls, gain the trust of the NPCs and for the possibility of the Workers reacting to violent and unpleasant deaths of their co-workers.

And I know that the Act One (The only act currently released at this review's posting) could be used simply as a level used to help the player become comfortable with mechanics and the environment. So far, I have been able to freeze several people, dismember another and free a tiny creature…

All the while the "Tantalus", doesn’t speak when he is supposed to, leaving me blind as to what to do. I am able to be in two places at once (Literally) and the key events no longer happen, leaving me with an even more broken game.

I am hoping that Max will reintroduce the removed (possibly not revealed) content back into the game. That the bugs are fixed as they do truly break the immersion of the game and that the NPCs notice when people die.

I loved the look of this game when I saw it on Kickstarter for the first time, the only reason I couldn’t back it was because I was too young at the time.

So I payed for the "exclusive" cat that everyone got? So you don't have to inform anyone the "dlc" is finished? So I waited till NOW to find out? The name ingame is wrong? Transforms joy in anger very fast

4 fucking puzzles. That's it. None of the puzzle are really interesting and the remained of the gameplay is... well, there is no additional gameplay. That's it. 4 puzzles. Boring puzzles.

Outpost 13 the only way it can be described as a short but sweet game. the intro begins with a man in the snow and a dog, where after a few seconds the dog turns into a horrible monster, this looks to be a really nice touch to John Capenters "The Thing" with a few minor changes. Instead of playing the heros that escape the horrible nightmare that lives in outpost 13, the player is the monster, with a very clear objective... Kill everyone, the "Evil personality" that follows the player around helps out with giving hints to push the player to the right path of destruction. These hints arn't exactly clear and can turn the game from short and sweet to really long and confusing, the game mechanic that is used is a locked path of what the player will take. Hovering the mouse over all the objects in the rooms that are available give to clues of what needs to be done next, some of these are unclear and can lead the player astray. The timed events are clear of how to proceed but aren't very clear on what order that everything needs to be done in. These events are very forgiving allowing the player to make a number of mistake before having to wait for the time window and starting again. The best way to proceed through this short game is to pay extra attention to what is being said, and the objects/ Notes in the enviroment and that will explain the best of the plan of what the player needs to do. Outpost 13 is one of those games where once the "Ball" starts rolling, everything falls into place like a giant jigsaw puzzle. Great storyline, great art work and a awesome perspective from the "Evil" side of things.

Personally Outpost 13 is a great puzzle game once everything comes together. The game should have been longer personally but I haven't played act 2 yet and look forward to doing so. 8 / 10 in my review and thank you all so much for reading.

I´m not even sure, where to start with this.

This game feels like an alpha version with bugs everywhere. It isn´t even flagged early access.

I played like 50 minutes and didn´t even finish act 1 because I got stuck the second time. Later, i watched a gameplay- video on youtube, only to realize: there is nothing more to this game.
It literally ends after act 1.

Act 2 is called a "free dlc" coming in winter.

This is when i uninstalled the game and asked for a refund.
Usually it costs 10€, but even the 5€ i paid on wintersale are to much for an unfinished game with this little content.

If I was to sum up the experience, probably the best way would be in one word: disappointing.

Don't get me wrong, the premise is great, reminiscent of The Thing in more ways than one and packaged in a point and click format. You even get to wander around the base with a day night cycle. Basically the premise is great. Of course its the execution that's the problem.

There's no real point for the sandboxy style nature because the game doesn't utilize it in any meaningful way. Yes you can wander from room to room but what does that matter when you need to get an item from one room to solve the puzzle in another, it's like the game is telling us the challenges are self-contained (you get a room cleared message when finishing a puzzle in a location) but at the same time some rooms need to be cleared before others. There's no real point in allowing the player to mess with a later puzzle when you won't yet hand them the item needed to solve it.

The linearity of the puzzles is in contrast to what the game appears to be, at first glance it looks like a more sandboxy experience, but as you wander you'll notice that practically nothing changes as time passes until the night where you're limited to spying on sleeping crewmates and trying to discern important puzzle hints from the setup of their personal belongings, so you can figure out how to kill them.

The killing itself seems to lack any sort of logic as well, you go through the trouble of timing your actions so you can drug a person when it's already established that you're a monster that can tear a grown man apart just like that and could easily clear the room by brute force. Hell, the intro has you do just that! Yet here you are elaborately solving a puzzle about mixing chemicals just so you can knock out a person, so that you can then transform and tear apart their remaining colleague by brute force. Why you couldn't just kill them both and save yourself the trouble of the puzzle is beyond me. Perhaps even give the player a multitude of ways to clear a room, wouldn't that be more fun to make them want to figure out the sneaky way to do it, rather than force them?

But even this is pointless when a gamebreaking bug impedes your progress. I got stuck on a puzzle due to being unable to click a console, I didn't realize it was interactable due to the game refusing to let me click it, thus missed out on the puzzle solution. Only after several attempts at doing the same thing did I randomly notice the caffeteria console can be clicked on while randomly mousing over it the 5th time.

There's other bugs too, map showing wrong location occasionally, the main character not being kicked out sometimes when the 'attention' meter depletes and so on. Rooms are annoyingly empty for a point and click game, with very little to examine and interact with and some are even seemingly completely pointless. It's not even a very long game, perhaps I missed something but it seems I reaced the ending in less than 2 hours including getting stuck on multiple puzzles.

For what it's worth the game is a great idea, has nicely stylized graphic look and I enjoyed the soundtrack as well. But it fails on poor execution and it's not like the idea itself is worth the money when there's even free games that took this premise and did it better.

Not recommended in its current state.

The concept is awesome. Has a long way to go but the developer has been constantly putting out updates and is open to suggestions. I'd recommend this over a ubisoft game anyday.

tl;dr: Great concept for a game, but this is no where near complete and certainly not worth the asking price of $10. Avoid.

I picked up this game after seeing it on the front page of Steam. I looked into it and loved the pixel art and dark concept. It seemed like fun. I wasn't really sure about the price, but I was bored and looking for an interesting game. After going through the short intro, I was pumped for the game. Then the game started. I was lost. Nothing but a screen of text explaining the times to go on. I explored a little and found large areas of nothingness. Finally stumbling on a room I could do something in, I quickly picked up on the 3-4 medicore puzzles this game has to offer. A combination of finding clues and lots of trial and error. The clues did not work as intended for 2 of the puzzles. It's either a bug or crap game design. After some more blind clicking without direction, the game ends. Apparently, there's going to be a second act. This was the first act? Um, usually games are divided into acts because the content is too vast to complete in a given timeframe. I feel like this is a buggy version of 5% of a real game. I'm pissed. I requested a refund, but was denied as I had "played" more than 2 hrs. Realistically, I played for about an hour, and then minimized it to look up what the heck was going on with this game for a few hours; because, suprise, there's no pause "feature". Press Esc by reflex to bring up some sort of menu? You just quit your game. Terrible design. Don't waste your time or money on this one.

Pros:
Great concept
Fantastic art
Great music

Cons:
Short (<10 minutes once you've figured out the puzzles)
Some puzzles are either poorly designed or bugged out
Absolutely zero replay value
Insane price for this game. Honestly, I would be hesitant to recommend it for $0.99.

Summary: This is like a lightly-polished alpha version of a tiny portion of a game. It was misleading and dishonest to sell this as a completed game worth $10. I feel royally ripped off.

This is a great premise, great foundation - but as it is now, it's essentially a prototype of itself.
Almost everything is trial and error - sometimes costly trial and error, as the clock is constantly going and there's no guidance or direction whatsoever. While this is okay in some games, in this one it's frustrating at best. The counter-intuitive solutions to some puzzles (all found on accident) had me scratching my head, and more often than not, they could be solved by simply doing the same thing again and getting a different result.

I was left in the dark about certain game mechanics, which goes back to the constant trial and error bit. Learning the controls consists of reading over a pop-up window that comes up before the game starts, and its stance on controller support is utterly silent (will a 360 controller work with this? If so, how? etc).
There is no pausing, which makes it harder to take in the environment.
Dialogue is strictly represented on an eyesore of a black ticker with a tacky comic sans-ish font. The cursor is a clashy lime green reticle that makes it feel like you're in some kind of debug mode (an eyeball or something may be more immersive).

The excellent soundtrack is ruined by this strange "tapping" sound that never stops. I don't know if it's a sound effect or part of the music, but whatever it is, it's absolutely madness inducing.
(EDIT: This is a random glitch where if you go outside into the snow and then go back inside, the game sometimes thinks you're moving even when you aren't, and it reads all surfaces as snow, therefore a never-ending tap-tap-tap...)

Animations are stiff and jerky, and the humans move rapidly and suddenly, giving you very little chance to react in some situations (along those same lines, you move VERY slowly).
There is a nasty glitch where some doors/exits cannot be used or don't trigger when you click them, and exiting to the menu to fix it ends your current session entirely.

I haven't actually managed to kill a single person (I...think that's what you're supposed to be doing?...) yet. I got to a place in a science lab where I was told to mix some chemicals - but when I thought I had it and hit 'MIX', a random soldier spawned in the room, I burst into flames, and the screen just cut to 'Thank you for playing...'
Um, what? I don't even...

THAT BEING SAID:
This thing has extreme potential, and what does work and what is clearly explained has a meticulous quality. There's nothing else quite like it. I see great things in its future.
In its current state, this would be perfect as a mobile/tablet game, but as a Steam title, it needs a couple liters of polish. I'm definitely going to keep poking it with a metaphorical stick until something...happens. Will keep an eye on it and adjust my recommendation accordingly.



***UPDATE***

I finally found out how to actually cause deaths, and cleared almost all of Act 1 within 15 minutes. It turns out, interactive parts of each room are tiny, extremely obscure spots that you'll just have to find on your own. Clicking them only triggers the desired effect half the time.
Some solutions you're going to have to Google to find, or just get really really lucky.

On the actual deaths...
Wow, what a disappointment. They look great, but the problem is that they play out in fast-forward, with rapid and awkward animations that cause the whole sequence to last maybe a second. There's absolutely no sound and it feels completely uninspired. All that guesswork and searching, only to be rewarded with what feels like an alpha stage test animation.
The humans don't feel human at all. They're just stiff, mindless scenery that fly across rooms once in a while. The rooms themselves seem bare. Maybe a flickering light or mold/stains would add to the whole atmosphere.

As it stands, with a $10 price tag the game needs to be at least twelve times the size it is, with /way/ more involved death sequences, sounds etc.