Outward is labelled a 'survival RPG' for a reason: it's about staying alive, despite the wide variety of ways in which you can fail at this. And believe me, you will fail - over and over again. In a normal game this is no problem, since you can quickly learn from your mistakes and try again. But in Outward, pressing F8 to quickload is never an option. There is only one save state, which you have no control over. What does this mean? Any action you take, any skill you learn, any silver coin you spend, any dialogue choice you make, is saved - permanently. This has yet to work out in my favor.
Some would enjoy the challenge - the grind of gathering materials and crafting traps, potions, gear, food, and such. But you must understand that this gameplay style is centered more on survival than on roleplaying. If you expect a classic RPG, rest assured, you will be thoroughly disappointed.
You start out as you would in any RPG - a lowly peasant, dressed in rags, swinging a chunk of wood to stay alive. Yet as you kill enemies (if you are both lucky and skilled enough to do so) you won't level up. There isn't the satisfaction of progression that you feel in typical RPGs. Instead, you acquire scraps of loot that you sell for pitiful amounts of silver, or use for crafting. Acquiring silver is essentially the goal to strengthen your character. Once you have enough, you can buy weapons, armor, materials for crafting, abilities, and so on. The crafting system allows room for experimentation but if you don't want to risk losing items, you can always google search for a recipe.
Combat early on can become very difficult, very quickly. In most cases it's better just to run past enemies than to go through the trouble of planning and killing them. The rewards simply aren't worth it. And each time you are killed (or knocked unconscious rather, because you can't die) you wake up in a random location. You will likely be starving, thirsty, and have other status effects. Often times you will be in the dark, naked, and not even hungover. Oh and don't bother looking to the map for help, as it never shows your location. You have to rely on landmarks and daylight to get around. There is no fast travel or any mode of travel other than by foot. I would estimate that over a third of my gameplay time was spent simply running across the map. I even attempted suicide several times just for a chance to wake up closer to my target destination (it worked)!
Want to play the traditional role of archer or mage? Look elsewhere. The extent of your upgraded archery will be to fire one or two shots at enemies and proceed to run in circles while they succumb to your bleed DoT. A mage will have to deal with losing mana while resting, and losing health and stamina while not resting (which everyone deals with). In order to get more mana permanently, you have to sacrifice health and stamina permanently. Once you get past this, there are only a handful of ways to be effective with magic alone. And in most cases, having a gun or two will make you much more effective.
There are several bugs that I'm sure will get fixed, including the one that makes you lose all your items when knocked out, or the one that makes your ONE saved game unable to load. Coop play is a nightmare ridden bugfest. Or maybe it is intentional. Either way it is unpleasant.
There are a few elements to this game that some will find appealing, however. It may be meticulously placing the 17 spike traps to bring down a bandit warlord. Or finding that special kyphosis-inducing backpack that allows you to squeeze three more items into your inventory. (I hope you like how it looks, because it will be covering 80% of the view of your character for the rest of the game). Or even discovering that new useful spell combination that enables you to light yourself on fire, just in case you forgot to bring torches.
If you're looking for a survival game, then by all means pick this one up. But if you want an RPG, there are plenty of more immersive, less frustrating titles to pick up. For me, gathering all the saltwater in Outward has left a bitter taste in my mouth.