Thank you Fishing Cactus for sending us a review code!

I love typing games, but only have a handful in my Steam library.  Though inappropriate, I enjoy The Typing of the Dead: Overkill.  In that game, you have to quickly type words to kill zombies.  In Outshine, you have to still type many words to clear obstacles, but you also have to switch lanes to avoid moving objects as well!  

 The game begins with your glowing character breaking free from a test tube.  From there, they must run and avoid defense mechanisms trying to stop their escape.  As you get to the end of each level, you’ll get to type out the backstory to learn about the near extinction of your species.  To avoid being annihilated by darkness, a spokesperson of your species named Glow went to a temple and formed a pact with its god.  An army was forged to attack this darkness, but environmental destruction ensued and the army turned against and enslaved your species.  It’s up to your newly freed character to right these wrongs and appease the temple’s core.  

As your character runs along a road-like structure, enemies will drop in the way and can be removed by typing the word above them.  There are some aerial enemies that can be defeated in the same manner.  There are some obstacles that can’t be removed and can only be avoided.  
Outshine is broken down into chapters and sections.  Other than the last chapter, each chapter is divided into sections that have a boss battle at the end.  The final chapter, Core, is the final boss.  At the end of each section, you’ll be shown your words per minute (WPM) average, accuracy, and total amount of damage taken.  

There are multiple difficulty levels, but the bosses are brutal on the harder difficulty levels.  The level difficulty recommendations are based on your WPM average.  Having an impressive words per minute percentage is great, but the attacks and objects you have to avoid simultaneously cranks up the challenge substantially.  I lowered my difficulty to clear some of the boss levels.    

For controls, you have to use the left and right shift (or ctrl) buttons to move in those directions.  You’ll have to pay attention to the path in front of you.  It may abruptly end or have an obstacle on it that you’ll need to avoid.

The visuals are futuristic and the enemies you encounter are mostly robotic.  Many of the mini-bosses are the same with a different word library to use as your attack.  The boss battles have longer words than the regular levels.  Along with dodging lasers and moving obstacles, you’ll have to type out 10+ character words.  

The synthesizer background music is fitting for the futuristic theme.  When attacking the robotic enemies, you’ll hear metal clinking sounds that sound realistic.  

Violence is minimal and there is no bloodshed.  Your character has a human body shape, but appears to be powered by light.  Some of the words I had to type had alcohol themes (beer) or minor language (d*mn).   There are references to a temple god, and it’s your character’s mission to appease it. 

Overall, I found Outshine to be challenging, yet fun.  If you’re competitive, you can replay levels and apply modifiers to boost your score and leaderboard rankings.  If you’re only planning on one playthrough, you can expect to get about three hours before seeing the credits roll.  Fans of typing games should definitely checkout Outshine.