The Outer Worlds

I looked at reviews on YouTube - big mistake. This game is BORING. I am forcing myself to play. There isn't really a story, just people who want you to do things for them.

pretty average, but still better combat, gun variety, writing and dialogue choices etc than starfield lol

I played the game through once. This is not even remotely as good as Fallout N V. a real disappointment.

It's a bit sad because the gameplay is solid and environments are really nice. But the writing is subpar, companions are all desperate to join you, there's barely any real moral choice in the game and it doesn't improve. It's basically fallout-lite. If you were shocked because you could be a slaver, sell your wife or kill kids in fallout 2, play this instead. But if you're looking for a deep RPG with tough moral choices, then you'd best avoid this one. The skills are ok but not game changing like Fallout perks and some stats are weird (you won't survive the hardest difficulty with the lowest in determination for instance... 0 regen). So it's kind of a mixed bag.

So much of Obsidian's street cred regarding the masterful writing of their games is tied to non other than Chris Avellone, and unfortunately the last Obsidian game he worked on was Tyranny. Obsidian hasn't managed to recapture the magic of THEIR Fallout writing without him. Still a decent start for potential franchise, just flawed in some way in pretty much every aspect. For combat, while status effects of local version of VATS can be quite satisfying, the fact that they can ONLY be inflicted while in it is stupid design choice. Enemy variety could be better too. For Gear, the variety of weapons and armor is quite disappointing. None of the areas stand out enough to write about world design. And the narrative is just so one-dimensionally dystopian. There's just no charm in how depressed 90% of characters feel. They don't have any charisma. The depressing world of Fallout is balanced with mad, cheery and determined to make everything better characters. With outer worlds it feels like most chars have fallen into apathetic routine, which I have enough of IRL, and a few who didn't just don't have what it takes to carry the whole game. Still, the role-play part of narrative is "perfectly Obsidian", so if you know what I mean and appreciate this part of their games, worth buying on sale.