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

[Zeriel]

GOG interviewed Tim and Leonard https://af.gog.com/news/the_outer_w...r_take_themselves_too_seriously?as=1649904300

Selections:

Tim Cain: I think the visual look of the game was the hardest element to nail down.

Leonard Boyarsky: As soon as we started talking about what we wanted to do things started to fall into place pretty quickly, and, even though we hadn’t worked together for a while, we fell back into our old creative roles immediately, with Tim bringing the silly and me bringing the dark, and both of us riffing off each other to find the offbeat humor we both love. I think the visual look was the hardest because, besides having a lot of ideas we wanted to explore, we also needed to define our own distinctive look.

In the past, when we were doing the original Fallout and Arcanum, it was much more organic because the team was so small and we were just following our ideas wherever they led, and there weren’t a lot of games doing retro or alt future type worlds at the time. Now, there’s a ‘punk’ for everything – steampunk, atom punk, etc., so it’s harder to find your own original lane. Fortunately, we had a great art team led by Daniel Alpert who took our ideas and ran with them.

"great"

Of course they both value reactivity over all things in RPGs:

Tim Cain: I think gamers like our games’ reactivity to what kind of character they make and how they act in the game world. It’s the best feeling when the game reacts to something the player does because it’s like the developers are sitting there with them, nodding and saying “we saw what you did there”. Also, our games never take themselves too seriously, so gamers know they can have fun with them

.Leonard Boyarsky: I can’t speak to ‘the perfect modern RPG’, just the RPGs we like to make. And, for us, the most important things are creating compelling worlds for players to explore with any character they can conceive of, and, perhaps most importantly, having the world react to those character’s choices.

No regrets with regards to being Safesidian:

Looking back from the day of the game’s premiere, which one of its elements makes you most proud today?

Leonard Boyarsky: For me, the fact that we were able to ship a finished, polished game that has its own unique identity, on time and on budget, is a proud accomplishment. There were of course things I wish we’d done differently, and parts of the game I wish we’d been able to push further, but, even after all this time, shipping a game with a new IP that was only a figment of our imagination 3 years before still amazes me.

Tim Cain: Three of the biggest sources of inspiration for this game were Firefly, Fallout, and Futurama (The Three F’s, so to speak). But there were so many other sources too, including early 20th-century science fiction stories. In many ways, Hugo Gernsback inspired elements of this game, probably unknowingly.

Leonard Boyarsky: Unless he was much more forward-thinking than we thought, Tim. Besides the Three F’s, we also were heavily influenced by both Deadwood and True Grit for their use of language. Tonally, it seems like our games have always been influenced in some way by Brazil and the early Simpsons, but for TOW we also added the work of the Coen Bros and Wes Anderson into the mix.

Deadwood and True Grit? That's new to me. Isn't Deadwood known for its absurd amount of cursing? Is that true for TOW?

Weirdest thing is I don't feel that much reactivity in Outer Worlds. Or maybe it's the quality of the reactivity? Either way, I feel like my choices were more satisfying in fucking Mass Effect of all games. Outer Worlds has basically two paths through the game, neither of which is that interesting, and then some basic logic to let you kill whoever you want, but there's nothing really fun that happens in response to that stuff, it's just very cardboard and shallow. Reminds me of my gripe with Larian's n+1 quest design philosophy to be honest: sure it's great that you can do certain things you can't do in other games, but if doing those things doesn't give a result that is more fun than if you hadn't provided the option in the first place, maybe you shouldn't waste time implementing it.

 

[TheDiceMustRoll]

Perhaps the man wow wow wow wow

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

Waaay to late, entire entertainment industry is contaminated now, comics, movies, tv, games, etc.

This honestly really has me depressed from time to time.
Over these last twenty years I have seen so many things that I have been into changed or altered to appeal to people who previously couldn't even be bothered with them because they did not like how it looked like, what it focused on, or how it played (too complex in their tastes).
I feel I shouldn't get attached to anything anymore because it just a matter of time before some asshole writer or producer shows up to ruin it or people owning it want to have it changed so that it will have a bigger market appeal. (or to tap into current day social political trends)

Occasionally I think that these industries should collapse and burn. That is the only way to kill the cancer infesting them.
But it will just creep back into any successors that take the place of their predecessors.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Occasionally I think that these industries should collapse and burn. That is the only way to kill the cancer infesting them.

 

[TheDiceMustRoll]

Finished. Both paths, insanely disappointed that the final levels are basically the same, what the fuck was the point of that shit? hit max level about two hours and four uncompleted quests including two companion ones (ellie and felix) and only did em for the good ending points. I invested in companions this play through and uh, "push button, stun enemy" special abiities are the most broken horse shit in this game. the RAM was pretty tough on hard evil playthrough because my companions were crap and died instantly and I had to do "bait, shoot in back" a thousand times. The "stun final boss" button made this game a joke. Boring!

 

[LudensCogitet]

Finished. Both paths, insanely disappointed that the final levels are basically the same, what the fuck was the point of that shit? hit max level about two hours and four uncompleted quests including two companion ones (ellie and felix) and only did em for the good ending points. I invested in companions this play through and uh, "push button, stun enemy" special abiities are the most broken horse shit in this game. the RAM was pretty tough on hard evil playthrough because my companions were crap and died instantly and I had to do "bait, shoot in back" a thousand times. The "stun final boss" button made this game a joke. Boring!

Haha. I remember that last boss thing. I didn't have enough lockpicking / hacking to get to the stun button so I changed my pants or something to boost the skills.

 

[TheChickenKing]

I played a few hours of this through Gamepass 'cause $1 a while back and then bought it recently through GOG with the DLC, played for a few hours, remembered why I didn't finish it and then refunded it (<3 GOG). I think that it falls into that really awkward and hard to define space of neither being bad enough to genuinely get upset over it or good enough to devote time to it. The setting is fine, but every time it gets interesting it just sort of backs off and circles around to less interesting, safer concepts. Sublight, a semi-legal pirate/privateering operation, has some interesting quests and then sort of disappears because they're simply not considered a major faction in the story, no matter how much you back them. Some of the companions (like Pavarti) seem okay at first, and then you get into it and you discover that the extent of your interaction with them relates to something I can't imagine most people would care about (like Pavarti's utterly bizarre asexuality/lesbian storyline).

The combat suffers from the same issue. I remembered thinking it was too easy in my first run on Gamepass, but I think it might be as difficult or even more challenging than New Vegas was (with the same caveat that you can eventually become particularly OP in both games) but then Outer Worlds' combat makes so little impact that clearing challenging encounters is neither memorable nor interesting, and the way the mechanics work combat tends to stomp pretty hard in one direction or other. Either you're consistently destroying everything, or you're getting destroyed by generic bandits with no clear path to victory. Your companions are either singlehandedly picking off opponents in combat, or they're dying instantly. TOW never felt to me like it hit that "sweet spot" where your skills and gear are just *barely* staying ahead of the difficulty curve.

I lurk this thread pretty hard because I want to like this game. On paper I like how character building works, I like the ideas behind the setting, I like the New Vegas but Updated gameplay style, and I don't even hate all of the characters. But I guess I'll just throw my opinion onto the pile of people that generally describe this game using the word "disappointing".

 

[TheDiceMustRoll]

I think that it falls into that really awkward and hard to define space of neither being bad enough to genuinely get upset over it or good enough to devote time to it.

Have you seriously never heard of the word "Mediocre"?

 

[TheChickenKing]

I think that it falls into that really awkward and hard to define space of neither being bad enough to genuinely get upset over it or good enough to devote time to it.

HaVe YoU sErIoUsLy NeVeR hEaRd Of ThE wOrD "mEdIoCrE"?

Eh, I could've used that word but I don't think it'd change my point at all. Mediocrity is hardly a specific enough word to be meaningful critically, and encapsulates all sorts of less-than-concrete opinions.

 

[KVVRR]

While on the topic of graphix, the only thing that really grinds my gears about the faces in this game are the fucking eyes. It's one of the most important parts of the face and can depict a far and wide range of emotions by themselves, and then these guys go and copypaste almost every instance of them, only changing the color.
Once you notice this you can't unsee it. The pupils have the shape of a diamond more than a circle, and more often than not have the exact same details (like veins) on both eyes - and it's not even mirrored
The lack of any light being reflected from them also doesn't do them any wonders. The levels of light alone that the eyes reflect can express a LOT of emotion alone (there's a reason why the "thousand yard stare" never has any). Compare this

To this

and you'll see a what I'm talking about, it just looks a LOT better with that little detail.

however this is just me being a complete fucking autist about faces. I really like to draw them so it's only natural I find these little details so upsetting I guess

 

[Wesp5]

I can't see the second picture in your posting, but you are certainly right. Somebody even made a special improved eyes mod for Bloodlines to make them more reflective!

 

[Ol' Willy]

To this

 

[KVVRR]

To this

That's the one

 

[user]

Did they add peril to the game with the latest DLC? I don't understand.

 

[thesheeep]

I had my fun with the hilariously terrible writing and worldbuilding for about 15 hours before I gave it the deserved negative review.

Didn't finish it - I would have, just to see how much more inane the writing can get. But, holy crap, this is the most soul drainingly mediocre gameplay I've experienced in ages.

 

[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