As spring slowly ticks into summer, the undeniable lull of camping calls to many of us. Some of us like to rough it under the stars with nothing more than a sleeping bag to get you through the night, while others are fans of the full glamping experience, complete with air conditioning.

No matter how hardcore you go on camping in real life, there are some downsides you’ll inevitably have to deal with. Namely, the insect population, but other elements of Mother Nature are always ready to ruin your camping trip.

If you want to go out on the wide open road with nothing more than a roof over your head, but you’re also opposed to encountering creepy crawlies or bears, there’s a brand-new solution for you.

Developed and published by Square Glade Games, Outbound is an open-world exploratory adventure that lets you experience all the best parts of camping without any of the downsides (unless you count your thumbs being tired because you played Outbound for too long!)

Outbound starts simple, giving players the chance to customize their original character within the world. Players can choose from a variety of hairstyles, a few different outfits, and color variations until they are satisfied with their characters’ in-game appearance. After customizing the playable character, players can then turn their attention to decorating the camper van. A couple of different styles are available to choose from, as are different color options for vehicle paint.

After settling on customization, it’s time to hit the open road of Outbound. The primary focus is to collect resources, craft equipment, and survive, although that last bit is not particularly as stressful as it may sound initially. Small pieces of wood are scattered around Outbound’s starter map, waiting to be plucked up by a player looking to light a campfire and set up at a cozy spot with a view before moving on. Other materials like stone, berries, and fiber can be found fairly quickly, as well, giving the player ample opportunity to craft provided they have the blueprints to do so.

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Blueprints are a little trickier to come by, as the player can only download them from dedicated radio towers that are in specific locations throughout the map. Each tower has three blueprints to choose from and requires a download voucher to access. Download vouchers are crafted by feeding litter and trash found at campsites into a recycler in your van.

Blueprint options include cooking, gardening, and decorations that can be built for your camper van. Only one blueprint can be selected from each tower, and a tower becomes deactivated after its initial use. However, previously visited towers may reactivate with a new signal after a few days, though these reactivated locations happen at random. It does provide a chance to pick up blueprints that may have passed over on previous visits.

In order to access all the locations on the map, Outbound occasionally presents players with puzzles and crafting challenges. Bridges may require wood planks, which prompt the player to craft a small portable sawmill and attach it to their van in order to proceed to a new area. Other roadblocks may require electronics to fix a power circuit or locating passwords in a specific area to activate locked terminals.

Outbound features four different map for players to caravan across, each affected by dynamic weather that can impact your camping adventure. The first map will have players feeding berries to bunnies and only occasionally experiencing dramatic weather like thunderstorms that prevent lighting a campfire, while other maps like the canyons can be impacted by dust storms and excessive heat that requires cooling the engine lest you are left stranded in the sunshine.

While Outbound is ultimately a peaceful, combat-free camping experience that players can embark on with up to three friends, it is not always smooth sailing. The van’s batteries can run low, leaving you to take off on foot in search of fuel, food, medicine, and crafting supplies.

For all of the challenges of sustainable camping in a van, there are moments of respite when you relax with a campfire and your coop buddies on the beach, join together to build a ridiculously large house on the roof of your van, or participate in a mountaintop rave festival.

Outbound is available now on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, and Xbox Cloud Gaming with support for Xbox Play Anywhere. Grab your pals and hit the road as part of your Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass subscription.

Square Glade Games has committed to continued updates for Outbound throughout 2026, with a roadmap that shares plans for new features to come.

Later this summer, Square Glade plans to introduce fishing mechanics, while fall plans include more wildlife, and a proposed winter update is expected to add NPCs with their own tasks, dialog, and lore.

Cole is the resident Call of Duty know-it-all and indie game enthusiast for Windows Central. She's a lifelong artist with two decades of experience in digital painting, and she will happily talk your ear off about budget pen displays.