The Outer Worlds

The game in principle is decent. Level skills, travel around, complete quests, some decisions will impact later events. But I honestly just cannot get past the characters. They are insufferably whiny, the plot is completely silly. The dialogue feels like it was written in middle school. It seems to be going for some kind of over the top ha ha parody of corporatism - but it falls so completely flat. Parody without wit is just, well, annoying. It comes off as very predictable and clumsy. It's just not funny.

I am pretty surprised by the negative reviews for this game. I thought it was wonderfully written. Tons of sarcastic humor and Verhoeven-esque jabs at commercialism. I played with Parvati and Max the whole game. The first to companions. I thought they were both really well written and interesting characters. Sure it isn't super deep, but Max does have an interesting turn of personality after an unusual side quest. Parvati's quest is not so great. It is purely character building but all romance and not so interesting to me. I still really liked her. I like that voice actress, she's the same one who does the lead in Horizon Zero Dawn. Yes, the enemies do get repetative. That surely could have been worked on. Also, I HATE DLC that starts in the middle of the story. I had already played the whole game (ps4) so when the DLC came out I had to pick a random save location and then start that DLC which really made it fall flatter than it would have otherwise. It was also too similar to the rest of the game with only slightly different creatures and locations. For me the selling point is really the writing style. The sense of humor really worked for me. I loved reading all the notes and listening to all the NPCs because of it.

I have completed the game twice so far. The first time I was a real hero, the second - an inveterate villain. The game was able to captivate me for 60 hours. The first locations were especially striking when everything is new and you are trying to figure it out. I was pleased with the game and its variability. I especially liked my partners. Parvati is my favorite. I agree with other reviews that the plot and tempo sag a little after half of the game, but I was able to enjoy the whole process. I recommend giving it a try. The game has potential.

"Why is this game not as extensive and intricate as that other game made by a bigger team on a larger budget that took longer to make?" Sigh. I happen to like the Outer Worlds. It's less "Star Wars" and more "hang out with Luke as he goes shopping for farm equipment", but the world crafting is first-rate, the writing is solid and the finish is kinda pretty. The FPS aspect is handled fairly well, with meaty shooting sounds and fast action you can slow at the push of a button. And the RPG aspect is, well, exactly what you'd expect from a semi-SPECIAL game: lots of well-voiced dialogue and rampant skill checks. The writing is solid, the plot -- serviceable, and the characters more "regular Jane" than "space opera hero". I think the fluidity of plot progression and the amount of choice in every conversation deserves a shout-out, too. The set pieces are a lot smaller here, but you can play them seamlessly back to front and the game will account for it (which, if you've ever written dialogue trees, is kind of a big deal). If you temper your expectations a little, there's a lot to like here. Just think less Fallout and more an episode of Firefly set in Tomorrowland.

Taking the Harry Potter approach of pasting together content from other tales, this "buy the DLC to get the full game" style of Fallout blended with a hint of Borderlands and the characters/themes from Serenity/Firefly (e.g. a timid female engineer you take off her backwater planet), leaves you with that same, "Is that it?" feeling after several hours of play. If you just bought the teaser game, you'll be forgiven for wondering when you can reach the point of removing mods from weapons (that the game repeatedly tells you is possible when you reach a certain level), only to find that doesn't come unless you pay more for the first DLC. Let me guess, as I haven't got there yet, all those planets it looks like you'll end up being able to travel back and forth to, are also only accessible if you pay more? Not sure if we're experiencing a nostalgic design here, where keyboard mappings are fixed for some keys and even if you do customise your keyboard settings to your preferred options, the game binds the original and new function to the chosen key. (So my second character performs an attack while I'm trying to go into slo-mo mode). 1980s gaming feel. Companions combat options allow for them to stand idly (unless you can manage to fight and give commands in real time) or to charge in, blocking line of sight. Defensive mode could be defined to give a better experience. On the plus side, some of the character dialogue and interactions show the beginnings of a better RPG construct, delivering a feeling of greater immersion at times, rather than just plodding from delivery job to job. Tinkering is another plus that allows the development of weapons and armour beyond the level you get them at and in line with your character's level. Until at high levels this is a costly option to take a level 2 weapon up to level 20, but certainly extends the use of preferred weapons and armour. All in all, the makings of a great game that sadly only gives a hint of what it could be.