Oh yeah, this one is going to make us click our hands together with delight! Okay, I’ll admit it: I have a soft spot for typing games. In fact, high school typing class and typing games may be the reasons I’m such a strong typist. The ironic thing is that Mario Teaches Typing and other such programmes were far more prevalent in the early days of the IBM PC. After then, they appeared to vanish for a while.
A modified version of the horror rail-shooter House of the Dead 2, Typing of the Dead, was released in 1999. Its arcade cabinet featured two QWERTY keyboards. I don’t believe I’ve ever had so much pleasure using a keyboard. Although I haven’t seen anything else, TotD would likely receive some sequels. However, Fishing Cactus decided that we needed a new typing game and created Outshine, which will launch on PC on November 3, 2022 and is said to be inspired by Typing of the Dead. It’s time to Outshine, so grab your keyboard, crack those knuckles, and make friends with ASDF JKL!
Revenge
The developers of Outshine have summarised the “story” of the game as follows: “After the Shards experimented on Hue, they pushed it so hard, ultimately leading to unleashing its potential.”
You control the ethereal Hue, a humanoid character seeking retribution from the Shards for being subjected to an experiment (I guess). There isn’t much room for a story in Outshine because it is constructed in an arcade format, much like its inspiration. With that one statement, it doesn’t exactly come to a close. There are messages that occur as you advance through the game’s levels that you must input in order to learn more about the game’s world. The word list for the game doesn’t just employ any old random words; it appears to roughly follow a theme.
This game only takes the necessary steps to create its universe. It’s intensely gameplay- and goal-focused, which is acceptable for something like a typing game. You won’t have time to worry about it because you’ll be too busy exercising your keyboard.
Wordbullets Per Minute
Outshine innovates quite a bit on the typing game genre while fundamentally following in the footsteps of the Typing of the Dead games. Since you need the majority of the keys on your keyboard to type, the game plays similarly to TotD but varies in that your character is visible on screen and requires some degree of control. In Outshine, Hue must be manoeuvred left and right as he runs forward to avoid enemies that move into him, mines, attacks, and level obstacles. At the same time, you must type words attached to the enemies in order to destroy them. This is similar to runner games where you run indefinitely while moving left and right to avoid obstacles.
You can rebind the keys used for any non-typing functionality in addition to the left and right shift keys, which are utilised by default and perform quite well to accomplish this. Additionally, you get assistance in the shape of a switchable shield and a powerful assault that eliminates all enemies nearby. As you learn to simultaneously type and use your talents to live, the requirement to manage your character while you type words offers what might otherwise be a routine encounter a much more game-like sense.
When you encounter the boss fights at the conclusion of each level, this comes to a head. While dodging lasers, explosives, and projectiles that you must shoot down in this game, you must type longer and more intricate sentences. Although it can be challenging to balance all the action with the typing required to defeat the boss, it is incredibly rewarding to succeed. The repetition of several bosses in higher levels, albeit with stronger or faster mechanics, is my sole complaint. Although it seems to be padding the game’s content, it’s not a big deal. It’s a fun enough experience overall that you won’t mind some rematches.
The degree to which Outshine allows you to tailor the experience is one of its best features. Like every rail shooter game, you aim for a high score in every level. Before you begin, you can choose from a variety of modifiers to make the game easier (by, for example, granting you more ability charges) or harder (by, for example, reducing word visibility, requiring you to retype words after mistakes, disabling abilities, etc.), and you can also adjust the overall game difficulty based on typing speed (increasing means the enemies will move and attack faster).
The gameplay components make it possible to beat the game on harder difficulty settings even if you lack the essential speed, which is something I actually really like. You can increase your scoring potential by using difficulty modifiers and upping the difficulty level itself. There are leaderboards for each level, and you should work hard to climb them. Everything is really well made and can accommodate gamers of all typing abilities. Outshine does a terrific job at motivating you to go outside your comfort zone while ensuring that you’re never in a rut.
The gameplay has a few of small hiccups. Word targeting occasionally seems to be a little janky and unclear. The game frequently presents you with multiple words at once, and typically, the first letter you input locks you on to a specific term. There are occasionally multiple words that begin with the same letter, and while the second or third letter determines which one you lock onto, if you make a mistake you may end up locking onto a word that is completely different from the one you were aiming for, leading to even more mistakes.
This was especially difficult when the retype-word-on-error-made modifier was used. The Esc key in Typing of the Dead could be used to deselect a word, which solved this problem. However, once you lock on to a word in Outshine, there doesn’t appear to be any way to unlock it. Because you can’t block the one-letter projectiles that are frequently fired at you in the middle of a word in boss fights, you are forced to use your shield if you have one. Naturally, you can plan ahead and check that the screen is free of projectiles before starting a word, but this could definitely be done better.
Don’t Blink
The gaming environment of Outshine is very abstract, filled with numerous geometric patterns, whirling energy effects, and other elements that serve to effectively distance it from reality. This fits quite well with the game’s intended arcade gaming style. Everything looks fantastic, but it feels under-optimized, and the graphics options are oddly limited for a PC game. The level of graphic detail didn’t appear as high as the load it put on my machine, which is a little dated but still manages big budget games better than this one. It’s something to be aware of, but if you’ve kept up with PC technology, you’re probably alright. A wider range of graphic options would have been good. Having said that, I appreciate how it all looks and feels. I only wish I had a frame rate that was more reliable.
The audio is generally of very high quality. The noises are decent and have subtle variation to prevent them from getting overly droning, especially the typey-shooty sounds. The enemy’s words and abilities match what you observe and make you feel satisfied. The only issue is that I desire more. Apart from their strikes, the bosses in particular are relatively silent. I believe they erred on the side of caution, which is a good thing, but I believe the bosses could use a little more audio feedback. Too much background noise would be distracting for a game like this.
the tunes. It’s fairly fantastic, offering a very electronic soundtrack that matches the game’s mood and premise. There isn’t enough, though, somewhat like the sound. I’d like more! Most of the game is played to one primary track, which is dynamic and changes in feel and intensity as you do well and your score multiplier rises. But it begins to feel a little out of place. Although the quality is good, more variety is required.
Words I Probably Said
Outshine is a high-quality game that, despite a few minor stumbles, gives a rewarding and enjoyable experience. Outshine pushes you to improve your scores in a time when they’re hardly even a thing anymore.
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