Among the lessons I’ve learned over the course of the Switch’s lifespan is that you can’t always judge games by what they look like. Even the most minimalist or at least visually simplistic games, when backed up by solid gameplay concepts and implementation, can make for a great experience. Well, except when they don’t… at all. Unfortunately, I’d say that’s the case for Road Defense: Outsiders, a title that doesn’t look great, doesn’t play great, and is simply not very deep or good through and through.

The most obvious issue you’ll see even at a quick glance is that visually it’s very zoomed out and generally lacking in detail. Sure, I’ve played a number of titles that essentially use stick figures, but those have typically been wise enough to keep the action zoomed in and the number on screen at a time within reasonable limits, greatly helping you keep track of what’s going on. Here, unfortunately, the limited color palette, lack of sufficient detail, and an abundance of characters often on screen at once can make it a nightmare to really follow well… a problem only made significantly worse if you’d try to play it in handheld mode.

The thing is, even if it weren’t for the game’s visual style making the experience a bit of a struggle, the conceptual mess of the gameplay itself doesn’t do it any favors either. First, the lack of any meaningful guidance is always a frustration. Sure, you’re told to “Protect the vehicle” and you can discern that you’ve got both a default gun and a sort of melee axe attack that’s on a cooldown, but not much more than that. You’ll be able to work out that towers that are in place can be upgraded with some weaponry to help out, but again here the game’s lack of visual detail can make what impact different weapons have when they’re equipped a challenge to size up properly.

In general, this made most of the gameplay feel like it consisted of both running just to stay alive and attempting to do whatever you can to try to keep the truck alive as a sideline. Even with the roguelike elements that try to give the experience some flavor there’s just not much here to really dig into and enjoy, and it’s just too hard to really account for what’s happening on-screen to do a decent job of sucking the player in.