I say that less as a knock on the game and more that there were technical compromises made back in the day as well. Nostalgia sometime last hits and people assume everything ran blazing fast.
Classics still had lag. DK Country 3’s final boss was so laggy it’d affect the boss music.
Not quite super classic you mentioned but a chunk of the speed run tech around Super Mario 64 is how to optimize the camera to avoid lagging on certain effects (the sunshine to the wing cap, the top tower in whomps fortress, the sub in dire dire docks).
Honestly I mostly agree with you if you include the DLC. IMO Outer Worlds is a game about moments. Each contained story arc in Emerald, Monarch, and the 2 dlc locations are so good. There’s a lot of different ways to approach them and different turns you can take. There’s also so many small moments like the woman in Byzantium who
Tap for spoilerWants you to investigate the early retirement process because she feels like she’s missing out on luxury. Only for you to find out it’s just a funnel to lead people to a testing bed. You can then lie to her and say “yeah it’s totally great. You’re missing out and should do it too “ I laughed so hard at that.
But the over arching story isn’t there. It builds up to some cool points and then just sort of stops. If I didn’t play it with the DLC I could see how people would be disappointed.
Also like you said if you go into it expecting FO NV in space you’ll be sorely disappointed as there’s not much gear reward for exploring. There’s unique weapons but if you invest in the bare minimum into engineering you can craft much better weapons. It’s more about building something YOU want to run. Which is cool and fun , but if you’re expecting a loot game you’re gonna be disappointed. I think this part is less a knock on the game though and more of a lack of engaging with what the game wants you to do if that makes sense.
I agree with your general point, but I think the problem is OW1 didn’t stick the landing.
Not gonna lie if I didn’t buy it on sale and didn’t get the DLC I would have been disappointed. Emerald Vale and Monarch had really great self contained stories but once you get to Byzantium it starts to lose steam. The 2 DLC are also the strongest stories in the game.
Games are gonna copy major mechanics. Look at all the BOTW clones that came out after Breath of the Wild was successful. But you have to put a liiiittle effort into mixing up the art style and color palette.