The Outer Worlds - Review @ PCWorld

PCWorld has reviewed The Outer Worlds:

The Outer Worlds review: A stellar argument for deeper games, not wider ones

While it bears surface-level similarities to Fallout: New Vegas, Obsidian's created a deeper and more meaningful role-playing experience in The Outer Worlds.

Half an hour into The Outer Worlds, someone criticized my fashion sense. Thawed out from intergalactic stasis and thrown into the crumbling hypercapitalist nightmare that is the Halcyon Colony, I of course did the standard role-playing game thing: Ditched my paper-thin clothing for the first beefy set of armor I could "borrow" off a dead foe. Marauder armor, as it turned out.

And then the first civilized human being I ran into called me on it. "You uh…you may not want to wear that armor around here, lest people think you're a marauder yourself. I'm pretty open-minded, but…"

My jaw dropped. Sufficiently chastised, I switched back into my civilian clothes and only wore clean and corporate-friendly space armor for the next 25 hours. Lesson learned.

[…]

Bottom line

I hope Obsidian gets to make more games like The Outer Worlds. That's my main takeaway, when all's said and done. I love Pillars of Eternity, don't get me wrong. I want Obsidian to keep making little isometric games as well. But very few studios get the chance to make RPGs of this sort, and even fewer do them justice. The Outer Worlds isn't as fresh-feeling as Fallout: New Vegas was circa 2010, but it does demonstrate once again that Obsidian approaches its worlds and its stories with more care than most developers. Best case scenario, Microsoft's support allows for many more games of this size, even denser and more detailed.

And maybe other studios will take note as well. This generation's been one of extremes, where even series like Assassin's Creed have ballooned out to enormous sizes once reserved for the grandest of epics. The Outer Worlds proves there's still value in the 20 to 30 hour RPG, that there are more ways for this industry to grow than outwards.

Score: 4/5

More information.

bruh.. its bland.
i couldnt enjoy anything in the game

Bland appeals to the broadest demographic probably.

Bland? Huh, I'm only a couple hours in and I'm pretty hooked. It's an improvement over the Fallout worlds in every way.

It will appeal to a broad demographic, ideally. Then they can continue to make games like this. I think a sequel will prove to be more deep. Gotta walk before you can fly. I'm loving the game myself.

The word I have to describe The Outer Worlds is "disappointing". I expected a better Fallout game, and it's nothing but a generic shooter and an insult to the Fallout franchise that this game even compare to it, especially New Vegas, which is the one these guys supposedly made in the past. It has redundant, trivial combat against boring enemies that all seem the same except they are shaped/reskinned differently, dull loot system built around getting the same few weapons 3 million times just to scrap them for pieces you'll never use, or hoarding them to sell them for absolutely no reason since there's nothing meaningful you can do with money, monotonous and lifeless scenarios, uninspiring soundtrack…

The best part is the dialogues, the story characters and companions are fun to deal with in general, but really… I expected so much more. I regret installing Epic Gamestore to play this, I could have waited a year and play it on Steam and I wouldn't have missed anything special.

More reviews….

Outer Worlds 7/10
http://www.gamepressure.com/editoria…-of-2012/z91e3

Pros:
- the spirit of classic Fallouts (and New Vegas)
- a characteristic, colorful universe with a pronounced artistic definition
- open plot – every NPC can die, and the player can choose their own path
- the story and dialogs really branch out – lots of ways to solve problems
- an extensive system of character development, a decent imitation of the SPECIAL

Cons:
- crude combat mechanics, further spoiled by poor AI of opponents
- technologically outdated, poorly optimized, and glitchy
- tasks and characters could be more interesting (especially the companions)
- the serious story isn't very compatible with the goofy world.


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Originally Posted by Farflame
Outer Worlds 7/10
http://www.gamepressure.com/editoria…-of-2012/z91e3

Pros:
- the spirit of classic Fallouts (and New Vegas)
- a characteristic, colorful universe with a pronounced artistic definition
- open plot – every NPC can die, and the player can choose their own path
- the story and dialogs really branch out – lots of ways to solve problems
- an extensive system of character development, a decent imitation of the SPECIAL

Cons:
- crude combat mechanics, further spoiled by poor AI of opponents
- technologically outdated, poorly optimized, and glitchy
- tasks and characters could be more interesting (especially the companions)
- the serious story isn't very compatible with the goofy world.

I'm kinda playing a different game here.

- "the spirit of classic Fallouts" - I fail to see it, no Sulik, no brothels or rubber dolls and no random encounter with aliens or star trek shuttle
- "a decent imitation of the SPECIAL" - not at all, there is no LUCK for example nor you can "upgrade" attribites (only downgrade) and there were no numerous FO perks lonewolf/party specific
- "crude combat mechanics, further spoiled by poor AI of opponents" - true for the main story (for casual reviewers), untrue elsewhere
- "technologically outdated, poorly optimized, and glitchy" - outdated it is (no hairworks), but saying it's unoptimized and glitchy is plain bullshit
- "tasks and characters could be more interesting" - seriously? wtf, lol
- "the serious story isn't very compatible with the goofy world" - again wtf, what serious story, cancerous pigs and toothpaste experiments on alien trashmobs are serious story?

Wow shows how far off a review can be. I am somewhat the opposite.

Spirit of FNV, colorful world, killable NPC … none of those are PROS for me.

Story, quests, characters … all major PROS for me

The character development is nice although I thought the perks were lacking - too many focused on companion stuff. I felt they lacked many of the fun perks in the FO games. They all seemed bland and utilitarian. So not big on the perks. But do like the other aspects of developing for a character.

So somewhat in the opposite of the reviewer - as Joxer said … did they play a different game?

Enjoying it myself. It did not capture me like Greedfall did (love that game) but it is still entertaining and enjoying the companions, quests, stories, humor, and overall world and lore a lot.

Originally Posted by wolfgrimdark
The character development is nice although I thought the perks were lacking - too many focused on companion stuff. I felt they lacked many of the fun perks in the FO games. They all seemed bland and utilitarian. So not big on the perks. But do like the other aspects of developing for a character.

If I was of a mind to complain about anything (If i like a game in general, I don't spend much time on the negatives while in the middle of it), it would be this. Perks should be specific and fun. They're bland, overly practical, and limited in scope. This also has the side effect of making the flaws less appealing to take, and I love the idea of the flaws. But when they come up, I'm like "for a perk?… naw, I'm good".

If anyone from UK is interested, you can get MS Game Pass for PC for £1 for the first month and then £3.99 afterwards. You get this game, kingdom come deliverance and other nice games. Also note that you get 6 month spotify for free if you are new customer. Nice way to try these games out…

https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/?irgwc=1&…gikuor0a0sdu00
https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/xbox-game-pass/pc-games

Originally Posted by Nereida
dull loot system built around getting the same few weapons 3 million times just to scrap them for pieces you'll never use, or hoarding them to sell them for absolutely no reason since there's nothing meaningful you can do with money…

I don't know what games you're playing, but loot is limited and repetitive in 99% of RPGs, once you've played 5 hours into them. Maybe you prefer the color coded clusterfuck of a Diablo type game, where no weapon has personality, but does have 17 different modifiers?

I've found AT LEAST 25 different weapons, not counting variations like Mk. 2 weapons and such. And the weapons are actually different, made even moreso when you mod them. There are dozens of different mods. There are tons of consumables (I would say 50+). There are special cosmetic items. There are dozens of armor pieces. There are several dozen pieces of junk with fun flavor text. I can think of maybe one or two RPGs with signficantly better loot than Outer Worlds.

There's nothing to do money in 99% of RPGs too. But sure, let's pick on this one specfically. By the way, there is actually an answer in this game: tinkering.

God forbid I have a different opinion than yoursl Allow me to correct my mistake.

True, those 30 second +1 skill boosts that keep cluttering the inventory are so crucially useful. They never made a difference in any situation I encountered, but I bet they will at some point. I love it, too, because it gives you a fun minigame to play, where The Witcher 3 had Gwent, The Outer Worlds has Inventory Clusterfuck Managing Simulator. I'm so glad to have to deal with the 3 million autopistol and autopistol Mk 2 scattered through the world, it makes me so excited every time I reach a town to sell them for 10 coins a piece. And what is even better, there is a perk that allows you to fast travel when encumbered, which plays magnificently into reaching new heights in the awesome minigame.

I thought Borderlands 3 had a fantastic gunplay and weapon variety, but dude, The Outer World, that's where the gold is, especially when you attach a mod that reduces spread by 25% or increases critical damage by 25%. Completely changes the way you play, it even feels like you're using an entirely different weapon.

I couldn't ask for more.

From all I have seen my conclusion is that the game is MEH. I decided to play another run of Pathfinder: Kingmaker instead.
But since I was not a big fan of FNV, this game needed to be better than FNV for me to like it.

Originally Posted by Nereida
God forbid I have a different opinion than yoursl Allow me to correct my mistake.

True, those 30 second +1 skill boosts that keep cluttering the inventory are so crucially useful. They never made a difference in any situation I encountered, but I bet they will at some point. I love it, too, because it gives you a fun minigame to play, where The Witcher 3 had Gwent, The Outer Worlds has Inventory Clusterfuck Managing Simulator. I'm so glad to have to deal with the 3 million autopistol and autopistol Mk 2 scattered through the world, it makes me so excited every time I reach a town to sell them for 10 coins a piece. And what is even better, there is a perk that allows you to fast travel when encumbered, which plays magnificently into reaching new heights in the awesome minigame.

I thought Borderlands 3 had a fantastic gunplay and weapon variety, but dude, The Outer World, that's where the gold is, especially when you attach a mod that reduces spread by 25% or increases critical damage by 25%. Completely changes the way you play, it even feels like you're using an entirely different weapon.

I couldn't ask for more.

Why do you pick them up to sell for ten coins?

Truth is, I don't, but up to the point where I stopped bothering, I thought looting was one of the exciting parts of a RPG. Someone went through the trouble of coding the game so that's all that drops. 10-coin worth repeated weapons and 5-coin worth repeated consumables that you will never use. Feels inconsiderate to just ignore them. And they went through the trouble of creating an inventory system, so I figure you gotta use the inventory for something. And, the burdened teleport perk. They planned all this, you see. It's brilliant.

You guys are acting like 7/10 is some obscenely unfair score. My first impression is about the same, and I agree with most of the things he listed.

Originally Posted by Nereida
God forbid I have a different opinion than yoursl Allow me to correct my mistake.

True, those 30 second +1 skill boosts that keep cluttering the inventory are so crucially useful. They never made a difference in any situation I encountered, but I bet they will at some point. I love it, too, because it gives you a fun minigame to play, where The Witcher 3 had Gwent, The Outer Worlds has Inventory Clusterfuck Managing Simulator. I'm so glad to have to deal with the 3 million autopistol and autopistol Mk 2 scattered through the world, it makes me so excited every time I reach a town to sell them for 10 coins a piece. And what is even better, there is a perk that allows you to fast travel when encumbered, which plays magnificently into reaching new heights in the awesome minigame.

I thought Borderlands 3 had a fantastic gunplay and weapon variety, but dude, The Outer World, that's where the gold is, especially when you attach a mod that reduces spread by 25% or increases critical damage by 25%. Completely changes the way you play, it even feels like you're using an entirely different weapon.

I couldn't ask for more.

Having a different opinion is great! But when your opinion is based entirely on nonsense, you not be able to spit it out and have everyone let it slide.

You're arguing based on your own reality, which doesn't match the reality of the actual game. If all there was were "30 second +1 skill boosts" in reality, I would agree with you that that's boring. But it's not. There's much more variety than that. There are mods that change the damage type to plasma or electricity. There are consumables that reduce weapons sway or increase your armor. There are mods that increase weapon range. And on and on. You can't explain why you think the ACTUAL game is boring, so you reduce it down to a non-existent boring state so you can rail against it.

This game is supposedly an insult to New Vegas, but I don't think you could have played New Vegas. If you had, you'd remember that you find one million 10mm pistols in it. This is the reality of loot in games. You can choose to ignore it in one game and froth at the mouth about the same damn thing in another if you choose to make that your "opinion", but it doesn't change reality.

The amount of loot in the game is ridiculous. You just have to overcome any OCD tendencies and ignore a lot of it. I don't steal anything from buildings unless it's something I really need, and I don't pick up any weapons that I already have unless it's for repair purposes.

I don't get why some people feel like they have to pick up every single thing they come across. Do you do that in real life?

Originally Posted by JFarrell71
Having a different opinion is great! But when your opinion is based entirely on nonsense, you not be able to spit it out and have everyone let it slide.

You're arguing based on your own reality, which doesn't match the reality of the actual game. If all there was were "30 second +1 skill boosts" in reality, I would agree with you that that's boring. But it's not. There's much more variety than that. There are mods that change the damage type to plasma or electricity. There are consumables that reduce weapons sway or increase your armor. There are mods that increase weapon range. And on and on. You can't explain why you think the ACTUAL game is boring, so you reduce it down to a non-existent boring state so you can rail against it.

This game is supposedly an insult to New Vegas, but I don't think you could have played New Vegas. If you had, you'd remember that you find one million 10mm pistols in it. This is the reality of loot in games. You can choose to ignore it in one game and froth at the mouth about the same damn thing in another if you choose to make that your "opinion", but it doesn't change reality.

So you'd say that The Outer Worlds is the game you wished for?

Well, grats then. I can only envy you as I remain disappointed.