The Outer Worlds - Review

Originally Posted by purpleblob
I also predict at RPGCodex, DE will take GotY.

That's not much of a prediction if you've been there at all lately.

Originally Posted by borcanu
disco elysium > atom > greedfall >>> outer. i mean i couldnt even bare playing it felt so bland

LOL no.

Greedfall and Outer > Atom > Disco.

Why? The first two are two different hands of the same sexy body, the third is Fallout 2.5 and the last one is what adventures and VNs needed to be designed a decade ago. From RPG perspective Disco doesn't have enough of RPG elements, it does have some but not as many os other three named do.

If you're coming from codex, then again you got it wrong. It's supposed to be:
disco elysium >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> atom > greedfall > outer

Sadly for codex, Neo Scavenger 2 didn't happen in this year.

For me this year I would say GF>OW … haven't finished Atom yet but a good game. Disco I have no interest in.

If Insomnia Arc had a better camera and a bit more polish … but not sure that was this year.

Man age … the years really start to blend together. Have to start looking everything up to see when released.

I enjoyed the humor a lot as well as the corporate stuff - because I see that a lot in real life. Not to that extreme but still bad (although I would not be at all surprised that some corporations would go to that extreme if there weren't laws preventing them … I mean the things I hear about in some countries as far as how they treat labor). I keep thinking things I read can't shock me … and then some new corporate atrocity shows up.

They did a great job with writing and story. I still have Spacers Choice going through my head and it comes to mind every time I see corporate greed (along with billionaires and other greedy elite) in action. Same with Rockwell as a great example of a wealthy scumbag.

Many of the quests were very amusing and a lot of fun. The game didn't pull me in like GF did but I still enjoyed it. I started a second game as a melee focused thug but not sure how far I will go.

The only games I really get into replaying these days are the very open ended modded ones like Beth games.

Outer Worlds would win my GoTY easily. The writing has fallen off quite a bit from New Vegas, but I actually love the exploration and lootgasm aspect of the game. I'm playing a tinker/stealth/sniper build and I swap in and out of gear constantly to meet the dialog criteria for conversations. In general I find it better to tinker stuff each level than it is to swap equipment. I'm combing every inch of Monarch right now, looking for all the extra bits of loot. Do I need it? Yep! Tinkering is expensive! BTW a fully tinkered machine gun does over 1000 DPS at level 15. Even the Mega Mantisqueen can't handle that for long.

I found GW's companions to be horrible and ugly. I liked most of the rest of the game but was happy to dump the companions whenever possible. I think it was a great game too though. I didn't finish it and will happily jump back into that game in the future.

I'm pretty happy that these two games were both successful. Before these came out my GoTY would have been an Early Access game most likely. (Scum, Solace Crafting, Road to Eden). All of those are survival games with RPG aspects. Each is very worth playing btw.

I probably be skipping this. I have a feeling I’d buy it then play it for about 10 hours before quitting like I did the Fallout games.

Hearing that it’s like FO:NV is also a big negative as I liked it the least of what I’ve played.

Originally Posted by Heckle
I haven’t played this yet but like the video says..this basically looks like Fallout with a neon coat of paint. I like Obsidian and enjoyed what they did with New Vegas. But the color palette of this game just looks gross to me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m tired of the typical gray/brown wasteland look. But they might have gone too far the other direction. Is the whole game like this? The game has gotten quite a bit of hype. I would hate to miss a gem just because I don’t love the art style. But damn those colors are rough on the eyes.

There are LOTS of shader presets to download at TOW Nexus, which mute the overly bright colors, increase contrast, etc. Makes a huge difference and made the game actually way more enjoyable for me.

I use my own combination of Cleaner Outer Worlds
https://www.nexusmods.com/theouterworlds/mods/20
and
Tweaked
https://www.nexusmods.com/theouterworlds/mods/9

You can learn the ini tweaks to customize further, like turning of chromatic aberration (if you only do one thing, make it that!)

I'd vote TOW for Deceptively Advertised Cashgrab of the Year, a worthy heir to last year's winner, Anthem. But we'll have to wait, Phoenix Point might still outdo it.

So I've finished it last night.
It's a good game.
The main flaws imho are shallow character progression (combined with too easy combat) and boring loot.
On my personal fun scale I rated it 7.75.
(Greedfall: 8.0, Pathfinder: 9.25, PoEII: 8.5, KCD: 8.5, ME:A: 8.5, DOS2: 9.0, Tyranny: 7.5, TToN: 7.5, Technomancer: 7.5)

If it's true that it was developed with a small budget, I'm looking forward to the sequel.

During some missions it made me realize how much I miss a good Mass Effect game.

Originally Posted by sakichop
I probably be skipping this. I have a feeling I’d buy it then play it for about 10 hours before quitting like I did the Fallout games.

Hearing that it’s like FO:NV is also a big negative as I liked it the least of what I’ve played.

The game cannot be more different from Fallouts than it is. I'm aware 99.99% of people say it's Fallout clone, I'm in the minority who says it is not. Who do you trust?

So what makes it not Fallout?
Not BlackIsle Fallout = no turnbased, no special ruleset, fixed max number of sidekicks unrelated to your charisma/charm/whatever, firstperson view, no car trunk or 100 days timelimit to find a chip, no killing the president of USA.
Not Bethesda Fallout = no trashmob respawns everywhere, no bug-o-rama, no storyless world, no The Sims games house construction, no DLC!
Not Obsidian Fallout = no Josh Sawyer's utter design fails tainting otherwise a good game.

What can make it not interesting to someone?
- if you hate humor in games, skippit
- if the best game you've ever played is Dark Souls, skippit
- if you can't play games with ugly no plastic surgery people, skippit
- if you fastrun games, skippit
- if you wanted it to be an alien dating sim, skippit
- if you can't choose between two evils endlessly pondering which one is lesser, skippit

joxer is wrong, it's a Fallout (3/4/NV/76) clone.

Personally, I like that it is.

But if you don't enjoy Fallout games - this is probably not for you.

About the only truly significant difference is in terms of scope - where this is much smaller and more linear in structure than your typical modern Fallout.

It has elements of KotOR/Mass Effect - in terms of having your own ship - and a small selection of planets which you can visit.

It feels less open and sprawling in that way, to me, though.

Whatever. But since you've replied…

Originally Posted by Nereida
I'd vote TOW for Deceptively Advertised Cashgrab of the Year, a worthy heir to last year's winner, Anthem. But we'll have to wait, Phoenix Point might still outdo it.

Said the game is not Fallout.
It's not the second Bioware mmo abomination either. I'm pretty sure Obsidian has no desire of making Destiny clones.

Originally Posted by joxer
- if you can't play games with ugly no plastic surgery people, skippit

I've no problem with "ugly" characters. But there's still something strange with the character faces in TOW. There are some exceptions (especially with the more important npcs, seems they spent more time on those). But most of the npcs eyes look wrong to me. The same kind of wrong that I often see when people without sufficient training or talent try to draw human eyes. Maybe that's just me. Not a big artist myself, so I can't pinpoint it better.

Well as for me all I can say is Outer Worlds reminds me of how games used to be 10-15 years ago when it was all about enjoyment and nothing else. Greedfall as well.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Well as for me all I can say is Outer Worlds reminds me of how games used to be 10-15 years ago when it was all about enjoyment and nothing else.

Ok, I'll bite. What are games about nowadays?

Games that focus on SP with a good story without including the added crap that sucks the cash out your wallet like most other major games. Example live service games.

My Reddit post.

Have to say what a complete joy this game has been so far. It’s not over complicated and it’s just beautiful to look at and play, seamless mechanics, interesting story and delightful characters and voice artistry.

It’s like the developers watched everything that’s gone on in recent years and actively tried to stay away from the bullshit. It’s endearing because of that. No pay to play, no loot boxes, no multiplayer, just a classic, colourful shooter with no canvas bags in sight.

I hope that this game is as well received as I’ve found it to be. I’m also hoping that other game developers take a leaf out of Outerworlds book, yeah they might not sponge every cent they might of been able to get away with - but they’ve sure got my vote for the best game Of 2019 because of it.

I know ironic but hey the game is about capitalism gone wrong.

By this point, if someone hasn't bought it, they're not likely to do so (at least not until they see it for $10 during a Steam sale - and neither I or developers really care about those people). It's simply one of the most -fun- RPGs in recent years. Sure, its loot system is pretty damn simplistic and enemy combat AI is practically nonexistent… but if you can look past that and go along for the ride then the NPC dialogue and quest interaction is a sheer joy.

I for one was happy to play an RPG with good dialogue that DIDN'T take itself so damn seriously for once (thanks, no thanks Durance) - but still impacted you with weighty choices.

Originally Posted by joxer
- if the best game you've ever played is Dark Souls, skippit

You must have put this in there just for me. I guess I’ll have to skippit then.

Maybe I’ll buy it when it drops to $10, if I can some how get over the fact that Drithius wouldn’t really care about me.

Originally Posted by sakichop
Maybe I’ll buy it when it drops to $10, if I can some how get over the fact that Drithius wouldn’t really care about me.

The sin of not being sure if you'll like a game and so waiting until the price drops to try it out

Like they say, if you stick around long enough you'll hear literally everything

Business decisions get made in the first couple months after a product's launch. Not a year down the line when the developer is getting a couple bucks for each sale during a Steam sale. So, yeah, it's still your choice, but you as a consumer won't factor into what happens in the long term. Reality hurts.

Originally Posted by drithius
business decisions

lol :d

And, no, developers care a great deal about long-term sales. Did you know, both Diablo 1 and Heroes of Might and Magic 3 are both in the top 10 sellers of all time on GoG? Fascinating that. Yeah, I'm sure developers don't give two shit about those 'late purchasers' Hahahaha.