Outlanders

Genre: Management Sim

Players: 1

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Review:

Outlanders is a Management Simulation released in 2023 on PC and ported in 2025 to Nintendo Switch. This game has players managing a settlement, keeping its people housed and fed, and ensuring that it grows and flourishes.

The presentation here is lovely, using simple 3D visuals with a flat look that gives them a wonderfully quaint appearance. This is joined by some nice environmental noises and backed by a relaxed acoustic instrumental soundtrack that really enhances this game’s “cozy game” vibe.

As for the gameplay… I really wanted to like this game, but it does multiple things that frustrate me in this genre. Firstly, this game is big on worker and resource management, which is fine enough, though I often see this as a yellow flag because worker management mechanics can be tricky to get right.

Unfortunately, this game doesn’t quite seem up to that task – I frequently found workers completely overlooking projects I told them to prioritize in favor of others that I pointedly did not prioritize, often leaving a vital project alone for an excruciating amount of time, even if it was of vital importance to the colony.

I also ran into a problem where buildings for resource-gathering told me that there was nothing nearby to gather, even when there clearly was, like a woodcutter’s building surrounded by trees telling me that there was nowhere for them to collect more wood.

I don’t have patience for a game that refuses to do what you tell it to, and as such, I found my fondness for Outlanders’ delightful presentation quickly falling by the wayside as I great frustrated with its refusal to work properly. And who knows, maybe I missed something here, but if I did the game was in no hurry to tell me what the problem was. Meanwhile, I was done with this game wasting my time.

tl;dr – Outlanders is a Managment Simulation where players manage and grow a colony. The presentation is quaint and lovely, but the gameplay frequently does things that don’t make sense, ignoring your directives. The result is a game that’s far too frustrating for me to recommend.

Grade: C-

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