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

[Quillon]

Shooting is WAY better then FONV!

 

[Junmarko]

I found the overall atmosphere cartoonish and grating.

- Steve Jackson, after watching Tim and Leonard's presentation of GURPS Fallout.

 

[JoonaAhonen]

Hey - that looks pretty cool. When is it coming out?

 

[Infinitron]

Unfortunately, the whole conceit of corporate employees being forced to sign over their entire lives, mortgage their first born, contractually required to constantly spout slogans, 37 pieces of flair ... it just isn't funny. It's been done, it's been done better, and here it's relentless.

Here's the thing though, it really isn't that relentless. You can spend dozens of hours Fallout-ing it on Monarch, travelling between settlements of dissidents, criminals & religious fanatics, battling alien creatures in sulfurous valleys, and gradually forgetting that you were ever in LOL Corporate Clown World.

I think there are themes that annoy people so much that they make it seem like they're more omnipresent than they actually are. Like I said, Obsidian have a problem here. They intentionally chose to make the main idea of their new IP something that lots of people seem incapable of taking seriously as a setting for High Adventure™.

It's like if you made a big RPG where the idea is that lots of people have anime faces or weird accents or something. It doesn't matter if the game has a non-anime planet inhabited by rebels against the anime-face overlords, the idea of it is just an eyesore and too silly to take seriously.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

I think there are themes that annoy people so much that they make it seem like they're more omnipresent than they actually are. Like I said, Obsidian have a problem here. They intentionally chose to make the main idea of their new IP something that lots of people seem incapable of taking seriously as a setting for High Adventure™.

Problem is not in the theme, but in its execution. TOW is no Firefly RPG.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

Shooting is WAY better then FONV!

What it's a Limbo competition though?

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

I don't know how did you guys manage to get overwhelmed by the goofy corporate jokes that only really exists on tutorial planet and on Groundbreaker.

 

[Infinitron]

Post-apocalyptic: Radiation zombies, raiders with mohawks, nuked out ruins - fuck yeah, can't get enough of this

Corporate clown world: Neon signs, corporate jingles, secret laboratory disasters - WTF IS THIS CLICHE SHIT

One genre gets to be absurdist, the other doesn't.

 

[fantadomat]

Unfortunately, the whole conceit of corporate employees being forced to sign over their entire lives, mortgage their first born, contractually required to constantly spout slogans, 37 pieces of flair ... it just isn't funny. It's been done, it's been done better, and here it's relentless.

Here's the thing though, it really isn't that relentless. You can spend dozens of hours Fallout-ing it on Monarch, travelling between settlements of dissidents, criminals & religious fanatics, battling alien creatures in sulfurous valleys, and gradually forgetting that you were ever in LOL Corporate Clown World.

I think there are themes that annoy people so much that they make it seem like they're more omnipresent than they actually are. Like I said, Obsidian have a problem here. They intentionally chose to make the main idea of their new IP something that lots of people seem incapable of taking seriously as a setting for High Adventure™.

It's like if they made a big RPG where the idea is that lots of people have anime faces or weird accents or something. It doesn't matter if the game has a non-anime planet inhabited by rebels against the anime-face overlords, the idea of it is just an eyesore and too silly to take seriously.

LoL the games problem is that it is written by dumb people with extremely low real life experience. Are you saying that it is a good writing to have advanced civilization that could travel to other star systems and colonize,but doesn't know that you need fertile soil to grow shit and that you could make it fertile by decomposing biological material??? Or a lush planet filled with wild life is dying of hunger..... That is like telling me a cavemen invented teleporting devices lol. This garbage is the writing of a person that hasn't seen a whole vegetable in his real life and had never cooked lol. Most likely fast food retard.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

I think there are themes that annoy people so much that they make it seem like they're more omnipresent than they actually are. Like I said, Obsidian have a problem here. They intentionally chose to make the main idea of their new IP something that lots of people seem incapable of taking seriously as a setting for High Adventure™.

Problem is not in the theme, but in its execution. TOW is no Firefly RPG.

The Outer Worlds is inspired by Firefly, but also by Fallout.

Post-apocalyptic: Radiation zombies, raiders with mohawks, nuked out ruins - fuck yeah, can't get enough of this

Corporate clown world: Neon signs, corporate jingles, secret laboratory disasters - WTF IS THIS CLICHE SHIT

One genre gets to be absurdist, the other doesn't.

Don't forget that Firefly's raiders also encapsulate the same post-apocalyptic feel. The real issue is not a mixture of genres, but the poorly executed corporate clown world. Just like the vaults in Fallout, depending on the level of maturity and thoughtfulness in which these environments are portrayed, they can end up either being wacky for the sake of wacky (and 'plastic-y' in TOW's case) or immersive, with the added benefit of reinforcing the groundedness of the setting.

 

[fantadomat]

Post-apocalyptic: Radiation zombies, raiders with mohawks, nuked out ruins - fuck yeah, can't get enough of this

Corporate clown world: Neon signs, corporate jingles, secret laboratory disasters - WTF IS THIS CLICHE SHIT

One genre gets to be absurdist, the other doesn't.

It is not cliche,it is cringy lol. In the end it just shows how the writing level of obsidian had fallen.

 

[fantadomat]

I think there are themes that annoy people so much that they make it seem like they're more omnipresent than they actually are. Like I said, Obsidian have a problem here. They intentionally chose to make the main idea of their new IP something that lots of people seem incapable of taking seriously as a setting for High Adventure™.

Problem is not in the theme, but in its execution. TOW is no Firefly RPG.

The Outer Worlds is inspired by Firefly, but also by Fallout.

Post-apocalyptic: Radiation zombies, raiders with mohawks, nuked out ruins - fuck yeah, can't get enough of this

Corporate clown world: Neon signs, corporate jingles, secret laboratory disasters - WTF IS THIS CLICHE SHIT

One genre gets to be absurdist, the other doesn't.

Don't forget that Firefly's raiders also encapsulate the same post-apocalyptic feel. The real issue is not a mixture of genres, but the poorly executed corporate clown world. Just like the vaults in Fallout, depending on the level of maturity and thoughtfulness in which these environments are portrayed, they can end up either being wacky for the sake of wacky (and 'plastic-y' in TOW's case) or immersive, with the added benefit of reinforcing the groundedness of the setting.

LoL Firefly has the best raiders in the whole of sifi encyclopedia,they really felt like coming from the place event horizon was . They were a force to be feared. If a game manages to make such a scary shit,i will be mighty impressed. The corporate shit could have been done well....but obsidian.

 

[Starwars]

I think the only place in TOW where the whole "log hunting" activity was actually interesting was when you return to the Hope. That was still pretty limited but that was an area where I felt like the LULZ didn't get in the way of the story going on in the area. I still wouldn't call it memorable but it was one instance where I was like... yes, if the rest of all these areas in the game had hit a similar tone, it would've been a great deal more interesting. And it would have been a bit more impactful overall.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

"capitalism bad" is one of the most played out, boring tropes in video games. Think of a video game made in the past decade set in either a modern or future time period, and there's a really good chance it has a "capitalism bad!" message.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

"capitalism bad" is one of the most played out, boring tropes in video games. Think of a video game made in the past decade set in either a modern or future time period, and there's a really good chance it has a "capitalism bad!" message.

A consequence of the popularization of cyberpunk.

 

[fantadomat]

"capitalism bad" is one of the most played out, boring tropes in video games. Think of a video game made in the past decade set in either a modern or future time period, and there's a really good chance it has a "capitalism bad!" message.

It is most played out in life sure,but don't remember many such games. Citations needed. Also capitalism is the same communism,both of them are shit ones.

 

[Ezeekiel]

How's the atmosphere? Is the shootingplay better than FONV?

Atmosphere is... well... colorful. Pretty good IMO actually.
Shooting is WAY better then FONV!

But overall... its pretty bland and got tedious. Itemization is bad, character development pretty uninspired.

Doesn't New Vegas have more fun/amusingly broken weapons than this though? The auto-grenade launcher (mk19 wannabe), tesla cannon or whatever it was, anything grenade-y for that matter... IDK.
Outer Worlds' heavy machinegun -type guns look badass and are totally underwhelming ingame (3m effective range unless you use the slowmo thing, meh damage and hit reactions etc).
There's a few gun types and if you find an example of that type early, it's just the same as whatever you find later but with worse numbers attached.

Blasting people apart in NV wasn't as well done as in an actual shooter (nor did it look as good as in the original fallouts imo), but it still seems superior to OW.

Then there's the map and exploration... WAY better in NV than OW or FO3/4.


OW seems more Bioshock 1/2 -y in terms of how the shooting/the guns come across to me, but it's been a long time since I played those games so perhaps I'm remembering wrong...

 

[rusty_shackleford]

It is most played out in life sure,but don't remember many such games. Citations needed.

https://www.windowscentral.com/2019-year-capitalism-became-video-games-greatest-villain

 

[fantadomat]

It is most played out in life sure,but don't remember many such games. Citations needed.

https://www.windowscentral.com/2019-year-capitalism-became-video-games-greatest-villain

God help us,it is retarded.

 

[Haplo]

How's the atmosphere? Is the shootingplay better than FONV?

Atmosphere is... well... colorful. Pretty good IMO actually.
Shooting is WAY better then FONV!

But overall... its pretty bland and got tedious. Itemization is bad, character development pretty uninspired.

Doesn't New Vegas have more fun/amusingly broken weapons than this though? The auto-grenade launcher (mk19 wannabe), tesla cannon or whatever it was, anything grenade-y for that matter... IDK.
Outer Worlds' heavy machinegun -type guns look badass and are totally underwhelming ingame (3m effective range unless you use the slowmo thing, meh damage and hit reactions etc).
There's a few gun types and if you find an example of that type early, it's just the same as whatever you find later but with worse numbers attached.

Blasting people apart in NV wasn't as well done as in an actual shooter (nor did it look as good as in the original fallouts imo), but it still seems superior to OW.

Then there's the map and exploration... WAY better in NV than OW or FO3/4.


OW seems more Bioshock 1/2 -y in terms of how the shooting/the guns come across to me, but it's been a long time since I played those games so perhaps I'm remembering wrong...

I remember shooting being pretty poor in FNV. In OW, I'm not sure about machineguns - what I tried seemed potent enough - and companions sure were best with a heavy one - as I've mostly used plasmas and sniper rifles. And those seemed potent enough. Could melt most enemies in 1-2 shots.

 

[Daidre]

You can spend dozens of hours Fallout-ing it on Monarch, travelling between settlements of dissidents, criminals & religious fanatics, battling alien creatures in sulfurous valleys, and gradually forgetting that you were ever in LOL Corporate Clown World.

You mean spending dozen of hours on Monarch shooting same 3 types of the copypasted monsters and looting same 3 types of the copypasted containers for randomized trash in the same ugly mostly copypasted grey-brown valleys sprinkled with (yeah!) identical copy-pasted houses?
I am not a passionate Fallout fan, but I hope proper ones won't waste their time on TOW to find such idea of "Fallout-ing" offensive.

There only 3-4 hours or so content on Monarch that deserves to lay somewhere near Fallout name. IF you feel generous and set your standards low-ish.

 

[Zombra]

The whole conceit of [comedy corporate oppression ...] It's been done, it's been done better, and here it's relentless.

Here's the thing though, it really isn't that relentless.

I don't know how did you guys manage to get overwhelmed by the goofy corporate jokes that only really exists on tutorial planet and on Groundbreaker.

Cheerfully conceded. I abandoned the game (for other reasons) shortly after Terra 2 + Groundbreaker. However I think you'll both find it hard to deny that TOW establishes its theme very firmly at the beginning. First impressions matter.

-----

I've seen a lot of live music in my time, usually bands I've never heard of, have no expectation of ever seeing again and no reason to give a break to.

Early on, I was supportive of every band. I was there, they were there, and they had made the effort to put together an act, so I felt the nice thing to do was to watch and applaud their entire set, no matter how monotonous they were or how little their art spoke to me. Maybe, just maybe, the artists who seemed crap at first would show a spark of inspiration somewhere that would make it all worth it.

Long story short, after giving a chance to dozens (hundreds?) of bands that didn't seem good and weren't good, I developed the "Two Song Rule". Now, I watch every band's entire first song to see if I immediately like them. If I don't, I will watch the beginning of their second song to see if they're versatile and capable of surprising me. If the second song sounds as bad as the first - and it usually does - I walk away. At that point a pattern has been established for content I am not going to enjoy and have no reason to support except pity.

Terra-2 and Groundbreaker are TOW's first two songs.

 

[DalekFlay]

I quite liked the look and tone of the game. "Spacer's Choice!" and stuff like that amused me. Some of the Joss Whedon style dialog was annoying, but the world-building and tone was fine. It was the limited scope outside Monarch and the complete lack of challenge due to resource abundance that brought the game down a good bit for me. If it was moddable and someone made a rebalance mod there's a good chance the game could be improved considerably.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

I really want to play a game where capitalism is the hero, not the villain.

 

[jf8350143]

It's not capitalism bad, it's big monopoly company bad.

That's why antitrust law is a thing in almost every country. And why it didn't really work very well against those powerful big corporation.