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

[the mole]

Is The Outer Worlds worth giving up my personal information to the Chinese Government, or should I just not buy it/wait for Steam?

Edit: I'm seriously asking. I haven't followed it at all since I heard about the whole Epic Store thing.

Nothing you own would be worth anything to the Chinese government

 

[Jack]

Also hope this game sets a precedent about how not every RPG has to have this ambitious big open world like Witcher 3 or Skyrim and that a compact setting can have more focus and soul poured into it

Spiders (and Cyanide) have been doing that for quite a while now, and been doing a better job of it. TOW is a budget title in many regards but it apes F:NV, Borderlands and Bioshock instead of embracing its budget and doing its own thing. I'd actually much rather see something more akin to the first Witcher game from Obsidian than a poor man's F:NV. Which is the direction Spiders have gone, tight games smaller in scope both in terms of setting, narrative and gameplay. They actually have decent writers and artists who can carry such games though.

 

[hexer]

The sandbox elements are lacking, it actually feels more like an MMO than a singleplayer RPG. It's static and there is no effort put into "quest satisfaction" - like how NPCs actually do what they are saying they are going to do. Nobody walks anywhere. Saved a girl and she just remained in place but then when I got to the city where she is from, she somehow got there before me. Lack of detail in environment. Like how one area was supposed to be abandon for months but the bodies there are still fresh. Also enemies respawn. They go back to the exact same spot they were in the first time, just to really grind in the feeling of MMO I guess.

Looking at your description, that could just as easily be "feels more like a 2000s single player RPG and not like a modern open world sandbox (a genre increasingly influenced by MMOs)". Especially the part about the rescued girl, every isometric RPG works like that.

That's not true, even in Fallout 2 rescued NPCs would run away

 

[the mole]

I'm finding the level design lacking and general sponginess of enemies go through the roof when I got off the first planet, and I'm playing on normal

Which means shooting a mark II robot over 20 times with a charge up plasma rifle while I strafe while it just fucking stands there

 

[jf8350143]

So if you play with French localisation, Max's “French? I can’t fucking read French!” line change to Polish instead.

Also you have a scared dialogue option with Sam if you have the Robophobia flaw.

 

[Beastro]

I've been staring at the title screen for 5 minutes with tears rolling down my eyes...

 

[frajaq]

always a bit weird when the art team spends a lot of time designing unique armor pieces for the companions that you then replace as soon as you can for regular generic armor because of the stats

surely there's a way to solve this

 

[Jenkem]

always a bit weird when the art team spends a lot of time designing unique armor pieces for the companions that you then replace as soon as you can for regular generic armor because of the stats

surely there's a way to solve this

every game that shows equipped armor should have a cosmetic slot

 

[Goral]

I've barely started but so far I'm enjoying it a lot more than Disco Elysium (I've put it on hold even though I'm not far from the end by the looks of it). The simplification of character sheet is annoying, numbers are so confusing right? We're also women by default even though no scientist in his right mind would choose a woman to do some important task (and not to mention that 90% of TOW target are men). In every good RPG we're playing as a man by default so yeah, the SJW is hitting us from the start (there's also sex parity, there are way too many women performing important functions). What's also funny is that races are input alternately so first we have white, than whiter, then black I think, etc. I guess they didn't want any race segregation :D. We can also add scars and dirt on us which is stupid unless it would affect our charisma (e.g. scar could increase intimidation but dirt decrease our persuasion skills and both should give negative reaction from most new people we would meet). Same goes for make-up, no one in his right mind would talk with a faggot or a woman that looks like a clown.

Anyway, I like the writing so far, the humour is good, I chuckled at the conversation something along the lines:

"Vale's a wide place, she could be anywhere."
to which PC could replied:
"Unless marauders got to her, then parts of her would be in a lot of places."

(although her reaction to this was too mild IMO, she just told me not to joke like that)

I also like the atmosphere of the world, getting Firefly vibes (my favourite TV series of all time), although just like in New Vegas towns and world feel a bit empty (the chosen setting explains it but still), most buildings are empty and there aren't too many people on streets (which again makes sense for a colony that's struggling to survive). Dialogues so far are well written and make sense and unlike in Disco Elysium we can't repeat the same conversation over and over and even choose a different option than previously (which is super dumb). Voice acting is also superb, I haven't heard such good actors in a game since VTMB. We will see how it goes from here but so far I'm having as much fun playing it as I had when I've played New Vegas.

 

[hexer]

Average Total Free Testosterone in this image: 100ng/dl (the scale for men is 250-1250), I totally understand why this game is the way it is. I weep for the future of the West. Supplicant beta males ruled by hamplanets and turbo bitch radical leftist women. Good times!

Looks like a fairly normal american dev company to me, honestly.

WTF?

 

[Nerevar]

Just hanging out with the henchmen... henchxirs?

One thing I've found out is DO NOT upgrade your guns right away because it isn't worth it as the new versions will be stronger and cheaper to tinker on. LMG is one of the best guns I think put my henchmen in heavy armour and make them use tinkered LMGs.

 

[ItsChon]

hurdur I'm a retard that's easily entertained

It's people like you that are the reason shit games like this keep being made.

I can understand not liking Disco Elysium for one reason or another, but when you make a post as blatantly retarded as this...

 

[Drakortha]

I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised by the options you have for your companions, as well as a proper stats page and their own perks.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised by the options you have for your companions, as well as a proper stats page and their own perks.

Oh you already got SAM. Is he fun?

 

[RK47]

Is there a way to hotkey consumable?

 

[Crispy]

I'm just going to say this once. I will keep this short. This is for the benefit (hopefully) of anyone who's reading this thread this far in and hasn't quite decided whether to try this game or not.

Don't do it. This game is bad. REALLY bad. I fully admit I only got through the tutorial, onto the ship, and talked to a couple of NPCs. I tried it using the $1.00 GamePass trial thing on my high-end gaming rig. But that's all I needed to see. I couldn't believe what I was witnessing. My God. Obsidian, what the fuck.

This game is literally bad for your health. You *will* lose probably 10 IQ points PERMANENTLY if you persist past the tutorial. There's real danger of intellectual decay just watching the opening cinematics. You have to believe me.

Don't walk, RUN away from this monstrosity. It's as bad as you feared, likely much much worse. Please, save yourself. Don't be tempted just to try it out. I was and I barely made it out alive.

This is Crispy, of the Nostromo, signing off.

 

[the mole]

I'm just going to say this once. I will keep this short. This is for the benefit (hopefully) of anyone who's reading this thread this far in and hasn't quite decided whether to try this game or not.

Don't do it. This game is bad. REALLY bad. I fully admit I only got through the tutorial, onto the ship, and talked to a couple of NPCs. I tried it using the $1.00 GamePass trial thing on my high-end gaming rig. But that's all I needed to see. I couldn't believe what I was witnessing. My God. Obsidian, what the fuck.

This game is literally bad for your health. You *will* lose probably 10 IQ points PERMANENTLY if you persist past the tutorial. There's real danger of intellectual decay just watching the opening cinematics. You have to believe me.

Don't walk, RUN away from this monstrosity. It's as bad as you feared, likely much much worse. Please, save yourself. Don't be tempted just to try it out. I was and I barely made it out alive.

This is Crispy, of the Nostromo, signing off.

You're a retard who cant use their brain to come up with a reason it's bad

I'll give an actual reason it's bad

I'm playing on normal and regular gorilla enemies can tank 30 grenades, you heard that right, 30 fucking grenades plus straight to the face, the gunplay is inane because most nonhuman enemies are bullet sponges that cant be killed without cheesing them in some way, companions are braindead and will run face first into 20 gorillas and die instantly

 

[Goliath]

Just hanging out with the henchmen... henchxirs?

Shouldn't he be standing in the back and let these strong womyn of color take the lead? They both look like they get very angry if they see a white cis scum male who does not know his place.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

29.

They/Them. Writer. Leftist Politics, Sex Positive Intersectional Feminism, and Antifascism.

does not bode well bros

 

[AwesomeButton]

. Especially the part about the rescued girl, every isometric RPG works like that.

Oh, hi. Oct 15:

Edit: When I take a look at the pros and cons again, this game would have been better off being isometric

Jenkem - disappeared
Cyberwhale - rating posts helplessly while wiping tears
Sailor Woedica - probably will never be seen again
rusty cuckelford - b-b-but.. that quest is kinda okay

The rest of the monocled codex

I recently read a local expert explain the 5 stages of grief to someone playing Disco Elysium. I wonder where he is now. We really need his expertise again.

I'm playing on normal and regular gorilla enemies can tank 30 grenades, you heard that right, 30 fucking grenades plus straight to the face, the gunplay is inane because most nonhuman enemies are bullet sponges that cant be killed without cheesing them in some way, companions are braindead and will run face first into 20 gorillas and die instantly

Just want to remind everyone that "Tim played this 16 times", so everything is balanced and tested. This is "the best Obsidian can come up with".

I don't know if I have, but I think I've said this before during the pre-release period - from Tim and Leonard's interviews that became more frequent during ToW's production, it seemed to me more and more that whatever we call "incline" in their earlier games happened largely by mistake and by accident. I heard things like "We wanted the first Fallout to be first person, but the technology didn't allow it" and "In Arcanum we overestimated ourselves and tried to put everything in one game". I don't remember what the self-criticism of VTMB was.

I'm heading to the sad conclusion that they simply didn't have the budget and the experience in order to "properly fail", until now, with ToW. Also, that their and our ideas about a good RPG seem to coincide only at the most basic level.

 

[jf8350143]

I wonder how much praise the game will get if it wasn't made by Obsidian but by some random Europe studios.

Greedfall thread was pretty much 50% "it's shit" and 50% "it's fine", and here it's pretty much just constantly "it's shit" and "The females has short hair, it's SJWs！”.

And Greedfall was nowhere near as good as this game with worse looking females.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

OUh yeah,the quality of the quests and the writing is sooo fucking amazing. Not the generic fedex garbage that is normally in such games,not at all.

Just wait until you get into the corporate capital city and then find a guy who wants to give you a quest to collect rats in the sewers. Then again I didn't actually take the quest because I'm getting sick of the game, so maybe there's something amazing down there. But since I've already had people wanting me to collect books for them and collect graveyard dues for them I'm inclined to believe the game just has a bunch of fedex. The big reward for turning in Phineas was 2,500 zorkmids, too. I spent 8,000 zorkmids progressing the quest so I could even turn him in in the first place. I guess I underestimated the size of his bounty.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I wonder how much praise the game will get if it wasn't made by Obsidian but by some random Europe studios.

I wonder how many times this stupidity will be repeated by you or rusty.

You in the US may already be accustomed to crying discrimination every time something doesn't suit you, but not everyone is such a snowflake and many people judge games on their merits.

 

[jf8350143]

I wonder how much praise the game will get if it wasn't made by Obsidian but by some random Europe studios.

I wonder how many times this stupidity will be repeated by you or rusty.

You in the US may already be accustomed to crying discrimination every time something doesn't suit you, but not everyone is such a snowflake and many people judge games on their merits.

Except I'm not in the US, not even close.

 

[Prime Junta]

Preliminary hot take:

• Core gameplay is okay, like FONV+
• Disappointed in the writing, it has some good moments but mostly wanders between bland and try-hard, this ain’t no VtM:B
• Characters are old-school let-me-tell-you-about-my-mother quest dispensers
• VO is uninspired
• So woke
• So, so woke
• So woke I’m not 100% sure they’re not taking the piss at times
• Art direction is too loud for my eyes, exteriors and interiors clash
• Pretty cool level design
• Character build system seems somewhat promising

tl;dr it’s incredibly safe