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

Lord_Potato

Arcane
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After pretty enjoyable Monarch I finally reached Byzantium. The greatest city in the colony, they say? I guess that's where most of the cuts happened. It's just sad seeing all those doors to clubs and restaurants closed for good. Not to mention entire planets unavailable for exploration.

On the other hand, I appreciate that having limited resources the devs did not try to bloat and prolong the game like Spiders did with Greedfall. I'm 27 hours in and near the end (judging by the fact I have no more quests except fot the main one and almost reached the level cap).

I guess unlike Spiders' last game, TOW will not overstay its welcome.
 

Flou

Arbiter
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Mar 23, 2016
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869
Location
Hellsinki
After pretty enjoyable Monarch I finally reached Byzantium. The greatest city in the colony, they say? I guess that's where most of the cuts happened. It's just sad seeing all those doors to clubs and restaurants closed for good. Not to mention entire planets unavailable for exploration.

Something tells me some of those doors will open when the DLCs start arriving. But yeah, it was a bit disappointing that pretty much everything was closed down in the city. I get it, it's a resource thing but then again, it made the city feel really small.
 

Junmarko

† Cristo è Re †
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Schläfertempel
Do we know if the story DLC will be mid-game or post-game?
Safe to say mid-game. Post-game DLC does happen ever so rarely, but it's always the last thing released.
Most likely mid-game, will probably involve doing some side-expeditions/contracts for Phineas I'd say.

Post-game would be weird as the final showdown plays out like a Deus Ex finale.
 
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DalekFlay

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New Vegas
Most likely mid-game, will probably involve doing some side-expeditions/contracts for Phineas I'd say.

Post-game would be weird as the final showdown plays out like a Deus Ex finale.

The game prompts you to make a separate save before the point of no return. I'd imagine the DLC will be designed around being done then, like Fallout New Vegas.
 

Lord_Potato

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Finished TOW. Took me 31 hours. As I expected, it did not overstay its welcome.

I did all the quests I could find, except for the Byzantium clothes shop one, it was too retarded for my taste. I think I managed to get one of the best possible endings, with the exception of Edgewater (supporting the rebel camp in the botanical laboratory might not have been the brightest idea).

My opinion of the game? Still, unoffensively mediocre. There are really good locations (Monarch), instances of brilliant writing (on board of Hope, reading the logs describing the horror of the crew gave me genuine shivers), several nice companions (Parvati, Vicar, SAM), the story, which for the most part is quite unfocused and directionless, finally starts finding a bit serious tone and making sense during the late game. Too bad that for the most parts its completely irrelevant, most quests were FedEx in nature, and the RP mechanics felt not utilized enough.

The character builds weren't really meaningful. I did not invest much into stealth, and yet I could go unnoticed through entire locations with the combinanation of medium stealth, cloaking device and high persuation. Combat, except for the Tartarus and several Mantiqueens on Monarch was pretty easy (completed the game on hard, I don't care for save restrictions). Talking skills were basically a win button. As many of my predecessors stated, itemizations sucks. I rarely used unique weapons, because the regular ones, which could be upgraded and modified were simply much better. Due to lacking itemization, explorations suffers too. It's nice to reach hidden places and uncover concealed stashes of items... but usually it was just more junk for your already increasing collection.

Is it Fallout New Vegas reborn? Not really. It only felt like New Vegas a bit around Edgewater (due to similar music). The game is something different. The scope is much humbler. Instead of open world, we get several locations of varying size and style. What connects those locations is the central hub - space vessel the Unreliable, Ebon Hawk of the millenial generation. The structure of the game is linear and can be divided into chapters, in which you uncover ways to reach new locations and push the story forward. it's certainly less ambitious than previous projects of Obsidian - perhaps due to lessons learned from past mistakes. Thanks to the limited scope the game is much more polished and the Obsidian's curse of buggy releases has finally been lifted. But it is for the better? Wasn't the price of the polish too steep? After all, the price was: lack of ambition to strive for something greater.

If I had to rate it,I'd give it 7.5/10. Slightly higher than Greedfall, because TOW is more conscious of its limitations and does not try to play above its league. It is a pretty little game, quite simple and easy, a good entry point for new fans of cRPGs. I hope that after finishing this game they will also try older Obsidian titles and decide to take their chances with FNV.

I had my fun, but dreamed of something more. And more interesting. Even if less stable. IMO that would be a price worth paying.
 
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soulburner

Cipher
Joined
Sep 21, 2013
Messages
809
I think as a smaller, "AA" game, TOW simply works. I had genuine fun playing it, despite its flaws (itemization, ammo and health growing on trees, etc). I finished it and watched the credits to the end, listening to the quite alright music. It's great there are so many dialog options, choices and consequences and all that. Is it a "New Vegas 2"? No, far from it. Is it a good game, though? Yes. Will I play the DLC? Yup. Will I replay the whole thing in the not too distant future? Most likely no.
 

Lord_Potato

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Sure, you'd expect more from Cain and Boyarsky. But look at that this way: they've been burned so many times for overextending, you can forgive them for playing it safe for once.

And they did not push out a buggy, unplayable turd to the gamers, like Lord British, Warren Spector, Paul Neurath and other formerly great devs of old.
 

Infinitron

I post news
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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Finally finished Monarch. Anybody notice that MSI and the Iconoclasts send out patrols (and even fight each other at the Terra One Publications building) after the UDL gunship crashes? Why weren't those out there from the start? Would have made the world feel more alive. As it is, it seems like a half-implemented thing. They seem to get into fights with beasts but the Marauders ignore them ("sup guys, just walking past this roadblock!")

Also, tfw encountering Herbert, the man under the Cascadia bridge.
snipes.jpg
 
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Modron

Arcane
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May 5, 2012
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9,931
Yeah I reloaded and just stealthed in and stole his unique gear, Herbert did nothing wrong.
 

Diggfinger

Arcane
Joined
Jan 6, 2014
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1,200
Location
Belgium
Playing ToW has revealed my dark-side...I transferred power to the hippies without even hesitating. Then I shot the corporate-guy and stole his bowler :negative:
 

Wesp5

Arcane
Joined
Apr 18, 2007
Messages
1,754
I sat comfortably with >100 picks throughout most of the game past Groundbreaker.
Once you hit Hacking 40 you get lockpicks from vending machines for pocket change. They really should not have made them that cheap.

They should not have make lockpicks random loot or available from vending machines in the first place! I mean these things are illegal, like the hacking tools. Getting them only from special vendors, like the fence on the Groundbreaker, would have made a huge difference in making the worldbuilding better!
 

Infinitron

I post news
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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
At least the Magpicks are theoretically useful. I've encountered maybe 3-4 places where you can use Bypass Shunts (the Hacking equivalent of Magpicks) over the course of the entire game so far. That's just bizarre, and suggests they were added to the game near the end of development when it is too late for the designers to create content that used them.
 
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LudensCogitet

Learned
Joined
Nov 4, 2019
Messages
210
I sat comfortably with >100 picks throughout most of the game past Groundbreaker.
Once you hit Hacking 40 you get lockpicks from vending machines for pocket change. They really should not have made them that cheap.

They should not have make lockpicks random loot or available from vending machines in the first place! I mean these things are illegal, like the hacking tools. Getting them only from special vendors, like the fence on the Groundbreaker, would have made a huge difference in making the worldbuilding better!

It's a very questionable decision to have lock picking be a mere threshold anyway, let alone having readily available consumables to make it easier. The practical meaning of the "skill" is literally "higher number means open more doors". Seems much better to have something like in Arcanum, where you risk jamming the lock after too many attempts and then you have to bash it open (drawing attention to yourself and damaging your weapons).

The latter is a quintessential RPG system: risks and rewards opening and closing different paths forward based on character build. In TOW it's just "Do I want to open more doors, or nah?"
 

Jackpot

Learned
Joined
Dec 15, 2019
Messages
224
At least the Magpicks are theoretically useful. I've encountered maybe 3-4 places where you can use Bypass Shunts (the Hacking equivalent of Magpicks) over the course of the entire game so far. That's just bizarre, and suggests they were added to the game near the end of development when it is too late for the designers to create content that used them.

Is that what Bypass Shunts were? I don't think I used a single one throughout the entire game.
I always thought they were healing items for some sort of limb damage system that wasn't implemented well.
 

Infinitron

I post news
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Messages
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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Do you get benefits for going over 100 in a skill?

There's a benefit for Lockpicking at least (need to get it up to 120 to pick 100 difficulty locks without using up Magpicks).
Are these 120 skill bonuses listed anywhere or do you have to figure it out on your own?

That's not a unique benefit, it's just how the lockpicking mechanic works in general. One less lockpick needed for each five points you have over the lock difficulty, starting from 5.
 

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