Picture this
I wake up frozen in a hibernation pod, released by some mad scientist type looking for help. He needs some more chemicals that help with prolonged sleep withdraw. Sends me to meet a guy on the near by planet, only thing is the pod hits the guy I was suppose to meet and kills him.
Bummer.
Start exploring the area and find myself in a cave. I meet a guy who is hurt, so I healed him. After talking with him I find out he shot himself. Said he was going to omit the fact that I healed him due to not being allowed to get outside help or something.
I wasn’t paying attention.
Leave the cave, kill some baddies, find the space rangers boss and lackey outside of a ship I assume is guys I killed. I slipped and told them I healed the guy they were looking for. Said he was going to get reprimanded for lettings me heal him. I start to panic because I already forgot he said he was going to leave that part out.
End up shooting them both.
Start exploring the ship of the guy that I was suppose to meet but killed. Greeted by a lovely AI who threatens me while I steal everything I could get my grubby hands on. End up befriending the AI using the name of the previous captain. Find out I need a part to get it back up and running and leave the ship. As I leave, I’m greeted by a fellow checking up on the space cadets.
Crap.
He asked me what happened to his coworkers, and I told him the tragic story of how they brutally shot themselves. Success. Apparently this is the second time this month! Tells me about the near by town I could check out and try some canned fish.
Great!
Head into town and I meet a guy digging graves, gives me a job to collect some rent money from the family of the deceased.
You found the right guy!
This was all in the matter of the first 10 to 20 minutes of game play, and brings me to my first point. The story telling is on point in The Outer Worlds. It feels organic and exciting. The game offers a variety of options when communicating with npcs, and the results can be wildly different, offering replay ability for the story alone.
Outer Worlds unique design.
The game looks good. The Colors are bright and vibrant, while still being able to look gritty when it needs to be. The interesting atmosphere in The Outer Worlds offers something fun to look at while you are searching for junk to sell. The voice acting in the game is top notch. Overall I am pretty happy with the general look and feel of the game.
Its not perfect though.
Grass up close looks like garbage, The few items you can pick up are obnoxiously noticeable. A lot of the interiors are pretty bland and boring.
Lets talk about game play.
The Outer Worlds is very much an rpg. From the way you shoot, to unlocking bins and talking to npcs. It seems everything is effected by choices you make and stats that you have.
Shooting
I have lined up a perfect headshot, just for the bullet to fly a foot off the mark. Leaving me to believe that the higher stat you have, the less bullet spread you get. This is nice from a rpg stand point, but sucks for a improving your personal aim. I really didn’t like this feature in fall out 3, and I don’t care for it in Outer Worlds. This is just my opinion though, and I wouldn’t take away for it.
Lock Picking
Another annoyance is the “lock picking”. Long gone are the days of breaking picks. You simply cant even try unless you have the right amount. If you need 4 lock picks to open a container, that’s it. You cant save them or accidentally break a few. Again, this is falling into a more rigid rpg aspect and less personal skill.
Stealth
Sneaking around in the game is fun and effective. My guy has a basically no stealth skills and he was still able to hide in some grass and go pretty much undetected. Seemed weird with huge stat reliance on other things, that this one would fall short. Also the grass fading out of your way is a nice touch, and a easy way to find lost bodies in the grass.
Stats Overall
I really enjoy the stat checks the game has. It makes me feel that the character has a unique set of skills. I just feel like there is some short comings. Hacking a vending machine has no UI interactions at all. It just magically happens when you have the stats. You do gain experience when you use options in dialogue which is nice
Other things to note about game play
- The TTD (Tactical Time Dilation) feature I think is there for people bad at aiming, which is nice. I really don’t use it, but it can make a huge difference when you are in a pinch.
- You cant pick up mines. I just assumed you could, and I ended up regretting the decision.
- Where are all the harvestable plants?
- If you mess your skills up, you can reset them! Pretty cheap too.
- Freely kill whoever! At least so far!
The Character Creation
Is great. It brought back New Vegas vibes mixed with with Fallout 3, while still feeling new and unique. Plenty of options to make you want to start over and try something new. Perks and stats can be customized along with the characters appearance. I think they did a great job.
Real quick
I would like to say that I bought this game via Microsoft Store, and played it on pc. No issues as I have used it before. I did get taxed and xbox live did spam me to log in, which I promptly ignored. From what I can tell the only drawback is I wont get cloud saves. Which I don’t care for anyways.
Overall?
I can and do recommend the game. It is a game I feel you could wait on for a sale, or when it comes to steam. I don’t think there is any benefit to playing it right now, other then the fact you are playing it right now. I think the game will age very well, and I think it will give hours upon hours of enjoyment. The small instanced maps are full of detail and nicely put together. The World does feel small, and I hope they have bigger spaces to explore later. If you get it now or later, I feel like you wont regret it. Obsidian did a great job with this game.
Buy the game here:
or here:
https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/the-outer-worlds/home
What did you guys think?
Are you playing the game? Love it? Hate it? Let me know in the comments below!