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

[JDR13]

Been playing Metro Exodus lately cause it's on Gamepass and Gamepass is still 1 dollar a month so lolwhynot and it seems like it's exactly (like literally exactly, the gameplay loop feels exactly the same) the kind of game that Outer Worlds is trying to be but minus the Confusion about what kind of game it is (or wants to be) that Outer Worlds is afflicted with. It's actually stunning just how much Metro Exodus is simply a BETTER version of Outer Worlds, almost like one was ripping off the other. Looks better, feels better, written better, minus silly vestigial RPG bullshit. Which is not to say it's a Great game, or anything close to an RPG. But it knows what it is.

I played Metro Exodus when it was released and really enjoyed it. I agree it's a much better overall game than TOW. In fact, it was one of the better games I played last year.

 

[Roguey]

The first Fallout 4 DLC was released four months later, they're not behind schedule yet.

 

[Bonerbill]

Switch announcement day: https://outerworlds.obsidian.net/en/news/the-outer-worlds-coming-to-nintendo-switch-on-march-6-2020

THE OUTER WORLDS COMING TO NINTENDO SWITCH ON MARCH 6, 2020

We here at Obsidian, along with Virtuos Games and Private Division, are excited to announce that spacers waiting to experience the award-winning and darkly humorous single-player RPG, The Outer Worlds, on Nintendo Switch won't have to wait much longer! Your adventure through the Halcyon Colony begins March 6.

Whether you choose to zap foes with your shrink ray or charm them with smooth-talking abilities, The Outer Worlds lets you play the way you want and be the galactic hero (or villain) of your dreams. And on the Nintendo Switch, now you’ll be able to take The Outer Worlds anywhere you go.

The Outer Worlds for Nintendo Switch will retail for $59.99 and will be available as a boxed version (containing a code to download the game) and digital version via the Nintendo eShop.

Nice. Can't wait to double dip so I can have the game in handheld form

 

[Fedora Master]

I don't have any interest in DLC. What's there to add? The base game is mediocre and the devs sure as shit won't reinvent themselves with a 5 hour DLC story.

 

[Daedalos]

Isn't it weird that we haven't heard about any planned post-launch support or DLC at this point?

Has there been any reponse from obsidian regarding the launch of the game and how it was recieved? from lenny or tim?

 

[Infinitron]

Isn't it weird that we haven't heard about any planned post-launch support or DLC at this point?

Has there been any reponse from obsidian regarding the launch of the game and how it was recieved? from lenny or tim?

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...leonard-boyarsky.130421/page-209#post-6455474

 

[Daedalos]

Okay, so apparently there's been some press about it, sorry haven't been keepin' tabs.

At any rate, I hope they do try and salvage and reevaluate the core game along with the DLC. Something like a Saywer hardcore patch to the vanilla experience, whilst introducing the DLC stuff.

Flesh out the story, rebalance shit, and I could see myself getting invested into ths franchise again.

 

[Terenty]

Flesh out the story, rebalance shit, and I could see myself getting invested into ths franchise again.

Its not a franchise hopefully

 

[JDR13]

At any rate, I hope they do try and salvage and reevaluate the core game along with the DLC. Something like a Saywer hardcore patch to the vanilla experience

That would be cool, but I'm not holding my breath. They would need to go through the entire game and redistribute the loot. I don't see it happening.

 

[Wesp5]

They would need to go through the entire game and redistribute the loot. I don't see it happening.

Has somebody ever tested in multiple playthroughs if the loot is distributed randomly via some script or placed by hand? In the former case it would be easy.

 

[fantadomat]

They would need to go through the entire game and redistribute the loot. I don't see it happening.

Has somebody ever tested in multiple playthroughs if the loot is distributed randomly via some script or placed by hand? In the former case it would be easy.

The map placed loot is by hand,the lootbox loot is randomized.

 

[Wesp5]

The map placed loot is by hand,the lootbox loot is randomized.

So they could improve itemisation just by lowering the lootbox content. Won't fix all the lockpicks and hacktools lying around though...

 

[fantadomat]

The map placed loot is by hand,the lootbox loot is randomized.

So they could improve itemisation just by lowering the lootbox content. Won't fix all the lockpicks and hacktools lying around though...

Disagree,the problem is that there is nothing worth buying. NV also had endless amount of ammo and parts,you could play it without go to a shop,but you would have missed on the better weapons and mods. Here that is missing,the game needs better way to spend money,not less loot. Less loot would make it even worst lol.

 

[LESS T_T]

Colors: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...-new-frontiers-of-color-with-the-outer-worlds

Exploring new frontiers of color with The Outer Worlds
Art director Daniel Alpert discusses the visually striking approach to Obsidian's latest RPG

There's reason to believe games have a bright future. Well, brightly colored at the very least.

Speaking with GamesIndustry.biz recently, Obsidian Entertainment's Daniel Alpert makes an observation about why game developers may feel increasingly comfortable releasing visually vibrant titles like The Outer Worlds, the single-player role-playing game for which he served as art director.

"Games tend to reflect the current state of film, and film tends to have very toned-back color palettes," Alpert says. "They're also known as 'filmic' looks, where the darks aren't necessarily pitch black or the whites aren't necessarily pitch white, and the colors tend to blend with each other. And a lot of games echo that filmic look. That said, there are a lot of movies coming out recently that have started to explore color in a lot more interesting ways. For example, Guardians of the Galaxy started playing with really vibrant tones and colors."


The Outer Worlds is ironically colorful for an Obsidian game


While there's a clear history of games drawing inspiration from film, Alpert notes that both the blockbuster film industry and game development are driven by cutting-edge technology, so they'll echo each other in a lot of ways. That said, he does believe the popularity of colorful films in recent years has primed audiences to appreciate more varied treatments in the games they play.

"What's great is that just like no two films are 100% alike, no two games are 100% alike. Some people will be drawn to the vibrancy of our world and some people will want to explore it just because of how it looks different from the rest of the games on the shelves."

It's coming up on six years since Guardians of the Galaxy came out, so there's been a full AAA development cycle or two for its influence to have manifested in games. Players might be able to see a bit of it in The Outer Worlds, from its misfit crew of planet-hopping protagonists to its noticeably colorful galaxy.

While the look of the game may be the first thing that stands out about The Outer Worlds for players, it was not the first thing about the game to come together. Alpert says that before he joined the project, game directors Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky had been crafting the world for about three months. When he was brought on board, the premise Cain and Boyarsky gave him didn't revolve around its looks.

"[They told me] it's going back to a bunch of RPG roots where it's a player's-choice-heavy narrative, but at the same time we wanted to play with the idea of colonization of space," Alpert says. "You weren't going to a world that's been there more than a thousand years. You were almost starting brand new in this new world, so how would people react within that world?

"Right away when I started hearing that, I pretty much had Western tones -- The Old West -- in my head. Ok, we're going to be a frontier kind of space colony, so why don't we play with what we know as a frontier landscape and put that into the world? With that, we pretty much set the groundwork of what we wanted."


Outer Worlds tries to evoke a frontier feel for many of its settings


Beyond that, Alpert says Boyarsky was keen on having a strong element of heavy machinery in the visuals as well. The game's vibrant color palette was not yet a part of the plan.

"Then as the story developed and started becoming more and more about corporations and their holds on these frontier towns, we started playing also with the idea that it's not just a frontier town, but a frontier town versus a big city kind of feeling," Alpert says. "And that's when we started introducing the Art Nouveau aspect, showing Art Nouveau as this almost elitist city view while the frontier art is this really down-to-earth style."

Alpert says that's the point where The Outer Worlds started to incorporate a lot more color, combining the "heavy industrial feel" that Boyarsky was fond of with the color palettes common among Art Nouveau advertisements. Alpert said the development team spent a lot of time looking at the work of artists like Czech painter Alphonse Mucha and even modern artists like Moebius.


Moebius was one of Obsidian's inspirations


"Moebius was really interesting because a lot of his color palette in his graphic novels echoed a lot of the Mucha paintings. So we had these sources of actually very vibrant, colorful images, and it almost became a bit of a no-brainer for me to start playing with these colors, especially because we had to deal with these corporations and their branding. It was a good way to distinguish one brand from the next."

That wasn't the only reason for The Outer Worlds' use of color. Alpert said playing with colors helped to make the game feel a little bit more unusual and alien to players.

"One of the things with The Outer Worlds is we wanted it to feel familiar, but also slightly different," Alpert says. "So instead of a blue sky, I might add tones of green in there just to make it feel a little bit more alien. And some of those things are what keep pushing the color to these abnormal bounds."

Sometimes that pushing was closer to a cautious nudge than a forceful shove. Alpert says one of the challenges of playing so much with the color of The Outer Worlds was making it striking in the right way.

"You can definitely push the vibrancy so much that it's offputting for other people. And there are probably aspects of the game where I might have gone too far, but I'm still happy with them. At the same time, one of the greatest challenges is with Tim, who happens to be color-blind. It was my goal not only to push color, but also to push a wide tone palette so he was able to discern the differences and the treatments of the world."

So how did Alpert know when the team had pushed the color enveloper a bit too far?

"You have to listen to people who play your game and listen to all the feedback," he says. "There are people who absolutely love it, and there are people who don't love it as much. But you take that with a grain of salt; I'm still very happy with where we did push it."

Alpert agrees The Outer Worlds is probably the most colorful game he's worked on in a career that spans games like Neverwinter Nights 2, Fallout: New Vegas, and Alpha Protocol. And while he doesn't know quite where that career trajectory will take him next, it's a safe bet it will look decidedly different.

"I'm always interested in seeing what is new and how we can push things to something that feels fresh and at the same time vital," Alpert says.

 

[fantadomat]

visually striking

 

[BlackGoat]

visually striking

Spoiler

 

[DalekFlay]

That would be cool, but I'm not holding my breath. They would need to go through the entire game and redistribute the loot. I don't see it happening.

I'd assume loot is mostly randomized outside the stuff sitting on counters, so they could adjust the tables that determine how much of what appears when. I still agree it's unlikely, but it's theoretically possible. I think there have been DLC "harder modes" before.

 

[BlackGoat]

"Games tend to reflect the current state of film, and film tends to have very toned-back color palettes," Alpert says. "They're also known as 'filmic' looks, where the darks aren't necessarily pitch black or the whites aren't necessarily pitch white

Reminds me of this time way back when I was a kid and my little sister came downstairs in a towel with wet hair and complained to my mom about the water in the shower being "pitch cold"

 

[Haplo]

That would be cool, but I'm not holding my breath. They would need to go through the entire game and redistribute the loot. I don't see it happening.

I'd assume loot is mostly randomized outside the stuff sitting on counters, so they could adjust the tables that determine how much of what appears when. I still agree it's unlikely, but it's theoretically possible.

They'd have to change the (random level based) shop and vending machine linventories also.

 

[Sailor Woedica]

Omg!!!!

 

[Roguey]

TOW's colors are an eyesore and here they are praising themselves for poorly copying capeshit.

 

[Child of Malkav]

Wut? Metro Exodus was shit. Last Light was better and that's not exactly a compliment. The series sucks. Can't believe they made it to the 3rd game.

 

[orcinator]

We tried to copy the color palette of a great artist but we paid zero attention to scene composition or whether our lighting effects and art style and the whole "3d game instead of 2d painting" thing will compliment it or not. Please praise us!

capeshit.

I will murder you in both real life and minecraft

 

[JDR13]

Wut? Metro Exodus was shit. Last Light was better and that's not exactly a compliment. The series sucks. Can't believe they made it to the 3rd game.

There's no way you've actually played Metro Exodus. That much is obvious. Either that or you just hate the genre.

 

[JDR13]

As far as the visuals in TOW, I thought they were pretty good for the most part. It's the gameplay and especially the balance that are mediocre.