A game where every character has their pronoun listed and you can customize pronouns of your crew. A woke game, just what I wanted. Not/Never...
The Outer Worlds is quite in line with Fallout 3 and 4 in the level of RPG and balance between dialogue and combat. If you come in expecting that kind of RPG there's much to enjoy here. It's kind of a sci-fi opera in the style of early sci-fi movies and magazines/comics, with larger than life people, environments and wildlife, and a sarcastic and fun tone throughout. Sure, it's not the deepest RPG in terms of dialogue choices, often mostly a flavor choice. But just as often you can affect important outcome by your choices, or by having specific skills high enough to pass skill checks. You can also influence the game by e.g. choosing who to side with in a conflict. Also, your play-style can affect the game a lot. You can spec up to be a tanky melee character, or more of a "rogue/thief" type and sneak around a lot of encounters, or focus on boosting your companions while you mostly stand back from combat. You really want to bring the companions along, they are helpful and unobtrusive. They also sometimes add flavor and background info with comments about places, people or dialogue, or have a bit of banter between them. Graphics I enjoyed a lot. The coloring took slightly getting used to, but then it really help make the environments seem other-worldly. The detail and textures are very good, and the lighting often impressive. Items in the game like weapons, armor, and consumables are well done with small intricate details, and a used look that make them seem part of the world. There's also amusing descriptive text for many items. P.S. This tip I think is important to the game story: When you get to the space station Groundbreaker you'll meet Udom Bedford who represents The Board. Even if you want to follow what seem to be the "obvious" story line and oppose the oppressive Board, you want to play along and pretend you want to turn in Phineas Welles. This will open up a whole story line, and much later in the game you can decide who you actually want to side with.
