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

[Viata]

This IP has no fanbase.

Doesn't matter. The game sold well, if there is a sequel those same people would still buy it hoping they fixed the problems. As always.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

https://www.reddit.com/r/theouterworlds/comments/f3h3bg/the_most_mediocre_game_i_have_ever_played/

1.5K upvotes, on the Outer Worlds subreddit. This IP has no fanbase.

Eh Isn't that good? If the fanbase think isnt best game , they might listen fans and changes things for the better next time. For example KH3 dlc + patchs actually gave what people want and fixed major problems.

Just because people think the game isnt amazing , don't mean has no fanbase.

 

[Infinitron]

The biggest problem i think with this game is that it lacks any kind of depth. No one takes anything seriously, so why should I? The corporate jokes are funny for like 30 minutes and then get stale very quickly. The humans all feel like brainwashed soulless idiots. They're like: "Yeah so i work 23 hours a day and i don't get any money lol." "Only like 20 people died in order to make toothpaste lmao." Yeah, yeah, yeah i get it human life isn't worth anything, ok. This kind of satire isn't funny when it's being used through the ENTIRE game, it also makes everything incredibly predictable. Boarst factory? Probably human flesh involved. A seemingly perfect early retirement district? Probably a slaughterhouse.

Some people on the Codex have made this criticism. It's true, but it's also interesting because it shows you which subject matter people seem to find endlessly compelling and which they don't.

These things he mentions - they are just the Outer Worlds equivalent of the apocalyptic logs you'll find in any ruin in a Bethesda Fallout game. Fallout logs: Dude writing about how the nukes landed in 2077 and everything went to shit. Outer Worlds logs: Dude writing about how the corporations fucked up and everything went to shit. The latter just seems inherently less compelling to people and that's a problem for Obsidian.

 

[JDR13]

The biggest problem i think with this game is that it lacks any kind of depth. No one takes anything seriously, so why should I? The corporate jokes are funny for like 30 minutes and then get stale very quickly. The humans all feel like brainwashed soulless idiots. They're like: "Yeah so i work 23 hours a day and i don't get any money lol." "Only like 20 people died in order to make toothpaste lmao." Yeah, yeah, yeah i get it human life isn't worth anything, ok. This kind of satire isn't funny when it's being used through the ENTIRE game, it also makes everything incredibly predictable. Boarst factory? Probably human flesh involved. A seemingly perfect early retirement district? Probably a slaughterhouse.

Some people on the Codex have made this criticism. It's true, but it's also interesting because it shows you which subject matter people seem to find endlessly compelling and which they don't.

These things he mentions - they are just the Outer Worlds equivalent of the apocalyptic logs you'll find in any ruin in a Bethesda Fallout game. Fallout logs: Dude writing about how the nukes landed in 2077 and everything went to shit. Outer Worlds log: Dude writing about how the corporations fucked up and everything went to shit.

Saying it's comparable to the writing in Bethesda's games isn't exactly a complement.

 

[Viata]

Tbh, everyone already knows that corporations fuck things up(usually) so that is not really interesting to read.

 

[Butter]

Those logs in Fallout are usually a pointless waste of time. It's kind of baffling that Obsidian bothered to put that in TOW. Really suggests that they were cynically copying the Bethesda mold without stopping to think which parts of it they could improve on.

 

[Infinitron]

Saying it's comparable to the writing in Bethesda's games isn't exactly a complement.

Bethesda isn't bad at everything though. Their take on the Vaults for example - that's a prime example of what we're talking about here. A collection of dungeons, each with its own side story about how everything went to shit. This approach was replicated by Obsidian in New Vegas, and they're some of the most iconic locations in these games.

 

[Zombra]

Tbh, everyone already knows that corporations fuck things up(usually) so that is not really interesting to read.

One could far more easily say that everyone already knows being blown to shit by a nuclear bomb fucks things up (usually). I don't think that's the reason that Outer Worlds writing isn't critically acclaimed.

 

[luj1]

Yeah but New Vegas is shit.

 

[Nano]

The difference between the logs in NV and TOW is that NV's read like they were written by real people. TOW's logs just have those neverending unfunny jokes.

 

[Infinitron]

The difference between the logs in NV and TOW is that NV's read like they were written by real people. TOW's logs just have those neverending unfunny jokes.

I think the real problem is that the setting itself is a joke. Obsidian have to fix that if they're to create a truly successful sequel. They need to take this "zany science and corporations in space!" parody universe and inject some high stakes Space Opera into it. Find a blend that works.

 

[Alpan]

The difference between the logs in NV and TOW is that NV's read like they were written by real people. TOW's logs just have those neverending unfunny jokes.

I think the real problem is that the setting itself is a joke. Obsidian have to fix that if they're to create a truly successful sequel. They need to take this "zany science and corporations in space!" parody universe and inject some high stakes Space Opera into it. Find a blend that works.

Any potential The Outer Worlds sequel is a catastrophe in the making, not a candidate for success. The game didn't reach the level of acclaim or the niche appeal it needed to achieve for a sequel to escape the gravity well of Greatly Underperforming Sequels. After White March and Deadfire Obsidian would have to be flaming idiots to actually conceputalize a direct sequel to TOW.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

The difference between the logs in NV and TOW is that NV's read like they were written by real people. TOW's logs just have those neverending unfunny jokes.

I think the real problem is that the setting itself is a joke. Obsidian have to fix that if they're to create a truly successful sequel. They need to take this "zany science and corporations in space!" parody universe and inject some high stakes Space Opera into it. Find a blend that works.

Any potential The Outer Worlds sequel is a catastrophe in the making, not a candidate for success. The game didn't reach the level of acclaim or the niche appeal it needed to achieve for a sequel to escape the gravity well of Greatly Underperforming Sequels. After White March and Deadfire Obsidian would have to be flaming idiots to actually conceputalize a direct sequel to TOW.

white march was fantastic you pleb

if anything, the takeaway should be that snow makes everything better and that hot temperatures make everything worse

 

[Alpan]

white march was fantastic you pleb

I'm referring to sales numbers, imbecile.

 

[Infinitron]

They're with Microsoft now, with enough investment they can probably find a way. Not saying they would succeed but I don't think it's impossible.

Things will be more clear once we find out what Obsidian's next "big" game is.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

white march was fantastic you pleb

I'm referring to sales numbers, imbecile.

If white march was a standalone expansion it would have sold far better
yes, selling an expansion that's buried inside a mediocre game is difficult, what's your point?

 

[Alpan]

yes, selling an expansion that's buried inside a mediocre game is difficult, what's your point?

That's the point, and it applies equally to standalone expansions and sequels. Your moronic interjection, assuming I was somehow talking about the quality of the sequels/expansions, is the reason for this pointless exchange.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Bethesda's gamebryo gets a lot of flack but it does a good job of immersing you with all the little physics objects and clutter everywhere. Outer Worlds feels pretty static and artificial by comparison. KCD had the same problem.

When everything of value is highlighted by a yellow outline there's little motivation to peer into the details. Things like upending a crate from a shelf and finding a skillbook helped Fallout 3/4 feel more lived in.

 

[Quillon]

It all depends on how they see the game's reception: Do they agree with the game's critiques? or do they look at it as they made a GoTY contender game which sold well? They need to acknowledge they shit the bed first if they ever gonna try to clean it

 

[luj1]

I love it how this game is now but a dwindling memory, just like I prophesied.

 

[Zombra]

That's the point

I'm confused. Are you saying that Obsidian would never make a sequel unless it was a guaranteed top seller? Or are you complaining that they might make a sequel that doesn't sell well but turns out to be really good?

 

[Nano]

Y'all... stop saying "would Obsidian do this, would Obsidian do that". Obsidian isn't the one making these decisions anymore. Microsoft has the final say.

 

[Alpan]

I'm confused. Are you saying that Obsidian would never make a sequel unless it was a guaranteed top seller? Or are you complaining that they might make a sequel that doesn't sell well but turns out to be really good?

At least you're sincere. What I'm saying is that Obsidian would be terribly misguided to make any sort of sequel, because The Outer Worlds is a mediocre game that people don't strongly care about one way or the other. For this reason, a sequel would generate a small fraction of sales of the first game. Sequels that perform extremely badly are normal in the AA RPG space; The Outer Worlds would become its next example.

 

[Cleveland Mark Blakemore]

This game was sold entirely based on the fact it was from the same people who made New Vegas, the greatest post-apoc of all time.

It had a Fallout-style to it in the trailers and screen images.

Upon playing it, I found it to be an AAA graphically beautiful slideshow that was one of the most mediocre RPGs I have ever seen. It's only high points were flagrant steals from BIOSHOCK and FALLOUT. The rest was utter crap. Combat, crap. Exploration, crap. Dialogue, crap. Story was good but it was delivered on rails. Why is all text in a 6 pt pixel font? It's virtually unreadable even on a 4k.

In fact, once you get past the garish graphics and awesome visuals, there's practically nothing there. A single abandoned building in New Vegas had more fun in it than this entire game.

It proves that even when you know what incline is, you can still create decline. I am very disappoint. I paid $40 and I feel like I paid $39 too much. Already thinking of trading it in after three hours of play.

Also, the whole androgenous millennial vibe of gloryhole smoking and dag cyberpunk was casually disguised leftism ... who got their politics in my game again?

P.S. With a title like THE OUTER WORLD you would expect it to be largely open world but it felt claustrophobic and like you were in an amusement park riding a rail looking at things go by.

P.P.S. What is wrong with these millennials thinking making all the women in the game look like crewcut lesbians is going to appeal to anyone anywhere? Don't they have games for lesbians? Why the need for stealth lesbos in everything? Where da white wimmen at? How come we can't have a kicking beautiful babe in a spacesuit with long hair? Is that part of the privilege hierarchy of evil males?

CLEVE-O-METER
"Get woke, go broke"
* * * * *
1 out of 5 Stars, for the graphics​

 

[Nano]

It proves that even when you know what incline is

You're very optimistic if you think modern Obsidian theoretically knows how to develop incline games.