Look Outside FAQ Look Outside Game Walkthrough Wiki

1 What is Look Outside

A survival horror role playing game set in a single apartment building. The premise is stated in one sentence: a mysterious event turns anyone who looks out of a window into a grotesque monster, and the world descends into chaos.

You scavenge the building for food, supplies and weapons while meeting strange characters, human and otherwise. Between expeditions you return home to recover by playing games, making dinner, crafting tools and getting to know the neighbours who became allies.

The title is also the rule. A game whose central instruction is not to look out of the window is going to spend its running time tempting you to.

2 The content warning

The developer states that this game contains content inappropriate for all ages: horror scenes, frequent violence and gore are displayed during gameplay.

3 How long is it

Francis Coulombe gives a straight answer: 10 to 12 hours of playtime, with a dozen boss encounters, friends to recruit, visitors to invite home, and several different endings.

That figure describes one route through it. The store adds that Look Outside offers different experiences for every player on the way to those endings, so the total content is larger than a single run.

4 What the combat is like

Turn based, against more than 150 hand crafted creatures, using makeshift weapons and items gathered from the corridors. The distinguishing detail is that the combat accounts for the space between you and your foes.

Distance mattering in a turn based system changes everything about how a fight is played. A weapon that is excellent up close may be useless at range, and closing or keeping distance becomes a move worth spending a turn on.

5 Recruiting neighbours

Some of the bizarre cast can be recruited and offered safe harbour in your apartment as the mystery unravels. Others are visitors you invite back rather than permanent companions.

In a survival game with limited resources, taking someone in is a decision with a cost as well as a benefit. That tension is the reason the home half of the loop exists at all, rather than being a menu between fights.

6 English only

The store lists exactly one language: English. There is no Japanese, no Chinese and no European localisation.

For a text driven role playing game with an unconventional cast and a lot of writing, that is a real barrier rather than a minor inconvenience. Check your comfort with English text before buying, because the writing is most of what you are paying for.

7 Price, platform and requirements

One gigabyte of storage and no recommended tier tell you what kind of production this is: a small, deliberate game rather than a technical showcase. Single player, with Steam Cloud saves.

8 152 achievements

One hundred and fifty two achievements on a 10 to 12 hour game is an unusually dense list, and it is a strong signal about the design.

With over 150 creatures, a dozen bosses, recruitable characters and several endings, the list is almost certainly a catalogue of things that exist rather than a set of challenges. Read it as a map of content you have not seen yet, once you have finished once.