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

[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.

 

[Jenkem]

Leonard sounds like he's never trully happy. Always disappointed and sad.

What's his Codex account?

 

[Infinitron]

Leonard sounds like he's never trully happy. Always disappointed and sad.

What's his Codex account?

You think this is a joke, but LeonX

 

[v1rus]

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.

Curious indeed. I tend to do things "To-do list" style, exploring one hub to death, finding all quests, and then doing them the optimal way. Still, fast travel fastens the game very much, so I imagine Supernova is way longer.

 

[Nano]

You think this is a joke, but LeonX

Last posted in 2005, he probably doesn't even remember his password at this point.

 

[Infinitron]

I tried to invite him to reactivate his account after he joined Obsidian back in 2016, but he never did.

 

[Nano]

Understandable.

 

[Starwars]

For all my whining about the game, length sure isn't one of them for me. I think it had a great length. Definitely not long like doing all the content in New Vegas or something but it also didn't feel short to me. It's a great replayable length for a RPG as far as I'm concerned and yet didn't feel like it was over immediately.

Of course, the actual content should've been better but... the length is perfectly fine. Just needed some more girth to go with it.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

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.

Curious indeed. I tend to do things "To-do list" style, exploring one hub to death, finding all quests, and then doing them the optimal way. Still, fast travel fastens the game very much, so I imagine Supernova is way longer.

all supernova does is add tedium. to every single aspect of the game. but anything lower than supernova is piss easy and uninteresting.

 

[Paul_cz]

Also finished today. 36 hours, hard, did every quest I found (and I think I found them all).

It is a solid 8/10 - enjoyable game, but definitely far cry from classics like Bloodlines/New Vegas.

I liked the Firefly vibe, I chuckled during some dialogues from time to time, I enjoyed the quests...but at the same time, I was glad when it ended because I wanted it to end already, despite its short lenght. Contrast that with Kingdom Come that I played two months ago - it took me 200 hours (hardcore, all DLCs included) and I did not want it to end. Big difference in quality.

But as a first singleplayer RPG from Tim and Leon after what, 15 years? Not bad. If they could get better writers (like the ones they or Obsidian worked with previously, Mitsoda/Avellone/Fenstermaker/Gonzales) and fix the idiotic overabundance of loot, get bigger budget and more time...they could create another classic one day.

Props to Justin Bell. The soundtrack was great.

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

So if the codex considers that this game is just ok... That means that the rest of the world thinks that is a 10/10 masterpiece Game of the year?