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.

I like TOW very much. Between the weirdness of the setting, the anti-corporate sentiment and the ever-present Sprats, I enjoyed its missions and story lines. Between its retro-futuristic architectural and environmental style and playing as a revived hibernator to the various factions, I felt TOW to be very much like a Fallout game in space, especially with the Time Dilation mechanics!

While the combat was pretty repetitive, and overall the visual variety was ok rather than great, I like a lot of the NPCs and found the options to side with various factions pleasant.

I will say, though, that being somewhat of a completionist, I found the final mission extremely easy and un-challenging, approaching it with a 47-level character with massive combat abilities, high hacking and lock-picking skills and lots of resources. I actually had bumped the the difficulty of the game to Hard for the final 2-3 hours of the game, but it still was rather easy.

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.

As a followup to something like Fallout: New Vegas, Outer Worlds is a familiar adventure that really pays off after its world, characters, and skill-focused RPG gameplay really sinks its claws into you.

The player is a survivor of a stranded colony ship who is revived by a mad scientist in the Halcyon system, a handful of planets driven to ruin by a greedy and incompetent capitalist monopoly. Commandeering a ship and picking up the nearest gun, the player goes forth to discover their destiny on several planets/ships/locations.

The world seems vast at first but is surprisingly manageable. Each planet is split into one or more open world locations, where the player can use combat techniques (melee and a variety of guns with different effects, stats that can be tinkered/repaired, etc) along with stealth, social skills, science skills, and rapport with a handful of companions. Given the dizzying amount of skills at one's disposal, the game is relatively lenient throughout on how you use them, save for a gauntlet at the end that will really push for the most optimal build. Thankfully, a respec option is handy for that time, but most of the game won't give too much difficulty or trouble unless the player is on the hardest difficulty.

Players also have a pretty handy skill to help them in combat - similarly to VATS, the player can slow down time for a little bit and use that for deadly accuracy, which can blind, maim, and impose other effects on enemies. The companions in this game start out fairly weak but as extra perks/armor/weapons start coming in the investment pays off.

Given that the story isn't too gigantic (compared to a Witcher or Bethesda game), it's surprisingly involved. What seems like a somewhat problematic manifest destiny plot gives way to a surprisingly optimistic journey where the player is given an array of choices to help out dissidents (or cut their power off), gain the trust (or ire) of various factions, and find a way to ultimately save the colonies from destruction. Each of the companions also has a satisfying amount of character development, and my favorite boys (Felix and Max) developed dramatically over the course of the game.

While these all have a potential for one great sci-fi adventure, there are some things that keep it from reaching full classic status. The game's theme is catchy enough (you'll definitely hum it the same way you hum the Skyrim theme) but the visuals are fairly bland, with the majority of character models ugly or un-noticeable and the visuals set between cold mechanical ship and off-colored alien planet. That said, the UI is well-readable and none of the visuals affected my ability to play the game correctly.

Outer Worlds is a very fun title for those missing the days of New Vegas, and its optimism and player choice much more satisfying than other contemporary RPGs. It may look a little rough around the edges, but there's solid polish that makes it a gem with time.

The writing is an achievement of wit and worldbuilding, yet I begun the habit of skipping dialog.

My time with Outer Worlds wasn't wasted but not entirely enjoyed. A cornucopia of systems with truncated effect. I will be curious about the sequel but if the pattern continues, I may be irreparably split on the idea of playing it. A notion to be disappointed by.

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.

The game has all the right ideas and ingredients but fails spectacularly in making everything work together. It has nice music track playing on the opening screen, which gives an impression that it is well made solid game but it isn't.

Pros:

The companion system is an interesting idea that adds a new dimension to the plain FPS genre. I liked the overarching theme of travelling between planets for completing missions.

Cons:

The story telling is extremely poor. The game does not have a unifying story that ties all missions together. You will meet people on planets who will give you missions. As you play these unrelated and disparate missions, the main story, if there was any, takes a back seat. It is like all missions are side missions. By the mid way stage, you will completely forget what your original purpose was.

There is not an iota of immersiveness.

The combat has no variety whatsoever. It is as generic as it gets. In 2019, the developers could not do better than a 90s FPS shooter. The enemies become a pushover after sometime but in some situations they are deliberately made extremely difficult. The skill tree is mostly ineffective and the upgrading process is a pain in the neck.

The graphics are not up to the standards of 2019.

The dialogue sequences fail to keep the player's interest. They are in fact so boring that I could not stop myself from checking my mobile during these periods. The enemies' dialogues during combat seem like they were picked straight from Borderlands.

The more I played the game, the less I liked it. This game is a lesson on how not to make a game.

I really enjoyed The Outer Worlds but it’s not without its many, many flaws. I managed to ignore most of those flaws and have a good time, but I will say that the DLC missions have a bad habit of amplifying those flaws (especially the fiddly menus and the general lack of weapon variety). I think my ideal experience of the game would be that of the base game alone because the DLC doesn’t really contribute much to the game other than more content. Unless a person absolutely adores the minute-to-minute action of the game, it’s safe to skip the DLC because they do draw out the more tedious aspects of the game.

I had a good time, I enjoyed the characters, and think that The Outer Wilds is a worthwhile game that everyone should give a chance to at least once. And like everyone under the sun, I loved Parvati and enjoyed playing a game that let me help my crew-mates with their romantic and personal relationships rather than making romance central to the main character.

Full disclosure, I just gave up on this game pretty close to the end. I was going to finish it, but the game threw me a curveball that pissed me off, so here we are.

Narrative

You just woke up from being frozen for a ton of years, and a crazy scientist contacts you and wants you to help him unfreeze all the other people from that ship you were also on. A ship on the wat to a space colony called Halcyon. But he needs a special item for it and you have to find it. Story is told through talking and reading. There is not really any amount of cutscenes. Story was boring and lackluster. I didn't care at all. The side content was the same. Boring, generic. I did a bunch at the start but gave up at some point. They were all just glorified fetch quests or "kill X". I didn't really care about any of the characters.

Gameplay

It's a shooter with RPG elements. Mostly just a FPS, there is a lackluster skill tree, which is not really a tree at all, just some attributes you can pick and if you pick enough you unlock the next layer. The attributes aren't all that interesting and I honestly didn't care. Then there is just skills to level up, like combat in ranged and melee, there is dialogue skills, tech skills and sneaking skills.

As I almost always pick sneaky I decided to go for something else this time. I did dialogue and tech skills. Bad plan. So many stuff seemed to be accessible by sneaking and lockpicking (which were part of the same set of skills). There is so many locked doors, and locked chests everywhere, and you cannot do shit with those without lockpicking. Yes, for some there is a key. But mostly no (or maybe yes if you search long enough). Dialogue options were useful at times, but many things seemed to be easier with lockpicking. No, doing it the "hard" way wasn't more fun or anything, just more annoying or took longer.

Weapons and armor are just found in the world or can be bought. You can also upgrade weapons and armor at one of those crafting stations, and add modifications. There is also a billion different consumables to be found around the world as well. Way too much though. I found a few weapons I really liked but keeping them upgraded costs a lot of money. But switching was also sad, because I liked those weapons, so I just decided to keep going with the upgrading. Armor I did keep switching out. But there was so much loot that I just stopped caring and didn't bother to pick anything up anymore (besides ammo & healing stuff).

The shooting on itself was fine, it felt good and responsive. Weapons were nice and felt powerful. RPG elements were just meh, not really needed, could have done without. Could have especially done without the billion different consumables, I never used any of it because I could not be bothered reading all the descriptions and deciding what I would want.

Setting

It's in a space colony called Halcyon consisting of several planets. You go around these, and most have the exact same creepy crawlies, and exact same humans to kill. No great enemy variety at all. Just shoot at em, they will drop. The planets did look very good. Beautifully crafted, detailed in places, great sky boxes. Some felt a bit small though. You could run from on end to the other fairly quickly. Especially the "big" space station. The characters didn't look great. A lot of copy pasted characters everywhere. There were like 3 haircuts in this colony. A great lack of personality was felt throughout. I think that might have partly to do with making your own character. If a game tries to focus on story more, it really benefits from having an actual main character, and not a mute one like this.

Other

I didn't encounter any issues or bugs. I just got very bored. The curveball the game threw me was throwing me suddenly a boss fight. There was no boss fights in this game at all, except that single, very annoying one. I was specced in talking and science, not fighting. Most things in the game could be solved with those skills. There was always multiple paths to take. Violence, talking, sneaking, usually all of those were an option somehow. Suddenly, they weren't. Or maybe I chose the wrong things for it. I googled and apparently sneak is an option. Which I didn't choose. Man, I didn't like the game locking me into fighting, or to go all the way back and respec, or just locking me out of talking because a tiny different choice I made somewhere (which happened earlier in the game too). But that is my personal nitpick I suppose.

Conclusion

Honestly, I did have some fun with it at the start. But this game overstays it's welcome, big time. It's drags, the side missions are boring, the main one could not interest me either. There is too much useless loot, to much uninteresting dialogue. It tries a lot of stuff, but manages to make most of it mediocre or bad. Shooting is good. Then they add mediocre RPG elements that weren't needed. They add many skills to do stuff in a way you want in the game, but lock a shitload of items behind sneak. A few times you got locked out of an option you didn't even know you could be locked out of. Finally, after the whole game I could play as I wanted, I was forced into a boss fight. With crappy fighting skills, but I could at least speak well. I suppose. It gets compared to Fallout, which I didn't play. Borderlands, which also bored me after about 10h, and bioshock. It's definitely nothing like bioshock. It cannot even come close to the narrative masterpiece that is, and the lovely simplicity of it's gameplay. In the end, while I did enjoy a little bit of this game. A lot of the time I was just playing to get through and finish. That should not be a reason to play anything.

I wish this game were longer.

The story is okay, but it doesn't give you an idea of why you're doing what you're doing until the very end. The side quests are easily the most enjoyable part of this game due to the freedom of choice.

The combat was really satisfying compared to the clunky piece of trash that was Fallout 4. From choosing your initial career path, to crafting your character through skill points, it felt very satisfying watching my character develop throughout the game.

A very decent game that will have a much better sequel.

Love some of the ideas like the flaws. The game has a lot of personality and the art direction and environmental design is top notch. I'm not a fan of space operas or the american 50s and yet! It definitely managed to pull me in.

But oh boy, the inventory management on PS4 is a fucking nightmare (uneffective sorting system, untoggable windows that get in the way of actually seeing the equipement, not to mention the glitches) which is a pain when a game has so much loot.

There's glitches here and there, nothing game breaking but you notice them (enemies clipping through walls, text describing the wrong item when you break them apart in storage, party banter repeating when I know for a fact there was a lot more that never came up...), and the performances are a bit lacking (huge drop in fps whenever I'm trying to manage this stupid inventory, fairly long loading screens that end with unloaded textures).

Short of writing everything down myself, I would have loved to be able to keep a trace of the computer entries that are scattered throughout the game. Some names come up in several locations and it was maddening trying to remember where the hell I'd heard from this or that character before and what they'd been doing.

As a last negative comment, this game was just outright depressing at times. It's coated in a good dose of humour but reading about corporations throwing the little people's lives away for the xth time ended up putting a damper on my spirits.

It's a bit sad because when I think about it on a small scale, it really is a lovable game, and you can feel the developpers put a lot of labor and love into it. There's a few moments that really stand out. Like (minor spoiler) getting into the elevator to the retirement program in Byzantium, just knowing what I was going to find at the bottom, and seeing the light become darker and the space more oppressive as the elevator went down, down, down. And then the doors opening. Just imagining the hundreds or thousands of people that were in my place before me, except they were defenseless, and maybe less critical of the Board. Maybe they had a dawning realisation as the elevator went down. Maybe they didn't. Boy. Now that's storytelling.

But looking back at the general experience... I don't know. I wish I felt excited about it but it's more of a lukewarm I'm-probably-not-gonna-go-back-to-see-the-alternative-choices.

It feels like I played a completely separate game from everyone else. I was very excited about Obsidian making a fresh IP but it feels like most of the A-team jumped ship.

Art direction is probably the strongest part of this game but there's very little that's interesting about the world and the "corporations bad" point is taken to such an extreme that it blasts straight through my suspension of disbelief. The best characters are mostly okay-tier and most the writing is in the middle of not being bad and not being great

The sounds for most of the weapons are done very well while weapon variety is very poor. You mostly get upgrades of the same weapons with bigger numbers on the end and the skill tree is so bland it might as well not exist.

It's bizarre that this game scored this high all over the web considering that nobody talks about this game anymore which seems to prove the point that it was extremely forgettable. I can barely remember any of the characters names, music, plot points or quests. The only things that come to mind are the interesting weapon sounds and the cannibal family quest, but that's because I've seen it in so many other games. It was more like a "Oh, it's this quest again" moment.

A very pretty, very bland game.

The Outer Worlds is almost the Fallout sequel I was expecting, but mixed with a bit of Borderlands and a bit more of Star Wars. And that alone is already amazing!

I did not know what to expect from this game other than, well, an Obsidian RPG. The thing is, I didn't think I was going to enjoy it so much! All of your common Western RPG elements are here, done in the best way possible. It's a VERY familiar game, ESPECIALLY if you've played Fallout 3 or New Vegas. The graphics are cute, the performance is good (albeit a few hiccups), the quests are entertaining, the shooting mechanics works fine and the progression system functions like it should. But the thing that makes this conventional game shine among its peers is the writing! The story is great! It won't blow your mind, but it will convince you! I got invested in my character, in my crew, in the colony, the state of each world, each long and short quest, the role I played in the tale and in the witty dialogue. Just talking with people and deciding my lines got me super pumped because it's all so clever and very well done. The Outer Worlds has this magic that made me care for the things I said, did and its consequences. Few games like that made me feel this way, while still making me laugh.

The game isn't roses all the way through, though. Despite its amazing storytelling, the ending is abrupt and anticlimatic. I liked what was written in the aftermath, but it was poorly handled. Some parts of the gameplay felt dated. For example, melee combat is suicidal and impractical. MANY items you pick are useless and VERY repetitive. After a while, looting becomes boring and unnecessary, especially once you get to higher levels or close to the endgame. And I get that the game is a FPS, but then... what's the use of creating and decorating your charachter? Also, fuck Monarch! That place is dull as hell!

I totally recommend this game, but I can see why people wouldn't think much of it. I loved it and I think you should try. That might scratch your Fallout itch for a while, at least...

A game set in a capitalist dystopia made by the studio behind Fallout: New Vegas? Yeah, I mean, I might have gotten a little excited.

And I had fun, I did. Some of the companions were interesting, some of the worlds were neat, some of the dialog options were engaging, most of the plot was solidly built. All very...competent. And there were some highlights—the opening cinematic, Sanjar's adorkableness, pretty much every line Parvati had, the actual shrink ray, and lots of little funny bits here and there. And I did of course appreciate the wrap up at the end that showed how my actions actually mattered.

But it was no New Vegas. It didn't have the complexity that New Vegas had, it didn't make me have stop and think about decisions, and most importantly it didn't surprise me (other than that shrink ray, I really didn't that was going to be an actual shrink ray (oh, and what the secret experiment ended up being)). And if it wasn't going to be a new New Vegas, it could've stood to take more from its other obvious influence, the Borderlands series: a more interesting weapon and/or ability selection could have picked up some of the slack.

Also, they kind of shrink away from the radical politics implied by the premise. Like, the most effective and relatable anti-Board factions, MSI and The Groundbreaker, are still capitalists. The Iconoclasts are maybe socialists? But they're also a religion/cult? And they're kind of a joke for most of their storyline. And if you negotiate a truce between them and MSI (which why wouldn't you because these idiots clearly can't survive on their own and who would want to kill sweet adorkable Sanjar) at the end of the game they're just kind of there, and seemingly at least partially absorbed into MSI. And the Deserters, the only truly successful independent faction, just end up being selfish isolationists, so all in all not great representation for the anti-capitalists. It really feels like reform is the only good option we're presented with.

The main thing that struck me when I finished the game was how short it was, and that kind of fits with the general simplicity of it all. It just wasn't as much of what I wanted as I expected it to be, which is at least partially on me. I might have another go in a year or two and see if I can get more out of it, but I don't know.

Like most folks I was looking forward to this game. While this is a great game, I do worry it's been a little overhyped by certain online communities as the Second Coming not because of it's merits but because it lets them bitch about Bethesda some more.

The best way I can describe the Outer Worlds is "put Fallout and Borderlands in a blender then dust a little of No Man's Sky on top of the resulting shake". Obsidian's experience from New Vegas is on full display here. I hit the PS4 touchpad expecting it to switch to 3rd person view it felt so Fallouty. The game plays like an updated New Vegas in space. The shooting is a better, but not quite as comfortable to use as Fallout 4. Luckily they still have a version of VATS to help line up better shots. The button that draws your gun is also your interact button. It does get a little annoying always accidentally pulling out your gun when you're opening doors or talking to people. Luckily, having your gun drawn doesn't alter how people act.

There's also a stealth mechanic in this game, but it leaves much to be desire. You can hide in grass and behind boxes, but not all structures can be hid behind effectively. Also, the enemy's awareness meter isn't connected to your HUD, they just hover above the enemy. It means you won't notice if an enemy behind you is becoming aware to you. It's also hard to land a good sneak attack without alerting everyone. There is a sorta social stealth aspect with your Shroud disguise that lets you waltz around restricted areas.

On the controls, it would also be nice to have a few more HUD customization options. I don't need the companion wheel down in the corner constantly and a quicker way to get to a photo mode instead of going into settings to turn off the HUD constantly.

Like other Obsidian games, most of the main quests give you the chance to talk your way out of things. This game is filthy with skill checks and I admit it does feel good passing one, like you're smarter than the average bear and don't have to shoot your way out. Still combat is unavoidable when you're in the wild fighting monsters. There's also plenty of non-skilled dialogue options. In most games, when talking to NPCs you can either be a polite doormat, a psychopath, or a mean guy. Usually the last two equal getting bad options. I love that you can play as a sarcastic, flippant, or uncaring hero and still get the good endings. You can help people without being a doormat. I was a puckish rogue captain pretending to be a dead man.

The dialogue is also helped by the writing, which is where the Borderland influence comes in. There is definitely a focus on humor here, but it doesn't sacrifice story for cheap laughs. Some of the humor comes from the absurdity of the corporate ran world, the other part comes from some of the dialogue choices you have. I laughed my ass off at a lot of them.

Another Borderlands influence is in the world design. First, the guns have a unique look. They are a mix of real world gun and space weapon, you can tell the Auto-Mag has some M1911 influence. The world also goes for that dirty, space western type of look. With the mix of colors and creature designs, there is that hint of No Man's Sky in there. Outer Worlds does delineate itself from those other games by adding in some early 20th Century influences. Along with the game's theme, the world looks like if Vanderbilt went to space. The rich city looks like turn of the century New York, and some of the clothing has 1910s influences. Being corporations are a big thing in Outer Worlds, there's lots of in-world art of adverts that look cool and plenty of catchy jingles. Again, I love in-world art and find the artist who make them are unsung heroes.

There is some great music in here too. It's a mix of space and western. Frontier towns have that more twangy ambiance, while the rich city has this song that's a neat mix of Mass Effect and Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Still, the Fallouty feel of this game made me pine occasionally for a licensed soundtrack.

There's a lot of loading screens in this game as well. Some of them I get, you have to have them in a space game where you're popping between different planets, but it can get obnoxious. Maybe use a loading hallway or elevator for some of these, especially when a mission involves talking to two people on different planets, that's a minimum of 4 loading screens. And it would be neat if loading screens were a little different for each planet. Maybe they're Spacer's Choice branded on one planet, but another they are Auntie Cleo branded loading screens.

Guess this is a good time to talk about the theme of this game. The main theme is corporatism gone too far, or what if the company towns & big trusts of the 1900s stuck around. It's an interesting concept to dive into, especially since it avoids the themes of capitalism and consumerism. It's more about bueracracy, efficency, and profits, basically if those aliens from Hitchhiker's Guide were in charge. I think this thesis statement is best realized in the first town of the game, Edgewater. It introduces you to this world and all it's surreal insanity; how people are treated like property, everything, even dying costs money, people are judged by their productivity, and they must always use company slogans in greetings. It really gives this world a unique feel that I feel gets lost once you get off world. After Edgewater, you visit an independent ship and a rogue company planet. It makes the game feel more like Fallout than maybe they intended, especially with planet Monarch being a semi abandoned planet filled with ruined villages. I'd have rather visited more company towns, sure it could've gotten a little stale, but use the different planets to explore different aspects of 1900s working conditions. Maybe there's a mining town where your money is no good, cause they use company scripts, or a town of office workers to air the gripes associated with clerical work. Basically, I felt the theme of this game was pretty tame.

A complaint I've seen leveled at this game is the story is too short. If you were to compare this to New Vegas, yeah it's probably a bit shorter, but I wouldn't call this game short, it's a good length. Your hero was lost in space when a mad outlaw professor thawed him out of cryo sleep. He makes it your job to get the chemicals to revive your fellow colonists. After you do that, it's the end of the game. It does feel like an act one, especially for an Obsidian game. I went along with his plan, but an alternate playthrough can let you turn him in and work for the Board.

I give Obsidian credit, while the Board is our "bad guy", they aren't always cackling 80s businessman villains. Again in Edgewater, the company boss realizes the town's in a rough spot and he cares for his people. If they're production gets too low, the Board may decide to disown them and that means they're on their own in this wild world. Some workers may have crap jobs, but it's all they have and it keeps them fed and housed. Most of the people who defect from the corporation don't live long on these hostile worlds. At the end, so spoiler, we learn the Board is trying to make a plan to save the colony, by saving their own hides. This could've been a good rug pull moment for Obsidian. Maybe the Board has more selfless goals, but the only way they think to achieve them is by doing evil things. I think that's the twist they used in Fable 3?

As you achieve that goal, you help out other factions with little side quests, well big side quests. It feels very much like the last half of New Vegas where you have to go around & win everyone's allegiances. You can gain a positive reputation with other factions, but it never seems to amount to much outside of that planet. The fact I'm a friend of Spacer's Choice means nothing to the people on Monarch. That's another thing in regards to the theme, there's all these different companies, but the only one you really interact with is Spacer's Choice, the Dollar General of the galaxy.

Your spaceship you "inherent" is the Unreliable. With a name like that I was expecting another one of my favorite tropes, the ship/car that is always breaking down. I think it would've helped with character building to have one mission, a short one where you have an issue on the old rust bucket and you have to scurry around to fix it, hijinxs would ensue.

You pick up a few stragglers along the way that serve as your companions. They are one of the highlights of this game. They have interesting conversations in your ship and are a boon in a firefight. Pavarti is a fan favorite, she is your sweet, naive, mechanic and I did bring her around to most missions. I think she was a developer favorite too, cause she seems the most developed of them all. Ellie is an odd one. She's the one seen in the ads and in most games would serve as the "expected romance choice", like your Pipers, Sioras, or Mirandas. She's the sarcastic outlaw pirate, but also your ship's doctor. It's an odd mix cause she doesn't really act like a doctor. Granted that profession is explained in her companion quest. Vicar Max is the shotgun preacher, which is a favorite archetype of mine. Nyomi, Felix, and SAM are okay characters, but not the most memorable. They all interject themselves in dialogues occasionally, like Greedfall, but unlike Greedfall they feel forced. Ellie may add her 2 cents in a conversation, but then the NPC will keep on speaking like she doesn't exisit. It doesn't feel smooth.

There's no romance options in this game, which is a bold choice, but I like it. One thing I always groan at in RPGs is when they do that "power fantasy stuff" where NPCs go on about how great, wise, smart, caring, etc. you are. Here everyone is just banded together as a ragtag crew of misfit spacers. It does give a different dynamic to how you interact with the crew, and I actually found it more fun playing matchmaker in Pavarti's side quest.

All in all, this is a good game with some issues. It feels like the start of a unique world idea, but never fully commits to it. If they go with good ending as a canon ending, an Outer Worlds 2 would have to be set in a different colony. It's a good looking game with lots of hilarious moments and is worth most of it's praise.

I really wanted to love this game, huge fan of previous Obsidian games and an avid RPG player. It has been described as the spiritual successor of Fallout New Vegas and the "Bethesda killer". I'll say this right now, it's not better than New Vegas. It has a LOT of things that are similar to the Fallout games, it basically is a Fallout game in space. Starfield who?

So what wasn't good in this game? I can start with the broadest one, it's too short and too small. It feels like a $40 game and I was surprised it already made it to Game Pass and I guess that's why. Too short - it has too little and too short quests. The main quest doesn't do anything exceptionally, it's a basic tale of people vs authority. Too small - all areas are very small when you explore them further and most houses are inaccessible. Not only houses but some planets are also inaccessible, could be future DLCs? Many locations are also copy-pasted and have the same exact layout. In such a short game you tend to recognize this a lot. It also has a lack of stand-out music, I couldn't remember a single track I wanted to look up after the game. That is something Fallout 4 did exceptionally with Inon Zur.

Onto the smaller stuff, we begin with the character creation screen. I liked the character creator, and all the skills and perks stuff. It was great. However, most NPCs also use the same models from the character creator so you will see some redundance in their faces. I know a lot of other good games had this problem such as The Witcher 3 and it's really just a small detail but it can throw you off. You also won't see your own character that much which makes the character creator less important, they could have made some special attacks where it shows your character and then the attack, just like companion attacks. Or just have a 3rd person option. The max level in the game could have been higher, it's 30 and I reached it long before completing the game. Weapons and mods are alright, weapons barely degrade so you won't have trouble with that. Many weapons can't be modded though, which is sad. Enemy variety is extremely low.

Surely it's a 1-star game by now, Blazarin? No. It has some very good qualities. Stealth is actually good in this game, and so is combat. The time-slowing ability is much like the VATS in Fallout and adds some interesting elements to combat. I want to talk about the companions. The companions are phenomenal in this game, they talk to each other ALL the time when you have them in your party and have many many lines of dialogue in the game. Playing without companions will make the game very lifeless. Companions have long quests of their own which changes them and gives you insight into their stories. Well done, Obsidian. The dialogue options themselves and the RPG elements are very detailed. There's much comedy and too little tragedy for my taste but nonetheless some good writing. So what does the game look like? First thing that came to my mind was No Man's Sky. A colorful blend of weird flora and fauna. It does look great even if it induces some PTSD from a certain game launch ahem. I love the ship system, being captain of a ship that can go to different locations and have the companions be your crew. Technically, no problems with the game. Fast travel worked great and loading screens not too long.

Overall, good game that I wanted to play more of all the time. It did not live up to my expectations but hopefully with DLCs (which are a big part of New Vegas) it can become much better. I recommend waiting for a lower price, and also to play the game on Supernova difficulty. On any easier difficulty the game will be extremely easy, and that's coming from someone who plays on easy most of the time.