The Outer Worlds - new RPG from Obsidian

[letsgobrian]

The leadership skills come in handy if you want to keep your companions in line when doing a run through where you go against their morals.

On my second run I've sold out to The Board and Felix was not happy about it, so I had to bully him with Determination until he saw things my way.

[Mister Six]

Maybe I'll suffer for not bothering with them later in the game. Someone upthread said the consequences of your actions manifest later on, and I've mostly been faffing around with side quests rather than the main plot, so we'll see.

I don't think I'll be particularly arsed if one of my companions goes their own way though, which is rare for me. I don't know why - their characters are all pretty well-sketched and I don't actively hate any of them. I just don't particularly like them either. Even Pavarti, the one everyone seems obsessed with. Maybe it's a mechanical thing - in gameplay any two companions are more or less the same as each other (well, SAM has unique weapons but he's also not really a character) so if Vicar Max gets pissed off because I want to go full anarchist and runs away, I have four other characters behind him carrying basically the same "massive plasma weapon and a melee thing" loadout who'll fare more or less the same in battle.

Sorry, I am enjoying the game as a very simple FPS with roleplaying bits, but I really wanted it to have something approaching the depth and complexity that NV had.

[letsgobrian]

Maybe I'll suffer for not bothering with them later in the game. Someone upthread said the consequences of your actions manifest later on, and I've mostly been faffing around with side quests rather than the main plot, so we'll see.

I don't think I'll be particularly arsed if one of my companions goes their own way though, which is rare for me. I don't know why - their characters are all pretty well-sketched and I don't actively hate any of them. I just don't particularly like them either. Even Pavarti, the one everyone seems obsessed with. Maybe it's a mechanical thing - in gameplay any two companions are more or less the same as each other (well, SAM has unique weapons but he's also not really a character) so if Vicar Max gets pissed off because I want to go full anarchist and runs away, I have four other characters behind him carrying basically the same "massive plasma weapon and a melee thing" loadout who'll fare more or less the same in battle.

Sorry, I am enjoying the game as a very simple FPS with roleplaying bits, but I really wanted it to have something approaching the depth and complexity that NV had.

Having completed the game with what appeared to be the best possible endings, they are p. much unnecessary on that route compared to going hard on Dialogue skills (along with some degree of Tech and Stealth). I suspect playing on the hardest difficulty level where your companions have perma-death they will be more useful on all routes.

[Mister Six]

Have now completed this, and I have to say, it's a disappointing game that was quite obviously rushed to conclusion.

Most RPGs start off with one mission ("Get the water chip" in Fallout) before transitioning to the main threat/focus ("Find the source of the Super Mutants/stop The Master") around a third to one half of the way through. This one has you on "Save the other survivors on the Hope" right up until almost the end, when what seems like the big dramatic end-of-act-2 escalation -

Spoiler alert

Phineas has been imprisoned and you must break him out!

[close]

- turns out to be the final mission of the game.

Immediately before or during that quest, you also get a flurry of plot twists that really feel like they were supposed to be dribbled out more gradually.

Spoiler alert

"The colony will starve because the ground isn't providing enough nutrition for plants"

[close]

feels like something that was supposed to be an overarcing concern, but once you get to the end of that quest you can just persuade the scientist to work with Phineas, and that pretty much fixes it.[nb]I find that kind of thing annoying - having the player correctly assume that the benign scientist is a wizard who can fix any problem, so once you've tagged him in you don't have to worry any more.[/nb]

Spoiler alert

"The Board is going to freeze all of the colonists except the rich few, and live out their days in luxury"

[close]

is a good ticking time bomb that would add some urgency to the post-Hope-saving story, but you only find that out just before the last mission, so all you can do

Spoiler alert

is have a brief conversation with the Chairman (who conveniently happens to be passing by the prison you're breaking into, and hasn't been ushered into protective custody after you've shot your way through half the building) before moving on to kill the end boss

[close]

.

And

Spoiler alert

"The Earth has gone dark and we are probably the last human life in existence"

[close]

ought to come right before the end, just to really raise the stakes -

Spoiler alert

if the Board carry out their plan, they're not just dooming the colony, they're going to end the last outpost of intelligent life in the universe

[close]

. Except it comes after the last boss battle, in a little infodump just before the epilogue slides.

There are other signs. The intro missions are quite nicely constructed, with interesting characters and a sense that you're actually effecting change, but the ones at the end are almost perfunctory. All of your characters' personal growth comes in the epilogue cards rather than while you're playing. Places like Scylla are almost entirely barren and pointless, and you rarely have a reason to revisit a town once you've burned up all the quests there.

Very disappointing. Really hope the good sales for this game allow for a proper budget (and proper time management) for the sequel or any other games Obsidian come out with. But I'll be waiting to see the word of mouth, not pre-ordering.

The leadership skills come in handy if you want to keep your companions in line when doing a run through where you go against their morals.

On my second run I've sold out to The Board and Felix was not happy about it, so I had to bully him with Determination until he saw things my way.

I never encountered any dissent, other than Pavarti expressing some concerns in the Edgewater main quest. Maybe the characters need to have more diverse motivations and personalities, like the ones in Dragon Age...

[Mister Six]

Really lovely story here about who those kids are in the tossball posters...

https://www.reddit.com/r/wholesomememes/comments/fx683k/obsidian_games_immortalized_my_younger_brothers/

[bgmnts]

I find Bioware games have the most stock characters ever though. That's kind of why I like them but still.