The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition - Obsidian's first-person sci-fi RPG set in a corporate space colony

[luj1]

I think part of it gets conflated around the hype of The Outer Worlds supposedly being Cain and Boyarsky's dream game -- it is rather inconceivable that their dreams would have resulted in such banality, but here we are.

Was it mere marketing buzz, or have the duo revealed themselves as a pair of tired, old men?

Their goal from day one was targeting both casual and hardcore RPG gamers with their "dream project". In other words, it was doomed before it started.

I remember a couple of years ago when Tim Cain spoke at that conference and was playing both sides of the table like a weasel. Assuring hardcore gamers that it will be an old school RPG in its core, while promising casuals it will be easy to get into. Obviously, they wanted a massive, consolidated target audience for their retirement project. Casual *and* hardcore gamers, PC *and* console, mainstream success *and* cult success.

Of course, that is a mathematical impossibility. Moving out of the niche hurts RPGs, because you're dropping passion for populism and it compromises everything.

 

[Nines_Anarch]

The Outer Worlds reminds me of Futurama...



Unfortunately not the good parts but all the bad.

 

[Strange Fellow]

What agenda? Not wanting to get in trouble with media because some retard codexer decides to make a character named Hitler and proceed to kill all the short haired women and minorities? This forum is literally living proof that a company with any awareness about potential publicity consequences has to do this kind of shit.

I find it extremely unlikely that they’d get in trouble because someone picked an offensive name in a single-player game. It’s just a bit of really bizarre nannying.

Surely this is the exact same situation as f****tgate.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Infinitron

My take so far is that it's a Fallout 1 in space rather than New Vegas in space. FNV needs to give you a bullet to the head right at the start, otherwise you're hardly going to be encouraged to walk around and enjoy the miles of same-ish landscape. Meanwhile, every TOW map I visited so far has a distinct style, with usually excellent level design that allows for multiple approaches. It's the strength of individuals levels that's supposed to draw you in. The same goes for quests. "Go and save Tandi from raiders" is hardly a compelling quest in and of itself, but it's the one everyone remembers due to how open-ended it was and Tandi being a memorable character and a fan favorite.

10 hours in I doubt the main quest will blow my socks off any time soon, it's the characters and the levels that will ultimately make or break TOW. So far Edgewater was okay, Groundbreaker was great, Roseway was okay, I've just landed on Sylia we'll see what's there.

 

[Prime Junta]

Surely this is the exact same situation as f****tgate.

Surely you're joking.

 

[Junmarko]

So much heated political discussion surrounding this game. Do you really think about how "wrong" it has handled political commentary, when you're shooting at a purple gorilla on the moon? Does the gorilla need to have satire written on its head?

Never remember people going this bonkers over Fallout.

 

[Prime Junta]

So much heated political discussion surrounding this game. Do you really think about how "wrong" it has handled political commentary, when you're shooting at a purple gorilla on the moon? Does the gorilla need to have satire written on its head?

But that's the problem: the gorilla HAS a giant purple neon sign blinking "satire" on its head.

 

[luj1]

My take so far is that it's a Fallout 1 in space

Codex ought to start banning for such disrespectful behaviour.

 

[normie]

so... Starfield, people? TODD TODD TODD

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

Their goal from day one was targeting casual gamers with their "dream project".

Fixed. For the first time, these AA studios didn't even pretend that they wanted to please hardcore RPG gamers. It's as if the Microsoft buyout and the Epic deal made the Codex a nuisance from the distant past. You became irrelevant even in matters of keeping the appearances. They don't need to pretend they care about stats and character system anymore. Grognards be dammed. Finally Obsidian can go after what they always wanted: to replace Bethesda!

 

[Longshanks]

I think part of it gets conflated around the hype of The Outer Worlds supposedly being Cain and Boyarsky's dream game -- it is rather inconceivable that their dreams would have resulted in such banality, but here we are.

Was it mere marketing buzz, or have the duo revealed themselves as a pair of tired, old men?

Even though I consider all of Troika's games great and think Fallout is the GOAT RPG, I never had big hopes for TOW. Right from the start it was pitched as Obsidian's attempt to crack the Mainstream with their own Bethesda-like. Maybe those who liked FO:NV had a right to feel some positivity, but having barely played that I felt little. The view that this is a "safe" game is no surprise. That's inevitable when aiming for the mainstream especially from a struggling studio with high overhead.

I really don't see how it could have been anything better than a good middle of the road game. It seems they may have achieved that, so hooray for them, but not my thing I don't think.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Surely this is the exact same situation as f****tgate.

Surely you're joking.

Yeah I don't know what he was thinking. Cuno producing endless stream of unbleeped cunts, motherfuckers and cocksuckers only to suddenly bleep the faggot is much more annoying than some world filter nobody would even notice.

 

[Prime Junta]

It's as if the Microsoft buyout and the Epic deal made the Codex a nuisance from the distant past.

This game was pretty much complete by the time they got the Epic deal and the Microsoft buyout. It's a symptom of the same disease but not caused by them.

 

[gongal]

Here's your magical respec button, theres your quest markers, fast travel, cringe dialogues... etc.
How can anyone consider this better than mediocre is mind boggling.

The other absurdity is that you can only get access to "survival elements" by playing the highest diffulty, that means you have to struggle with your braindead companions dying every single fight, can only sleep in your ship, etc. What a joke.

And why the hell is the entire skybox moving and twitching?

 

[MasPingon]

Infinitron

My take so far is that it's a Fallout 1 in space rather than New Vegas in space.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

It's as if the Microsoft buyout and the Epic deal made the Codex a nuisance from the distant past.

This game was pretty much complete by the time they got the Epic deal and the Microsoft buyout. It's a symptom of the same disease but not caused by them.

So you can try to imagine the types of games they will make in the near future.

 

[Prime Junta]

So you can try to imagine the types of games they will make in the near future.

Yeah. Handed in my fan card, as I said earlier.

 

[Infinitron]

Well, Phineas Welles tasking you with retrieving chemicals for the colony ship is almost certainly meant to be a parallel to the Overseer tasking you with finding a water chip for the Vault.

Because of its lack of "content" Fallout just feels very different from any modern sidequest pinjata RPG though. Imagine a Shady Sands surrounded by half a dozen raider camps for you to shoot up.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

I'm talking Fallout 1 structure, not Fallout 1 quality you ding dongs.

 

[Talby]

Well, I beat the game. It was pretty OK. A bit annoyed the story only started to get interesting right before it ended. Not many memorable quests or characters, faction system seems kinda pointless. Maybe I'll go play Disco Elysium.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

My take so far is that it's Fallout 1 in space

Eh. It's more like Kotor 1/2.
Groundbreaker rn is being pretty good. Moonman 10/10 , really liking Ellie, like the disguise system but the game best feature it's the companions reactivy and banter. It's great, it's like Mass effect but up to 11.

 

[Longshanks]

It's as if the Microsoft buyout and the Epic deal made the Codex a nuisance from the distant past.

This game was pretty much complete by the time they got the Epic deal and the Microsoft buyout. It's a symptom of the same disease but not caused by them.

It was always clearly an attempt to cash in on their success with FO:NV. Being their own game it would inevitably need to be safer, but they were aiming for the same market. They'd have been mad not to try.

I don't think it says much about their future direction as Microsidian is a different company. My guess is they'll make similar games but with more support they may not have to be quite so safe. Potentially higher peaks and lower troughs.

 

[Konjad]

The fact that you can't loot everything off a dead-body is pathetic, the fact that there are no naked models or the fact that you can't even remove equipment and can only replace them is just lame. The game drops loot like a fckn MMO. The game is the very thing the game is trying and failing to critique, a soulless product made to please the masses & make money.

I am finding the game so dreadfully bland. Edgewater was meh~ it's the generic quest of people who can't think up a better one & neither even presented proper arguments to try and convince me. I wish I could divert the power to nowhere and let both of these shit-holes die. The Moonheaded vendor.. .Martin I think was the quite frankly the only one interesting so far, Vicar is fine too I guess. That pushed me for a while more seeking better things, now I just finished the Laboratory toothpaste quest and I am so dreadfully bored.. . The portrayal of capitalism is cartoony, true evil is hidden under a facade of happiness not in misery, this game is lifeless..

I was looking for a hidden "overheat the core" option naively believing there *must* be one.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Groundbreaker is the best designed area by a large margin(of those that I've been to so far)

 

[fantadomat]

Groundbreaker is the best designed area by a large margin(of those that I've been to so far)

IT is a fucking tunnel....