The Outer Worlds is just too complacent about everything it does. Nothing about the game is bad per say, but the entire experience is plain and simply, aggressively fine. It sticks to a formula that is very safe and well trodden which isn't necessarily a bad thing but it means that I've played this game a million times over in a sense. Everything Outer Worlds has to offer has been done before and better in the other games it's pulling from, which means while you are getting an objectively good game it lacks any real draw for people that play western RPGs on a regular basis. It's clear the developers making this game know how to build a game and IP, the roots of the studio go back to Fallout and other landmark series so they have done this song and dance before which benefits the game in many ways. It’s why I can’t say anything all too damning about the game and can recommend it to just about anyone who's interested. Unfortunately that experience is why the game is also unremarkable, because the people making it are just making more of what they already did and not taking risks. Which I understand, it's better to play it safe and establish your IP so you can take bigger swings with it later on . Obsidian at the time of making this game was a much smaller studio and needed a game that would sell and publishers would fund, it worked too. The game got them bought by Xbox and now hopefully they are going to take those big swings with the Outer Worlds 2. However this game is just the bread and butter of RPGs, it’s not going to rock your socks but its tasty all the same.
The world and tone is the best part of the game, it's basically just taking Fallout’s dark humor and underlying commentary on capitalism and bringing it front and center while applying it to a science fiction setting. It all works really well and the game is clever with its writing and not overdoing the dry humor, there’s a deft balance with the tone which I really appreciate. The Outer Worlds manages to set up a whole new setting and IP expertly without overwhelming the player or letting world building get in the way of storytelling. I think the fact that it is pulling so much from media like Fallout, Futurama, and Firefly lets the new setting be digestible and well realized, playing it safe pays off. But the game is also just really good at introducing you to all its moving pieces through the quest and dialogue while pushing things forward and letting the player pick up on things at its own pace. Establishing a new IP is no easy feat but Outer Worlds does it with ease.
As for the actual writing and storytelling I don’t think it is ever great, the most it reaches is clever but at the same time it's never bad, the worst it gets is rushed. You play as a colonist who was aboard the seemingly lost vessel called The Hope which was sent from earth and full of people that were supposed to help establish a colony. That never happened due to a mystery you will uncover. All the members remained in stasis, floating in space until mad scientist Phineas Welles broke into the ship and unfroze you in hopes you can help unfreeze the rest of the colonists and fix the dying and broken colony of Halcyon. From there you go from planet to planet seeing all the woes of the colony first hand and getting familiar with all the factions and corporations. Each Planet you go to will have its own story and sidequest involving a couple different factions and the choices you make determine how that story will end. The game is great about giving you true choice and consequence, it never tries to pigeon hold you into certain decisions. It's a truly flexible narrative and if you start a quest you know that it will be meaningful to your playthrough, there’s very little fluff writing or stories just there to extend game length which I really appreciated. And that's not to say every quest is phenomenal, some of them feel like a drag but that's more to do with burnout with the game rather than quality of writing. Like I said, all the quests hit that “good” mark of quality but having just a bunch of good quests gets boring because you kinda know what to expect and can predict what will happen, the writing is very formulaic and industry standard.
A big part of the game’ story and structure are the companions too, as you visit the planets you’ll meet characters that will join your crew. They have their own questlines which can vary in quality and impact, the only companion that left a real impression was Parvati and the rest just hover somewhere in the realm of fine to adequate. I will say that their questlines do give you some real agency in their character direction which keeps in line with this game's commitment to player choice but other than that the companions largely feel underwhelming in their actual writing. The aspect that they do really well with them is incorporating them into conversations. Whatever companions you have with you are always budding into conversations to express their thoughts and even open up new choices. I just wish their characters were more interesting and the game let me build a real connection with them, it's pretty surface level and companions feel like they are there to check a mark on the list of what should be included in a good RPG.
The companions and just the game’s writing in general aren't helped by Outer Worlds presentation. Every conversation you have is just a static camera that closes up on their face with no switches in camera angle or even movement in the characters bodies. It's incredibly unengaging and makes it hard to care about what the person is saying. I don’t care how great your writing is or how interesting of a world you've made, if every conversation is just a static zoom in on the character then I'm going to dread talking to them. Which really hurts the game because 80% of it is just talking to people. The dialogue options are so good and so much of the writing is well done so I can’t fathom why they would put so little care into the cinematic direction, it wouldn't have taken much to just have some camera angle swaps in conversations or throw a bit more time into animation. The Outer Worlds presentation is the reason why I got so burnt out and started rushing through the game. I was bored of talking to people and the way they chose to tell stories. I ended up rushing through dialogue because I couldn't take how static it was anymore. As I've said, they are good writers at Obsidian but it feels like there was no ambition behind this game. They played it safe and were a little lazy, which they can get away with because of how talented they are so their lazy work is better than a lot of studio's hard work.
The gameplay of Outer World might be the biggest offender of the whole generic issue with this game because it's basically just Fallout 3 or New Vegas with better looking graphics. Which hey, those games are so popular for a reason but this game came out in 2019 so the fact that it plays no better than a game from 2008 is pretty damning. I'm not going to spend much time on discussing gameplay because it's truly identical. Combat is shooting, melee, and an offbrand VATS that plays just like Fallout 3. The weapons feel a bit better and there’s some good customization and fun science weapons that spice up combat but to say it's good is a stretch. Stealth is something you can do but it barely works, it's more of something you can do to ambush enemies with an occasional encounter that truly lets you sneak past. There’s no real mechanics behind it other than a disguise system which lets into restricted areas for a limited time but it's not used that much and pretty broken if you spec into persuasion stats since you can just talk your way out of things. You’ve got hacking, lockpicking, and pickpocketing too but these are actually way worse than what Fallout does. There’s no mini games to performing them, instead it’s just a flat stat check which does reward character builds and that’s something Outer Worlds does well in its gameplay but not having those mini games when the game it’s copying does really makes it feel lacking. The world also doesn’t react to you doing this stuff, there’s no crime system or punishment for stealing and what not. The worst that happens is a slight decrease in reputation with a faction which doesn't matter. That’s Outer World's huge issue with gameplay, it's not reactive, the world is all just set dressing and only moves forward when scripted by a quest. Fallout can get away with not so great gameplay because the world is malleable, your presence is an active one and the flexibility of the world makes the gameplay engaging. Everything in those games can be fucked with but Outer Wolrds takes a much more look but don’t touch approach.
Stats and character builds are also the same as Fallout which actually isn't a bad thing here and still holds up. You put points into a whole bunch of different areas and have to choose what your character is gonna be good at. You can’t be a jack of all trades and skill checks are everywhere in the game so what you can and can’t do will be a core part of the game. They do a truly great job of rewarding or punishing the direction you take your character, every playstyle is viable and fun. Quest can play out in a bunch of ways depending on your build and it's where this game shines brightest. I was tickled pink with how often I had choices given to me because of the way I built my character. And how you build doesn't just affect choices, there’s a bunch of passives that affect the gameplay itself depending on the skills you've chosen for your character. You also get a perk system on top of the skills which lets you further build out your playstyle, the perks focus more on the combat and gameplay itself while skills focus on what you can do in conversations and quests. Skills can be further affected by the gear you and your companions wear and companions have their own perk tree and combat abilities. Progression in the game is just really good and the one thing Outer Worlds really nails.
The Exploration is more of a mixed bag, the game has a bunch of small open worlds and hubs to explore. The more open areas really drag with the biggest planet being a pain to explore because it's filled to the brim with combat and if you aren't doing a quest there’s not much to do on the planets. There’s a ton of loot but most of it is meaningless after the first couple hours but that doesn't stop them from trying to make exploration engaging by riddling the environments with stuff to pick up. Half this game is just open containers and looting the same 5 things that you already have 100 of. Bethesda game’s do this too but the difference is that you know most of it is meaningless and exploration is more about the questing and dungeons. Outer Worlds just has meaningless loot and no real memorable level design, areas are just kind of industry standard. Visually the game is very distinct. It’s not the prettiest (The Spacer Choice Graphic Update Helps) but all the planets have a very distinct look to them, there’s some whimsical vibes to them. I’d say the art direction in games is strong, imagine a pre Great War Fallout aesthetic but thrown into Space and you can get yourself a pretty good picture. It's a tight blend of ultra capitalism prograngana, decaying settlements and untamed planetary wilderness. I was far more motivated to explore to see interesting stuff than I was to find interesting stuff. The game is at its best when it keeps you in tight areas filled with quests but as soon as it opens up the deficiencies in gameplay really start to show.
I should really probably talk about the DLCs but I don’t really want to, what I will say is that it seems like they learned a lot of lessons and made efforts to rectify it in the two DLCs but a lot of issues still persist. I played through them both but was just so burnt out on the game that I was really rushing and can’t be bothered to write another two pages about them. I’d say they are good in the context of this game and expand both the world and gameplay but they both should have been much shorter.
Basically Outer Worlds is fine…..
