The Outer Worlds - Obsidian's new game, like Borderlands meets Fallout: New Vegas

[Dom Cruise]

I started this up.

The reception to the game seems to be that it's overall a mixed bag, right? I can see that, I find the game pretty interesting so far but it isn't blowing me away sadly.

The setting is pretty interesting but the anti-capitalist themes feels like something from the 2000s, all we need is an ironic version of Ronald McDonald to complete that Adbusters feel, it feels pretty hokey and dated.

 

[Vault Boy]

I started this up.

The reception to the game seems to be that it's overall a mixed bag, right? I can see that, I find the game pretty interesting so far but it isn't blowing me away sadly.

The setting is pretty interesting but the anti-capitalist themes feels like something from the 2000s, all we need is an ironic version of Ronald McDonald to complete that Adbusters feel, it feels pretty hokey and dated.

Just as a head's up, the game's really at it's best at the beginning. Once you leave the Groundbreaker, expect things to go downhill from there in terms of quest variety and gameplay loop. If I were honest, I think people were more interested in sticking it to Bethesda over Fallout 76 instead of the game itself when they gave it all those high scores and GOTY nominations.

Put simply, it doesn't hold a candle to any of Bethesda's past works other than Fallout 76 (huge accomplishment, huh?).

 

[Ruin]

Just as a head's up, the game's really at it's best at the beginning. Once you leave the Groundbreaker, expect things to go downhill from there in terms of quest variety and gameplay loop. If I were honest, I think people were more interested in sticking it to Bethesda over Fallout 76 instead of the game itself when they gave it all those high scores and GOTY nominations.

Put simply, it doesn't hold a candle to any of Bethesda's past works other than Fallout 76 (huge accomplishment, huh?).

Whatever the lawless planet with the exiles is called is one of the weirdest zones I've ever encountered in a videogame. Like the rest of the game it's short and barren but somehow feels like it vastly overstays its welcome at the same time.

 

[Vault Boy]

Whatever the lawless planet with the exiles is called is one of the weirdest zones I've ever encountered in a videogame. Like the rest of the game it's short and barren but somehow feels like it vastly overstays its welcome at the same time.

Also love how the story freezes until you deal with both factions, even though they've barely anything to do with the conflict. I was going to deal with them anyway to try to get as much out of the game as I can, so why are they forced on us in the first place? If it were any other game, it would be called out for such shameless padding.

I don't want to sound like a dick, but people had to have been high off the Fallout 76 fumes when they called this game the "Bethesda Killer". If it were released around the time of any of the other Bethesda games, I doubt as many people would be all rosy about it or nominate it for GOTY.

 

[HeyYou]

I don't think it's particularly great but you do seem rather defensive of Bethesda. I'm absolutely sure there are people out there who just genuinely like the game.

 

[Vault Boy]

I don't think it's particularly great but you do seem rather defensive of Bethesda. I'm absolutely sure there are people out there who just genuinely like the game.

Not at all, Fallout 76 is a disaster and Bethesda was too stupid to realize that adding a subscription service was going to make it worse. By all means, they have to knock it out of the park with Starfield & TES VI to redeem themselves, and even more so with Fallout 5 to make it up to the Fallout fanbase.

If I seem like I'm "defending" them, it's only because people spent the past year insisting that this game should make Bethesda "scared". If people want to think this is competition, then I'm more than happy to compare it to Bethesda games as a whole. Thus far, I find it severely lacking in comparison other than dialogue options, hence why I seem hard on the game.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for competition, but it cuts both ways. Just as Bethesda needs to nail Starfield, Obsidian needs to really step it up for The Outer Worlds 2 if they don't want to get overshadowed. So while people elsewhere are happy to blow sunshine up Obsidian's ass for making a better game than Fallout 76, others like me will offer them criticism so that they can improve in the future.

Besides, I got the game through GamePass. If you think I'm being too bitchy, imagine if I paid $60 to play it.

 

[{o}P II]

i'm hoping this will be one of those series where it only starts getting really good by the second or third game and the first fades into obscureity

There is a lot of potential for something great

 

[Tanner Glass]

I don't think it's particularly great but you do seem rather defensive of Bethesda. I'm absolutely sure there are people out there who just genuinely like the game.

I might be one of the biggest New Vegas fanboys alive and I dislike Fallout 4 and 76 pretty fiercely but have to agree with @Vault Boy 's assessment of Outer Worlds.

A lot of places suggesting that "It's better than New Vegas, Obsidian is back on the block - watch out Bethesda" either
a) Didn't play more than 3 hours of the game
b) are really personally salty about Fallout 76 and/or Bethesda as a company.

Outer Worlds has some potiental, but it isn't a better game than New Vegas - I wouldn't even call it a better game than Fallout 3 or Fallout 4. It is, sadly, at best a cool idea that didn't get fleshed out properly and really isn't a game I'd recommend to many people and certainly not at $60.

I personally really dislike Bethesda (Fallout 76, Elder Scrolls Blades, Fallout Shelter, Rage 2) for putting out a ton of mediocrity, but any competition they're going to face isn't going to come from Obsidian with this as their current showing and you could see it coming from a lack of resources (no Josh Sawyer) and funding (it was billed as a AA title, not a AAA title) and it shows in the final product.

 

[Vault Boy]

i'm hoping this will be one of those series where it only starts getting really good by the second or third game and the first fades into obscureity

There is a lot of potential for something great

Precisely, the pieces are there for a good series, Obsidian just needs to rework a lot of the systems and make the content more interesting. Personally, I'm fine if Obsidian doesn't want to directly compete with Bethesda and make their own kind of RPG instead, just as long as the sequel is on the level of something like Assassin's Creed II in terms of improvement.

 

[Dom Cruise]

Played it a bit more and it's grown on me some, I think I like it enough to see it through to the end.

At the very least it's a pretty interesting world.

 

[Pargon]

I'm halfway my second playthrough because I refuse to let my $60 get flushed in such a way, and I gotta say that a [Dumb] run lends a good deal of charm to things. I haven't encountered any instances in which being a charming, well-meaning idiot opens up any unique resolutions to quest threads but it at least puts the quality of the humor writing more front and center.

I appreciate it being an option and more games should do it or something similar.

 

[Dom Cruise]

I think I like this game pretty good actually.

They kinda billed it as a AAA game which was a misnomer and I can see why people would be disappointed expecting that, but personally the AA, mid-budget feel is actually a big part of the game's charm to me, it feels like something you something you would have rented at Blockbuster back in the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube days when most games were mid-budget.

It's actually kind of refreshing to me to play a game that isn't trying to be the next Halo or Call of Duty or whatever, but at the same time isn't some el cheapo indie joint, there needs to be more midrange games like this these days.

But after spending more time in it I actually really dig the game's setting, it reminds me of Oddworld, in fact the game could be described as Oddworld meets Fallout, which I dig.

 

[Affluent Reptilian]

I am afraid Obsidian might have gone through the startup --> mature company stage where all of the original hands who had vision have gone on to do other things and we no longer have creators, we have employees making the games.

 

[KillThemCrackasBabies]

I think I like this game pretty good actually.

They kinda billed it as a AAA game which was a misnomer and I can see why people would be disappointed expecting that, but personally the AA, mid-budget feel is actually a big part of the game's charm to me, it feels like something you something you would have rented at Blockbuster back in the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube days when most games were mid-budget.

It's actually kind of refreshing to me to play a game that isn't trying to be the next Halo or Call of Duty or whatever, but at the same time isn't some el cheapo indie joint, there needs to be more midrange games like this these days.

But after spending more time in it I actually really dig the game's setting, it reminds me of Oddworld, in fact the game could be described as Oddworld meets Fallout, which I dig.

It's not the first time I've played a game like it, but it's solid as hell all the same. I've been enjoying it much more than I did Fallout 4. It's not "better than New Vegas" by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm having a lot more fun with it than I expected to.

 

[Sexyphobe]

Not at all, Fallout 76 is a disaster and Bethesda was too stupid to realize that adding a subscription service was going to make it worse. By all means, they have to knock it out of the park with Starfield & TES VI to redeem themselves, and even more so with Fallout 5 to make it up to the Fallout fanbase.

If I seem like I'm "defending" them, it's only because people spent the past year insisting that this game should make Bethesda "scared". If people want to think this is competition, then I'm more than happy to compare it to Bethesda games as a whole. Thus far, I find it severely lacking in comparison other than dialogue options, hence why I seem hard on the game.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for competition, but it cuts both ways. Just as Bethesda needs to nail Starfield, Obsidian needs to really step it up for The Outer Worlds 2 if they don't want to get overshadowed. So while people elsewhere are happy to blow sunshine up Obsidian's ass for making a better game than Fallout 76, others like me will offer them criticism so that they can improve in the future.

Besides, I got the game through GamePass. If you think I'm being too bitchy, imagine if I paid $60 to play it.

A lot of praise the game is getting is because, not only is it Obsidian's first big RPG for awhile, it has a lot of RPG elements that people have missed. One example is that when having low intelligence, your character's dialog is really stupid. Like "stand aside, I do numbers real good".

The lore of the game and the buildings you explore is also interesting to people. Most of all it's just a promising start to a promising franchise, while people have been disappointed and critical of Bethesda since Fallout 4. 76 and 1st didn't help. When you're in the fan's good gracies, they'll forgive a lot as long as you look like you're trying.

Hopefully Bethesda nail it with Starfield and TES6, and Obsidian with Microsoft's financial backing will be a huge success. I think they're way too critical of 4 and overpraise NV (and underpraise 3), but I can see where they're coming from.

I am afraid Obsidian might have gone through the startup --> mature company stage where all of the original hands who had vision have gone on to do other things and we know longer have creators, we have employees making the games.

Isn't Chris Avellone the only top guy who left? Josh Sawyer, Feargus Urquhart, Darren Monaham, Chris Jones and Chris Parker still work there and seem fairly hands-on with their projects.

 

[Tor Lugosi]

Off the top of my head, Obsidan has lost George Ziets (Mask of the Betrayer & New Vegas), Kevin Saunders (Sith Lords & Mask of the Betrayer), and John Gonzalez ( New Vegas, his most well known contribution to it being House). Brian Mitsoda also worked there for a spell but to be fair he didn't really contribute much before leaving.

According to Avellone, Urquhart and Parker are useless assholes. The former really fucked over Tyranny by funneling funds that Paradox gave them for it into Pillars of Eternity.

 

[Rap Scallion]

I've been enjoying TOW for the most part but I think I went into it with too high of hopes. Can't help but compare it to F:NV and the old Black Isle and Obsidian kookiness I love is more apparent if you play a low intelligence character, but the game just feels... empty.

The enemy/wildlife variety is very lackluster and I'm not sure if it's me or not but the visuals themselves of this game are very difficult on the eyes. Everything seems to blend into eveything else. The environments are highly saturated and the colorful enemy designs make them difficult to pick out against the foliage/environments. There only seems to be four or five different types of enemies with little variety in attack patterns or threat levels. Thought maybe the Mega Mantiqueens would be Deathclaw-tier dangerous but they go down easy with armor busting abilities.

The world just feels empty. There's not a lot of memorable and fleshed out NPCs and the companions are... okay, at best. The building/town environments get very same-y very quickly too. I remember loving F:NV because of just how much writing and stuff to discover there was. TOW feels like they just ran out of time or resources after a certain point. Maybe Obsidian just burned itself out too fast on the first half of this thing.

I'm still (sort of) enjoying it and I hope it succeeds/leads to better improvements and maybe future games, but I think inflating the game's importance did a lot more harm than good in the end. It's no Bethesda killer and it's no F:NV. It's just okay.

Seriously though, the low intelligence dialogue options breathe just enough life into this thing to keep me playing. I'll take what I can get, I guess. Wonder if it would have been different if Sawyer contributed to it.

 

[Sexyphobe]

Off the top of my head, Obsidan has lost George Ziets (Mask of the Betrayer & New Vegas), Kevin Saunders (Sith Lords & Mask of the Betrayer), and John Gonzalez ( New Vegas, his most well known contribution to it being House). Brian Mitsoda also worked there for a spell but to be fair he didn't really contribute much before leaving.

According to Avellone, Urquhart and Parker are useless assholes. The former really fucked over Tyranny by funneling funds that Paradox gave them for it into Pillars of Eternity.

Possibly, but Avellone didn't exactly leave on good terms and we don't know the full story, so I'll take that with a grain.

I'd still say Obsidian have maintained their identity even with all those people leaving. It's not like Bungie where they're a complete shell of their former selves. Not to mention screwing over Marty and Staten.

 

[Ineedahero]

I finished it today, it was alright. Disco Elysium is a much better talky rpg though. But now I really want to play new vegas again, and since that's what half the thread is about I thought I'd ask - anyone know of a decent mod collection that doesn't go spastic with ancillary mods (I also don't really care about updating the graphics)?

Edit: I would say it was better than poe2, not as good as tyranny.

 

[Violence Jack]

I finished it today, it was alright. Disco Elysium is a much better talky rpg though. But now I really want to play new vegas again, and since that's what half the thread is about I thought I'd ask - anyone know of a decent mod collection that doesn't go spastic with ancillary mods (I also don't really care about updating the graphics)?

Edit: I would say it was better than poe2, not as good as tyranny.

I found an alright steam guide that i was planning on using for a vanilla plus playthrough. It's still got a bunch of optional stuff, but you can ignore most of it. It also contains some fixes for stability. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1216150447&searchtext=vanilla