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

[Kyl Von Kull]

And in the gameplay you get the feel that TOW is an immersive sim,

But it’s not an immersive sim at all: you can’t interact with objects. Words mean things.

 

[Starwars]

I just finished the Outer Worlds. I went in... not completely blind but I stayed away from all the streams and the pre-release blabbering here on the forums and elsewhere.

Overall I found it to be pretty mediocre overall. It has some nice points here and there for sure, but a lot of the good ideas don't feel fully developed and there's also a lot of crap getting in the way of those good ideas.

Good:

-There seems to be nice options in some of the quests. The game is at its best when you get into those things really. Sadly it doesn't happen too often.

-The visuals. So this was an area I was definitely skeptical of before the game but I actually think the game has a pretty cool look to it. It does go up and down a bit but overall I found it pretty nice to look at, with interesting landmarks here and there. It came together way better than I thought it would.

Mediocre:

-The setting has some interesting ideas to but sadly it just ends up feeling undercooked. They never do anything really interesting with it.

-The humor. It's just... not that funny. I mean, the funniest bits are little situations that were "crafted" for lack of a better word. Smashing Hawthorne with the escape pod, the cleaning mech trying to clean away Nyoka while she's drunk upside down against the wall. Stuff like that is worth a chuckle. But that's really rare. Most of the time the humor is delivered through dialogue and it just... doesn't... work. It's just not funny. It's *silly* a lot of the time, but it's rare that there's any real comedy going on.
The ads and all of that are also cute in the same way Fallout's world can be funny but that's more world building than anything that is truly funny and will make you laugh.

-Character system. So, this almost ends up during the bad section but at least I do have to appreciate that there are skillchecks here and there, there are dialogue skills to use, and they're not *rare*. I was pretty happy with options I was given during quests generally speaking and how I could use my skills for them. However, the perks are just... so fucking boring that it's unbelievable. And thus, the whole flaws system is just a complete dud. Because really, who wants the world's most boring perk in exchange for a flaw?

Bad:

-Combat. So... the actual shooty-shooty mechanics? They work, it feels and controls pretty good. I even like the VATs thing, and how you can target stuff. But holy shit, the encounters in this fucking game. So one thing you liked about Deadfire was that it reduced the number of trash encounters? Well, The Outer Worlds would like to say FUCK YOU to that. So there's tons of shitty, boring encounters with shitty, boring critters. Raptidons, mantisaurs... yes, sounds exciting right? And guess what, they respawn too!
Seriously, fuck the encounter design in this game. It is the most shitty and boring approach you can imagine. Which brings us to...

-Loot. Pretty much exactly the same as the combat section. The world is LOADED with containers all over the place. And they are all loaded with boring, boring loot, crudely designed to trigger the "hurr durr deres loot!!" mechanism in player's brain. And yes, there are many locked containers in the world and guess what most of them contain? The exact same shit as everywhere else except that there's a little more of it in the locked containers. It SUCKS so fucking bad.

-Companions. So I like Parvati. Yes, all cutesy, asexual and awkward and with a dumb quest where you teach her to go on a date all awkwardly and cutesy. But she was definitely the most likeable of the bunch just in terms of basic personality. The rest? Oh boy... the Vicar seems interesting but just ends up completely boring once you dive more into his whole backstory. An old character written by someone very young is what it feels like. Nyoka and Ellie? "Tough" characters with nothing interesting to offer at all besides being mildly insufferable. Nyoka is *ahahaha* an alcoholic who drinks a lot! Ellie is *ahahaha* stand-off ish and does piracy and shoots people because it's FUN and COOL and UNCARING. Ugh. I didn't even bring the other guy along that you find on Groundbreaker because he seemed insufferable from his intro dialogue. The cleaning robot is... well I actually don't know if there's any quest for him so I don't really know.
But yeah, the companions are just... not good. Again, Parvati is likeable. The others... no. And not in a "this character is an interesting foil" way. They are just insufferable most of the time.

-Quests. Again, there are nice things in some of the quests. Really nice things actually. But the way some of them are laid out is just retarded and badly designed. So you will be sent back and forth between areas you've already cleared out before (but which are now repopulated by respawning enemies), and you'll be fast travel teleporting back and forth to get to the objectives. The way they are laid out is extremely annoying. And then you have a few fetch quests thrown in for good measure as well.

Overall I had some fun with the game and I will likely try replaying it. I didn't hate it and I had quite a bit of fun in some instances actually. But I would have to say that what I wrote about combat and loot in particular really kills off a lot of the game for me. It turns into a slog, especially once you hit Monarch. It just devolves and whatever interesting quests are going kinda get lost in all the booooooring combat that's going on. Once you move on and the game moves towards the end a bit more I actually think it picks up again but the damage is done.
And it's also disappointing how it doesn't really throw any interesting curveballs to the player in terms of setting and stuff like that. If comparing with Tim & Leonard's earlier games (which may be stupid), there's never that *awesome* moment where you're going into the Glow and you're getting these great feelings of diving deep into the gameworld. Or uncovering the mysteries of the world in Arcanum, meeting Nasrudin and all of that. It feels very shallow unfortunately.
And playing it directly after Disco Elysium just highlights how unambitious it is in terms what it's trying to do with writing and humor. DE feels fresh, hard hitting at times and inspired. TWO does not.

Not terrible but pretty mediocre overall and a disappointment considering Tim and Leonard's involvement in it.

 

[Citizen]

Does it work alrite for you bros? My machine is not a gaming rig (i5-4690, gtx960, 8gb ram), but it runs like crap even on the lowest settings possible

 

[DalekFlay]

TOW keeps nudging you to take the side of the poor colonists against the evil corps instead of trying to mantain some sort of neutrality and let the player come to his/her own conclusions. Say, in NV you were shown the virtues and flaws of NCR, Legion (less so, unfortunately) and House and the player would be free to form his/her own opinions on the matter, even forgoing all three by the end. Here it begins with a manichaean view of colonists/corps that never goes further.

It's even more baffling when you compare it to Tyranny which played off of the order/chaos/loyalty/freedom spectrum in a much better way despite being almost a throw-away project.

Yeah. The bummer is I think they could make The Board the obvious bad guys, like the Legion, but still have the choice and faction play we want. The solution is right there: MSI on Monarch. A corp, but one that wants to change things a bit to give people more freedom, but still be a corp in control of the system. If the game had 3-4 factions to choose from in the main quest, The Board, the rebels, MSI and maybe Sublight or an independent path, it would be ten times better. Instead the main quest is Board or Anti-Board and everything else is a side thing where faction rep barely matters at all.

 

[Riso]

Regarding the combat, I completely forget the game has that bullet time bullshit.
The moment I got the Plasma Carbine I just fucked everything up.

 

[Raghar]

- looks like they had a much bigger crafting system at some point but it was cut and all the loot was labeled as junk
- a lot of cut content in general. Blocked buildings in Byzantium probably had quests in them at some point. Some blocked areas in Monarch.

Crafting system is diseasterous. That's for sure. + n damage when you pay money... RPG system is also nearly nonexistent.

Well, blind ironman is difficult, but item and weapon wear along with repair more expensive than new weapons is problematic.

Does it work alrite for you bros? My machine is not a gaming rig (i5-4690, gtx960, 8gb ram), but it runs like crap even on the lowest settings possible

I run it on gtx 660 with 300 Chrome tabs on background. Most stuff is on medium.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

TOW keeps nudging you to take the side of the poor colonists against the evil corps instead of trying to mantain some sort of neutrality and let the player come to his/her own conclusions. Say, in NV you were shown the virtues and flaws of NCR, Legion (less so, unfortunately) and House and the player would be free to form his/her own opinions on the matter, even forgoing all three by the end. Here it begins with a manichaean view of colonists/corps that never goes further.

It's even more baffling when you compare it to Tyranny which played off of the order/chaos/loyalty/freedom spectrum in a much better way despite being almost a throw-away project.

Yeah. The bummer is I think they could make The Board the obvious bad guys, like the Legion, but still have the choice and faction play we want. The solution is right there: MSI on Monarch. A corp, but one that wants to change things a bit to give people more freedom, but still be a corp in control of the system. If the game had 3-4 factions to choose from in the main quest, The Board, the rebels, MSI and maybe Sublight or an independent path, it would be ten times better. Instead the main quest is Board or Anti-Board and everything else is a side thing where faction rep barely matters at all.

Gotta say I had the exact opposite experience. Not only it never felt like I'm nudged towards one of the sides, the options I was presented with felt as neutral as it gets and they became more and more ambiguous as I got towards the ending.

Phineas claims to have good intentions but he's also shown as unreliable, obsessed and incredibly naive. He

Spoiler

murdered numerous people before he got you out of the pod

and upon learning the real reason why colonist are kept in pods, he doesn't even stop for a second to reconsider if unfreezing them is even a good idea.

Meanwhile the board isn't presented at all as mustache twirling cigar-smoking villains, they feel more like overwhelmed bureaucrats who can't find a way out of difficult situation. The final choices are both gray - do I side with Phineas on a hunch that maybe, hopefully he's right, or do I side with the Board whose solution is ruthless but sensible given the circumstances.

And this is a running theme all throughout the game. In Edgewater the mayor is clearly the more sensible guy while the leader of communist commune is a spiteful witch. The leader of Iconoclasts is a religious nutjob. The sublight leader is plain crazy.

Much like in real life politics, choosing between honest and well-meaning morons vs. people who are corrupt but competent is rarely easy.

 

[DalekFlay]

Gotta say I had the exact opposite experience. Not only it never felt like I'm nudged towards one of the sides, the options path I was presented with felt as neutral as it gets and it became more and more ambiguous as I got towards the ending.

If you turn the scientist in right away and basically volunteer to be a corporate merc out of the gate you don't get a lot of the experience you're talking about. Maybe I'll like the choices more now that I'm playing a freedom focused pirate, we'll see.

Your post though doesn't really address the core problem though as I see it. I agree it's more morally grey than people give it credit for, but my issue is more about factions interacting. In New Vegas there were 5 or more factions that all felt like the interacted with each other, and you had to choose between them and play them off one another to make it through the game. One clear memory I have of a standout moment is when House demands you destroy the Brotherhood of Steel. I was playing a House merc that playthrough but also had Veronica with me all the time, so having to choose to betray my boss or Veronica was a cool twist.

In my experience so far, playing a corporate merc from the start, there's nothing really like that in Outer Worlds. There's a big decision about the Board or the doctor guy, and there's minor decisions about MSI or the rebels, Edgewater or the rebels, and neither effects the main quest much beyond ending slides. The faction system really means nothing because you can easily be friendly with them all and they rarely interact. Why don't the Edgewater guards attack me after basically destroying their city? Why doesn't Roseway try to ruin me for airing their secrets? It all feels neutered.

For example, when I first got to Groundbreaker and realized they were trying to remain independent and had a faction rep, I was like "the corps are gonna make me take this place down later." However no, that never happens, and the Groundbreaker rep is meaningless.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Gotta say I had the exact opposite experience. Not only it never felt like I'm nudged towards one of the sides, the options path I was presented with felt as neutral as it gets and it became more and more ambiguous as I got towards the ending.

If you turn the scientist in right away and basically volunteer to be a corporate merc out of the gate you don't get a lot of the experience you're talking about. Maybe I'll like the choices more now that I'm playing a freedom focused pirate, we'll see.

I mean, people were making fun of aptitudes only adding +1 points but it makes sense in the context. Phineas is not going to risk experimenting with a pod of brilliant scientist or engineer, he'll rather experiment on useless people until he can perfect his revival technique. You were revived because he saw you as expendable. Good doctor certainly has a darker side to him, that's for sure.

Your post though doesn't really address the core problem though as I see it. I agree it's more morally grey than people give it credit for, but my issue is more about factions interacting. In New Vegas there were 5 or more factions that all felt like the interacted with each other, and you had to choose between them and play them off one another to make it through the game. One clear memory I have of a standout moment is when House demands you destroy the Brotherhood of Steel. I was playing a House merc that playthrough but also had Veronica with me all the time, so having to choose to betray my boss or Veronica was a cool twist.

In my experience so far, playing a corporate merc from the start, there's nothing really like that in Outer Worlds. There's a big decision about the Board or the doctor guy, and there's minor decisions about MSI or the rebels, Edgewater or the rebels, and neither effects the main quest much beyond ending slides. The faction system really means nothing because you can easily be friendly with them all and they rarely interact. Why don't the Edgewater guards attack me after basically destroying their city? Why doesn't Roseway try to ruin me for airing their secrets? It all feels neutered.

For example, when I first got to Groundbreaker and realized they were trying to remain independent and had a faction rep, I was like "the corps are gonna make me take this place down later." However no, that never happens, and the Groundbreaker rep is meaningless.

Yeah all of that I can agree on. Factions are not distinct enough, not present enough and overall feel undercooked.

 

[v1rus]

I beat the game, around 25 hours on hard difficulty, with every single quest done.

Its ok, really. Its worst fault is its offensive mediocrity and inoffensiveness. Really, nothing in the game is bad enough to sperg about, but nothing is good enough either (except the basic FNV premise, but that doesnt really count.)

Really. Writing is plain and unengaging but it isnt preposterous. Itemization and skills are fucking terrible, but in most current year games, it always is. Witcher 3 had as bad itemization, and 80% of 2000+ games have terrible skill systems. And so on, and on.

The game is average as all fuck really, and not worth of your time, unless you ran out of games to play, which somehow i doubt. Go play Disco Elyisum, Sekiro or Pathologic 2 instead, if you really want to play a fresh, 2019 game.

 

[JDR13]

Phenomenal is a strong word. I haven't gotten very far yet, but generally like what I'm seeing. But the devs really seem to have botched the itemization, rarity, equipment progress and mods.
Also the perks seem rather bland and uninspired.

Itemization is easily the worst part of the game imo. There's such an insane amount of ammo and health items scattered about, I'm literally flooded with them despite only picking up about half the stuff I find. Same goes for weapons and armor which are FAR too easy to acquire. It could have been so much better if they had just put some actual thought into the item distribution.

Everything is just handed to the player in this game. I rarely feel like I've earned any of it.

 

[JDR13]

I beat the game, around 25 hours on hard difficulty, with every single quest done.

Interesting. I'm at 19 hours, and I've only been to about half the locations so far.

 

[v1rus]

I beat the game, around 25 hours on hard difficulty, with every single quest done.

Interesting. I'm at 19 hours, and I've only been to about half the locations so far.

Funny thing, I was sure i was at 30+ hours, if not 40, but then the save game told me otherwise. End game missions are really short tho, whole byzantium prolly takes two hours max, with an our or two for the ending itself. Monarch is the biggest map def.

Also, what do you mean by half the locations? Because...

Spoiler

Monarch, Groundbraker, Byzantium, Rosewater and Emerald Vale are only true locations. There are 2 stations which are mini-dungeons, and Scylla which is really, really tiny sidequest hub. Thats about it. + you have two short endgame locations, obv.

 

[Daidre]

Interesting. I'm at 19 hours, and I've only been to about half the locations so far.

Are you sure that you had not counted 3 unreachable planets from the world map in your "total"?

 

[undecaf]

Reading the feedback, I was wondering, about the criticism of lacking C&C, don't you usually notice that stuff more heavily only through subsequent playthroughs, that it is more subtle than clear? I mean, isn't good C&C something that isn't rubbed on your face by "Yeah, you chose, the world is now 25 degrees to your right"?

I mean #2, it is probably more fun to make big decisions, but don't they demote the will to play again since you can easily guess the opposite results and so don't have the need to try again just for the "minutiae" of it?

Does the game manage to promote subsequent playthroughs is its own thing, of course. I haven't played the game, so I wouldn't know.

 

[Prime Junta]

There's a lot of C&C as well as reactivity.

Problem is the writing, it's just so banal that it's really hard to give a shit about it.

 

[v1rus]

Reading the feedback, I was wondering, about the criticism of lacking C&C, don't you usually notice that stuff more heavily only through subsequent playthroughs, that it is more subtle than clear? I mean, isn't good C&C something that isn't rubbed on your face by "Yeah, you chose, the world is now 25 degrees to your right"?

I mean #2, it is probably more fun to make big decisions, but don't they demote the will to play again since you can easily guess the opposite results and so don't have the need to try again just for the "minutiae" of it?

Does the game manage to promote subsequent playthroughs is its own thing, of course. I haven't played the game, so I wouldn't know.

Nah. The game is receptive, in a Mass Effect manner, but none of your choices really matter imho, as in, they dont change the world. I mean, some of them change the ending slides, but thats about it. The only big, important decision is made an hour before the game ends.

 

[Zer0wing]

And it's dead because everybody realised it's a linear text-based Telltale adventure with zero replayability.

'K... There's still Pathologic Мор Утопия 2 waiting for autistic plot analysis.

 

[undecaf]

There's a lot of C&C as well as reactivity.

Problem is the writing, it's just so banal that it's really hard to give a shit about it.

Ah, ok. That explains a lot. I've never been one to read too much into a games writing, but if it is really bad, it does jump out.

Nah. The game is receptive, in a Mass Effect manner, but none of your choices really matter imho, as in, they dont change the world. I mean, some of them change the ending slides, but thats about it. The only big, important decision is made an hour before the game ends.

Well, that's what I was wondering. If there is no "world changing" decisions at all, but only a slew on those that make a more subtle differences all around. It would fit the sort of Cainarsky design.

But if there isn't, that's that then.

 

[rezaf]

Finished this as well, the fact that this game is so highly praised everywhere says more about the dire state of modern gaming than it says about TOW.

It's an ok game competently executed. Most things are a tad barebones, like itemization, the skill system (especially that of the companions), number and size of locations and so in, but nothing is aggressively bad. Nothing is exceptional or very memorable.

Except the technical execution/engine. I was very impressed. My main rig is currently disassembled, and I was prepared to hold off playing until I could get it fixed, but then I found out TOW runs just fine on my old computer which is now slightly over ten years old and was'nt even top of the cream back then.

 

[DalekFlay]

I beat the game, around 25 hours on hard difficulty, with every single quest done.

My final time was 34 hours and I skipped a tooooon of stuff. Only did one companion quest, never did the Sublight stuff, did the Board main quest from the start instead of both. Not calling you out or anything, but obviously how "fast" one plays depends on the person and playstyle.

 

[Wesp5]

There's a lot of C&C as well as reactivity.

Problem is the writing, it's just so banal that it's really hard to give a shit about it.

Not only that. If you have at least some dialogue feats leveled up, those lines will always show you the optimal solution and they will give you XP as well! So I would always choose those, even if it would mean lying because why would I waste the XP? BTW, sometimes you don't get XP for Perception or Engineering or similar lines, but I couldn't really see a system there...

Oh, and something about the choices. I am missing real evil factions or people or choices! Everything is gray, fine, but most of the time it's more fun to have black and white and gray!

 

[The_Mask]

Off the top of my head, things they cut due to budget:

- vacuum areas
- boss fights
- mod support
- 3rd person camera
- proper disguise system
- looks like they had a much bigger crafting system at some point but it was cut and all the loot was labeled as junk
- a lot of cut content in general. Blocked buildings in Byzantium probably had quests in them at some point. Some blocked areas in Monarch.

- melee unarmed combat

 

[The_Mask]

I never played the original Fallout, only FO3 and FONV

I envy you so much!

F1 is SO good! Just wait until you play it. Incline! ^__^

 

[JDR13]

I beat the game, around 25 hours on hard difficulty, with every single quest done.

My final time was 34 hours and I skipped a tooooon of stuff. Only did one companion quest, never did the Sublight stuff, did the Board main quest from the start instead of both. Not calling you out or anything, but obviously how "fast" one plays depends on the person and playstyle.

This. I've only just finished Rosewater. I like to take my time when I play open-world games though. I explore every nook and cranny, and I'll sometimes reload to see the effect of different dialogue choices.

Still, I have to be skeptical when I see people claiming they finished "every" quest in 25 hours or thereabouts.