The Outer Worlds
About
The Outer Worlds is a new single-player first-person sci-fi RPG from Obsidian Entertainment and Private Division.
In The Outer Worlds, you awake from hibernation on a colonist ship that was lost in transit to Halcyon, the furthest colony from Earth located at the edge of the galaxy, only to find yourself in the midst of a deep conspiracy threatening to destroy it. As you explore the furthest reaches of space and encounter various factions, all vying for power, the character you decide to become will determine how this player-driven story unfolds. In the corporate equation for the colony, you are the unplanned variable.
Key Features
The player-driven story RPG: In keeping with the Obsidian tradition, how you approach The Outer Worlds is up to you. Your choices affect not only the way the story develops; but your character build, companion stories, and end game scenarios.
You can be flawed, in a good way: New to The Outer Worlds is the idea of flaws. A compelling hero is made by the flaws they carry with them. While playing The Outer Worlds, the game tracks your experience to find what you aren't particularly good at. Keep getting attacked by Raptidons? Taking the Raptiphobia flaw gives you a debuff when confronting the vicious creatures, but rewards you with an additional character perk immediately. This optional approach to the game helps you build the character you want while exploring Halcyon.
Lead your companions: During your journey through the furthest colony, you will meet a host of characters who will want to join your crew. Armed with unique abilities, these companions all have their own missions, motivations, and ideals. It's up to you to help them achieve their goals, or turn them to your own ends.
Explore the corporate colony: Halcyon is a colony at the edge of the galaxy owned and operated by a corporate board. They control everything... except for the alien monsters left behind when the terraforming of the colony’s two planets didn’t exactly go according to plan. Find your ship, build your crew, and explore the settlements, space stations, and other intriguing locations throughout Halcyon.
System requirements for PC
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: System requirements coming soon
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: System requirements coming soon
System requirements for PlayStation 4
System requirements for Nintendo Switch
System requirements for Xbox One
Where to buy
The Outer Worlds reviews and comments
Anyways, I really enjoyed the time I had with this game. Not quite as long or as deep as I would've liked, but what's here is very good. Worth noting that on base ps4 there were notable performance issues, though.
Looking forward to going back for the DLC.
I really wanted this one to stick the landing as it does SO much so well. It was like they ran out of time or ideas? It felt so much bigger than it ended up being. The weird culmination at the end where you assault on the base, interspersed with groups of people you've met arriving and helping (which you didn't ask for? did they miss a section?) then to finish with a boring bullet sponge of an enemy which was frustrating to fight if you happened to bring the wrong load out in with you.
My disappointment isn't enough for me to rate the game lower than 'Recommended' though. It's still got a lot going for it. But it keeps it from being an exceptional game for me.
Final Score: A-
The hub worlds were pretty small, too, which made a lot of the above feel limited. You finish exploring each world quickly, pick up some quests in the handful of towns per world, and that's it. Once you walk through the world once (a pretty short, single-direction walk), the only change between each visit is that enemies respawn. Enemies that never really change. You'd be forgiven for relying on fast travel after doing your round-trip of each world. It's not like you lose out on anything interesting. It also makes the worlds feel completeable, which is a weird goal for an RPG. You go to the handful of major locations, pick up a handful of quests, and loot some stuff so you have way too much money, medicine, and ammo. There are few if any incidental locations like a Bethesda game or even Breath of the Wild so curiosity isn't rewarded too heavily beyond a small handful of unique weapons or geographic formations.
It's one of those RPGs where the builds can at times have very different playthroughs (though there's always those side quests that are combat, period), but it almost would have been better off had you picked from "Combat, Stealth, or Talky" builds at the beginning and ignored all the stats.
I also thought it was weird how trivial it was to be friends with every faction up until the very end, where you are friends with every single faction save one. It's cool that your reputation has a pretty large impact on the last world, but all you need to do is do some quests on each world and boom you're friends with everybody. There was even one big decision I made that stopped me from 100% a faction on Groundbreaker, but it didn't matter because the outcome of my decision only prevented me from doing something, it wasn't a choice.
Which is kind of the biggest problem is that nothing was a choice, except Welles vs. The Board at the very end. Your reputation had an effect but it was only ever a benefit, never a choice. Unless you really messed up or had a bad character build, you're going to max everything and get the best everything. You don't lose out on relationships or quests or loot based on who you side with. You just get a reward or you don't, making your choices feel like they don't have a real impact.