Outcast Odyssey isn't a terrible game even if there is a respawn timer, even if you have to be online, even if it's weirdly balanced and even if the core battle system is a bit flawed. I had fun with it at the beginning, but it deteriorated quickly. OO is a game where you explore maps, fight enemies and fuse cards together to become stronger and potentially fight stronger enemies while they slowly lower your HP until then you have to pay for potions or wait until you get healthy again.
There is a passive skill tree where you spend points and one of the skill makes your HP regenerate faster - and another lowers the time it takes for you to revive. I like those ideas although their effects are minimal and I failed to see the difference between before and after. You get these skill points by leveling-up, which you do by collecting enough experience from fighting monsters and exploring grid-divided maps where you explore one square at a time and uncover what's behind them. If there's an enemy, you wont be able to progress until you kill it. You can also find chests which sometimes will take your HP before giving you possible loot and you can find normal/premium currencies and experience. Maps have various objectives, some will require you to get somewhere, kill a boss, or explore the entirety of a weirdly huge map with tons of sub-dungeons full of enemies that will take about an hour to complete.
The battle system works by you tapping on spots on enemies. They have numbers on them and elements associated, so do your main character, weapon, armor and two minion monsters. When you tap on a spot, you deal damage and lower the number, elements are strong and weak against certain spots. When the number goes to zero, the next attack breaks that spot and deals bonus damage. After you tap a spot, the enemy attacks you. Your gear can proc certain abilities like bouncing fireballs and enemies can also use special abilities on you. Bosses have a lot of hit points and they start with very high numbers on their spots so they're quite hard to kill. At least if you die - and drink a potion or wait - the boss won't have regenerated its life.
For killing enemies you gain cards - and you get a special prize if you collect all card drops and another prize if you get the special prize for all levels in a world - which you can fuse together to raise their strength or to create better tiers of monsters. Enemies also give experience and gold - but in ridiculous amounts, you'll get maybe 75 experience from a spot on the map but enemies consistently give out 1 or 2 experience, +3 if you kill the enemy in one turn. As the level-ups refill your health and give you passive abilities, it's frustrating that leveling up from killing monsters is almost impossible. There's also a guild system and PvP, but I didn't mess up with that.
I suppose I should've been wary of the game simply because it is always-online and has all these weird timers and things you can buy with real money. Maybe it will entertain you for an hour or so.
