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

[Yosharian]

Nobody flirts. Nobody fucks. Women dress like men and look deliberately unattractive. The whole fucking planet could be asexual for all I know. And in that asexual environment Parvati instead of standing out is bland and uninteresting.

Everyone's single except Ellie's parents as far as I can tell. Reed Tobson should've had a wife, couple mistresses and a dozen children

Said before: The game's bare-bone af and has nothing on a pre-76 bethesda game except C&C/reactivity. Only person I saw who barely noticed/mentioned this was that Dansgaming dude, everybody else somehow ignores everything the game lacks for the type of game it was supposed to be. They even cut corners in narrative, giving characters 1-2 sentences of backstory max. Boyarsky wasn't kidding as he repeatedly said "time & budget".

(Outside of codex)People hate Bethesda atm and for that reason alone they don't wanna criticize Obsidian at all, hope this won't give Obs confidence to double down on how they made this game and proceed to make the sequel with same shallowness in most everything.

The problem is that we live in a world where Fallout 76 exists. Because of that, a game like TOW is going to get a lot of love, even if it's actually quite flawed.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

The problem is that we live in a world where Fallout 76 exists. Because of that, a game like TOW is going to get a lot of love, even if it's actually quite flawed.

I am not offended by F76 as much as I am with TOW. F76 was a lost cause from the get-go. They did try to trick people into thinking they are getting a classic (Bethesda classic, which is not saying much) Fallout experience with it prior to launch, but it was very quickly revealed to be a sham entirely. With TOW, the masses seem to be under some sort of high level retardation spell (from the school of Urqheartian illusion) which makes them think it is a much better product than it really is, and that's what bothers me the most. F76 is decline, and even the normies know it. Hell, it's even another kind of genre altogether. TOW is veiled decline. It will do the most damage if it becomes the new norm for the first person rpg.

 

[Nano]

And what's worse I'm not seeing many indies and AAs filling the gap. I guess inXile is trying but they're very much hit-and-miss.

Uh. Reminder that Microsoft also bought inXile at the same time they bought Obsidian. They're no longer really indie/AA.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

I am in state of doubt, what are the goods and bads of t i8he game?

I finished it twice, didnt even like it that much. You can try.

You played through it twice in less than a week?

Second playthrough was kill everyone you see, it took me about 2-3 hours.

 

[JarlFrank]

By the way I thought this was an indication that TOW lacks substance but it turns out the same guy completed Fallout: New Vegas in less than 14 minutes:

Fallout 1 can also be completed very quickly, as can Morrowind if you know what you have to do to skip the main quest and go straight to Dagoth Ur.

Being able to speedrun a game that quickly is actually a mark of quality and player freedom, because it shows that the main quest isn't just a linear A->B->C->D->E slog but allows you to skip ahead and fulfill your goal while skipping all the in-between things if you have pre-knowledge of how to get to your end goal.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

After finishing the game 2.5 times my verdict is - its okay. Its basically fallout 76 without multiplayer, or call of duty with fast travel and worse gunplaOy, graphics and writing. 8/10. Acceptable if you want to shoot some space bandits with a light machine gun.

 

[Roguey]

Incidentally, I think TOW is the ARPG equivalent of a Marvel movie (did Prime Junta already say this?).

I did. Bioware started aping Whedon 10 years ago with Dragon Age: Origins, it took Bioware Jr another ten years to decline so much.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Outer Worlds takes a much different track where one corporation controls everything and acts as a totalitarian bureaucracy. I'm not even saying they're wrong to write it this way, and they explain it by having the corporation buy the colony in advance and whatnot, but it's definitely not the usual mix of political commentary and setting that one would expect.

I think it makes sense in a colony that has to scramble for resources and struggle to survive. Halcyon needed to have some oversight institution that keeps the competition between corporations from escalating into open conflict, otherwise the whole place would fall apart. Hyper-capitalist setting doesn't have to be hyper-libertarian.

This fundamentally misunderstands what the mass market audience wants out of a game. Occam’s Razor: the people praising The Outer Worlds to high heaven genuinely like it. Maybe they have bad taste or low standards, but that shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone here. There are millions of people who love Skyrim, Fallout 3/4, Mass Effect 2-3, or Dragon Age 2-3. Their standards for ARPG gameplay are low. Their standards for character building and progression are low. As for the writing, The Outer Worlds works very hard to ape Joss Whedon (and I think the dialogue often succeeds at sounding like something you’d hear in a Whedon series/film). Maybe you never liked that style, maybe you’re burned out on it now that it’s colonized the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe (Whedon wrote and directed The Avengers), maybe you’re fine with it in a two hour movie but don’t think it fits in this particular 20-40 hour video game. Doesn’t matter, there are hordes of people who fucking adore this stuff.

Kingdom Come was a mass market success despite launching with extreme mechanics like limited saves in the open world and hunger system. You seem to think audience that wants hardcore AAA RPG exists only on the Codex, but that's not the case at all. There's a huge fanbase that longs for a RPG with mainstream production values but deeper gameplay, and that's the fanbase TOW was marketed towards. And those people are certainly not praising the game to high heavens, there's plenty of bitching in all of the mainstream places, aside from TOW subreddit where all the fanboys decided to gaher.

 

[Wunderbar]

Breaking! Sawyer throws Tim Cain under the bus by claiming that Cain's colorblindness was a reason behind TOW's obnoxious color scheme.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

Breaking! Sawyer throws Tim Cain under the bus by claiming that Cain's colorblindness was a reason behind TOW's obnoxious color scheme.

If they decided to make colorblind person responsible for creating color scheme for their game - what else shouldve been expected?

 

[cvv]

Uh. Reminder that Microsoft also bought inXile at the same time they bought Obsidian. They're no longer really indie/AA.

inXile isn't gonna become a triple A dev now that's owned by Microsoft. Same with Piranha Bytes or Warhorse. Doesn't mean they start churning out Rockstar level production values now that they belong to THQ Nordic.
P. sure all of them will remain AA, with makeup.

 

[Zerginfestor]

Name a better post-apo game since F2 then (except Underrail since it's underground anyways).

I can't, but that still doesn't excuse it as a terrible RPG with awful balance. I know folks need 'a fix', but damn.

 

[Hot Coldman]

The problem is that we live in a world where Fallout 76 exists. Because of that, a game like TOW is going to get a lot of love, even if it's actually quite flawed.

I am not offended by F76 as much as I am with TOW. F76 was a lost cause from the get-go. They did try to trick people into thinking they are getting a classic (Bethesda classic, which is not saying much) Fallout experience with it prior to launch, but it was very quickly revealed to be a sham entirely. With TOW, the masses seem to be under some sort of high level retardation spell (from the school of Urqheartian illusion) which makes them think it is a much better product than it really is, and that's what bothers me the most. F76 is decline, and even the normies know it. Hell, it's even another kind of genre altogether. TOW is veiled decline. It will do the most damage if it becomes the new norm for the first person rpg.

Yes. It's veiled decline in the sense that the two directors were respected cRPG developers and what we got was
more akin to FO4 with a few more skilll-checks sprinkled in and, I must say, better NPC reactivity. Replace Moonman
and swap out bandits for the trillions of supermutants in FO4, remove the few more skill checks you have and there it
is.

 

[Reinhardt]

Its basically fallout 76. 8/10

 

[Hot Coldman]

This game will just ma

Its basically fallout 76. 8/10

I didn't pley that one but I will take your word for it. Rpgcodex, stop consuming media intended for NPC hordes.

 

[Daidre]

If they decided to make colorblind person responsible for creating color scheme for their game - what else shouldve been expected?

Now all TOW players with normal eyesight wish they were colorblind. Or just blind.

 

[Hot Coldman]

If they decided to make colorblind person responsible for creating color scheme for their game - what else shouldve been expected?

Now all TOW players with normal eyesight wish they were colorblind. Or just blind.

Why did they let a color blind person be in charge of the colors again? ,-p

 

[cvv]

It will do the most damage if it becomes the new norm for the first person rpg.

Eh, there isn't much wrong with the scope and intentions of TOW. The level of complexity, systems, size of the world, word count etc. isn't bad for a mass market game, certainly miles above, say, Mass Effect.

The problem isn't really Obsidian's ambition, it's that they don't have the talent anymore to pull it off. Writing is fanfic trash, RPG systems a boring mess, exploration and level design bland.

If TOW level of RPGness is to become a mass-market industry standard then it'll be a major improvement over the current standard aka "action game with RPG elements" like Witcher 3, RDR 2, nuAssCreed, Far Cry or, inevitably, Cyberpunk.

 

[Reinhardt]

FO4 has loverslab support so it's infinitely better than TOW.

 

[Hot Coldman]

Obsidian pulled their own Unearthed Arcana. That's when DND started the trend of neutering their art and lore to make it more both more "inclusive" and PC.
So now Obsidian peddles this crap, their most shallow RPG to date, but with more mainstream appeal, in order to try and make bigger bucks. We will just have to wait and see if it pays off.

 

[Hot Coldman]

Ah well. Nothing lasts forever ,-)

I'm on team IRON TOWER NOW,

 

[Dishonoredbr]

Yes. It's veiled decline in the sense that the two directors were respected cRPG developers and what we got was
more akin to FO4 with a few more skilll-checks sprinkled in and, I must say, better NPC reactivity. Replace Moonman
and swap out bandits for the trillions of supermutants in FO4, remove the few more skill checks you have and there it
is.

Replace what's the best part of the game ( CnC and reactivy ) , remove skill checks and replace the setting of the game with Fallout and you got FO4..
Sorry, what..

 

[Reinhardt]

Release was almost week ago and there is not even simple nude mod available. That's how dead game is.

 

[Hot Coldman]

Yes. It's veiled decline in the sense that the two directors were respected cRPG developers and what we got was
more akin to FO4 with a few more skilll-checks sprinkled in and, I must say, better NPC reactivity. Replace Moonman
and swap out bandits for the trillions of supermutants in FO4, remove the few more skill checks you have and there it
is.

Replace what's the best part of the game ( CnC and reactivy ) , remove skill checks and replace the setting of the game with Fallout and you got FO4..
Sorry, what..

Yes, líke I said, there are a few more in-dialogue skill checks than FO4. Not by much.
I said remove the bandits, replace them with all copy-pasted supermutants in FO4.
Remove those extra few skill checks. And then I praised companion NPC interactivity.

Do that and it's pretty much FO4 with less weapon variety in terms of how bare bones
an RPG it is.

 

[Hot Coldman]

So let's see what this game has going for it over FO4 in terms of RPG...

Better companion NPC reactions. A few more skill checks here and there..

anything I am missing? ,-)