Gorgon has many secrets to uncover
When The Outer Worlds was first shown off back in December of 2018, I was pretty ecstatic. Knowing the game if being helmed by the original Fallout creators was a big deal, especially coming off of a lukewarm response to Fallout 4 and Fallout 76 reveal. A Fallout game, but in space? I needed this.
The Outer Worlds’ is a big open-world RPG. First-person shooting, upgrading weapons and armor and gaining experience for perks. It takes place in a colony far, far away from Earth. It’s being run by a bunch of different corporations. Almost has that cyberpunk feel to it in that instance. Meeting whacky characters, fighting giant aliens, and getting to the bottom of where the players’ character came from, and why they got woken up by a crazy scientist after years in a cryo-sleep. It was an absolute joy.
I ended up beating The Outer Worlds after a couple of months of just exploring and soaking up everything the solar system had to offer. I had a great time with it, even if the game didn’t necessarily do anything new within its genre. The combat felt like a step up from other games like it, and the story was pretty intriguing, even if it did feel onesided.
After a very long wait for promised expansions, Obsidian Entertainment has finally given us access to new areas and a brand new storyline with the release of Peril on Gorgon DLC.
Peril on Gorgon opens up with the player receiving a package onboard the ship The Unreliable. Inside this package is a severed arm with a tape recording from a mysterious man who seemingly knows who the original Captain Hawthorne. The recording tells the player character to go to the Gorgon Asteroid, a place where Spacer’s Choice had originally set up a science outpost.
While on Gorgon the player is tasked to discover the secrets within Gorgon. Why did Spacer’s Choice leave? What’s up with all this Adrena-Time? Where the hell did all these Mauraders come from?
Peril on Gorgon continues The Outer Worlds’ zany sort of comedy but also mixes it up with what feels like a serial drama. There’s a lot of mystery within the main storyline that drove me to see what the outcome would be. I met a lot of interesting characters on and off Gorgon while investigating this mystery, but none of them ever felt like they were going to stick around long. I don’t think they’re people I will be interacting with in the next DLC, which makes sense but also doesn’t make me feel like I should have much of an attachment to them.
Exploring Gorgon is pretty nice. It’s still just a giant rock, but the colors of blues, purples, and greens make it feel like a different place than the other planets The Unreliable has previously explored. Interiors are all the same though, which is kind of disappointing. It does make sense with the theme of The Outer Worlds and the asteroid being a corporate base, but still. When seeing the same sort of stuff for 30+ hours in the main game, and another 6 hours for the DLC, it just doesn’t quite feel like it’s enough.
The weapons all get some sort of upgrade. I came across a lot of weapons that had Ultra in the name, and they all seemed to be much stronger while taking on the bad guys on Gorgon. Encounter robots and marauders are a given on Gorgon, but the occasional Primal or Canid do make an appearance while exploring. PoG doesn’t seem to add any new enemy types, unfortunately.
Other nice improvements to the game are new armor types, named weapons, new perks, and the level cap even goes up to 33 from its previous 30. I’m always a fan of a higher level cap, but I’m an even bigger fan of just not having a level cap at all. I hope Obsidian considers this with their next DLC release.
My biggest gripe with the expansion is the fact that Obsidian did not allow players to continue after beating the main story to go do the DLC. Having to hope that a save file exists before the ending of the original game, or being forced to start over entirely is rough. At this point, all RPG games should allow players to continue after the credits. Even Fallout 3 fixed this with the Broken Steel expansion.
Peril on Gorgon is a solid addition to the whole Outer Worlds’ experience, but it doesn’t feel that substantial. The game still plays as solid as it did when it first released and it’s still a joy exploring the new areas, but it seemed like it ended so quickly. Here’s hoping players will get a lot more time with The Outer Worlds next expansion, whenever that may be.
Check out my final thoughts on The Outer Worlds here!
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The Tired Obsidian 
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