..."You have strange dreams tonight. A familiar voice beckons you to your window. There are stairs leading into the night sky. You awaken just as you begin to ascend them. You have an urge to look outside your window."...
...OVERVIEW...
LOOK OUTSIDE is an RPG horror game made by Francis Coulombe....Set in a multi-level apartment building somewhere in Montreal, the story follows the protagonist Sam who awakes one day to find he cannot look outside as something in the sky is causing whoever may look at it to transform into grotesque monsters.
Sam's main objective is to survive, how he does so is up to the player. You can either work alongside various characters who want to get to the root of this problem and stop it or simply wait out the 15 days until The Thing that is causing this all to happen leaves once and for all.
...WHY YOU SHOULD PLAY IT...
Well, other than the fact I think it's FUN, I think this game has a very pleasent set of over-arching themes. It's not just horror for horrors sake (which don't get it twisted, i like just as much!) - there are moments of sweetness and relif mixed in that really get you invested in the characters and the story. Your choices matter, evident by the amount of endings the story has. I enjoy the relationship-building between the characters, both NPCs and Story Characters a whole lot. It really makes them feel real which I value a lot in apocalypse settings.
The art direction is incredible, a lot of the spritework and music left my fucking jaw on the ground and with each new update the dev continues to add onto that. I find the monster designs to be viserally upsetting, off-putting and frankly disgusting. Francis Coulombe has a twisted imagination and all this is some of the highest compliments I can give. Not often do horror designs squick me out, but this game has many designs where I got a weird feeling in my teeth looking at my screen for to long.
I find alot of the writing to be very impactful....When I first started playing there were moments where I would have to turn off the game and go take a breather...Espeically with Apartment 32....I want to avoid spoiling! (for now)
"Have a look outside. It's... beautiful..."
SPOILERS AHEAD - GO HOME?
...PERSONAL EXPERIENCE...
I first got wind of this game when I was watching one of Jhonen Vasquez's twitch streams (funny how my interests always come back around, huh?). I found myself liking the vibe of this whole thing alot, the music, the art, all that junk. Sadly I had to cut my viewing short due to whatever needed my attention at the time...However my interested was piquied again when my friends had showed me some of the enemy sprites. It was like jingling keys infront of my face given how much I love good selections of body horror.
I bought the game on sale and decided to liveblog my reaction to my friends in a discord server thread - Please keep in mind I have not become a video game enjoyer until recently when I got my laptop. I was sort of going in expecting me to have fun, but all in all it would be another thing I would simply put on the media shelf in my mind. A casual enjoyer, if you will. Espeically because it was an RPG game and I typically Suck Major Ass at those.
...Boy was I wrong. I quickly found myself becoming very invested by maybe hour 2-3? When I forced to fight The Tooth Family in Apartment 32...Frankly family-related things are my weak point. I was panic-texting my friends on how I could properly recruit Joel because I had instantly formed a bond with the little toothy fucker from his entrance alone. (To which he has never left my party since. I care for that boy like he's my own!)
Everything was all fun and games until the punks showed up....Not to be FUCKING DRAMATIC but oh god I LOVE XARIA AND MONTY so much. I rarely find myself getting attached to video game characters with such intensity but I think when you put a nasty, grimy punk boy paired with a mean, unorthodox-ly feminine goth woman who are quite littetally HARD-CODED to be INSEPRABLE...I was done for, frankly.
And also I have a very intensive roleplay campaign relating to this game with my friends too..But thats neither here nor there... :]
...FAVORITES...
♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ XARIA & MONTY! ♡ XARIA & MONTY! ♡ XARIA & MONTY! ♡ XARIA & MONTY! ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡
A pair of gritty, punky college students that show up to Sam's door asking for help. Xaria carrying Monty on her back and begging for you to let them inside so they can rest. Upon entry, Xaria and Monty will steal your room and force you to sleep on the couch for the rest of your game whilst blasting loud rock music late into the night...
Xaria, a tall lanky goth girl with a shitty, abrasive attitude. The gutairist her & Monty's band BRUTAL WIZARD who hints at having no family of her own and has extremely explosive anger issues given most of her skills relate to her freaking out and yelling at the enemy. She clearly has issues...And Monty a dim-witted, short-statured punk boy with a raging pyromania streak who claims he burnt half his face trying to burn down his school to avoid going to class. While not as angry as Xaria, he is just as destructive seeing how much he likes to burn things, destroy and mix chemicals.
Xaria and Monty are inseprable. Quite littetally, if you want one in your party or anything like that you have to have the other. It's actually kind of disgustingly adorable how dependant the two are on eachother. Even their skill tree is almost entirely interlinked.
There is a chance to encounter them when its to late and have been killed & assimilated into The Limb Theif / Guillaume who was a friend of Monty's before the events of the game took place given he says he was a way better DM than Lyle.
..."These two were still bickering as I pulled them apart. They really had something special. I'm glad I was able to bring them together like this."...
I'm sure you can tell I feel fondly for these 2? Anyway...I think it's very funny they have been my main motivator to play this game because most of the average playerbase HATES these two for like a multitude of reasons that typically always come down to their shitty attitudes and actions...However most players do not see their development to the end. Chosing to kick them out before they are granted any sort of 'redemtion' by the player...Which is funny considing the themes of this game. I can kinda understand why their shitty attitudes turn people off of them but i dunno...I just think theyre so fucking endearing despite that. Espeically Xaria but god do people hate Xaria. My girl got her character development!? What else do you want from her!!
will add more later...probably...