The Outer Worlds (2019)

I really wanted to love this game. In many ways it felt really inventive and refreshing and out of the norm, but there is something pervasively bland about it that ultimately drove me away before I could finish the story. I am not quite sure what it is. Maybe the story just didnt resonate sufficiently with me? Maybe I wasn't a fan of how combat played out?

Maybe, other than Parvati Holocomb, it just totally lacked in engaging or interesting characters.

Parvati is a treasure, thought, and I might grab the game again someday if only to finishi her storyline.

Probably gonna be dropping this game pretty soon. I finished the first small open area, clearly a tutorial of sorts tho one with a lot going on that took me around 5 hours. I don't dislike this game but I am kind of unimpressed. It is, unfortunately, kind of impossible for me to not compare it to Fallout New Vegas, and it doesn't really match up that well. Visually it's a huge improvement and the general game mechanics and feel are improved as well. But the writing and world building just falls far too short. It's got a tone problem too. For the first hour I think literally every line of dialogue had a joke in it and it felt like a parody in a sort of Borderlands style. Then I walked into the first town and that tone was immediately dropped. Now that it's moved on to another section it feels like it's shifting again. Makes it kind of hard to pin down it's identity.

I would probably drop it now but I've just hit the point where the game opens up and truly begins, so it makes sense to push forward and see what it turns into for at least a few more hours. Mostly tho, playing this has intensified my desire to get back into New Vegas and finish it this time. I took a long break but I think I'm gonna get back to it this year.

The Spacer's Choice edition is free in the Epic store today only:

https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/the-outer-worlds-spacers-choice-edition

At launch there were performance issues but it ran fine for me when i got it from Humble Choice a few months ago. :-/ The colour grading does take some getting used to, but i kinda liked how alien it made things look.

Feel free to read my bullet point review for a quick overview of the strengths and weaknesses. The game director, Tim Cain, also made Fallout, Arcanum and a bunch of others CRPGs to give you an idea of what it's like.

Just spent about 4 hours, finished the first area and did some of the stuff on the second area. While the game has certain moments of being funny and charming, they are way too spread out.

The side quests were not really interesting. the one positive thing was that a lot of quests were able to be completed together, so that was nice.

the game really didn't grab me and the gameplay loop was not that interesting to even push through that, the story wasn't that interesting either

I am enjoying the excited lurch in the gut anticipating the next session of Outer Worlds. Yet, I've discovered myself rushing through dialog, even though that is where all the charm resides.

Searching why I feel compelled to get the next thing instead taking in the current thing has to be a priority for my own quest list, otherwise, the story will float away to the outer rim. Although, the game is giving that golden feeling anyway... I might be ok with that.

Levelling up is a good time.