VideoGame All Bit and no Bite
After revisiting the game for a third time, it behooves me to revisit this review as well. Without further ado, here's take two:
The Outer Worlds is a charming, humorous game set in a hypercapitalist space colony most obviously inspired by a western Gilded Age society. This is reflected in the art nouveau aesthetic, the company town quest hubs, and the prosperity gospel ethos that many characters hold. It makes for a unique, engaging setting with plenty of room for later development.
The game styles itself as a satire, lambasting capitalist excess. Citizens are forced to rent their gravesites, suicide is treated as an inexcusable destruction of company property, and corporate overlords control every facet of your life and then some. Despite this, the game's creative director, Leonard Boyarsky, has affirmed that the game was not intended to be "politically charged," that it's supposed to be "fun" and "humorous."
Rather, Boyarsky would prefer it simply explore power and how it is used against the powerless. Aside from the fact that even other Obsidian games like Fallout: New Vegas demonstrate that the division between humor and politics is a false dichotomy, the effort itself is inherently self-defeating.
In its attempt to portray both sides as evenly as possible, TOW's central narrative champions the prevailing political status quo. In its various conflicts between the corporations and the deserters/outlaws/anarchists, there is always an ideal "third option," a compromise.
Inevitably, this compromise involves letting both parties have their way without having to challenge the prevailing capitalist system that caused their problems in the first place.
On Edgewater, the ideal outcome involves replacing town boss Reed Tobson with renegade herbologist Adelaide. Edgewater continues to function as it had, with the distant promise that someday the soul-crushing cannery will be replaced with a sustainable garden.
On Monarch, the ideal outcome involves assassinating the anarchist's idealistic leader and replacing the corporate leader with the anarchist second in command. MSI remains a reformist corporate power, but now it has the support of former anarchists.
Even the central conflict isn't about capitalism as a system. Phineas opposed the board predominately because they intended to freeze all the laborers in the colony. Though this is hardly an unreasonable concern, it absolves the plot of having to make any earnest commentary about the sustainability of a capitalist system writ large. The Board isn't even abolished if Phineas wins. Rather, the leadership changes.
At every opportunity, the game portrays its conflict as a problem between individuals, not systems. In doing so, it regurgitates the same individualist mantra used to deflect criticism of contemporary capitalist societies. In its effort to be apolitical, it reflects the shallow, subconscious politics of its creators.
VideoGame It's not the Best Choice, it's Spacer's Choice.
Not Obsidian's best work, but a solid role-playing game that is hopefully the beginning of a larger story. Played on Steam.
STRENGTHS
- Wide level of role-playing. Stealth and diplomacy are as viable as combat. A good degree of non-linearity and sequence-breaking is permitted i.e, you can find a mcguffin before the quest-giver even asks for it.
- Works out of the box and requires no mods to get running. Never coughed and died on me like New Vegas despite loving that game.
- Combat can be a cluster-fudge but it strikes the right balance between player skill and RPG elements.
- Has numerous changes to the WRPG formula I hope become commonplace. Inventory-management is easy, there are no inane hacking or lock-picking mini-games, you can respec your build for a small price, and companions never break your stealth.
TRAITS
~ You might have to tweak the ini, to avoid that signature Unreal Engine pop-in.
~ The game has 20 hours of content, about half the size of New Vegas. Rest assured it doesn't outstay its welcome nor does it end in an inconclusive cliff-hanger. It keeps itself modest and doesn't end with half the last act missing (KOTOR II), leading to a sequel that will never come (Tyranny), or have a major faction with meagre side-content (New Vegas' Legion)
~ The difficulty can be a bit too easy overall. I recommend Hard for a first-time player since you can even the odds of battle with two allies wearing top-of-the-line gear.
WEAKNESSES
- The last zone Byzantium is the one place that suffers from cut-content. Outside of some story-beats there are only a handful of rather lame fetch-quests.
- Some good looking vistas feel underutilized. Roseway is the prettiest zone but you can wrap up your business there in an hour with little incentive to smell the flowers.
- Some quests are a little predictable if you've played other role-playing games. There's the "Broken Pedestal" trope, the "Secret Clan of Cannibals", and the "Sinister Retirement Euphemism".
CONCLUSION
I would recommend The Outer Worlds when in the 30-40 euro price range. It's a solid role-playing game that hones a lot of Obsidian's conventions and aims to create a new setting out of whole cloth. As someone who grew disgusted with the direction of Fallout after New Vegas I welcome anything else that lets me skip a fight with a [60 Lie] skill-check. It is above all a modest game that doesn't hit the same highs of previous Obsidian games, but never sinks to the same lows like being bugged up the arse (Alpha Protocol) or having the 3.5 edition of D&D (Neverwinter Nights 2)
8/10.
VideoGame WATCH - THIS - SPAAAACE!!!
The Outer Worlds is a game I feel I could write forever about, and so I have to remind myself of the character count. So to summarise as best as possible: yes it's Falloutesque, yes that's mostly a good thing, yes it's a step down from Fallout: New Vegas, despite looking about 10 times prettier, yes I recommend you buy it for being a fun, colourful and novel game.
The big surprise about The Outer Worlds is when you discover you've just finished it. "Oh, is that it?" I asked myself, as a final cinematic started playing and the central conflict was being wrapped up in voice over. The game isn't short, but it definitely felt like I was missing a good few hours of main quest line, in which the tension should be ramping up, and your relationship with the villains further develop.
Adding to the confusion is that despite seemingly offering you half a dozen different planets to unlock, you actually only get to visit two planets by the end of the game. These are large, vibrant, and detailed worlds you can spend hours exploring, but you still feel somehow robbed of content. I'm assuming the other planets are future DLC locations, but I'd have liked my expectations to be a bit better managed from the outset. Perhaps then it might not have felt so abrupt when I reached the finale and stormed the Bastille.
Otherwise, the game mostly benefits a lot from the smaller, more concentrated story-line. Instead of Skyrim or Fallout's countless generic dungeons, Outer Worlds goes for cosy and detailed locales, without all the repetitive fluff. Every quest is unique, every mission is personalised, and most can be solved in a variety of ways. I'm pleased with all of that. It's ironic that in a game world where people live out of cookie cutter prefab houses and eat nothing but the same tinned fish, the game still feels more varied than RP Gs that are ten times bigger.
One area that's a bit of a step down to Obsidian's Fallout New Vegas is the companions. Some, particularly Parvati (endearingly awkward) and Ellen (an asshole), are fun to have around. But Felix (Zach Braff lookalike), Max (bad priest), and Nyoka (bad hair), feel a tad uninspired. I'm surprised that the space sci-fi setting didn't grant us weirder and more wonderful creations, rather than giving us all the most boring human companions from Mass Effect.
With tailored expectations, The Outer Worlds is a much better game. I've already started my second playthrough, with a plan to bow down to each and every on of my evil Corporate overlords. The companions will be staying stuck on my spaceship.
VideoGame Something that's been missing.
The game isn't groundbreaking (pun intended), and I don't revere it myself. Hell, the reason I think most people like it is because we've been having a drought of these types of games.
I like thinking in my games. Not thinking like "should I use my potion now or save it for later?" or "how do I position myself for optimal cover?"
Things more along the lines of "can I bypass this thing that other builds can't?" or "how could I avoid working for this person without pissing them off?" or "Wait, these jerks have a point?"
Questions like these are common in isometric RPGs. In addition, the world makes sense. If all of those things are commonplace in isometric/top-down/turn-based/rtwp RPGs, why should you want Outer Worlds when the writing is, admittedly, just alright?
Most topdown RPGs feel a tad impersonal. Sure you have the splash art and topnotch voice acting, but I don't find it as effective as watching something make faces at you and gesticulate (in spite of the uncanniness). It's less looming over action figures and more having a conversation.
And combat is much more visceral in FPS games, which scratches an itch.
The problem is that those types are much more suited towards linearity. The story could be good and there is just enough branching, but the spirit of it is different. It doesn't feel like it's yours.
At its very worst, you get RPGs like Fallout 4. Meaningless choices that funnel into one resolution, homogeneous playthroughs only differentiated by your preferred weapon, and a world that falls apart upon any scrutiny. At least combat is good, right?
This brings me to the Outer Worlds. The setting is over the top and exaggerated, but the world is derived from it instead of using it as a background for your chicanery. Most every quest is related to the obnoxiousness of the system and people being forced to live in it or circumvent it.
Quests acknowledge what your character is and isn't capable of doing and provides avenues regardless, which is not something that can be said of most modern shooters. From a set of options, you can choose what you think is right for you. I like customizing my character, assigning a personality and just branding them as mine.
At the same time, the world is gorgeous, conversations feel personal and cinematic. You feel like you're a part of the world instead of just looming over it.
It combines the stellar world building, encouragement of alternative play styles, customizable characters, and self-reflection of your topdown RPGs but also the cinematography, combat, and immersion of action RPGs. It's a blend I've been aching for since OG Bioware and New Vegas. Even if I don't think it's the most amazing thing ever, I recommend it even just to incentivize making more games like this.
VideoGame Half of a half-baked game.
While I was tempted to not write this review, for the others were quite clear on the state of the game, the DLC and some tweaks at the end made me reconsider.
Obsidian, before being bought by Microsoft, was sadly known for either half-baked games (Alpha Protocol), or half-games (like Tyranny). But here, it feels like they had neither time nor money resulting in both. The whole game is based on a single joke of how extreme capitalism will ruin everything (which I agree) with greed and bureaucracy. But sadly, this joke is the skeleton of a game that didn't have flesh, and thus is repeated over and over. I stopped reading the logs when I realized that everything boiled down to 'hilarious' negligence or stupid corporativism, while it would be more interesting to flesh... well everything else. You barely interact with the branches of the board, and the only truly independent faction, the Groundbreaker, is just a pitstop. The main quest feels at the same time watered down and not given the proper emphasis it needs.
The game and its system are highly unbalanced, its easy to break but it doesn't feel rewarding, and after the dlc patchups, mid-tier rewards are now locked behind max-level skill sets. You can tweak your weapons and armor, but it gets prohibitively expensive fast, and with the tier of equipment you find ramping fast, it's not worthy either.
Honestly, even with all that, I had fun and I don't regret playing it. It feels sad because you can clearly see the kernel of a really good story and a game within. Some quests made me laugh and others horrified me, but its all but a speck of a shadow of FNV. If you pay attention you can see all the gaping holes meant for a bigger, more developed story, gameplay and scenario.
The strongest aspect of the game is definitely its aesthetics. The equipment is really unique with an atompunk design and art deco can be seen mixed with old-west style small villages without clashing.
Your companions are nice, (which is a lot to say in a world of rpgs plagued by asshole teammates that need personal quests to become even remotely bearable) their banter is nice, but they aren't very deep either.
The DL Cs are good. Without the rush of a deadline, they offer contained stories with better grips for the player. I was genuinely invested in the story of Gorgon, and solving the murder of a high-profile actress was interesting, especially since they keep the tone tongue-in-cheek of a pulp magazine without jumping the shark or overdoing the joke.
I wish that this game had a proper rework from the ground-up instead of a sequel, I can only recommend it if you miss new vegas and don't mind the warts and all, but don't want to replay it again.