The Outer Worlds - About Companions

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GameInformer looks at the companions of The Outer Worlds.

You encounter them early
Opportunities to recruit companions are front-loaded, to avoid the sense of under-developed characters joining late in the journey. "You encounter all the companions in the first third of the game, because it's no fun getting a companion in the last hour," co-director Tim Cain told us at the game's unveiling.

They help in battle and beyond
You can bring two companions along with you when you leave your ship. In addition to their unique special attacks, you can also give them weapons to steer their approach to combat. You also benefit from a portion of each companion's key skill scores; if a lock is too difficult for you to pick alone, bringing the right companion might give you the boost you need. If you need an even bigger boost, you can take certain perks to increase how much you benefit from your allies' aptitudes. "We realized that companions could be used a lot more tactically," Cain says. "We wanted to put in skills that control that."

You can do quests for them
Every companion has something you can help them with. While these tasks varying in length (don't expect them all to be multi-stage, multi-hour affairs), they give players a chance to get to know the companions better - and get rewards to improve their performance or customize their quarters. "Some problem that is essential to their character that is explored in that particular quest," Poddar says. "And that's also something we like to ask ourselves when we start fleshing out these companions: What is their motivation? What is driving them?"

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Decent-looking character renderings with little in the way of uncanny valley-ness. Hopefully the animation is smooth.
 
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First the companions should look sympathetic and/or interesting. :)

The game could be solid, but still Im not really convinced. Probably because of art design or shooting part or because they show nothing special so far. I also hope they dont delve into post-apo silliness as I find it generic and boring nowadays.
 
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It's kind of strange to me that so many games have companions and then only have one quest to do with/for them. Maybe I'm unusual in wanting them to be more fleshed out and a bigger part of the game. Most of the time, I've exhausted everything less than halfway through a game. Even just having two quests, one early on and then another gated to happen after a story event in the latter part of the game I think would go a long way to making them feel like more like a major part of the narrative.
 
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JFarrell71 said:
It's kind of strange to me that so many games have companions and then only have one quest to do with/for them. Maybe I'm unusual in wanting them to be more fleshed out and a bigger part of the game. Most of the time, I've exhausted everything less than halfway through a game. Even just having two quests, one early on and then another gated to happen after a story event in the latter part of the game I think would go a long way to making them feel like more like a major part of the narrative.
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It's not strange, it's called a budget. More companion's personal quests means less of other type of quests (usually main quests because of the quality expected of companion's quests) and less of them interacting in other quests (because VO budget if for the whole game). Considering most RPGs these days have like 10-15 main quests, nobody should be surprised there aren't more companion's quests, there wouldn't be a main quests at all if they did.
 
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Well, there is of course a limited budget on every project, but there's nothing stopping you from making companions more central to the main quest. That's just a design choice.
 
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I'm the practical nameless one "incarnation", means as long as companions (side)quests bring something of quality to the game, whether it be nice loot, new skills, juicy lore, etc, I won't complain.
If those will be meaningless filler as boring and annoying as grinding… Get off my property.
 
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azarhal said:
It's not strange, it's called a budget. More companion's personal quests means less of other type of quests (usually main quests because of the quality expected of companion's quests) and less of them interacting in other quests (because VO budget if for the whole game). Considering most RPGs these days have like 10-15 main quests, nobody should be surprised there aren't more companion's quests, there wouldn't be a main quests at all if they did.
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I'm aware that games have budgets, thanks. I would like companion quests to constitute a larger percentage of RPG quests. I would much rather build on the foundation of a major character than do random quests for random people I'll never see again.

Telling me that RPGs have "10-15 main quests" might work if I was myself unable to play RPGs, but I am able to, do so quite frequently, and therefore know better. You're an "Original Sin donor"... have you actually played those games? There are countless examples out there, but you don't have to go any further than the Divinity: Original Sin games to find two examples of RPGs than have far in excess of "10-15" substantial quests.
 
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Ripper said:
Well, there is of course a limited budget on every project, but there's nothing stopping you from making companions more central to the main quest. That's just a design choice.
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Exactly, thank you (for stating what I would have thought was obvious, but apparently wasn't to everyone)
 
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JFarrell71 said:
I'm aware that games have budgets, thanks. I would like companion quests to constitute a larger percentage of RPG quests. I would much rather build on the foundation of a major character than do random quests for random people I'll never see again.

Telling me that RPGs have "10-15 main quests" might work if I was myself unable to play RPGs, but I am able to, do so quite frequently, and therefore know better. You're an "Original Sin donor"… have you actually played those games? There are countless examples out there, but you don't have to go any further than the Divinity: Original Sin games to find two examples of RPGs than have far in excess of "10-15" substantial quests.
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I wrote main quests.

Divinity Original Sin 1 has 15 main quests (16 if you consider a choice between two different options that less or more leads to the same outcomes to be 2 quests instead of just options).

Divinity Original Sin 2 has 10 main quests.
 
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Funnily enough, I've thought about a very companion-centric narrative. I always get a bit bored with the earth-shattering, god-slaying importance of the player character. and I quite like the idea of being a normal adventurer who gets involved with other people's problems, which perhaps tie together into an overarching narrative.
 
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azarhal said:
I wrote main quests.

Divinity Original Sin 1 has 15 main quests (16 if you consider a choice between two different options that less or more leads to the same outcomes to be 2 quests instead of just options).

Divinity Original Sin 2 has 10 main quests.
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Pure semantics. It's not like D:OS2 has 10 substantial quests and then a bunch of 5 minute fetch quests. And you're pulling "10" out of the air anyway. Stop.
 
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Ripper said:
Funnily enough, I've thought about a very companion-centric narrative. I always get a bit bored with the earth-shattering, god-slaying importance of the player character. and I quite like the idea of being a normal adventurer who gets involved with other people's problems, which perhaps tie together into an overarching narrative.
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Yeah, it's true for any kind of story that just telling the player that something is earth-shatteringly important has no effect at all. You have to make the player care. One of the best ways to do that is via well-developed characters. It's no different in an RPG.
 
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