The Outer Worlds (Obsidian)

[blackdog]

This really gives me more of a Rage meets Bioshock vibe, than a Fallout influenced game… but considering all the criticisms to the latter, maybe it’s a good thing.

 

[geX]

Looks great!

[Noisy_Owl]

 

Yee yee and here is gameplay now...

Now to the important stuff.
Did you notice that there is not a single scene where the player has put the gun away?

I dont feel good about this game XD i see all the things ive always hated about fallout.
And the colors are inconistent  I am not too excited yet. 

[-HP-]

Looks dope, I can live with the negative aspects of it as long as the dialog and story are rock solid. Make it more like Fallout 1, and you're gold!

[blackdog]

Why people like this friggin damage bubbles so much?

 

[Beck]

So I never realised this was releasing so soon, I always thought it was early next year like every other game coming out.

Anyway, got this on the Xbox Game pass on my PC so thought I'd give it a try and after a slowish start I think I'm hooked. This is what a Fallout-like game should be.

The writing is brilliant, the graphics are nice with a nice variety of environments thanks to the game taking place on different worlds, the quests are fun as is the combat. There's plenty of customisation of your character (both stats and look-wise) and you can really specialise your character the way you like. Stats all have secondary bonuses too so for example charisma doesn't just affects conversations it can be used in combat to intimidate enemies etc...

Would recommend you pick it up. Just wish Obsidian had the chance to make more Fallout games.

[Zarsky]

Bethesda already crashed the Fallout plane in the midde of the pacific ocean and all whom might have survived, have been ripped apart by sharks. You just have to let go.

Anyhow, our happy fellow Jim sterling seem to actually really enjoy this game:

 

Edited October 28, 2019 by Zarsky

[Radu]

Jim is having an orgasm with this game

 

[Beck]

11 hours ago, Zarsky said:

Bethesda already crashed the Fallout plane in the midde of the pacific ocean and all whom might have survived, have been ripped apart by sharks. You just have to let go.

I did. After Fallout 4 I realised it probably wasn't going to be the same again.

It just fucking sucks lol.

[AlexM]

After hearing giant bomb gush about this game I think I need to get this. It sounds like they took a typical obsidian rpg and distilled it so much you can bear it in 6-15 hours which for a working person like me is awesome. I simply can't dedicate 80 hours to an rpg anymore. This sounds perfect for me!

[FMPONE]

7 hours ago, AlexM said:

It sounds like they took a typical obsidian rpg and distilled it so much you can bear it in 6-15 hours which for a working person like me is awesome. I simply can't dedicate 80 hours to an rpg anymore. This sounds perfect for me!

That IS intriguing, the idea of a giant time-sink RPG also had limited appeal for me. 

[PaulH]

It's still a 20-30 hour game depending on how much time you want to invest in side content. But more manageable than some other RPG's sure

[-HP-]

Pretty good essay

 

 

[-HP-]

Alright, finally got around to play this... Well, I'm still playing it, about 6 or so hours in. I can see myself finishing it, we'll see...

It does some really great things, others border on mediocrity and a few on flat out bad. Can't help but feel a lot about this game is one big missed opportunity to revive the "Fallout-like" action RPG genre. It tries really hard to walk on F3/F4 shoes, down to how it feels to play, even the button mappings and player movement are the same as Bethesda's Fallout, and if you know your video game history, you can't help but chuckle at the irony of this.

The writing isn't extraordinary, but i'd say it is pretty good, in fact it's the thing that keeps me going back to the game, it does keep me curious and willing to know more about this world. Some of the character dialogues, specially the dialogue trees are really well done, way better than F4.

I don't know how many people that worked on this also worked on 'New Vegas' but I feel the writing of the latter is closer to the original Fallout games (1/2) where your actions and choices brutally impact the world around you, Outer Worlds tried to sit somewhere in the middle, and as a wise man once told me: you never want to be in the middle of anything, unless it's two hot chicks that is.
The plot feels a bit one note, tonally and morally. It does try to make you ask some questions here and there, but ultimately it's all about "corporations bad, tyranny bad", and once you read through that you can't help but think "Yeah, no shit." In these kind of games I prefer when things are a bit more ambiguous, when a bad outcome doesn't necessarily mean evil and a good outcome doesn't necessarily mean righteous either.

The art and presentation is one of the biggest disappointments, obviously this is my area so it makes sense I'm more critical of it but the exteriors have no sense of cohesion or depth. The colors feel very random and scattered, the lighting feels flat and there's barely any fog to help with depth either. It doesn't help that the game relies heavily on SSAO for it's occlusion so it also looks very contrasty. A lot more work could have been done in the art direction department here.

The shooting feels fine, it does it's job. Instead of the VATS system, now you have a mode where the game goes into slow motion, and you can aim and shoot to weak point of an enemy.

[Zarsky]

I’m curious to see what the additional MS money can do for the probable sequel. They were pretty upfront about it not being an AAA-production. That’s still no excuse for @[HP] critique about art, but would be nice to see this becoming a MS staple franchise with big budget production behind it.