There’s no doubt that the classic action adventure RPG is a staple of gaming in general, inspired by the likes of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past in particular, and it’s also appropriately pretty well-represented in the Switch eShop. With titles that range from being more action-focused, a better match for people who love puzzles, or something down the middle, there are a fair number of quality choices out there. What I hadn’t seen to this point though was one that shoots for a bit more of an open-world feel, with a focus on some vehicular fun as well as combat, and that’s where RoadOut manages to distinguish itself, adding even more depth to the subgenre roster.

You’ll play as Claire, a mercenary who’ll seem to do whatever it takes to make a buck, exploring the varied regions of The Dead Zone and completing contracts. You will find that you’ll need to carefully deal with the various warring factions out there, deciding when to join up with one in order to get some sort of key benefit, and then executing whatever missions you’re assigned to keep yourself advancing and building yourself up. Sometimes that will require you to infiltrate buildings, killing anyone who gets in your way while solving a variety of puzzles. Other times you’ll have to go on the road, compete in some races, and have fun engaging in some vehicular mayhem as well. Credit to the developers for giving you a variety of distractions to enjoy.

The thing is, it also isn’t hard to see how all of these elements in a pretty budget-friendly package can show some weaknesses. While the general combat works well enough, it isn’t quite as smoothly handled as some of its contemporaries. Granted, by working with specific factions you’ll have the opportunity to improve your skills in a variety of ways, and that does help, but the base could have used a little more work. Similarly, moving through buildings which effectively serve as the game’s dungeons, initially feels a little more careful and deliberate where puzzles are concerned, but the more you see you begin to understand there’s not nearly as much variety on tap here for you to enjoy. Everything gets to a certain degree of depth, but then plateaus a little earlier than hoped. When you focus too much on specific aspects you can begin to see the cracks, but if you simply focus on the broader adventure and fun of it all it works pretty well, and it’s simply nice to see something go down its own road this way.