The Outer Worlds was probably one of my most anticipated games of 2019. I bought it day one and put a ton of hours into it. Unfortunately, the excitement wore off pretty quickly. The game felt a lot like a standard RPG. Fallout is the main franchise I would obviously compare it to. It plays exactly like those. Which I love Fallout. I constantly debate on dedicating my entire right arm to a Fallout tattoo sleeve. The only reason I haven’t yet is because of how downhill Bethesda has taken that franchise. Anyways, The Outer Worlds. Let’s get into it.
The Outer Worlds at first shows you that you can make decisions that will affect entire towns and ultimately the entire colony. Yeah, kind of. It never really seemed like it mattered all that much by the time the lame slideshow pops up at the end of the game. You really end up either following Doctor Phineas Welles, or you go with The Board. There’s no middle man like New Vegas did at one point.
The Outer Worlds has some good game play in it. It is definitely a step up from other Fallout games, but all I ever really did was run and gun. I never used the time dilation stuff till the end of the game because I would completely forget about it, and the dodging mechanic seemed entirely pointless.
I enjoyed the locations in The Outer Worlds. There were variations for the most part, but the enemies always felt the same. The world-building was solid as well, and there are a lot of details in each quest that kind of point you in the direction of what The Board’s ultimate plans are, but at the time it all feels a little nonsensical.
Side Note: The shitty slide show ending should’ve died with Fallout 4. It was novel when the original Fallout games did them, and Fallout 3 felt like it belonged. The Outer Worlds slideshow ending is entirely way too long and incredibly boring. No more of this. Seriously, stop.
The side quests were all pretty interesting for the most part, but never left much of a lasting impression. The companion quests started off on a high note with Pavartis’ quest being really interesting. You got to really see what this character was all about. It all went downhill from there though. Ellie’s was disappointing, Max’s felt entirely pointless, and S.A.M didn’t even get a quest at all which is ridiculous.
I think the worst thing The Outer Worlds does though is the dialogue mechanics. To be able to see the correct dialogue choices be greyed out entirely in a conversation, knowing that you have to choose the wrong choice because you just don’t quite have enough in hacking, or science, or engineering, can be frustrating. I would rather not see those choices at all. It makes me feel like I didn’t level up my character correctly at all. The game almost forces you to min-max your character which is a damn shame.
Overall I enjoyed The Outer Worlds, but it really didn’t feel like it did anything new for the genre. Which is totally fine, the game was fun to play, didn’t overstay its welcome at all and I’m looking forward to what they put out for the DLC. Hopefully, we get to see some new planets we didn’t get the opportunity to explore. I am confused about when the DLC takes place though since the ending slideshow kind of details every character’s plans at the end.
The Tired Obsidian 