The Outer Worlds

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JaySevenZero
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The Outer Worlds

Post by JaySevenZero »

Here's where you can contribute your thoughts and opinions for The Outer Worlds for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

A friendly reminder that where the feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but keeping it brief is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mostly reading out essays. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.
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Tolkientaters
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Re: 517: The Outer Worlds

Post by Tolkientaters »

Outer Worlds is a good game that I feel is mostly let down by comparison. On It's own the writing is clever(the corporation's religion is an especially fun idea) and your decisions have impact. Your party is made up of great memorable characters, but the fact that your decisions almost always boil down to help corporation, help rebel or compromise makes it a little less interesting especially on a replay where the characters don't react to some of the atrocious things can do on the corporate path.

To illustrate a big difference, my first play through of both Outer Worlds and New Vegas had me playing a character out to do their own thing aligning close to my morale code. I tried to do a Cesar's Legion playthtough of New Vegas on my second playthtough and couldn't keep going, the characters I liked the most hated me and wanted nothing to do with me, so I stopped playing that way and betrayed the Legion. In Outer Wilds when I played a corporate mercenary who
Spoiler: show
killed everyone in Edgewater and Parvati was pretty much fine with it.
I didn't get much opposition to doing horrible things, the characters were just fine with it.

It's a fun time in some interesting colorful environments, but it just doesn't quite compare to New Vegas. I wasn't nessisarily looking a game that big, but I did expect a little more variation in choices. Despite that I liked it enough to play it twice and would definitely recommend it.
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ashman86
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Re: 517: The Outer Worlds

Post by ashman86 »

In the lead up to the launch of The Outer Worlds, I was as guilty as anyone for expecting it to be a spiritual successor to Fallout 2 and/or New Vegas. In some ways, I think it lives up to that, but The Outer Worlds' scope is significantly narrower.

Obsidian's one of my favorite studios out there now, and I've played nearly everything they've launched since the late Black Isle days. I learned long ago to expect an Obsidian game to be a diamond in the rough: they're true gems, but you usually have to wipe away some dirt and accept the rougher edges before you see how bright they shine.

The Pillars of Eternity games, which launched in the years between New Vegas and Outer Worlds, were largely a departure from that norm, however. They were rich and polished, and Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire is, in my opinion, one of the finest CRPGs ever made and an all-time favorite of mine, so my hype for Outer Worlds was turned up past 11 when it finally came out.

The end result is a game that I think is maybe two-thirds of the way to being a masterpiece. The first couple of acts offer some really interesting player choices and introduce you to wonderful characters and planets to explore. You're constantly finding new weapons and building your character in compelling ways, and the narrative immerses you in a fascinating world that echoes some of Fallout's anti-capitalistic narcissism, even if it rarely finds a voice of its own. I even liked the smaller, more classic structure of the game, which felt more like a KOTOR or Mass Effect than it did a sprawling Bethesda RPG, for good and bad.

But, in the end, I think Outer Worlds fails to stick the landing. The final act is pretty forgettable, the last big location you visit is underwhelming, and loot quickly devolves into literal incremental improvements on your existing gear. Worse than any of that, though, the game runs out of interesting narrative choices to offers its players, and whatever message you think Outer Worlds may have had to offer about the nature of capitalism (and post-capitalism) simply never materializes into anything noteworthy. Outer Worlds ultimately feels like it wants to say something meaningful but doesn't have the guts to do so.

Outer Worlds, then, is a solid RPG and a fun space opera that's easy to get lost in for a few dozen hours, but after that, the mark it leaves on the player rubs off surprisingly quickly.
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Magical_Isopod
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Re: 517: The Outer Worlds

Post by Magical_Isopod »

I was kind of disappointed by this one, to be honest. It purports to be a sarcastic take-down of corporate capitalism, but it never quite gets there. It builds up these cartoonishly evil companies, but it doesn't go much further than that. Any real social commentary is skin-deep, and it feels afraid to do anything more than that. It felt to me that they had more biting commentary, but someone scaled it back - whether it was the publisher, or whether they were afraid of blowback from an aggressively polarized American public, I can't say for sure. I'd love to ask a writer exactly that, given the chance.

But because it holds back those punches, I never found myself getting too invested in what was going on in this world, in the same way I was in Fallout: New Vegas. New Vegas was like, "What political stripe are you? Doesn't matter - we probably have a faction you'll get along with." And it gave you like 5 different options for the fate of New Vegas. Here, it just felt like you existed in an obnoxious American TV ad where loud equals funny.

In the moment-to-moment gameplay, I found it to be a bit of a slog. The companions - at least the ones I encountered in the early game - ranged from dull to annoying. The enemies felt bullet-spongy like in Borderlands, which is not a compliment, and I never quite got the same compulsion of, "What's over there?" like similar games.

I'm really curious what the sequel will do, given the general success of the original. I'd be willing to give the series another chance, but I do hope they learn and evolve.
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Magical_Isopod
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Re: 517: The Outer Worlds

Post by Magical_Isopod »

Challenge Mode: Make a commentary for this game without invoking Fallout or New Vegas.
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