Look Outside

Extremely impressive solo dev project, especially given the short development time and choice of engine. Screams "passion project." Lovable characters, awesome art, extremely replayable, with a soundtrack that deserves an award all by itself. Definitely a must play for fans of survival horror and/or jrpgs. Scratches the same itch as something like Fear & Hunger, but with more polish and a lot less sadistic game design. Unless you play cursed mode...

[b]Look Outside[/b] [b]Developer[/b]: Francis Coulombe [b]Publisher[/b]: Devolver Digital [b]Introduction[/b] ========== This game surprised me like no other game ever has. I found it randomly on Bluesky, from a post by the developer. I have no idea how that post got onto my feed (maybe a repost by a follower?) but I'm glad it did. I think it was some pixel art the dev had made, and the style and incredible detail of it drew my eye. Looking at his profile I found a Steam Store link to the game, and at the price it was asking I couldn't say no. $10 is an absolute steal for this. Look Outside is a horror RPG, where you play as Sam - a normal guy in an apartment building just trying to live his life. At the beginning of the game, Sam wakes up and is greeted by his neighbor from a hole in the wall. Apparently this building is in a state of much disrepair. The neighbor suggests you go look outside your window. You can go look if you want, but that's the quickest ending you can get (and an achievement). If you wait a bit though, the voice will finally say "wait...no, don't look" as crazy things have been going on outside of the building. Your neighbor goes on to say that they heard that whatever's going on should pass in about 15 days, so your major goal is to survive inside the building for 15 days, without looking outside for any reason. Okay, cool. Neat premise that presents a huge mystery that piques your curiosity. It drives you to WANT to know what's outside, and if you did look and catch that fast ending, you'll definitely want to learn more. For the remainder of this review, I will do my best to not spoil anything. [b]Gameplay[/b] ========== Look Outside features a pretty simple gameplay loop. Sam wakes up every morning and is presented with several choices. He can cook food, play video games, do crossword puzzles, or muster up his courage and explore the building. You're free to do whatever you please, even if you just want to stay in the apartment. But you won't learn anything that way. Occasionally while in your apartment, you'll hear a knock at your door. Looking through the peephole will give you a little preview of who is at the door, but it's greyed out, ambiguous. As a general rule I'll advise you to exercise caution with answering your door, however this is one way to recruit new characters to live with you and join your party, which makes exploring the building easier. Stepping out of your apartment is where things get interesting. As the days pass, more and more rooms in the building become available to access, and you are free to go explore. Each room has a general theme, and you'll quickly figure it out. You'll meet interesting characters as well as enemies. You'll find items and equipment to help you survive. You'll find food and other items to help keep Sam's spirits up, which do have an effect on his overall well being. When you're done exploring, you should return to your apartment to rest and get a chunk of EXP based on how long you were out. This is shown with a gauge at the bottom of the screen as you're exploring. The longer you're out, the more danger your in, and the more EXP you get. Stay out too long, and powerful terrifying enemies begin to appear. Be careful!! When you finally engage in combat, you'll find it's a very simple turn-based system. You choose actions for your party, and then those actions (as well as your opponent's) play out. Each character you recruit has their own special abilities that makes them stand out, but not all are created equal. However, a full party is better than Sam being alone to face the horrors of what awaits him. Depending on your choices, you'll end up at one of several endings. If you paid attention during the game and explored everything you could get to, you may have deduced what's going on outside, and that revelation is at the center of every ending. Therefore, I will not say here and spoil it for you. You'll have to play and discover it for yourself! [b]Graphics[/b] ========== I've watched some of the dev's streams, where he works on the art of this game and one of his other projects, and I have to say he's one of the best pixel artists I've ever seen. He nails the vibe of the game perfectly with everything he draws. The designs are interesting and creative, and they just ooze charm. I was super impressed with the work he did on this game, and the attention to detail and dedication he's shown really shines in this game. Bosses are where you'll be impressed the most. Also terrified. Very terrified. And maybe grossed out, as there is a lot of body horror in this game. It's extremely well done though. [b]Sound and Music[/b] ========== I absolutely love the soundtrack for this game. It's perfect. It easily sets the tone and vibes for everywhere you go in the apartment building. Whether that's making the player uneasy or cautious, or trying to invoke fear, anxiety, or even panic. It's top-notch. I always say that the soundtrack of a game is more than half of the immersion. One of my favorite tracks is "Vacant". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtPScDUKO-o Another is "Ride to Hell", which is actually a boss theme. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV7aw2irkFI Speaking of, that boss was the most amazing and memorable experience!!! I'll never forget how that fight, this music, and the writing for it made me feel. [b]Performance[/b] ========== I had zero issues with this game, and it ran perfectly. No crashes, no frame loss, no input lag, nothing. I played full screen and with a controller, which was plug n play and worked perfectly without any tedious setup. Being an RPG Maker game, I don't foresee anyone really having any issues running Look Outside. [b]Final Thoughts[/b] ========== I am SO glad I stumbled upon this game. It was one of the best gaming experiences I had in 2025. I'd rank it in the Top 5 of games I played last year, alongside Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Kingdoms of the Dump (which Francis also worked on!!!), Expedition 33, and Visions of Mana. If you like RPGs, or horror games, you need to try out Look Outside. For the price it goes for, you really have nothing to lose! [b]Final Verdict:[/b] ========== A Must Play

Look Outside is a survival-horror RPG about being stuck in your apartment building during the end of the world. How exactly is the world ending? Good question! For reasons which are gradually revealed over the course of the game, anyone who is visually exposed to the outside world is turned into a monster. Based on exposure some people become slightly monsterish, perhaps growing some extra limbs, or extremely monsterish, perhaps growing multiple additional purple tentacled bodies and expanding out through several rooms. The forms they take are often determined by the obsessions they held before exposure, so a teething infant might be, say, obsessed with teeth… Anyway. You meet your neighbors, most of whom have become something somewhat different than human. And, in many cases, they’re still chill, still basically good people who suddenly have a Big Problem. I found Look Outside an incredible experience because it contained such contrast between disturbing and absurd, human and alien. Trying to tackle this apocalyptic problem entirely within this apartment building full of weirdos creates one of the most human experiences I’ve had playing a single-player game – we don’t know who we can trust or what they’re hiding, but in the end all we’ve got is each other.