The Outer Worlds - First Impressions @ PC Gamer

PC Gamer checked out Obsidian's new sci-fi RPG The Outer Worlds:

Obsidian's The Outer Worlds blends Firefly and Fallout into a bold, open-ended sci-fi RPG

The creators of the original Fallout have spent two years on a new first-person RPG, and it looks great.

Obsidian's new RPG The Outer Worlds is not just sci-fi: it is exuberantly sci-fi. Blood red trees pepper valleys of strange cylindrical rocks and alien shrubs. A spaceship rumbles overhead, coming in for a landing at the nearest spaceport. Rings grander than Saturn's carve an arc across the horizon, and a field of stars shine impossibly bright in the afternoon sky. It's a world I already know I want to explore: the colorful vistas of No Man's Sky, but in an RPG that looks and feels very Fallout, just a million miles away and pre-nuclear armageddon.

[…]

Here are some other things I learned about The Outer Worlds:

• It's out in 2019
• It's an Unreal Engine 4 game
• Your protagonist isn't voiced
• There's a special class of "science weapons" that will have special, ridiculous effects, like a shrink ray
• There's a full character creator even though it's first-person only (you'll see your character in the inventory, and if you leave the game idling long)
• Your companions don't have separate inventories. Taking companions with you just gives you more inventory space to work with yourself
• If companions really dislike the decisions you make, they'll leave and go back to the ship. You can persuade them to see things your way
• No romancing companions. They considered it, but decided against it.
• Companions each have a special attack (one named Felix does a double drop kick) but you can also equip them with whatever weapons you want
• Hacking and lockpicking don't have minigames, and are simply based on your attributes
• There are six skills (strength, intelligence etc.) and for every 20 points you put into one (up until 100) you'll gain a new perk
• As in the creators' past games, you can play as a "dumb" character with stupid dialogue options. Your companions react appropriately.
• They're still not sure if it will be possible to play through the game completely pacifist (but you'll almost definitely have to at least kill some robots)
• Robots aren't sentient, but your ship's AI seems to have a strange degree of personality
• Tim Cain wants you to know there are a lot of drugs, but he's not going to pressure you to take them

Thanks henriquejr!



More information.

Boo no romances boo…..just Kidding they can't write them well anyway.

Boo first person boo…..I'd love to play this, but for anybody with motion sickness, first person is a big no, no. So I hope they add a third person option.

"No romancing companions. They considered it, but decided against it."

I've Always found this "feature" just plain stupid, it never added anything to gaming experience not even in terms of flavour. Most of the times is just a trojan horse to go full sjw.

Originally Posted by Tiptoe
but for anybody with motion sickness, first person is a big no, no.

Are you sure it's not just a problem of insufficient frame rate, too narrow field of view and laggy/un-smooth mouse control ?

Originally Posted by They Live
Most of the times is just a trojan horse to go full sjw

What's the deal here? I'm not in favor of including romances because most of the time they're shallow, poorly written and obviously checking off boxes rather than serving the story.

But besides that who gives a crap? I've never been particularly bothered by bioware romances even though they're the epitome of what I just wrote above. Because that's just the sin of mediocrity and a lot more people are guilty of than just bioware.

Originally Posted by Sprout
What's the deal here? I'm not in favor of including romances because most of the time they're shallow, poorly written and obviously checking off boxes rather than serving the story.

But besides that who gives a crap? I've never been particularly bothered by bioware romances even though they're the epitome of what I just wrote above. Because that's just the sin of mediocrity and a lot more people are guilty of than just bioware.

I think they're worried that where there's romances, there might be gay romances, and we can't have that.

Yeah, romances in games were always just "another thing to do" for me. I haven't encountered any romance more complex than "We seem to get along fine, wanna have sex?". That said, I wouldn't mind if they were in the game, I would just skip them. This way they have more time and resources to do something else, I guess, so that's a plus.

Originally Posted by DR490N
Are you sure it's not just a problem of insufficient frame rate, too narrow field of view and laggy/un-smooth mouse control ?

Add head bobbing, evil motion blur/depth of field, camera wall bumping and too fast camera acceleration.

I get motion sickness in 3rd person games with those issues, it's not something limited to 1st person. In fact, in the last few years, I had more issues in 3rd person games than 1st person ones.

I prefer 1st person games by the way, I always take the time to go through the setting to fix them up (aka disable a lots of crap).

Could care less about romance in a game. Sometime it adds a bit of character if done right; the version in divinity sucked rotten egg. Can't think off hand of a game where it is done really well but I think some jrpg have done an ok job.

Originally Posted by Ripper
I think they're worried that where there's romances, there might be gay romances, and we can't have that.

Yeah I'm getting DA:2 flashbacks all over again.

Anyway like I said they probably don't have any writers with talent to make romances believable. So they simple decided its not worth it in any recent game.

Also a big factor was Sawyer hates/despises romance in RPGs.

Ps: Those of you who hate romances it's why BioWare sells more copies in the past. To bad you cant read the old forums where they had topics with over a thousand pages.

Also I believe Pillars 2 had some type of romance but it was an after thought at best.

Moving on I still like what I see and it might be my 2019 GOTY also if Cyberpunk 2077 doesn't release next year. Though based on recent info it has a high chance.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Also I believe Pillars 2 had some type of romance but it was an after thought at best.

In other words, PoE 2 did it right.

I think the problem with romances in games I can think of is they've never really had much (or any?) impact on the actual gameplay/story. They're like a boring minigame added on… say the right series of things to your chosen character and you get laid.

I'd rather the effort be put into improving gameplay core mechanics… but I could write the same comments about gambling mini-games. I'm not against them, but they don't add much to the game imo.

That said, it would be interesting to see them done well… I just think it's hard to do and I can't think of an example of one has really been well done? I'd be curious if anyone else can…

Originally Posted by JDR13
In other words, PoE 2 did it right.

Well for me it was nice to see Sawyer overruled for once.

Originally Posted by SSIGuy
That said, it would be interesting to see them done well… I just think it's hard to do and I can't think of an example of one has really been well done? I'd be curious if anyone else can…

Well the romances in Dragon Age Inquisition were a vast improvement over anything BioWare did in the past, and it was continued later in Mass Effect Andromeda.

I'm sure some member will have a smug reply to this though as always.

Originally Posted by Ripper
I think they're worried that where there's romances, there might be gay romances, and we can't have that.

Exactly… everytime this comes up, someone complains about them as a sjw cause/conspiracy. That is so tired… get with the times. Yeah, maybe there's occasionally an element to a studio wanting to take that on. So what? Don't buy their game then or don't pursue a gay romance.

But much more likely is the fact that studios make games to make money and they want them to sell well and the fact is straight and gay people play games, so if they're making a game where you can choose your gender and there will be romance, it probably makes sense that you can choose whom you want to romance. In games where you can't choose your gender and/or there's other lore around the protagonist (like the Witcher), then the romance options are limited and in keeping with that (at least, I don't think Geralt swings both ways).

It all sounds good. I'm fine with no romances because to do it right you'd have to write the entire game around it.

It's done well enough for me in The Witcher series. (Romance/Sex that is). Ok I'm sure many will say it wasn't done well/afterthought etc, but I can't think of a game, at least a RPG where it was done better.

Most of the time however, it IS an afterthought, in that it's so superficial in a videogame compared to the real thing that's it's not any fun. Whereas I can't kill dragons (or anyone) in real life or be a thief or cast spells etc.

Let the modders add the sex and we're good

There will never be better romance in a game than the way The Witcher did it.

Geralt: "Hi"
Female: "Hello"
Geralt: "Wanna bang?"
Female: "Ok"
*Sex card added to inventory*

*Return to monster slaying.*

Cant deny that but all three Witcher games in fact did have romance.

1. Shani
2. Triss
3. Yennefer

Alas they were also full of one night stands with ladies of the night.

Link - https://www.ign.com/wikis/the-witche…ex_and_Romance

Still Witcher III did have good romance scenes. Almost movie quality.

No human connection or emotion whatsoever in your imaginary world… But do all the drugs you want! Because, you know, we don't have to put any actual writing effort into "*click to get high*".