I am trapped. An endless, patterned array of red and blue instant-death bullets cascades from the heavens, filling the air around me. There’s no place to go but up. I desperately try to maneuver around them, but I am not fast enough. I am fried by the chaos.
Outland, a downloadable title for Xbox 360 released Wednesday — available for PlayStation 3 sometime after Sony’s hacked network comes back online — is a tumultuous blend of Prince of Persia -style jumping action and the “bullet hell” of insane shooters like Ikaruga. It’s complex, difficult and a lot of fun.
Outland starts players off with nothing but a sword and some basic jumping abilities, but the game engine’s sleekness becomes apparent immediately. Wall-jumping and ledge-grabbing feel remarkably smooth, and it’s a blast to bounce around from platform to platform in the game’s uniquely visualized world.
After acquainting you with its jumping, Outland introduces its gimmick: colors. By pressing a button, your character shifts hue from red to blue. This serves many purposes: You’ll need to change colors in order to move certain platforms, press buttons, make blocks visible or attack certain enemies. You can also absorb any bullets that are the same color as you.
This is particularly important, because the bullets never stop.
The game will occasionally set you in front of a massive boss monster that takes up multiple screens and requires unusual methods to defeat. One mammoth spider will only succumb to perfectly timed cannon blasts.
Outland gets deeper as you progress, adding a large variety of tricks to your arsenal. By the end of the game, you’ll be able to shoot beams of light, pound the ground and charge up your weapon for more powerful attacks, among other abilities. But the most difficult obstacle will always be the never-ending stream of bullets.
Though the game’s inky-black visual style is pretty to look at, it can be confusing to play through: I sometimes had a tough time differentiating between obstacles in the foreground and noninteractive art in the background, which led to a few embarrassing deaths. Outland ‘s camera also occasionally zooms too far out or too far in; a button to control perspective would have done wonders.
The story is also pretty much incomprehensible. It sometimes feels like Finnish developer Housemarque ( Super Stardust HD ) simply tacked on some nonsense about spirits and priestesses out of sheer necessity.
But if you delve into the chaotic outland of Outland and emerge unscathed, you’ll have one hell of a time.
WIRED Gorgeous style, smooth physics, interesting mechanics.
TIRED Story is rather incoherent; environments are sometimes confusing.
$10, Ubisoft
Rating: 
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