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

[Avarize]

The game is so bland that even shitting on it is boring.

 

[The_Mask]

The title "The Outer Worlds" is clearly a nod to Isaac Asimov's famous series, and had they actually brought in any ideas from there, this would've automatically been above boredom levels. Alas... we have to inhale deep the smell of our own farts: "what inspired you? Fallout! Our own game! Remember Fallout?!? Guys?!?"

 

[LESS T_T]

The game has sold 2.5 million copies. Not bad. I was guessing maybe half those numbers.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...net-bookings-records-as-q4-digital-sales-jump

Update: over 3 million copies.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-11-05-nba-2k21-drives-take-two-earnings

 

[Ezeekiel]

The game has sold 2.5 million copies. Not bad. I was guessing maybe half those numbers.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...net-bookings-records-as-q4-digital-sales-jump

Update: over 3 million copies.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-11-05-nba-2k21-drives-take-two-earnings

That's a lot less than what I was expecting based on it being positioned as some sort of Fallout 4 replacement/successor after the FO76 disaster.
Maybe those 2-3 million are just the general audience of game journo sites and they failed to get the attention of the normies?

 

[undecaf]

Could’ve been more if they didn’t price it like a triple-A game (and didn’t go with that ”epic” scheme).

 

[Infinitron]

That number doesn't include the many millions who must have played it on Game Pass.

Earnings call transcript: https://seekingalpha.com/article/43...-on-q2-2020-results-earnings-call?part=single

Turning to Private Division, during the second quarter, the label released Peril on Gorgon, a narrative expansion for their award-winning RPG, The Outer Worlds from Obsidian Entertainment. Peril on Gorgon is the first of two expansions that can be purchased individually or bundled at a discount in The Outer Worlds Expansion Pass. The Outer Worlds continues to outperform our expectations and has now sold in over 3 million units.

Enjoy during the first half of calendar 2021 Private Division will release The Outer Worlds Murder on Eridanos, the second narrative expansion for their successful RPG from Obsidian Entertainment. The expansion will be available individually or at a discount as part of The Outer Worlds expansion pass, which also includes the previously released Peril on Gorgon.

We expect digitally delivered net bookings will be down approximately 15% due to lower digitally delivered sales of Red Dead Redemption 2 on PC and the outer worlds which launched last year.

 

[Roguey]

Bioware Jr doing Bioware numbers.

 

[TheDiceMustRoll]

The game has sold 2.5 million copies. Not bad. I was guessing maybe half those numbers.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...net-bookings-records-as-q4-digital-sales-jump

Update: over 3 million copies.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-11-05-nba-2k21-drives-take-two-earnings

Looks like the steam release got them a pretty small pop. It was 50% off on steam too, though.

 

[LESS T_T]

There was also Switch release in between.

 

[Yosharian]

At this point Obsidian doesn't give a shit how well TOW sold, they are owned by Microsoft and can do whatever they want really.

Except hire actual decent writers and make good games

 

[TheDiceMustRoll]

they are owned by Microsoft and can do whatever they want really.

 

[jackofshadows]

Isn't Deadwood known for its absurd amount of cursing? Is that true for TOW?

... and that is just one word.

Anyway, Deadwood inspiration isn't new, Boyarsky has been telling about it even before release but I thought he meant settlements design wise, Fallbrook kinda confirmed that to me: one long broad street, just like in the show or pretty much any western movie. Not to mention some other cowboyish aesthetic, although it can be attributed to Firefly. But 'their use of language'?! WTF? Even cursing aside, TOW has very clean, polished use of language I'd say, nowhere close to crooked Deadwood style.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

I hope they make Holographic Shroud better in the sequel or other games mimic because it's legit good idea. Just need to make less abusable to run as madman to ignore the checks.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

 

[TheDiceMustRoll]

only 19.99!

 

[Correct_Carlo]

Finishing this up. It starts out great, but you kind of end up realizing how hollow and small it is by the end. There's basically just one good sized world, one medium sized world, and everywhere else is tiny. Like, smaller than 2000s era Bioware Maps in many cases.

However, my biggest problem with it is that it's far too easy, even on Supernova. I died a few times at the start of the game, but I don't think I died once in the last 3/4 of the game. Which is disappointing as there are lots of interesting ways to upgrade your character, but almost zero reason to put any effort into doing so at all. Once I realized how easy the game was, I just started taking every flaw it offered, but it's still too easy.

At least it isn't terribly long.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Disappointment.


Seems to be the most common theme in this thread.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Keeping a healthy distance of "never touch". Snowflake-tainted mediocrity, sparks of good ideas which were never developed upon, because of the cookie cutter attitude to making RPGs - "Hub 1, Hub 2, factions, NPC spokesman for faction". "Obligatory though out of place strong independent" diarrhea prevents it from being carried by its narrative. Underdeveloped mechanics, for fear of chasing away the casual crowd sales, prevent it from being carried by its mechanics. I've already played this game before installing it.

 

[TheDiceMustRoll]

Finishing this up. It starts out great, but you kind of end up realizing how hollow and small it is by the end. There's basically just one good sized world, one medium sized world, and everywhere else is tiny. Like, smaller than 2000s era Bioware Maps in many cases.

However, my biggest problem with it is that it's far too easy, even on Supernova. I died a few times at the start of the game, but I don't think I died once in the last 3/4 of the game. Which is disappointing as there are lots of interesting ways to upgrade your character, but almost zero reason to put any effort into doing so at all. Once I realized how easy the game was, I just started taking every flaw it offered, but it's still too easy.

At least it isn't terribly long.

It's quite telling that I spent a hundred skill points into stealth but then the last quarter of the game I just shoot people without sneaking because there's absolutely no reason whatsoever to ever sneak

 

[DalekFlay]

It's quite telling that I spent a hundred skill points into stealth but then the last quarter of the game I just shoot people without sneaking because there's absolutely no reason whatsoever to ever sneak

Yeah I'm usually a stealth nut. I've played New Vegas through like 5 times and every time I make a stealth build to some degree because I can't help myself. Yet I don't think I ever used stealth in Outer Worlds, because it's so easy there's no point and because enemy placement and weaponry just never felt right for it anyway.

 

[Correct_Carlo]

The game really seems like it was designed by several different teams who weren't communicating with each other. The people who designed the gameplay, stats, skills, combat, and high level conceptual stuff actually did a great job. Stats and skills work well together and have major trade-offs depending on what you pick. Combat has the elements to be fun, and there are a variety of builds that you can employ, from melee, to sniper, to stealth, to tank.

The problem is that the people who designed the high-level conceptual aspects of the game seem to be at odds with the people who designed the actual worlds, enemy encounters, and items in the world. Which means that:

-While there are lots of serious trade-offs depending on which stats you choose, they end up having almost no real impact on gameplay unless you dump a particular stat down to 1, but even then food that increases your stats is everywhere, so it doesn't matter. The only serious consideration about my build I had to manage for much of the game's run-time was carry-weight, but once you take a couple perks it becomes a non-issue.

-There's a great variety of builds, but skills have next to no value at all because the world is literally littered with skill increasing items that will allow you to pass any skill check that you want, even with dump stats.

-There are lots of combat builds, but once you upgrade your weapons a few times you can literally 1-shot everything you encounter in the world after entering TTS, so there is no reason to think about builds at all. Heck, there's no reason to even upgrade anything. I didn't realize until right before the final mission that there was a level 2 version of the sniper rifle I was using, so I upgraded......and it made next to no difference. All it did was increase the numbers above enemies' heads as I one-shotted them (and remember, I'm playing on Supernova! The game actually fucking warns you before starting a Supernova game that it might be too hard, lol).

-Also, there is endless ammo. Everywhere. I'm near the end of the game, I fight a lot, and I have 6,000 ammo worth of all ammo types. I can't imagine how much I'd have if I'd have taken that completely useless perk that makes you find more ammo, lol. If you are going to make ammo so plentiful, why not just make the game into an ammo-free world?

 

[Derringer]

People are actually purchasing this game when the character models look ugly as fuck? This isn't just a bunch of shilling is it? It's like with the Borderlands 1 marketing spam a decade ago, I mean I wouldn't have a hard time believing that retards would buy any product marketed but there's a hard limit to the amount of bullshit I can pretend that people can deal with in their consumer products, nobody in this game looks vaguely fucking human. Bot sales are the last fucking thing that would surprise me given how manipulative Bill is.

 

[Bad Sector]

Finishing this up. It starts out great, but you kind of end up realizing how hollow and small it is by the end. There's basically just one good sized world, one medium sized world, and everywhere else is tiny.

IMO the size is fine, if anything one of the worlds is too big, though that is because it doesn't feel like the game gains anything by having a big world - it doesn't even have the theme park design you'd find in modern Bethesda games nor an interesting world by itself that you'd like to explore like in Morrowind and not even an engine that absolutely has to have a big seamless world so they had to make one like in New Vegas. It felt like they made it because "they had to" and not because there was something in the game that benefited from it.

I've personally found the game to be enjoyable but i was still let down considering the games the developers worked on before. I expected two main things:

1. Some form of system-based gameplay that extends beyond how much damage is applied to an NPC when you attack them. I didn't expect a full immersive sim (though that'd be nice), but look, even in New Vegas almost a decade before TOW was released i could kill someone and, e.g., grab their armor - the real, actual armor they were wearing, not some randomly generated "loot".
2. Good story, world and interesting characters. Both Fallout and especially VtMB had several memorable characters and while the story in these games wasn't anything groundbreaking (the story in Fallout is like out of a 70s action comic and VtMB is almost trolling you), they have very interesting characters (especially VtMB) and worldbuilding (and also Arcanum on that part).

I'd be fine with even one of the above, but TOW didn't had any of them. The gameplay felt too "thin", like it was made to be an FPS with RPG elements like many before it and didn't try beyond that. The story was ok, it could work fine - but that is with better characters and world. None of the characters were interesting - where is the equivalent of Mr. House or the Voerman sisters? - and while the world had potential, that potential wasn't realized and the game itself couldn't decide between taking itself seriously or not.

Perhaps if Cain and Boyarsky work on a smaller project by themselves where they have more control and influence things will be better since AFAICT TOW was mostly handled by others and perhaps it isn't possible to get something good with so many cooks in the kitchen.

 

[Yosharian]

Calling this game 'enjoyable' is a stretch

I've had hour-long shits more enjoyable than TOW

 

[Bad Sector]

Calling this game 'enjoyable' is a stretch

Assuming you do not bother to finish games you had no fun playing, how would you describe them otherwise? I call it enjoyable because i enjoyed it enough to finish it.