YMMV / The Outer Worlds

• Adorkable: Parvati Holcomb, the first companion the Unplanned Variable can recruit, who's a socially awkward Wrench Wench with a heart of gold. She'll always encourage you to help people, secretly work to improve her crewmates' equipment, and turns into a Nervous Wreck when confronted with anything to do with her crush, engineer and Groundbreaker captain Junlei.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Is the ending were Adelaide is put in charge of Edgewater really the Golden Ending for the region? While it does lead the town to relative prosperity it also mentions that Adelaide kicks out several people she deems "loyalists" of Reed, likely dooming them to the same fate as Tobson in the Death World outside the settlement. Meanwhile the ending where Reed remains in charge and the Deserters are convinced to return also sees the town improve at the cost of only one life: Adelaide who explicitly refuses to return. The choice between Adelaide and Reed could be interpreted as one between relative prosperity or the smallest loss of human life.
• Breather Level: Given the lenient disguise-system, the dialogue-system, and the option to respec; you can easily navigate a number of areas without firing a shot:
  • The Covert Lab on Roseway. You can talk down both the raiders and security while the raptidons can be put to sleep by putting sedative-gas in the ventilation-system. Ignoring that, killing the raptidons doesn't really punish you either, and with them being very susceptible to Plasma, you can clear it pretty easily if you want to.
  • Combat is optional on both of the satellites if you don't trip up security.
  • The endgame areas Hope and Tartarus. You can acquire biometric-data needed to shroud at the start of both areas, and the Final Boss can be talked down.
• Broken Base: Hardcore Obsidian fans are generally split into several camps: "exactly the Bethesda-owning game Obsidian fans wanted that blows Fallout 4 out of the water", especially among Obsidian fans still seething about Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, "a solid rethread of New Vegas", or "a poor rethread of New Vegas", with the repetition and linearity a point of debate within all camps; does the game overstay its welcome, or was it always meant to be a smaller bite-sized morsel compared to Obsidian's Fallout entry? The re-release of the game not being free and being buggy on release further widened the divide.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • The game establishes its tone when you accidentally kill your contact by landing your escape pod on him and immediately respond by stealing the poor dude's ship—and being talked into doing so by the ship. It only gets crazier from there.
  • One quest has you swiping a card from a security guard. One way to accomplish this is by boozing him up so he could pass out. He ends up dying of alcohol poisoning before you rob him.
  • Parvati's Companion Quest has you going across the Halcyon System on various fetch quests... all of which culminate in a date with Junlei. After you make the arrangements, you can still move freely around the Unreliable, which means you can walk right into Parvati's and Junlei's date... which also means that if you're feeling like an asshole, there's nothing stopping you from shooting Junlei in the face. Naturally, Parvati will be furious with you and outright leave right then and there. What would normally be a pretty fucked up thing to do to your own crew member is made hilarious by the fact that you gain favor with The Board and, assuming you've also done favors for them too, have your reputation with the Groundbreaker at "Confused".
• Demonic Spiders:
  • Mantiqueens will be every player's worst nightmare once they land on Monarch, they are tanky and deal extremely high damage over time, they also spawn Mantiswarm that not only serve as a deadly distraction but can also explode on impact if they touch you. They are weak to Corrosive damage, but Corrosive weapons are very hard to find early on, and the only ones that you can find are melee weapons, which is suicide. SAM can marginally fight them, but until you find more Corrosive weapons, they are a nightmare to face. Happy hunting!
  • Primals. They're a right pain in the ass to deal with due to them hurling projectiles (that inflict N-Ray damage, by the way) at you and constantly digging to avoid your gunfire and ambush you from behind. Oh, and the larger varieties such as the Primal Behemoths are extremely tanky, move very quickly, and will floor you in seconds if you're not careful. Good luck.
  • Scrap Mechanicals. Hoo boy, these buckets of bolts will wear on you very quickly with their tendency to jump skywards, often behind or close to you, do exorbitant amounts of damage over time, and are only weak to Shock ammunition, which when facing them in the early game, are a pain in the ass to come by. The fact that they're usually accompanied by Marauders only exacerbates their annoyance. Thankfully, they can be dealt with very easily if you have a weapon with Shock rounds (such as the Shock Cannon or a modded Plasma Rifle/Carbine).
• Disappointing Last Level: Byzantium is far less fleshed-out than previous areas. Half of the buildings are boarded up and half the side-missions are simple fetch-quests that prompt backtracking to previous areas. Browsing the game-files reveals a number of quests in Byzantium that didn't make the final-cut which accounts for how sparse the city is compared to earlier areas. It's also possible to have pissed off the Board so thoroughly by that point that the guards will attack you on sight, making it nigh-impossible to traverse the city without resorting to mass murder.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Sanjar Nandi. Partially because he's the Only Sane Man of the corporations, partially for his awkward charm, and partially for his Mundane Made Awesome Badass Bureaucrat achievements.
  • Although he is just a bit character, Martin Callahan is loved by much of the fandom, with many on the subreddit saying they want him to be a companion in DLC. He is loved for being a darkly hilarious and sympathetic character who fits the game's dark, over the top satirical sense of humor perfectly. Also helps that he is quite the looker underneath that helmet of his, too. See for yourself.
  • Ruth Bellamy, better known as Halcyon Helen, the main focus of the Murder on Eridanos DLC. A Hard Boiled Detective with a strong presence, a really cool gun (that you can have for yourself, by the way), and is always Crazy-Prepared? Just about ticks all of the checkmarks. The only downside is that she can't be recruited as a companion (much to many a player's disappointment, not unlike Martin Callahan above) given that she doesn't know what to do after the end of the DLC.
• Fan Nickname: Some fans have already taken to calling the unnamed protagonist "The Passenger" after the Iggy Pop song that plays in the trailer (and in a nod to previous Fallout protagonists). The character's official moniker is "The Unplanned Variable".
• Fanon Welding:
  • Due to being set in a space colony with art deco aesthetic and corporate theme as well as being made by the same developer, it's taken as headcanon by much of the fanbase long before release that the game is an unofficial sequel to Mr. House's ending in Fallout: New Vegas.
  • Also, due to both being science-fiction games deconstructing how capitalism would handle the colonization of space, many fans assume that Hardspace: Shipbreaker happen in the same Universe.
• Game-Breaker:
  • The Chimaera armor, rewarded to the player at the end of a sidequest on Byzantium, is far and away the best overall armor to an absurd degree. Classified as light armor, it doesn't weigh down or affect stealth like heavy armor, it provides an armor rating of 53, only surpassed by two other armors in the game. Furthermore, a level 21 armor, meaning that the player will more than likely be able to tinker it and raise that rating even further by the time they get their hands on it. Its stat bonuses are no slouch either, boosting +10 to all dialogue skills, making dialogue checks a joke with the right perks. And to top it all off, it looks snazzy too.
  • The humble Light Machine Gun. It uses Light ammo (which is extremely easy to come by in the early game), chews through literally anything that gets in your way like wet tissue paper (try applying the Mag-2-Power or Mag-2-Melt mods and watch as you annihilate anything that gets in your path), especially Mantiqueens, can be Tinkered with so that it levels with you, and can still be used very effectively in short bursts just as much as simply spraying and praying. Just watch your fire though, as it'll also chew through your ammo pool very quickly. Being made by Spacer's Choice, its durability also leaves quite a bit to be desired unless you're using the Old Reliable variant, which has some of the highest durability in the entire game and needs little to no maintenance to keep in prime condition.
  • The Plasma Carbine. While it's a mid-game weapon, it's extremely versatile with a much faster rate of fire than the much larger Plasma Rifle (and still has the same charge-up mechanic), is effective at most ranges (especially mid-to-long range), can be converted to Shock, Corrosive, or N-Ray damage without compromising its effectiveness, and is extremely viable through to the end of the game. It's also reasonably cheap to come by, too - whether you find it out in the open or in T&L vending machines.
  • Phin's Phorce is easily one of the best weapons in the entire game. It's a modified burst-fire Light Assault Rifle (making it more efficient with ammo as well as being inherently more precise) that fires N-Ray bullets (which is extremely devastating on most targets except for Mechanicals) and uses Energy Ammo instead of the Heavy Ammo that normal Light Assault Rifles use, is fairly light and doesn't take up too much weight in your inventory, and has some of the highest DPS in the entire game. The only downside is that you can't get it until you're nearing the endgame when Phineas gets kidnapped by The Board, rendering it an 11th-Hour Superpower.
  • The Prismatic Hammer is the vanilla game's exception as far as the Science Weapons are concerned. It's a two-handed hammer that is also a Science Weapon, meaning it benefits from both Confidence and Weird and Wild Science (Meaning +50% damage, and guaranteed crit after each kill). Its special ability is Knockdown, as it sends enemies flying and staggers them, leaving them unable to fight back. Also it changes what elemental damage it does after every swing in a fixed cycle, unlocking more elements as the player's Science goes up, meaning it never remains ineffective if a target is resistant to a specific damage. Also, its Sweep attack deals all 5 damage types at once. If that wasn't all, it also has a ranged attack when the player does a power attack. Being a Science weapon, with high enough science there's a cap on how much the price to upgrade can rise to for 200 bits, meaning you can keep it through the entire game and upgrade it for cheap. Lastly, it can be found immediately and easily upon reaching the Groundbreaker.
  • While it's an 11th-Hour Superpower like the above-mentioned Phin's Force, The Needler in Murder on Eridanos is a very strong weapon that not only has unlimited ammo, but its damage also scales with your Science skill (like the above-mentioned Prismatic Hammer and the other Science weapons), has the unique trait of having multiple ammo types that slow enemies down, pierce through their armor, and does corrosive damage over time. Its only real downside is its rather slow rate of fire, but seeing as you have unlimited ammo, it's pretty much worth the wild goose chase that Ludovico sends you on throughout the entire DLC. Best of all is that you don't have to kill Halcyon Helen to get it for yourself, simply asking her for it with a relatively low speech check (Persuade 45) is enough for her to hand it over.
  • Need something that is essentially the equivalent of a Minigun that can tear through enemies like wet tissue paper? Say hello to the Spectrum Gatling, also from Murder on Eridanos. For all intents and purposes, it is essentially a composite of a standard Light Machine Gun and, again, the Prismatic Hammer, where it fires all five damage types off at once with the rate of fire that its name would imply. What makes this one stand out in particular is that it's a relatively straightforward fetch quest that you need to do in order to find it (to be exact, you have to find all 8 flavors of Spectrum Vodka). Complete it, then go to the RR & DD labs in the southwestern portion of the map, and take it for yourself.
  • In terms of companions, Nyoka is by far the best of the bunch. What makes her stand out amongst the other recruitable crewmates is a fairly beefy health pool, extra damage to creatures whenever she's in your party (e.g., Mantiqueens, Canids, etc.), an easy fetch quest to recruit her and her own Companion Quest being relatively easy to complete (as well as unlocking a perk that boosts her Critical damage), you can't go wrong in taking Nyoka with you when you're out and about in the Halcyon System. It's well worth traversing Monarch at an early level to get her as soon as possible.
• Genius Bonus:
  • The colonists aren't stupid, but rather experiencing learned helplessness, at least outside of Byzantium. Byzantium's citizens, being rich, don't experience this, which can be seen in how they're more proactive about their fewer problems. This is enhanced by the fact that the Board is literally untouchable to just about everyone who would defy them due to being off-world and inaccessible to all but those who get kickbacks (and thus wouldn't benefit from rebellion).
    • Also, the corporations are effectively totalitarian in nature and to an extent rarely if ever seen in even the most repressive totalitaran regimes we know. Colonists, being stranded in what is effectively a hostile remote colony, they have little means to just escape and start over somewhere else, not to mention the fear of corporate retribution. Most colonies also seem to small to mount any meaningful rebellion even if they wanted to.
  • Dimethyl sulfoxide is a real substance, and one that has a wide variety of applications related to cryonic preservation of living tissue.
  • "Mardet" sounds like it's just a made-up, vaguely sci-fi name for Groundbreaker's security force, but it's actually the abbreviation for Marine Detachment in the United States Navy (more properly written as MarDet). These detachments were groups of Marines formerly stationed on major ships of the US Navy to provide security, conduct limited ground operations, and perform ceremonial functions. Presumably Groundbreaker had a similar arrangement, and the Marines just got used to calling themselves Mardets over time.
• Goddamned Bats:
  • Sentries and Combat Drones in the early game will be a nightmare to deal with due to the lack of Shock weapons early on. But by the endgame, while still formidable, are merely this due to their attacks chewing right through your armor with their lasers and Shock attacks of their own. In the event that you didn't talk Akande or Phineas down in Tartarus, be prepared to face upwards of five to six of these little rustbuckets at once alongside R.A.M.
  • Mantiswarms. These little buggers make the already infuriating Mantiqueens an even bigger pain in the ass to deal with due to them being really hard to hit, blowing up on you if they get too close, also inflicting blindness, and the fact that they tend to spawn in groups of two or three at a time.
  • Raptidon Spitters. On their own, they're hardly a hassle, but in Monarch in particular, they're very difficult to see coming because they blend with the scenery and because they can snipe you from a mile away with their acid spit that inflicts Corrosive damage.
• Goddamned Boss: If you failed to talk down Phineas or Akande, then you'll have to deal with R.A.M., which serves as the de facto Final Boss of the game. On its own, R.A.M. is little more than a Marathon Boss whose attacks can be easily avoided and will periodically charge at you (that being said, it can also make short work of your companions if you're not careful). Should that attack miss, it'll be a sitting duck for you to shoot at. However, as mentioned above in Goddamned Bats, you'll be dealing with upwards of four to five Combat Drones at once, which can make the fight drag on for quite a bit. Of course this can be mitigated with a high Hack skill and/or a weapon that fires Shock rounds (such as the Shock Cannon), but if you didn't invest points in that or have the aforementioned weapon, well... have fun.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • After all the jokes and memes comparing Phineas to Rick Sanchez, it turned out that Rick was indeed part of the inspiration for his character.
  • Much of the discussion around this game focusing on the idea that Obsidian was taking on Bethesda's Fallout is this now that both companies are under the same ownership.
  • One of the in-game jokes regarding the Edgewater saltuna canning operation is that their product does not contain any actual fish (saltuna being native to Monarch rather than Terra 2). In January 2021, fast food chain Subway was sued, with the plaintiffs accusing them of not using actual tuna in their tuna sandwiches.
• It's Easy, So It Sucks!: One common complaint brought up by multiple reviewers and players is the lack of challenge on Normal difficulty, especially in later areas. By the time one reaches the last planet on whatever route they've taken they're probably within spitting distance of the level cap, and have more than likely obtained their best nearly-level 30 weapons and armor, with Adrenos and health-boosting items falling out of their pockets, meaning that most fights tend to end in mere seconds. On the other hand, some have said that Hard difficulty, and especially Supernova difficulty, go too far in the opposite end of the spectrum, making getting through fights with normal marauders require Save Scumming to get through.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: One of the largest complaints about the game so far is its relatively modest 20-30 hour runtime if you complete all the quests. Many fans also complete the game at a shorter length due to the fact the quests are sometimes hard to find. There is replay value, but compared to other games similar to it, the replay value is less present.
• Magnificent Bastard: Ruth Bellamy, one half of the twins comprising the authentic identity behind "Halcyon Helen", the preeminent actress in the Halcyon colony. Embarking on a relentless quest for retribution upon uncovering Administrator Ludovico's sinister plot to spread slug-like parasites through the new Brown Spectrum, Ruth goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge after Ludovico has her twin sister, Belinda, killed due to the two sharing the identity of Helen, prompting Ruth to astutely exploit this mishap to dismantle key elements of the conspiracy. With strategic prowess, she stays ahead of the Unplanned Variable, revealing the truth and engaging in a formidable battle against Ludovico with the aid of her SLUG allies, nearly halting Brown Spectrum's perilous spread. In the route where she allies with the Unplanned Variable, she imparts her Needler , guiding them to thwart Ludovico's scheme by spreading an anti-parasitic remedy, ensuring her sister's murderer meets a deserved fate in both story divergences.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The trailer boldly displays Advertising by Association as being headed by the original creators of Fallout and the developers of New Vegas. Following the reception of Fallout 76, this resulted in many remarks that Obsidian is essentially kicking Bethesda while they're down, as if to say "From the makers of the good Fallout games!"
  • The player is unfrozen by Phineas who resembles either Rick Sanchez or the Twelfth Doctor, which has not gone unnoticed.
  • The Stupendium's fan song The Fine Print, has become a meme long after the game's release, specifically the chorus "we work, to earn the right to work". Usually, mocking terrible labor conditions such as the creation of laptops and computers in China, and the subsequent use of the internet by people acting like utter buffoons, as well as actions involving heavy work that are only rewarded by further work.
• Moe: Parvati: unlike pretty much every character you ever meet, she lacks the cynical and sarcastic edge that defines the inhabitants of Halcyon which has endeared her to a lot of players who might have grown tired of this World of Snark.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • "Early Retirement" is one of the darkest and most horrifying portions of the game. Basically, to reduce the surplus population of the Halcyon System, they have the elderly and poor win a "lottery" that takes them to a special district where they're murdered by robots. The Board becomes a Nazi By Any Other Name organization that is carrying out a Kill the Poor agenda. We don't know that all of them were involved in it but those that were are beyond redemption. It doesn't even have the Shoot the Dog justification of the Lifetime Employment Plan as it's needlessly sadistic and cruel as well as unlikely to do anything to actually help the problem. Furthermore in the case of Anton Crane (whom Akande admits to disliking), being put up for it if he's allowed to keep his research, "Early Retirement" is also used to get rid of whoever displease or annoys the Board's leadership.
  • If you've sided with the Board but set up Adelaide as Edgewater's mayor, Akande will order the entire town's brutal execution by mechanicals. Edgewater is now peaceful, self-sufficient (thus no drain on the colony's resources), and a good example of how to combat the starvation problem. Akande's concern is that the town will encourage more dissidents by modelling an alternative to life under the rule of the Board. The player can then cross the line themselves by agreeing to switch on the mechanicals. Afterwards, you can find the bodies of every named Edgewater NPC you previously helped, now lying sprawled in the dirt.
• Most Wonderful Sound: This brief sample of the title theme that plays whenever you level up makes doing so really satisfying.
• My Real Daddy: Advertised as a Creator-Driven Successor to Fallout: New Vegas, by original Fallout devs Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky. The fact that this comes on the heels of the less-than-stellar reception of Fallout 76 is most likely a coincidence, as the game does resemble New Vegas in many ways, right down to the humor, the dialogue system, the shooting mechanics, the traits/flaws system, and a plot about a conflict between factions. Still, some zealous fans and detractors of Bethesda have interpreted it as Obsidian taking shots at Bethesda. Obsidian, for their part, generally doesn't want people to take that particular stance, though the camp is split on their end over it as well.
• Polished Port: The PS5 and Xbox Series X got a patch with the second DLC received a 60FPS frame rate cap raise that allows it to be played in the higher frame rate than the initial 30.
• Porting Disaster:
  • The Nintendo Switch port is a classic case of a port that, while impressive in the fact that they were able to make it work at all, simply ends up not being worth it. The graphics are degraded to the point where they at times look like a Xbox 360 launch title (and not even a particularly impressive one at that), and the framerate drops so far as to be unplayable, especially during combat. To make matters worse, it ended up releasing fairly closely to the Switch port of Burnout Paradise, wildly considered one of the system's best ports. If not for the legendarily bad Switch port of ARK: Survival Evolved and the rampant graphical glitches of the Switch port of Sonic Colors (the latter of which Nintendo are allowing refunds for), it would probably rank as the worst port on the platform; something all the more frustrating when you consider that supposedly one of the main reasons why the worlds are broken up into sub-areas separated by loading screens (something that open-world games from the PS4/Xbox One generation have mostly moved away from in favor of fully seamless worlds) was to facilitate the development of the Switch port. Only a few days after its released, the team announced it would be heavily patched up.
  • The Spacer's Choice Edition 4K Updated Re-release launched on PC with massive performance issues including a lot of stuttering.
• Rooting for the Empire:
  • You're completely free to work for The Board if you're so inclined.
  • It's difficult to take the problems of the colonists that seriously when they are Too Dumb to Live to the point that saving them seems like it's only delaying the inevitable.
• Scrappy Mechanic: The reputation system works fine most of the time, but if you piss off the board and thus the guards in Byzantium, anything that takes place there becomes a nightmare. Making matters worse is that during fights some NPCs not only join in, but become permanently hostile to you - potentially even quest characters. And if you drag your crew alongside you (and they're set to fight on their own), they'll wipe out anything remotely hostile, including said civilians.
• Serial Numbers Filed Off: The game does a lot to mimic the interface and gameplay of the Bethesda Gamebryo Engine Fallout games (which makes sense given it's a spiritual successor to Fallout: New Vegas), right down to having a V.A.T.S.-like system in the form of Tactical Time Dilation, with just enough differences to be legally distinct. One of the more notable differences is that the game generally lacks the simulation aspect that the Gamebryo Engine provides, resulting in characters not having a daily schedule and having far fewer non-scripted interactions with the game world (i.e. NPCs and monsters won't fight each other unless during a scripted sequence).
• So Okay, It's Average: One of the more common criticisms of the game is that it is not quite as good as Fallout: New Vegas is, with a variety of mechanics present in New Vegas being worse in Outer Worlds such as the perk system, but still being a decent game by its own.
• Spiritual Adaptation:
  • The game is effectively Brazil IN SPACE.
  • The Space Western stylings and humor have caused some to consider it an awesome Firefly game as well. There's also the fact you're a tramp freighter captain performing odd criminal jobs and resisting against the local corporate hegemony. Add in a gun-happy religious leader, a heartwarming but romantically incompetent mechanic woman and a morally ambiguous doctor and the actual design of the Unreliable and it's pretty easy to see the relation. Which would also make it a decent successor to the Wing Commander: Privateer series.
  • Similiar comparisons has been made to Idiocracy due to Halcyon's corporate-domination and the majority of settlers being Too Dumb to Live, though mostly due to corporate loyalty and shortage of skilled laborers (scientists, engineers, and others) rather than congenital IQ Drop.
  • Some of the wackier bits have a Futurama feel.
  • A humorous space adventure filled with idiots and Fridge Horror plus the main character being a working-class Human Popsicle is reminiscent of Red Dwarf.
• Spiritual Successor:
  • To Fallout, specifically the style of the first two games and Fallout: New Vegas, having been led by Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky, the original creators of the Fallout series, and developed by Obsidian, founded by many of the devs from the same studio, Interplay. The game essentially embraces concepts that Bethesda's Fallout moved away from, such as more character-driven writing, story-driven world-building (as opposed to Bethesda's preference toward keeping the setting as open as possible), and an emphasis on quests with branching paths.
  • To Arcanum, also created by Cain and Boyarsky. While Arcanum is a Victorian Steampunk Standard Fantasy Setting, The Outer Worlds are the Gilded Age IN SPACE! as a Raygun Gothic Planetary Romance, revisiting many of the same concerns regarding growing industrialization.
• That One Level:
  • Monarch. There's a very good reason why the Cascadia Landing Pad (which, by the way, is the only landing pad available unless you get the Navkey to Stellar Bay from Gladys at the Groundbreaker, which costs a whopping 10,000 Bits to purchase) is labeled as dangerous. This place has some of the toughest enemy encounters in the game, particularly the dreaded Mantiqueens and plenty of Raptidons that will tear you to shreds. You'd either have to be Crazy-Prepared or just plain crazy to contend with this place as early as Level 8.
  • The titular asteroid in Peril on Gorgon is also, appropriately given the minimum level requirement of 25, one of the toughest areas in the game. While the enemy variety isn't anything you haven't already seen, you've got plenty of Demonic Spiders to contend with. If you thought the Mantiqueens on Monarch were bad enough, boy do the Ice Queens of Gorgon have plenty to say to you. Even your basic Marauders have taken several levels in badass as a Level 28 mook can give even an Unplanned Variable at the level cap a run for their money.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: While the game is already quite the looker, the locations of Gorgon and Eridanos, in particular, are just drop-dead gorgeous, with loads of careful attention to detail spread all throughout the locations on top of having some beautiful skyboxes and their own distinct atmospheres (no pun intended in Eridanos' case) that truly make them feel special.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Chairman Rockwell is the primary "villain" of the game but it's entirely possible to have only one or two scenes with him. He lacks any real presence as a person despise the fact he should be something the game gives you time to learn about.
  • SAM is the only Companion that doesn't have his own quest. You activate him and he's done. While its understandable he can't really have one since he is just a cleaner robot, the game never gives him anything special to do and he acts more just like a semi-comical character without the chance to become a full fledged character. One of the stated draws of the Peril on Gorgon DLC, which integrates with the main campaign rather than cordons itself off, is unwasting SAM.
  • Though ADA isn't a Companion, as your ship, she's still a vital member of the crew, and conversations between her and the player can make much of her mysterious origins and possible sapience, something unique to her AI alone in the game. Unfortunately there's no quest where you can find out more about her past or fully explore the ramifications of a truly self-aware AI.
  • Ruth Bellamy aka Halcyon Helen. She gets a lot of focus in Murder on Eridanos which showcases her experience, talent, and cunning that allowed her to stay one step ahead of everybody right up until the final act of the storyline. More than a few players wished that there could have been a choice to recruit her as a companion given she'd fit perfectly with your crew, especially given the fact she herself has stated that she doesn't know what to do with herself now that her twin is dead and considers the role of Halcyon Helen a shared role between the two.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot
  • Mentions are made that various corporations of the Board are constantly scheming and sabotaging each other, which would have allowed for more morally complex stories and sidequests in the game. However, this is only given lip service or just flavor text for the setting due to the main conflict being about people tired of living under the Board vs. The Board.
  • There is no overarching plot in the Groundbreaker, just a few sidemissions and stores and overall plays a small role in the story even though they are supposed to be the biggest non-Board faction in Halcyon.

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