The Outer Worlds

I feel people were a little to harsh on this game because of the botched launch of both the original and the spacer's choice edition, combined with the fact that everyone was expecting fallout in space. It kinda is and kinda isn't. Its a semi open game that has things from fallout with some mass effect thrown in, with a touch of boringla- borderlands as well. The roleplaying aspects are good enough to give the player a variety of ways to tackle different situations, which is good. Thats what fallout is known for. Honestly the biggest problem with the game (apart from the usual bugs and perfomance issues that these type of games have) is the way the game fizzles out in the end. The last two areas are smaller and less interesting with dull sidequests, and the end game is short and easy. Then the game just.. ends. The one good thing about it is the rather meety epilogue that goes over a good chunk of the choices that are made, including the DLC. Speaking of which, the dlc isn't any better or worse than the rest of the game. its alright. Still, the game is good. Not great, but good. And certainly better than starfield and honestly, Fallout 4 as well.

For a game with combat as a central component of the gameplay, it's not very good. The enemies are spongy and the AI is atrocious. They stand and shoot, barely care about cover, never try to flank or really do anything of challenge. The only difficulty in the combat is how spongy the enemies are. The engine the game runs on feels tired and outdated, lots of loading screens, small compact areas, robotic feeling npcs with robot facial expressions. Feels like they made fallout a long time ago, won some awards then never changed while the world (and standards) have moved on. It's weird to have "reputation" in the game yet it's also a game of steal everything which isn't nailed down, pickpocket everyone (which is easy due to the bad ai) and face no repercussions to this. There's also some RPG lite elements to the game, but they seem so loosely bolted on as to be pointless. You have points assigned to things like science and "lie" but seems like I've never not had the stats to pass any and all checks. The loot is repetitive and seems completely random, ends up being mostly junk, would have been nice if they'd done more hand crafting here. Once nice point, is the graphics are decent (but no particle effects, so feels console nice rather than PC nice), and also lots of voice acting which is great. In the end feels like a bit of a hollow game, they're really sticking to what they think they know, but really they should be hiring people from Larian Studios to figure out how good modern rpgs can be.

I just finished my first playthrough of this title and I'm wildly impressed. It hit so many marks for me and I'm beyond excited for the sequel to come out. I won't get into how this title ended up "coming across my desk" but I'm so glad it did. Obsidian hit a home run with this and I'm so glad I took the time to do all of the side content. I haven't played the DLC content yet but I'm plenty content with the base game. The next time the DLCs go on sale I fully intend to buy them and I've got my pre-Tartarus save file ready to go for when that happens. The way the world is presented to you has an occasional oversight and/or contingency flaw but 99% of the time they handled my free exploration mentality incredibly well with tying right back into the game. For example, any time I would free roam and blast marauders to pieces, I'd find some cool stuff. Since I was doing all the side content, a lot of that stuff would come up later when someone asks me to go find that thing or clear that place and every single time the option was handled correctly, and within reasonable story progression, with an understanding that I had already done that, cleared that, or acquired that thing. I know that's not a huge thing, and seems pretty common sense, but it fails in games more frequently than you'd think and this juggled my free choice VERY well tbh. This is just one example but the game handles itself VERY well and everyone involved in the creation deserves their due respect for this one. 9.5/10 have recommended to literally everyone I know. TLDR: Game is very good, well made, tested and optimized. Fantastic side content, story content, and player agency. The occasional railroading of how you get around the map might be sometimes irritating but its a small price to pay to be forced to walk around something when along the way you're going to find plenty of valuables. This game shows an understanding of so much that came before it, give it a shot it's worth your time.

Just a fun relax game with a decent engaging story

I really like the idea of having an action RPG set in space in the style of Fallout 3 or New Vegas. I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the various planets and moons. Whoever designed those locations had an incredible imagination – I just wish there had been more of them, and perhaps even with different gravity! That would have been brilliant. I also liked the slow-motion combat mechanic, but I would definitely have preferred a turn-based option, similar to the Fallout series. The story is good, though it could have been deeper – for example, either more serious or more humorous and sarcastic. The characters could also have had stronger personalities. I didn’t really see the point in having so many companions to choose from when you can only take two with you on missions. I ended up barely using half of them. The game’s length was perfect for my style of play – not too short, but not so long that I lost interest or found it repetitive (although, towards the end, I did start speeding things up a bit). What could be improved are the perks – I found at least half of them uninteresting or not particularly useful for my playthrough. Overall, though, it’s a fun and enjoyable action RPG set in space, with great retro-futuristic visuals. PS: And I hate respawning - pls, don't do that in the future.