OutCatch app review: set off on a treasure hunt

Introduction

If you enjoy a good treasure hunt you can now take part in one on your mobile device. The OutCatch app can be played on your iPod touch, iPad, and iPhone and just so happens to be one of the largest game boards out there because it covers the entire world. Now what's really cool is that you actually get to be outside and cover ground in order to take part in this game, because this one isn’t meant for couch potatoes!

Take Place in a Giant Treasure Hunt

If you like the idea of a game that gets you moving and thinking then this is the option for you. It gathers inspiration from a number of sources including the "Great Star of Africa" which is a Finnish board game, adventure style movies, treasure hunting, and geocaching. When you throw all these ideas together you end up with the OutCatch app. The way this works is that you need to walk or run to hidden caches of "money" in order to earn points. You can also set your own caches for people to find. The whole idea is to rise to the top of the leaderboards in this game.

This game has recently been updated with all kinds of new features such as the ability to attach a photo to caches you are setting, see information about nearby players, get push notifications, see the found and unfound caches you've set, all new music, and plenty more. The app doesn’t have a customer rating as of yet. Keep in mind this game works using geo-positioning so the app will require your GPS to run continuously.

 

Join the Search

When you launch the app you’ll need to create a username for yourself then there is a tutorial to take you through the basics. After this finishes you are taken to the main screen. I have to say this screen is pretty packed full of information, perhaps too much so. It’s actually a bit hard to zoom in on any one aspect of the information because it’s so busy.

Across the top of the screen you can view how much money you have, your squares, your found caches, your status, and username. Scroll through the list of caches in order to start your hunt. Unfortunately all the hunts closes to me were much too far away. That is the one problem:  there is no guarantee there will be hunts nearby.

 

Pros and Cons

Pros

• A game that encourages you to get outside and get moving
• Find hidden caches and earn “money”
• Create hidden caches for others to find

 

Cons

• Uses geo-positioning so it is always running in the background which can use up your battery fast
• The user interface is cluttered and busy-feeling
• There isn’t necessarily a hidden cache nearby

 

Final Thoughts

The OutCatch app for your iPod touch, iPad, and iPhone is a really cool concept that can definitely get you outside searching your surroundings.