This is my first ever review, so please forgive any vagueness or imperfections! 😛
So, the inspiration for this blog was a conversation that I had with some friends about a little game called ‘The Outer Worlds’ by Obsidian Entertainment. Obsidian is probably best known for Fallout New Vegas, but is also responsible for games such as South Park: The Stick of Truth and Pillars of Eternity. After being acquired by Microsoft, The Outer Worlds is the first major game Obsidian have released and I have to admit that I rather liked it. It’s fun, it’s VERY interesting and it also has quite a few moments that leave you with a distinctly ‘what the fuck?!’ look on your face.
The basic premise of the game is that you are a colonist, woken up from hibernation by a mad-scientist to find that your transport ship has been lying abandoned for decades. Meanwhile, the colony of Halcyon has been in a gradual decline as a group of mega-corporations (some of whom literally consider employees to be company property) have slowly taken advantage of pretty much everything. It’s capitalism taken to its extreme – with a not-so-subtle nod to sci-fi shows such as Firefly.
Overall it has been given excellent reviews by the likes of IGN et al. and deserves to be recognised as a great entry into the 2019 cache of games. I played it some time after launch after managing to get it at a good price from the PS Store, and after hearing all of the hype I was psyched to play what promised to be a new and exciting adventure. It wasn’t quite what I expected.
The Tl;Dr Version:
The Outer Worlds was a good, solid RPG video game. Overall, though, I’m not sure it lived up to the hype… 10/10 for originality, 6/10 for game play, 5/10 for loading screens, 7/10 for characters and story.
The Detailed Version
Before going into much depth, I want to restate that I did very much enjoy my time in Halcyon. Visually this game is stunning and the sci-fi-western-hyper-capitalist setting is an excellent sandbox to find yourself playing in. Ultimately, this I think is what sets Outer Worlds apart and makes it worth your time. Aside from all the criticisms I discuss below, you simply cannot fault the originality and brilliance of the setting.
From a backwater corporate shit-hole town, to a ruined research facility, sprawling space-ship communities to the highest echelons of city living, throughout your journey you get a real sense that this world has been carefully thought through. Each area has its own distinct aesthetic and the world feels genuinely alive. The NPC conversations (both with each other and themselves) are at times hilarious, but also give you a fun insight into the ‘lives’ of these colonists. I wish I could say that no two areas are the same, and in terms of the large-scale locations this is definitely the case. Unfortunately by the time you get to the end stages of the game you really notice the recycling of maps and layouts – for example the fancy houses of Byzantium or scientific research labs. Similarly, while the artwork on the loading screens is really cool, interesting and amusing the first 10 times you see it, you it kinda starts to leave you wishing there was a little bit more variation in the small things.
This leads me on to my next point, and sadly my main criticism of the game. You spend a LOT of time in loading screens. Like… a LOT. Not only that, but quite often you have to go through several at a time for really small missions in areas you’ve already visited. For example, the planet jumping is interesting, but every single time you want to go to a new planet you have to load into your ship, go to a console and watch an animation that moves you to the different planet, then always have to go out of your ship onto a landing pad before you can then fast-travel to your location. So that’s like 3 loading screens and a compulsory animation sequence just to do a fetch quest. That’s a lot of time looking at a scientific drawing of a Mantiqueen with very little actual detail and wishing you were killing one rather than learning about it’s anatomy!
As for game play, I just didn’t find it particularly interesting. It wasn’t bad, by any means, it just was nothing that I haven’t seen before. It was basically like playing a fallout game without vats – which isn’t surprising considering its Obsidian. It often just felt a bit clunky. Hacking and lockpicking are simply button-pressing and the levelling up was much like you would expect from an RPG. Plus I was a bit underwhelmed by the dialogue method which was, again, like Fallout 3 or New Vegas, rather than the more immersive and interesting options available in Bioware games or, for example, Fallout 4. One variation that sounds cool on paper is the idea of having ‘flaws’ – weaknesses that make you more vulnerable or make things harder in exchange for a ‘free’ skill point. But again, this was not really worth it as the perks were rather bland. Overall it was fun enough and technically worked fine, it just wasn’t anything special.
The story and characters, though, alongside the setting, are really what makes this game. As you would hope from an RPG, becoming invested in the world is what drives you to play more and the game does this really well. It’s one of those games where everyone is a bit of a dick and so you kinda just learn to go with it. You are faced with some genuine moral choices and moments where you have to really sit and think before you act – though usually you can come to some kind of compromise or solution. The main story, meanwhile, isn’t subtle and there are not really any ‘twists’ as such, but it ticks along enough to keep you entertained, and is so intrinsically tied to the mad scientist Phinneas Welles that you want to follow it through.
Overall, I just think it still didn’t quite know if it wanted to be a full-scale old school RPG (in which case there was far too much shooting) or a shooter with combat avoidance options (in which case the non-combat options are a little too easy/simplistic until literally the end of the game). Take lying, for example – it was so easy to do that it becomes basically a given, and so long as you have a high enough dialogue skill you can just go around saying what you like with no consequences. I was almost never challenged on my lies or asked to back them up (eg. by passing a medicine or engineering check) and while it was often funny it did make breezing your way through some situations incredibly easy. It needed a touch more nuance to it, and that just wasn’t quite there.
However, I say again that despite my critical analysis here, it was very enjoyable and I don’t regret playing it at all. The setting is really interesting and it was fun running around being a complete arsehole to everyone (and that’s playing as a good guy!!!).
AHF Writes 