[i] My Experience [/i]
With a bit shorter run time and somewhat easier navigation, Outta Gas could've been one of my favorite games this year.
I was a huge fan of the combat system. Each enemy is made up of layers of pixels, and each of your weapons possesses a unique pattern (that can often be rotated) of pixels that can be used in attack. By attacking certain areas of your enemy, you can reduce corresponding stats. Attacking the legs of an enemy will reduce their chance of dodging your attacks. Attacking an enemy's arms can reduce the power of their punches. Attacking their eyes can reduce the chance that they successfully land an attack on you. Some pixels are armored, and must be hit with an armor-piercing weapon to become vulnerable. Some enemies (such as the robot seen in the game's screenshots) are relatively impervious to certain types of attacks. Additionally, there are various effects that you can inflict upon the body of your enemy. These can cause damage over time, and even spread to other pixels - things like fire, acid, or even flesh-eating bacteria. Lastly, each enemy contains internal organs (or parts). Removing these can really take a toll on your enemy's health, and additional upgrades are available to make this even more devastating.
In addition to weapons, you can take up to three "utility items" to further fine-tune your combat effectiveness. These items can make certain attacks more effective, add additional damage on top of that dealt by your weapons, reduce damage to your character, etc. The game also contains consumable items that can provide a temporary boost. Some of these are indispensable (such as your healing syringes), while others seem to provide benefits that are either too short term or have detrimental side effects.
I tended to initially target the enemy's mobility pixels, since developer Trevor Kellogg is quite literal with the game's hit chances. I wanted to improve my chances of making my attacks land as quickly as possible. In many games, an 80-90% hit chance is basically a sure-thing. However, no attack is a sure-thing in Outta Gas. Although you spend a LOT of time listening to the game's rocking combat music, I'm not sure that I ever actually tired of it.
Moving on to the issues with the game, I want to comment on length and navigation. When I first entered each of the game's areas and encountered the unique enemy types associated with that area, I was thrilled. I liked the variety of the enemies and found their visual design to be absolutely fantastic. However, by the end of each area, I was completely exhausted. I was so tired of fighting these enemies over and over and getting lost among these visually-indistinct map panels. The game's locations are difficult to navigate at the best of times, but the player also spends a LOT of time in locations with impaired visibility, from dark caves to powered-down labs to smoggy factories. You'll also spend a considerable amount of time backtracking to various fast-travel points during the game, dodging enemies that have respawned in rooms you've cleared. There were absolutely times that I thought I might've had enough of the game and considered quitting.
At the same time, it's difficult to make a game for all audiences. As we age, we go from having more time than games to having more games than time, and this issue is exacerbated in the age of Epic Game Store giveaways, etc. There might've been a time when I was younger that I would've been glad to have so much "content." I've also been trying to wrap up a number of 2020 releases, so perhaps I would've enjoyed my time more with the game if I had paced myself and divided my time up into more play sessions?
Outta Gas is definitely worth playing to see the novel combat system and the creative visual design of the enemies, although it wears out its welcome with monotony and tiresome level design. Developer Trever Kellogg has kindly made a demo available for download so you can see what you're getting into, and when I purchased the game I found that I was able to pick up right where I left off (which was just excellent).
