Look Outside review: Well, that was gross and uncomfortably thrilling

There’s a sequence in Look Outside I’m never going to forget. I’m in a ravaged apartment, fumbling in the dark for supplies and equipment. The family that lived here was overcome by the thing outside, but it’s not over for them yet. I’m dealing with them one by one, out of a mixture of pity and curiosity I’m not proud of. One of them, used to be a young boy before the teeth erupted from his throat, didn’t attack me first. Whatever’s left of him inside just wants to play with his army men. I found a little green soldier in the kitchen earlier, and, in a moment that feels more like accepting defeat than when I beat the kid’s father to death in the hallway, sit down to play.

I do my best to interpret the gurgles and hand waving and follow the plot; is the helicopter a threat or backup? Am I helping or am I the bad guy, throwing this military operation into chaos? I don’t do a very good job. But the kid appreciates my effort and hands me some candy. It’s only worth 2 HP but it means the world to me in this moment, and before the next, it’s over. I’m glad I don’t have to fight the creature lying still on the floor, but all I can do is walk away.

You could. But should you?

Look Outside is a fascinating horror RPG developed by Francis Coulombe and published by Devolver Digital. It uses the gameplay structure of a classic 16-bit RPG, with stats, turn-based battles, equipment, XP, and so on, and mixes it with survival horror logic and an audiovisual style I can only describe as “amusingly disturbing.” It isn’t quite cartoony, but the art is drawn using big, chunky pixels and wildly expressive (often grinning) faces as a foundation for grotesquely creative body horror that would tickle me at first glance then haunt my thoughts hours later.

You’re a single, lonely man trapped in a mundane apartment building as something terrible is happening outside. You wake up with a strong urge to look out the window, and the only thing stopping you is your own willpower and survival instincts. Anyone who faces what’s out there changes, each way more horrifying than the next. Everyone else, forced to adapt to this apocalyptic cruelty, changes as well. Word on the internet is that in 15 days, the coast will be clear. You have the food in your fridge, toothpaste, soap, social media, a small stack of video games, and a burning urge to just… open your door and see what’s happening on the other side.

Curiosity killed the cat. And you, next

At its core, Look Outside feels like it’s about that character in a horror movie foolishly opening the door the audience just knows the killer is standing behind. What drives someone to make a decision all the onlookers can see as, clearly, the worst possible thing to do? As you explore the supernaturally FUBAR apartment building, a little meter warns you of the rising danger level. When you get back, before you have time to process the horrible monsters and tragedies you barely survived, you collect a ton of extra XP - how thrilling! Your hapless little avatar gets a spicy little kick out of how exciting it was to go out and explore such an absurd situation. It’s a little gross, a little weird, but… honest, too.

It’s a bit like the new, horror-flavored Wizardry suggests: Savor the Risk. You could theoretically burn all your time playing video games, working on crossword puzzles, doomscrolling online, and hitting the vending machine in the hallway for snacks. But you’d lose your mind. Why not open the door every time someone knocks, or go out yourself and see what happens when you go downstairs? You never know what’s going to happen, and morbid curiosity is a more powerful motivational force than you might expect. It’s your ticket to understanding what the heck is going on, getting stronger, and maybe finding a way out. Thriving, instead of simply surviving, has a natural appeal. Even if it’s dangerous in ways you can’t even comprehend.

It helps that Look Outside is so twisted and creative. Each door you open could be anything. Maybe there’s a taxidermist so lost in their obsession they built a multi-room dungeon into their apartment, complete with a full armor set and weapon to find, completely out of skin. Perhaps rats of varying size have taken over a whole floor. Or there could be a normal-looking, empty apartment… but did you notice the light switch on the wall? It’s exciting to turn around each corner just to see what Coulombe cooked up this time. And if everything goes well, you’ll see a bunch of things before your time is up, like an utterly deranged amusement park.

Survival horror, but with leveling up!

Everything going well is not on the menu, though. There’s a lot of friction in Look Outside, mostly due to lethal traps, chase sequences, and combat math that is sorely imbalanced against you. You’ll see that game over screen a lot, and if you didn’t save for a while, well, that’s the other side of savoring that risk. An easier difficulty option is on the table, but it only goes so far for you. You’ll still have to take time to grind XP if you want to have more survivability, and do your best to find equipment that makes your life easier. The challenge generally felt fair, but it would get frustrating to be out exploring, playing carefully, then end up in an enemy encounter where you simply don’t have the stats to survive. Repeating stuff you’ve already done in a horror game is a vibe-harsher, especially in something slower-paced. A tough balance to strike for sure, especially when going out and exploring is the best source of XP too.

Luckily combat itself is pretty interesting. You can come across a lot of skills based on weapons and things you learn from video games, and an unpredictable durability system always keeps you on your toes and trying new things. Enemies themselves are like the artistic inverse of Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Quest style, and they’ll even change form or suddenly get closer in the middle of a fight, just to deal some psychic damage to you as the player. Scarce resources and XP grinding don’t mix well together, but I found the easier difficulty a reasonable compromise without feeling like I was sleepwalking through each scenario.

When I saw that Coulombe was involved in the cult classic, Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, I knew I was in for a ride simply by association. But I wasn’t fully prepared for the depths of creative madness I was gazing into with Look Outside. Each step was full of dread and morbid glee, as I never knew what to expect, was terrified of what could happen, but absolutely refused to miss a thing. I would’ve liked a little more balance when it came to getting mauled by random enemy encounters, and controller support was a little weird, but any frustration I felt from a momentum-halting game over melted away when the next stop on this roller coaster of suffering came into view. Frankly, I was bummed to get off when the ride was over.

Look Outside is available on March 21, 2025 for the PC. A code was provided by the publisher for this review.

Lucas White

Contributing Editor

Lucas plays a lot of videogames. Sometimes he enjoys one. His favorites include Dragon Quest, SaGa, and Mystery Dungeon. He's far too rattled with ADHD to care about world-building lore but will get lost for days in essays about themes and characters. Holds a journalism degree, which makes conversations about Oxford Commas awkward to say the least. Not a trophy hunter but platinumed Sifu out of sheer spite and got 100 percent in Rondo of Blood because it rules. You can find him on Twitter @HokutoNoLucas being curmudgeonly about Square Enix discourse and occasionally saying positive things about Konami.