I tried playing Outer Worlds but my main complaint was that I was constantly being overwhelmed by just how garish and visually busy the game was. The area that I was exploring was a bit too colourful, a bit too cluttered, and enemies didn't stand out well enough for me to differentiate them from the background visual elements. I got frustrated with the number of times I wouldn't notice an enemy until I was right on top of them.
Another issue I faced was a classic dissonance seen in most RPG/FPS blends - it's where you can equip a high powered rifle and shoot an enemy in their unprotected head only to watch them shrug the shot off with ease as their HP bar drops by a measly 10%. It ruins immersion for me, just reminds me that I am not actually an adventurer exploring a strange new universe, I'm just a guy playing a video game.
Apart from that, there was a lot to like! I liked the story that I got to experience, the characters seemed cool, the quests were interesting. I just couldn't push past the things that bothered me to see more of the stuff I liked.
The combat was a low point. I spent most of the game up through the finale with a MK2 light machinegun. It was tinkered with and upgraded. My character had no points at all put into gun skills and I still chewed through enemies with ease. Whenever ammo ran low I switched to a MK2 heavy assault rifle.
Even the finale sub-boss robot was pathetically easy to kill.
I think they underdeveloped the science weapons! I started using some too late in the game but some encounters definitley felt “different” to the normal gunplay.
Reading through this and the other comments made me remember how much I think the New Vegas Team really would do better just working off of Bethesda’s engines. Bethesda tends to do weak storytelling, where Obsidian struggled with a bunch of things in the Outer Worlds.
I would love if they did a “Starfield: New Vegas” and fill in each others weaknesses.
I’m still not sure why The Outer Worlds is thought of as the same team as New Vegas. It had different leads and writers. The marketing for the game heavily pushed the connection because of Obsidian, but the individuals (at least the ones most important in steering the game development) involved are different.
I’m still not sure why The Outer Worlds is thought of as the same team as New Vegas… The marketing for the game heavily pushed the connection because of Obsidian
I mean, you kind of answered your own question. Lots of old school Fallout fans were annoyed with the direction that Bethesda was taking the series, in an attempt to appeal to a wider market of FPS players. These fans remembered the days before the series was heavily focused on combat, and yearned for more of what Obsidian had done with it. So when Obsidian announced their own RPG, fans of New Vegas went wild. They were basically expecting a spiritual successor to New Vegas, because they had seen what Obsidian was capable of.
This is one of those games that I started playing and put down and went back to and played through entirely. I really wanted to play it because I loved The Stupendium’s song “The Fine Print”. I was recently diagnosed with ADHD and medicated, I didn’t think this would effect how I play games, but it allowed me to stay focused on the game and actually play it all the way through. I was able to thoroughly explore the game without getting distracted by picking up items, getting lost, forgetting the plot or quest line.
My favorite things about the game were the silly jingles and overall style of everything. The slogans and stylized art really made it feel retro-futuristic and dystopian. Everyone knows the companies are bad, but it’s all they have, so they have to put on a smile and deal with it. The choices you face make you think about the consequences (what’s right vs corporate greed, mostly). In my play-through I tried to do all of the “right” choices and stay on everyone’s good side, be the “hero”. I did every side quest and companion story line, so it took a while to complete, but it was nice to completely finish a game for once. The next time I play, I think I’ll do a more “evil” approach to see more story lines. I really enjoyed all the mementos and trinkets you collect for the ship, it was nice to read little snippets about them and the companions. I really think it was the little things about the game that I enjoyed the most. Fighting enemies wasn’t hard, especially with companions. I didn’t use their special abilities, (I don’t think I knew how to) so I missed out on the small comment scenes you mentioned.
Unfortunately, I played it on PS4, so the worst thing was load times. Every loading screen took forever. The further into the game, the longer they took. At one point the game crashed and I had to re-download to get it to work again, luckily this didn’t effect the save game. But it happened a couple of times, which was worrying. Hopefully I can get the PC version for my next play-through. I played on easy mode because I’m horrible at FPS and I have to say, the amount of ammo you’re given is excessive, even for easy mode. I had thousands of rounds of ammo for all ammo types. I don’t think I reached the storage limit, but it was close.
Great review, you summed up the story line and game style very eloquently! I agree that many quests were tedious fetch-quests, this was very annoying and obvious playing on PS4 with the load screens. I didn’t realize it was advertised as a follow up to New Vegas, but I had heard that it was made by some of the people that worked on it, which you point out is not exactly the case. Regardless, they did a wonderful job on this game and while it’s not perfect, it is a great story that I enjoyed! Coincidentally enough, I started New Vegas last night and expect to enjoy it as much as this game, if not more. I’d always heard amazing things about it, but never got around to playing.
The Outer Worlds has always struck me as something of an underrated game. I certainly liked it enough to play through it three times; once just the base game and two more times with the DLCs. I do agree that one of the highlights of the game are the companions. They were all unique and it was fun to pair up different companions and listen to their banter. Well, except for the robot who had fairly a limited set of lines.
I will say the DLCs added a lot to the game. I recall being mildly disappointed in how brief the base game was but after adding the DLCs it felt a lot more fleshed out. Not quite like a Fallout game, but enough to satiate.
Yeah the DLCs made it feel like a full game. The base was a fun proof of concept, the the DLC fleshes that out. Both made me excited to see what version 2 with more time and funding could accomplish.
I hope they build on the more unique systems like the Holographic Shroud and give those systems more opportunities to shine.
I really wanted to like this one. On paper it sounds like exactly my jam, but it just didn’t grab me. The whole game felt tedious. Mediocre combat, very little weapon variety (just different tiers of the same kind of gun). Finicky and overcomplicated skill system that still somehow didn’t feel like it made any impact on core gameplay, and I found the humour kind of simultaneously weak and overdone. The satire is heavy-handed, and the wackiness falls flat. I haven’t enjoyed a fallout game since 3 either though, so maybe my taste has changed without me realising.
You hit the nail on the head for me. I tried to like this game, but it felt lackluster time and again. And I enjoyed Fallout NV and to a lesser degree 4. Outer Worlds just did not do it for me.
The issue I think is that every single thing is setup for some punchline. The world isn’t taken seriously. It’s all a basis for a joke. Fallout NV was taken seriously. It had humor, but the world felt consistent and well thought out. That’s why it works, and it’s also why the humor hits better. If everything is a joke then almost nothing is funny.
Showerthough: Since this wasn’t actually a random person, what if we had a system where I genuinely ask a random person what they think of XYZ? Like speed-dating for games opinions.
I struggled with The Outer Worlds’ really ham fisted centrism. While it’s been awhile, I remember the best result on every major planet was to find compromise between the two factions. It’s done so clumsily that it makes none of the factions feel authentic in any way.
I agree with this, and it contributed to my losing interest. I also found the gameplay way too stale and stopped playing when I was almost done with the 3rd world.
I didn’t feel invested in or care about any of the companions or their story arcs either. They didn’t feel relatable or like real people.
I had high hopes for the Outer Worlds, but it just felt generic and boring to me. It felt like a cross between Fallout New Vegas and Borderlands, but without the charm of either franchise.
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