Jan 17, 2020 The Outer Worlds is consistently compelling throughout, and it's a superb example of how to promote traditional RPG sensibilities in a sharp, modern experience. Metacritic Game Reviews, The Outer Worlds for PlayStation 4, The Outer Worlds is a new single-player first-person sci-fi RPG from Obsidian.
The Outer World Review - Is it worth it?This game is definitely worth buying, I will be listing off all the good, the bad and the ugly that comes with it so everyone fasten those seat belts cause boy do I have a review for you. I'm gonna take you on an adventure that I'm sure you all will love. About The Outer WorldsThe Outer Worlds is an action RPG that takes players into the vibrant space world of Halcyon, with many planets to explore and creatures to see some of which may or may not try to eat you. Developed by Obsidian Entertainment released on October 25th, 2019 was met with hundreds of positive responses from the release trailer to the day it finally came out, I was lucky enough to get my hands on the last copy from my local Walmart it was looked forward to that much. The Publisher Take-Two Interactive even stated that The Outer Worlds outperformed expectations with sales and while I cannot find how many copies were sold on release it has reached over 2 million to date.The Outer Worlds StoryA Beautiful Night in HalcyonThe Outer Worlds begins with you being frozen and saved by a scientist named Phineas who is wanted by the evil Board.
It is our job to either side with him to restore the rest of the frozen colonists or side with the board to take control over Halcyon. The story is amazing, the characters that you meet as you make your way to the end game and small factions make the world seem so much bigger. And with the different endings to experience it makes you want to see more.The Outer Worlds Gameplay. Before you can start your story you must create your colonist and just like Fallout, there are different attributes, which are strength, dexterity, intelligence, perception, charm and temperament as well as starting two tag skills that can be added or removed to make a character that fits the playthrough you are going through.
You can even make the character dumb which gives some funny interactions with NPCs and companions. You can Hunt alien creatures and can explore to your heart's content there is so much to see you can even find decorations for your ship scattered around the different worlds.
There isn't a class system so whatever character you have in mind is who you play as but with the variety of weapons you can specialize in any kind of combat you want whether it be with melee weapons or ranged weapons to being stealthy to someone just tanking damage and gunning down enemies there are endless possibilities. The NPCs are especially interesting from the companions you travel with to the ones who give out quests like there is an NPC that is stuck inside a moon man helmet. With the NPCs come factions that you will need to destroy or join in order to progress to the end game. The Outer Worlds has four known endings two of which are hidden endings which makes the game replayable with different playthroughs, that's not including the different choices that can be made throughout the game.The Outer Worlds Combat. The combat system in The Outer Worlds works like a first-person shooter where you have a free aim reticle and with the help from Tactical Time Dilation and whatever you choose to be your main type of weapon can determine if it’s a stealth kill or not.
There are different ammo types, which are heavy, energy, and light. And weapon customization can change what kind of damage will be inflicted upon an enemy. With the max level for now being level 30 and as you level you can put skill points into different skills which can allow you to be better when speaking or better with a firearm, or even to improve weapons to kill things in one hit. The weapons are two and one-handed melee, heavy weapons, long-ranged automatic and bolt action weapons along with handguns and special science weapons that are collectible. Each creature has its own weakness so while one kind of weapon works really well others don't do much at all but give it a tickle. On top they have weak spots and if you can't find it at first it might make the battle longer. And the sounds of the guns are amazing.
Some pistols and assault rifles sound like they are firing actual bullets while the science guns sound like lasers being fired.The Outer Worlds Quest SystemEach quest is unique from the main quest to either save the colonists or take control of Halcyon, which leads to side quests distracting you for a short time to even companion quests which don't really give much of a change in gameplay but add a nice touch to the personality of each companion allowing you to understand them as individuals and not generic NPCs. Some of the quest giving NPCs lead you to another quest giving NPC which leads to another and while this is a bit tedious it gives you options and choices that change the result of the end game. There is a companion quest that allows you to find your companion Parvati love which leads to a quest of finding soap, a casserole, some candies, and a nice outfit just so she can impress the woman she is smitten with which is so nice to see in a game.in the beginning you are trying to power up your ship so you go to the town of Edgewater but the first NPC you see gives a quest to collect gravesite fees which results in getting a mission for medicine and finding gold teeth. Not a single boring day in Halcyon.The Outer Worlds Graphics.
The graphics of The Outer Worlds are definitely on par in this day and age. I think they are absolutely vibrant. The light sources produce shadows which is amazing to see especially when there are flickering shadows from a flame. With combat, the flash of the muzzle after each firing of the weapon is not only realistic for weapons that use bullets but with the science weapons it shows what damage is being done to an enemy and firing at a wall leaves a bullet hole for a minute until the next shot is made.The Outer Worlds DeveloperThe Outer Worlds was developed by Obsidian Entertainment who also brought us Fallout New Vegas in the past. The game is not buggy as far as I could see a few glitchy spots depending on what was where and always seemed to fix itself, it was quite smooth during my first playthrough.
Obsidian definitely listens to the community and knows what we want to see. The Outer Worlds was hyped up by many of us and while some don't see the hype as worth it a lot of others still play it today. There is talk of upcoming DLC this year but we are still awaiting new information. And when it comes to support for obsidian I'm sure it's safe to say they definitely have our support.The Outer Worlds PriceCurrently The Outer Worlds costs $59.99 and is available on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Steam. There is no pay to win aspects and no in-game purchases.
A Buy Three, Get One Free Kind of DealThere was a certain kind of RPG, popular in the last console generation, that has seen it’s presence in the gaming sphere diminished over the last few years. These regular stalwarts of these games, most notably BioWare and Bethesda, have had output reduced by longer development times or seen a shift in focus.
These lavish productions in the vein of Mass Effect and Elder Scrolls didn’t disappear, but with the advent of titles like The Witcher 3 — which sacrifices role-playing complexity and depth for a strong central narrative — and the rising prevalence of inserting RPG mechanics into every genre under the sun, games built by prominent studios sold first and foremost as “RPGs” are a rarity. Which is why Obsidian Entertainment’s was warmly welcomed. It’s not a groundbreaking game, it makes no attempts to reinvent the wheel, and many of the things it sets out to do feel half-baked, but its a pleasant experience that I wish this generation had offered more of.Awakened early from what was supposed to be a trip to the unexplored bounds of the galaxy, the player finds themselves indebted to the Phineas Vernon Welles, an eccentric Doc Brown-type who enlists the player to find more of the substance needed to wake up the rest of the in-stasis crew.
Additionally, he also asks that the player work to destabilize the Halcyon region in order to disrupt the power of the corporation that runs it. With not a minute to spare to ask questions, the player is dumped onto the Emerald Vale, a small outpost city under the control of Spacer’s Choice, a faction of the Halcyon Board that runs the nearby city of Edgewater. Several comedic mishaps and gunfights later, the player comes in control of a ship and the wide world opens up. Edgwater is the first and perhaps best example of how runaway corporatism has ruined basically everything.Wide to an extent, that is. The Outer Worlds is not a large game by any means, but this often works to its advantage. The ship, the Unreliable, serves as a hub for companions and as the travel system to the game’s different worlds, but no time will be spent exploring the vast swaths of space. Instead, each of the game’s planets and other non-terrestrial locations are given more room to develop.
Many of the cities feel densely packed in a way that keeps them from being stale and repetitive, while the open areas are kept to reasonable sizes that never feel like a chore to traverse while having distinct points of reference that makes navigating them simple. In a time when many games buy into the idea that bigger is better, The Outer Worlds cuts through a lot of the chaff to deliver an experience that gets to the point.However, in its place the game engages in far-too-frequent, perfunctory bouts of combat. Here is where The Outer Worlds borrows liberally from modern Fallout titles. The first-person combat offers various pistols, rifles, shotguns, and melee weapons to utilize, each governed by different stats within the game. Rounding this out is Tactical Time Dilation, a limited-use slowdown effect that acts as a V.A.T.S. Tactical Time Dilation offers a bit more than V.A.T.S., allowing plenty of time to line up shots and assess the current combat situation. It’s also during these periods where attacking different weak spots can induce appropriate status effects, granting an additional element of crowd control.
But combat in The Outer Worlds feels limiting and, eventually, stale. Even with the inclusion of perks and companions, combat rarely rises above serviceable. This is sufficient enough for a time, but by the end of the game gunfights tend towards rote rather than exciting. The game’s failure to make equipment interesting — there are few variations on each type of gun and upgraded versions of each alongside some unique ones gained from side quests — doesn’t help, as weapons used early on will largely be the same ones used at the end of the game, merely with the numbers cranked up. Armor doesn’t fair much better, providing an assortment of protection that all falls in a very limited range between a Firefly junker or a generic space marine. There are plenty of opportunities to talk instead of fight, but the longer the game went on, the less patience I had for its tiresome combat. The Outer Worlds is the type of game where people can bring swords to a gunfight.Character creation feels a lot better, if not perfect.
Six stats influence the game’s many skills, each divided into seven categories. Leveling gives plenty of skill points that make the early game pretty interesting as there is a lot of room to experiment. Later in the game it is far too easy to have plenty of high-leveled skills that can end up trivializing most encounters, especially since non-combat skills offer at least a token combat benefit. This is a good thing in theory, in practice it can make most of the combat encounters feel superfluous. The actual underwhelming part of character creation comes from Perks. Perks are entirely functional but lack any sort of creativity or appeal.
They mostly offer either flat bonuses or slightly better situational bonuses. Perk points come at every other level but can also be gained through quest rewards and Flaws. Flaws are a really fun idea, granting Perk points in exchange for a permanent debuff brought along by repeated abuse. For example, suffering too much fall damage gives the player a limp and decreases maximum movement speed. If only the Perks were more interesting the system would be perfect.The companions are where The Outer Worlds shines brightest.
There are six to be found throughout and, while all entertaining in their own way, Parvati is truly a exceptional partner who’s popularity is likely to outlast the game itself. Their interactions with each other aboard the Unreliable, the ship and hub of the game, give a good glimpse at the characters and gives the ship a homey feel. Mechanically, the companions have truncated perks and a unique ability tied to a cooldown, but more often than not the companions don’t feel all that useful in combat. There are builds out there that can utilize them but companions were used mostly as fodder to eat hits in between activations of their ability. But their presence and the enjoyment highlight how much games like The Outer Worlds have been underrepresented this generation.
The cockpit of the Unreliable, which hints at a much larger universe you can’t see in the game.Obsidian is usually great when it comes to crafting intriguing plots and meta-contextual narratives, but this time around there’s nothing too interesting about the story and the game’s humorous tone — which often repeats the same joke over and over again — isn’t enough to keep the proceedings entertaining. It’s as if jokes took priority over making things more interesting to explore. The points the game has to make are generally considered, but they’re just all very surface reads. On top of that, the game’s choices don’t feel particularly consequential, as if would not change much between playthroughs if different paths were followed. In spite of this, it’s a game that aims to evoke a specific feeling, a weird amalgam of previous-gen BioWare and modern Fallout titles, and it mostly succeeds in this regard.Visually, the game’s budget shows, but its far from an ugly game.
The voice acting is pretty great all around even while the music of the game manages to leave no impact. The PlayStation 4 version of the game was also rough around the edges, crashing a handful of times during the thirty hours it took to get through the game. Load times are also quite lengthy, an issue exacerbated when needing to switch planets, which require a loading screen to and from the ship in addition to the new location every time the locale is changed.What probably best summarizes The Outer Worlds is that, in spite of my qualms with aspects of it, I still enjoyed my time playing it.
It doesn’t overstay its welcome and by the fills a void that feels wider in the wake of many larger western studios losing interest in making dedicated RPG experiences. It’s not the kind of game to stand the test of time and Obsidian has made much better and more interesting games in the past, but there is a pleasant experience to be had. For those looking for that style of single-player RPG will find a lot to like and could do a lot worse.
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