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

TheImplodingVoice

Dumbfuck!
Dumbfuck
Joined
Oct 29, 2018
Messages
1,955
Location
Embelyon
Speaking of companions. Parvati. Thought it started out good and I kinda liked the character at first. Engineer woman, ok, why not, I've dated one in real life. When it was revealed she is asexual I was like what, tripling down on the minority stuff here. Engineer woman, minority check, kinda pretty engineer woman, double check, pretty asexual engineer woman, triple check. Who then meets another engineer woman at the first pit stop we make after leaving the starting zone who also happens to be a lesbian/whatevs. LOL. Give me a fucking break. Who writes this shit.
People who have never met anyone that's not part of their echo chamber.
 

Riddler

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jan 5, 2009
Messages
2,353
Bubbles In Memoria
The biggest strength is the core gameplay - level design, exploration and C&C are excellent

What are you talking about? The exploration is dogshit! Some of the environments are nice looking to be sure but there is nothing to find! No interesting loot, no interesting stories, no interesting lore, no side bosses; nothing.

Compare this area to FNV or Deadfire it's a horrendous amount of decline

If someone competent started writing her, and some untalented hack finished her, I wouldn't be surprised.

This is exactly what happened. Chris L'Etoile(sp?) Started writing but then his wife got cancer or something and he had to move back to Canada, while Dollarhyde took over the writing.

- Edgewater isn't the greatest starting area, but I can certainly think of worse ones. So far my biggest gripe with Edgewater is that all the sidequests were nothing but fetch quests. I was delivering more mail than the courier in New Vegas.

Welcome to the rest of the game.
 
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Riddler

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jan 5, 2009
Messages
2,353
Bubbles In Memoria
Riddler talked about how these people write without understanding the themes they are writing about (can't understand the opposing view etc). MCA surely understands how important this is, his writing is the proof. I just don't get how he allowed them there.

I thought she was responsible for the writing in WM and I thought that was largely solid.

Again calling on Roguey to bless us with his insight.
 
Joined
Aug 10, 2019
Messages
1,307
What are you talking about? The exploration is dogshit! Some of the environments are nice looking to be sure but there is nothing to find! No interesting loot, no interesting stories, no interesting lore, no side bosses; nothing.
The exploration is indeed dogshit. No good loot, no decent secrets, very little hidden c&c, nothing.
 

Fredward

Scholar
Joined
Aug 18, 2015
Messages
133
This game is the apogee of adequate.

With the exception of MotB and New Vegas Obsidian feels like the bureaucratic box-ticker of RPG devs. Like someone made a master list of what a good RPG entails and the development process is about meeting the minimum time and cost threshold to cross it off the list. Which may or may not be how development in general works but.
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2018
Messages
50,754
Codex Year of the Donut
I think I'm nearing the end, might finish it sometime this week. So far I'd rate it a 7.5/10, not the worst game ever but it has a lot of glaring flaws.

Good parts:
  • Lots of varied skills. Not as much as I like, but more than most FPS-RPG games. I like the idea of cross-training between groups of skills up to a certain proficiency level.
  • Companions are quite strong and a leadership-based build is entirely viable.
  • Most quests that aren't small side-quests have multiple ways to finish them, if you're relying entirely on your quest tracker you'll probably miss out on a lot.
  • To add to above, essentially everything about the UI can be turned off if you wish. Lots of options in the game menu.
  • Weapon & armor modding. Not enough mods, though, they need to add more.
  • Easily one of the most reactive RPGs I've played. It seems nearly everything you do is noticed by someone at some point. Lots of notable NPCs have new dialogues if you go back and speak to them.
  • To add to above, companions comment on a lot of things and banter between each other a lot. Really well done.
  • Pretty bug free, which is shocking considering it's obsidian.
  • Tinkering, but it should have been more in-depth rather than just raising the level of the item.
  • Lots of landmarks in the open-world parts to explore.
  • The interior areas are generally well designed.
  • The urban/interior environment art is great.
  • Works great on Linux out of the box.
  • No stupid lockpicking/hacking minigames.
  • There's lots of armor with varied bonuses and most of it looks pretty good.
  • Science weapons have unique effects and are cool.
  • Shooting is fun and controls well.

Indifferent parts:
  • I wasn't aware stats would be final at the character creation screen. Was this mentioned anywhere? I probably would have distributed my stats differently if I knew this.
  • So much crap loot that you have to pick up just to scrap it. This isn't fun, skip the middle step and just have enemies drop scrap instead of crap loot and focus on interesting itemization.
  • I've seen people complain about the AI but I had good experiences with it? AI didn't act dumb from what I saw, used plenty of cover, etc., Nothing to write home about.
  • Sort of a plus and a minus, but the game runs great in most areas. Has some stuttering, texture popping issues, and I get framerate drops in towns.
Bad parts:
  • Despite praising it in the 'good parts', I'll knock it here: The "open world" areas are the most boring part(especially monarch), just feels like running between points with lots of trash. Best areas are the ones like the abandoned space stations and Groundbreaker, if they make DLC I hope it's more like this.
  • Most perks are crap. Zero of them are interesting or really add any niche utility. Perks are even worse because there's none that have downsides which adds to player agency/roleplaying(IMO.) Compare to FNV perks like Black Widow/Ladykiller/gay equivs(has both combat + many non-combat uses), cannibal, rad child, etc., etc.,
  • Because most perks are crap, flaws are terrible. I picked up Robophobia before I even knew I'd have a robot companion and that essentially locked me out of using him.
  • Most of the companions are shit. I think I've posted enough about interesting companions being one of my favorite part of RPGs, and they're terrible, Vicar Max excluded. Parvati started off decent then just went downhill from there, everything you learn about her in the first town is never ever brought up again and completely forgotten, and instead it becomes a stupid story about lesbian minority lovers.
  • The story gives me no reason to actually do anything. Phineas wakes me up and sends me to the planet to do things for him, but… why? I don't know anything about him sans him being a wanted criminal. The game gives me no reason to embark on a journey that has a good chance of me ending up dead. Are my friends/family frozen on Hope?
  • The holographic shroud is a bad mechanic and shouldn't have been implemented. To make it worse, it feels incredibly half-assed. Oh, my shroud fell down let me pass this piss-easy speech check and refill it. But wait, I can't just sit in the corner and let it recharge instead? …ok…
  • Companions are incredibly squishy at the start of the game, trying to keep them alive on Supernova would be a nightmare.
  • The open-world area environment art hurts my eyes
  • It's stupid hard to find bodies after a fight, especially if they turned to ash.
  • God damn the females are ugly.
  • Where are my grenades and traps? Why can't I defuse enemy traps?
  • Holy shit stop with the terminals full of banal bullshit. Haha yes so funny corporatism run amok terminal #327. STOP IT, I GET IT OKAY.
  • No good side-content minigames.
  • There seems to be no reason to not use heavy armor all the time. Just swap it out if you need to pass a skill check.
  • Most weapons other than the assault rifles are crap.
  • Lots of Fedex quests, especially as I (presumably) get near the end.
  • I can't even remember if this game has a story. What happened to you, Obsidian?
  • Repetitive enemies that get boring.
  • Not enough companion abilities, and they aren't varied enough. All of them are essentially the same thing. If I put a surgeon on my team I expect her to be able to heal my party you dinguses. Parvati is an engineer, she should be able to deploy robots, etc.,
  • The inhaler-thing is a terrible design, bring back consumables. I hate having to go rummage through my inventory just because I want to use a specific consumable. This shit feels consolized as fuck.

Probably forgot some stuff.
 

Prime Junta

Guest
I wasn't aware stats would be final at the character creation screen. Was this mentioned anywhere? I probably would have distributed my stats differently if I knew this.

There’s a respec machine on your ship.

Good summary, I agree about 90%. Didn’t expect that from you tbh.
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2018
Messages
50,754
Codex Year of the Donut
I wasn't aware stats would be final at the character creation screen. Was this mentioned anywhere? I probably would have distributed my stats differently if I knew this.

There’s a respec machine on your ship.

Good summary, I agree about 90%. Didn’t expect that from you tbh.
It doesn't reset attributes, just skills and perks.
 

Black

Arcane
Joined
May 8, 2007
Messages
1,872,593
Which one looks better? Found a "Neutral colors LUT" file for the game that someone made, it's on the Nexus:

Default game colors:
TOWDefaultColors.png


"Neutral colors" LUT table file for Reshade, downloaded from Nexus:
TOWReShadeLUTNeutral.png


EDIT: here's another scene

Default colors:
TOWDefaultColors2.png


Neutral:
TOWReShadeLUTNeutral2.png
This is just Nu Male's Sky but with more buildings.
 

IHaveHugeNick

Arcane
Joined
Apr 5, 2015
Messages
1,870,124
What are you talking about? The exploration is dogshit! Some of the environments are nice looking to be sure but there is nothing to find! No interesting loot, no interesting stories, no interesting lore, no side bosses; nothing.
The exploration is indeed dogshit. No good loot, no decent secrets, very little hidden c&c, nothing.

I think you guys have a wildly different understanding of term 'exploration' than I do. When I say exploration is great I mean that maps are well crafted. They don't feel like corridors even on small interiors, they have have multiple approach paths to content, there's verticality, there's hidden stuff in unexpected places, there are visually distinctive landmarks that catch your eye and make you want to check it out, you can disable quest markers and it will work because maps are self-contained, and so on and so forth.

It's entirely true that stuff you end up finding is mostly trash loot and pointless collectibles, but for me at least it doesn't go under exploration is shit, it goes under loot is shit.

It's also worth pointing out that Monarch in particular has plenty of unique items and side bosses.

(heavy spoilers in here about maps so don't click if you're autistic)


A5p5L1O.png

It's just that it all gets drowned in the ocean of trash loot, but again, that doesn't go under exploration for me.
 
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Joined
Aug 10, 2019
Messages
1,307
What are you talking about? The exploration is dogshit! Some of the environments are nice looking to be sure but there is nothing to find! No interesting loot, no interesting stories, no interesting lore, no side bosses; nothing.
The exploration is indeed dogshit. No good loot, no decent secrets, very little hidden c&c, nothing.

I think you guys have a wildly different understanding of therm 'exploration' than I do. When I say exploration is great I mean that maps are well crafted. They don't feel like corridors even on small interiors, they have have multiple approach paths to content, there's verticality, there's hidden stuff in unexpected places, there are visually distinctive landmarks that catch your eye and make you want to check it out, you can disable quest markers and it will work because maps are self-contained, and so on and so forth.

It's entirely true that stuff you end up finding is mostly trash loot and pointless collectibles, but for me at least it doesn't go under exploration is shit, it goes under loot is shit.

It's also worth pointing out that Monarch in particular has plenty of unique items and side bosses.

A5p5L1O.png

It's just that it all gets drowned in the ocean of trash loot, but again, that doesn't go under exploration for me.
Fair enough. I don't mind the world-design in TOW personally. I think it's good enough, but maybe not as iconic as some other games since this is a hodgepodge of ideas. For me exploration is of two kinds. 1. seeing the scenery for the sake of it, and 2. for the purposes of being rewarded ie. finding neat stuff. IMO TOW fails in exploration on both accounts, since the economy/loot is mediocre, and the geography, while okay, is not novel. Exploring TOW's environment, specially its natural environment is like exploring any No Man's Sky environment. IMO the art style really brings it down.
 
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Nifft Batuff

Prophet
Joined
Nov 14, 2018
Messages
3,169
I noticed this issue as soon as I walked in an open space, and it is very annoying.

I haven't found any fix yet.
 

jf8350143

Liturgist
Joined
Apr 14, 2018
Messages
1,277
The game could use a flash light or a lamp. The lab on Roseway is really dark, and quite hard to see what's what.

Also I've been stuck at the weapon mod screen twice, both after I change the damage type of the weapon. Have to restart the game. The auto save system is decent enough so I didn't really lose any progress but still quite annoying.
 

HoboForEternity

sunset tequila
Patron
Joined
Mar 27, 2016
Messages
9,176
Location
Disco Elysium
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Uniques should be more powerful than they currently are, I have a bunch of them and have used none of them.
i have named shotgun 'the euthanizer' or something which is just the same stat as the MSI tactical shotgun and unupgradeable on top. i remember bunch of unique weapons in new vegas was actually powerful compared to the ordinary guns (like benny's gun, etc)

definitely on the pile of why this game is a disappointment.
 

IHaveHugeNick

Arcane
Joined
Apr 5, 2015
Messages
1,870,124
these maps looks pretty simplistic

They definitely are from a top-down view, but the way I would describe it, is that maps do a good job pretending to be more complex than they are actually are. A hidden passage under pipe, a hidden ladder allowing to sneak up a level and past enemies, strategically locked doors that require looking for different paths unless you can pass a skill check, things like that. Interior design people have done a great job. I'm with rusty_shackleford that hopefully DLCs add more space stations/dungeons because they're consistently the best part of the game.
 

HoboForEternity

sunset tequila
Patron
Joined
Mar 27, 2016
Messages
9,176
Location
Disco Elysium
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
these maps looks pretty simplistic

They definitely are from a top-down view, but the way I would describe it, is that maps do a good job pretending to be more complex than they are actually are. A hidden passage under pipe, a hidden ladder allowing to sneak up a level and past enemies, strategically locked doors that require looking for different paths unless you can pass a skill check, things like that. Interior design people have done a great job. I'm with rusty_shackleford that hopefully DLCs add more space stations/dungeons because they're consistently the best part of the game.
the only one it is used so far is the pork factory king quest and it was done really well. one of the best quest in the game IMO.

but otherwise you're just going into raider or animal lairs that made multiple entrances redundant. the problem is the lack of teeth in the factioning system so far. they really never go against each other truly. i haven't finished the game yet, but so far stuff like spacer's choice and deserters, the groundbreaker vs board, iconoclast vs MSI and sublight, etc. they hint of a brewing conflict but never do anything. it's dull.

maybe it will come up later. i am about to go the devil's peak in monarch.

new vegas have had this since the beginning. goodsprings vs powder gangers, the silver feather in the strip, etc.
 

PrettyDeadman

Guest
these maps looks pretty simplistic

They definitely are from a top-down view, but the way I would describe it, is that maps do a good job pretending to be more complex than they are actually are. A hidden passage under pipe, a hidden ladder allowing to sneak up a level and past enemies, strategically locked doors that require looking for different paths unless you can pass a skill check, things like that. Interior design people have done a great job. I'm with rusty_shackleford that hopefully DLCs add more space stations/dungeons because they're consistently the best part of the game.
the only one it is used so far is the pork factory king quest and it was done really well. one of the best quest in the game IMO.

but otherwise you're just going into raider or animal lairs that made multiple entrances redundant. the problem is the lack of teeth in the factioning system so far. they really never go against each other truly. i haven't finished the game yet, but so far stuff like spacer's choice and deserters, the groundbreaker vs board, iconoclast vs MSI and sublight, etc. they hint of a brewing conflict but never do anything. it's dull.

maybe it will come up later. i am about to go the devil's peak in monarch.

new vegas have had this since the beginning. goodsprings vs powder gangers, the silver feather in the strip, etc.
MSI vs Iconoclast can lead to all out conflict. If you give targeting system to MSI - dozens of iconoclasts (including their leaders) start to attack MSI. It feels like the ruins around MSI were specifically designed with that in mind, especially the church where the final confrontation happens.
 
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Haplo

Prophet
Patron
Joined
Sep 14, 2016
Messages
6,138
Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
I've tried to only write here when I have nothing to say but fuck it, I bought the game on launch day and wanted to join the shit posting with my excrement. This is the 2nd game in 10 years I've bought on launch day. Yes, joke is on me. The other game? Moving along...

Only thing I knew about the game was that Cain and Boyarsky were behind it. Didn't follow it, didn't read about it, wanted to start playing it spoiler free and not already burnt out by the hype and crap. There will be spoilers so jump to TLDR if you're thinking of playing this (lol).

Launch the game, looks nice, sounds nice, char generation, ooh, looks pretty nice, plenty of skills, omg this is gonna be awesome. Rolled a whitey who can talk shit but is useless in combat. As in, dumped all my points into dialogue and tech/sneak stuff. Difficulty? Eh, let's go with normal for a first gameplay since I got no combat skills. Avellone gameplay here I come! I just hope there are no wolves at the start, this is a Cain-Boyarsky game remember. :<

Immediately I'm surprised how I can melt bandits without any problems even though I got a basic peashooter and no weapon skills. I put it down to it being the start of the game and the first few levels. Not a fan of the art or char design, but it's passable. Zone exploration feels ok, music ok, sounds ok, itemization basic and boring, is this an MMO? Is there crafting or are all these skins and stuff just plain vendor trash? Quests are basic and ok, mildly entertained by what the game is offering at this point. So on we go.. pew pew ..

Hmm, finding out people are only eating canned tuna and it is making them sick. Ok, so we got space travel. We got cryogenics. We can colonize other star systems. But we've somehow lost the tech of basic nutrient additives. I'm sure a big corporation would keep their workforce alive as that is cheaper than bringing new workers from ANOTHER FUCKING SOLAR SYSTEM. Ok whatevs, I'll play along, I just hope the quest doesn't tell me that you can cure the people by going all vegan. Hah that would be.. wait.. what.. The fuckers actually shut down the tuna plant, because fish have feelings too you know, and went full vegan and now everyone is well again. Right. Ok. Whatevs, next zone will be better.

End of the first zone I had 81 stimpacks. Eighty one stimpacks. Never needed them, never bought any, just looted 81 of them. Never need to use the vending machines, don't need to buy anything, money is just for tinkering, never run out of ammo (got thousands), don't even need to mod your weapons, you do not need to do anything. It's there if you want to do it, but you have zero need to do it. Oh right there is bullet time too, I literally forgot about it. You do not need it. And I don't even know what the Vicar combat ability does, never tried it, forgot they are there. Don't need to use them, everything just melts in your presence. And I have no weapon skills.

Speaking of companions. Parvati. Thought it started out good and I kinda liked the character at first. Engineer woman, ok, why not, I've dated one in real life. When it was revealed she is asexual I was like what, tripling down on the minority stuff here. Engineer woman, minority check, kinda pretty engineer woman, double check, pretty asexual engineer woman, triple check. Who then meets another engineer woman at the first pit stop we make after leaving the starting zone who also happens to be a lesbian/whatevs. LOL. Give me a fucking break. Who writes this shit. Maybe it is me who is out of touch with reality, but this is monty python territory to me. And no, I will not go buy you a dress and get you pastries for your date, I'm too old for this shit, been there, done that. Just fix the ship thanks, we got a universe to save.

The Parvati storyline is just... banal teenage stuff. The storyline would be enormously more interesting if it would be revealed that the reason Parvati is asexual is because she was raped and molested by her father, who everyone thinks was a good guy. That would be dark and shocking, and would have some gravitas to make the player feel *something* towards the character. Most likely compassion unless you're a long time codexer with 1000+ posts. That would explain why she is like a naive teenager even though she is 28, and of course why she is asexual. At first I thought the storyline would be about her mother, which felt obvious, but it wasn't even that. We got the worst possible option imaginable. If someone competent started writing her, and some untalented hack finished her, I wouldn't be surprised.

The Vicar companion seemed interesting but I wasn't into the biblehumper archetype when playing. All new IPs have the religious infodumper who spams your chatbox full of some religious tripe fitting the lore. That is fine, but I didn't feel like getting into his exposition because I was bored and just didn't care about the side aspects of the gameworld when the meat itself was rotten. If the game would be great, I'd get into it on a second playthrough.

Got to the 2nd zone, finished all there was to do. Not much to write about that. The place looked kinda nice but the content was boring. So bland, so utterly utterly bland. I can't really even remember what I did there besides being in agony reading the dialogue of Parvati and her girlfriend. Went to bed and thought I'd continue it the next day. Never did. I just had no interest to start playing it again. The next day I did not even remember what quests I was on. The next fucking day! The game is just so utterly bland and boring, with bad gameplay as well, that there are dozens of things, even games, I'd rather put my time into.

I cannot see how anyone with experience in RPGs could enjoy this game. I simply cannot see it. Every single thing the game does and attempts other games do better, and the game doesn't even try to do anything new. There is no creativity here. It's a Feargus slam dunk project, playing it safe. If you are new to RPGs, are of Generation Z, are a non-gamer who rarely plays games, then sure, I can see how you can enjoy the game for what it is, but calling the game a good game, a quality game, is an utter joke.

Cain, Boyarsky, why? What happened? :( Did a lot of the content get cut? Did a lot of the mechanics get cut? Was there an executive order (Feargus) to cut / change things and we ended up with this uninspired and bland thing? Was the game rushed? I am so disappointed. The perks are so bland and boring they could be removed from the game and nothing would be lost. The skill system does not work either. The weapons, items, and itemization are all boring. It all needs a total rewrite.

TLDR; Bland, boring, tasteless, lacks creativity, lacks vision, lacks content, lacks substance, bad writing, bad gameplay. One of the worst RPGs I have ever played. 3/10

My take aways from this post are:
1. Normal is too easy.
2. You've been playing on the wrong difficulty setting given your experience with the genre and/or reflexes.
Sure, the game is too easy. But that's pushing it.
 

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