Socialising In Space With Insomniac’s Outernauts

Despite all it has to offer, Facebook’s ever-growing gaming platform has yet to fully entice the world’s legion of hardcore gamers. The social network’s extensive library is teeming with hundreds of mini-games compilations, galvanised by its iconic spread of addictive real-time simulators; Farmville, Mafia Wars, and Yoville just to name a few. You see, even for those who are constantly plugged into Mark Zuckerberg’s virtual realm, gaming will always play second fiddle to its primary sharing and communication features.

[drop2]This hasn’t stopped big-name video game publishers however; seeing an opportunity to create synergy between platforms and cross-promote their products has led to a slew of tie-ins. Games like inFamous Anarchy, Dragon Age Legends, and Assassin’s Creed: Project Legacy all had their individual appeal, though failed to make an impact as stand alone gaming experiences.

In fact, it was only days ago that EA announced its plans to pull its Dragon Age tie-in from social networks, stating it had failed to meet the publisher’s expectations. So, if name-dropping the world’s biggest, most renowned franchises in gaming industry isn’t enough to reel in the punter then what is?

According to Insomniac Games, the creators of Spyro, Ratchet & Clank and Resistance, creating a brand new IP is the way forward. Outernauts, the Burbank-based studio’s first foray in Facebook gaming has numerous highlights and definitely carries the developer’s distinct aesthetic touches, but the end result is an amalgamation of design elements that leaves Outernauts with a bit of an identity crisis.

Set in the far reaches of space, Outernauts doesn’t take cues from the recent barrage of gore-caked sci-fi shooters, leaning more towards Ratchet & Clank than the Chimera-infested Resistance series, with cutesy cartoon visuals and a vibrant colour palette. As a newly-graduated Outernaut you worked for United Earth in its efforts to explore the galaxy and its interlinked web of planets.

It isn’t all plain sailing though, each spinning rock plays host to a variety of hostile creatures and alien lifeforms. Not only that, there are rogue Outernaut factions to be wary of as well as space pirates, each side of the conflict eager to unearth the mystery of the illusive “Ancients”.

Donning the tag-line “Tame the Galaxy”, it doesn’t take long to realise where Outernauts sources much of its inspiration. From the opening scenes of the game down to the combat and progression mechanics, the whole experience feels like a stylised sci-fi take on Nintendo’s power-selling portable series, Pokémon. Connections between the two are most apparent in the first few minutes; fresh-faced and raring to go, you start things off by visiting a fellow operative to receive your first creature, with three available options.

Immediately afterwards, you run into Dice, a former Outernaut hell-bent on being your arch nemesis who doesn’t accept defeat in a sportsmanly fashion. The comparisons are stifling, yet Outernauts never feels like a cheaply-done rip off.

[drop]Combat is entirely turn-based but these instances are random encounters unlike Pokemon, Final Fantasy etc. You can pick and chose which on-screen enemies to approach, but won’t be able to see the level or attributes of a creature prior to battle. Victory will come through a combination of strategy and knowledge; for instance, being able to identify which elements are strong/weak against one another will determine the motion of most combat instances. Also, when playing 2-on-2 or even 3-on-3 encounters, using a cocktail of buffs, debuffs, and attacks is essential to boosting your chances.

With every passing battle comes experience and Lunar (Outernauts’ in-game currency) which are used level-up and maintain monsters. In outer space there are no conveniently placed checkpoints (or Poké Centres), players having to rely on purchased items to restore health and stamina to their team of creatures. At first it seems like a money-sponging ploy typical of many Facebook games, though you’ll soon realise that Lunar is fairly easy to obtain.

It’s not as if you’ll constantly need to care for your monsters anyway; Outernauts isn’t the sort of game which encourage multi-hour gameplay sessions, a real-time “Energy” gage dictating how many actions you can perform whilst logged on. Of course, if you’re willing to part with some hard real-world cash, purchasable Star Gems open up just about every possibility.

http://youtu.be/Gd9iQMHWSoU

Though a little more demanding than Farmville and its brethren, Outernauts still has the makings of a superb social gaming experience. With that said, it doesn’t exactly bring anything new to the table, and still comes attached with the rotten tropes of those Facebook games before it.

One noticeable culprit is Outernaut’s tendency to egg players into buying Star Gems or, even more intrusively, to badger friends into playing. From a business perspective it’s understandable; Insomniac needs to spin a profit from Outernauts somehow or at least get the word out. However, impeding my in-game progress by including friend-centric quests that can only be skipped using real money is simply criminal.

All in all, it’s a successful combination of ideas, but as with many social games attempting to do something out-of-the-norm, it’s hard to see a wealth of users persistently logging in on a daily basis, let alone paying for some of Outernauts’ premium features.