Zen And The Art Of Van Maintenance Meets Firewatch In Steam Next Fest Hit Cozy Survival Sim Outbound

There’s a game I love called The Long Dark. It’s a relentless survival sim that pits you against the elements out in the wilderness. You can starve, freeze to death, or get mauled by a pack of wild wolves. It has this oppressive, foreboding vibe to it that few games can match. Outbound is kind of the cozy sim version of that. 

I played the Steam Next Fest demo for Outbound, a campervan driving survival game from developers Square Glade Games, and it feels like someone ran The Long Dark through a Pixar filter. These two games share so much in common: light crafting elements, a need to scavenge to fill your stomach, an intentionally light focus on your sense of direction, and that lonely feeling of living within a world that other people have left behind.

And yet, Outbound is also kind of the very antithesis of The Long Dark. You get hungry, sure, but you won’t starve to death: you’ll just pass out. The world is devoid of human interaction, but there’s plenty of cute little animals to make friends with instead (and a co-op mode I, ironically, couldn’t convince a friend to try with me). You can’t even run the animals over with your massive, unwieldy campervan. Trust me, I tried. There’s friction but the world isn’t out to make you fail.

Strangely, that’s what I loved about my three hours with Outbound, whose demo is one of the most popular of February’s Steam Next Fest. It’s an easy, breezy experience. It’s a survival game about trying your best to live as opposed to one about desperately trying not to die. There’s really no wrong way to play it, either, because the focus is on, if you’ll excuse the pun, simply enjoying the ride. You’re not even really tasked with accomplishing any specific goals. Sometimes you’ll get a prompt telling you there’s a new schematic you can unlock or a location you’ve yet to visit, but there’s always this “only if you want to” mentality to it all. Outbound won’t scream at you for playing it the wrong way, because there’s no right way to begin with.

There are plenty of silly systems to interact with, though, if you so choose. You can build a big house, start your own farm, or even amass a friendly army of bunnies by feeding them heaps of berries. All of these mechanics are straightforward to use and, most importantly, extremely forgiving. If all you wanna do is munch on some wild mushrooms and sit by a fire with your dog, Outbound doesn’t care, man. Put your hulking brute of a motorhome in park and just watch the sunset go down if you want, dude. No wolves are gonna rip you limb from limb once the moon appears, bro. Just pet the cute bunnies and let the chill, outdoor vibes wash over you.

I saw a few reviews poke fun at Outbound for being “cozyslop,” and my heart goes out to those poor souls. Do we always need a deep endgame or a grand cause to work toward? Does there have to be a destination? Because if you go into Outbound expecting Dark Souls meets Burnout, you’re gonna come away disappointed (even though that sounds sick). But if you go in expecting Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance mixed with Firewatch, you’ll get what you came for: a relaxing game about doing nothing in particular. I’m already looking forward to cozy-friend-slopmaxxing my Outbound playthrough when the full release drops sometime before summer 2026.