Review: Look Outside
I first discovered Look Outside through a Tumblr post in 2024. An artist named "Frankie Smile Show" put together a demo for an idea he had about being stuck in an apartment building when the apocalypse strikes: anyone that looks at the sky outside inexplicably mutates into a horrible monster. The demo was created using RPGMaker, and while the gameplay footage still had the engine's inescapable grid-based JRPG movement and top-down view I found myself hooked by the gruesome design of the monsters. They would slowly creep out of the shadows towards the player as combat progressed, revealing move of themselves in horrific detail. Not to mention the idea of having a survival horror game take place entirely inside an apartment building seemed like a really unique premise for some good storytelling. From there I followed the development of the game, evolving from a "game jam" proof of concept, to a demo on itch.io, and finally a surprise release on Steam about two weeks ago.
Since then I have been obsessed with Look Outside, completing the game on both Easy and Normal difficulties and witnessing multiple of its surprisingly expansive endings. I can confidently say it will wind up somewhere on the upper half of my top 10 list for the year, and may become one of my new favorite horror titles of all time.
What really surprised me about playing Look Outside is how well the mechanics all work with each other without feeling busy. Your in-game apartment naturally acts as a central safehouse where you can rest, cook food, craft items, or speak with companions (if you find any). On Normal difficulty, this is also the only place you can save your game. The longer you spend outside of your apartment, a "Danger Meter" along the bottom of the screen steadily increases. Upon returning to your apartment you can "cash in" the danger for a big chunk of extra experience points, however there are some monsters that will start seeking you out as the danger creeps higher.
Look Outside's art design is the main attraction here. The music takes direct inspiration from 80's horror movies with its deep synth melodies. Hallways ambiently chatter with unknown whispers, skittering footsteps, and buzzing fluorescent lights. The monsters are gruesome and indescribable; you might find a human with eyes or teeth growing out of places they definitely shouldn't be, or a giant mass of rat mouths, or a black cloak with a grinning, porcelain mask. What makes these encounters even scarier are how they're portrayed in the top-down overworld view, and how they're handled narratively.
Many of the encounters in Look Outside are designed to induce paranoia in a way I haven't really seen in other horror games. Some monsters are friendly, despite their appearance. Many aren't. Some are lying to you. Some are hiding from you. Often times you don't know if something is a monster or an item until it suddenly lunges at you and combat starts. Even then, some monsters can be talked to. Whether this is a good idea or not is up to you. After my first playthrough I discovered a few allies I missed out on simply because I didn't trust them and attacked. During that same playthrough I also died a few times to people I legitimately thought I could help. With Normal difficulty's restriction on saving only at your apartment, this really creates a sense of danger because a bad choice might mean using up precious healing resources, or at worst it could mean losing any progress you've made since the last time you returned home.
I really can't go too far into exactly what makes Look Outside so great without divulging some of its many secrets. After my first playthrough I joined the developer's Discord server to try and get ideas for some secrets I may have missed, and I found people referencing companions that I hadn't encountered at all. Conversely, I found a few people lamenting that they still hadn't encountered companions that I ran into by simply playing the game. Much like the monsters creeping down the apartment halls, Look Outside starts as a vague shape in the shadows only to slowly lurch out and reveal itself over time, becoming much larger and more terrifying than you had imagined.