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

[Sinner's Sandwich]

only grandpa uses the words Katzelmacher

More like great great grandpa. It's so fucking old. My grandparents never heard this word before. The Obsidian people who made the list are dumb as shit.

What else is banned?
Franzmann?? (really really old slang for french people)
Barbarian?? (that's how the romans called the germanic tribes)

[insert outdated triggering "bad" word here]

 

[Dr. Geronimo]

More like great great grandpa. It's so fucking old. My grandparents never heard this word before. The Obsidian people who made the list are dumb as shit.

What else is banned?
Franzmann?? (really really old slang for french people)
Barbarian?? (that's how the romans called the germanic tribes)

[insert outdated triggering "bad" word here]

I believe that the general consensus is that they probably got the list of no no words from another group or company, most likely foreign since this list is so german.


And from what I've played so far the game isn't outwardly offensive. Most of the women have dangerhair and their is a strange vibe of androgyny. Funny enough it's walking the line so hard it's starting to annoy me. If this is the future of gaming I want no part of it.

 

[Chin of Campbell]

She's an asexual lesbian

Maybe I'm just not up to date with the 8 quadrillion classifications that don't actually mean what they're called but how does this work

 

[SiccDicc]

Maybe I'm just not up to date with the 8 quadrillion classifications that don't actually mean what they're called but how does this work

She reproduces with herself. If I was asexual then I'd be asexual gay because I'd be reproducing with myself as a man, and das gay.

 

[Agent of Z.O.G.]

Played it a bit. Was about as bland and boring as everyone expected. It wasn't as terrible as some other people said, (well okay, the combat and stealth are fucking garbage) but that just makes this BethFallout clone all the more forgettable.

 

[Slimy Time]

Finally got some time to play this. They story and choices are pretty good, well, a definite step up from FO4 (not hard). Worldbuilding is pretty enjoyable. Combat doesn't feel great though. Played a melee-heavy gun hybrid. Melee feels like there is no weight or impact when you hit. Even FO 4 had some feeling of impact or crunch when you smashed someone with a sledgehammer, or you felt like a bullet blender with a minigun. You don't get that here.

Other issue I personally have is that the game is too open with its stat allocation. What I mean is when you play something like FO4, you have to choose which specific gun type to specialise in. If you want to gun sling like it's the Wild West - put it into pistols. Want to use heavy weapons, got to allocate perk points there. This just increases guns across the board until you hit 50 points, then you have to specialise gun type. Doesn't really incentivise using something like pistols or the other weapons when for the first part of the game, you are almost equal in all weapons in that category. Feels like it would be very easy to become a complete jack of all traits in this game without meaning to.

Otherwise, enjoying it. Still put on my podcast to listen to like I do for FO4, but it's background noise while I listen to and read dialogue.

 

[Tor Lugosi]

Finished up Monarch yesterday. Today I tried doing some more side quests I had in my journal but I just can't find the motivation to continue.

- The main plot hook is weak to the point of being almost non-existent. I felt like there was never a compelling reason for the MC to continue on in the plot after he got his ship off the ground.

- The factions are fairly bland and forgettable. The conflict between factions also felt samey - in Edgewater it's corporate goodbois vs a breakaway group that wants to be independent; on Monarch it's corporate goodbois vs a breakaway group that wants to be independent. I never was engaged enough by the factions to actually want to help them achieve their goals like with House in New Vegas, rather they felt like the Boomers - more like a quest chain to complete and then move on.

- The 'lol corporations mirite' humor wore thin by the end of Edgewater. The writing in general is just okay; nothing memorable or really interesting. I doubt there's any story moments or characters that anyone will remember in a year's time.

- Loot is god awful. I can't remember a recent game with worse loot. Event Assassin's Creed is better in this area -- at least in the last two of that series there's a good number of truly unique items. This game's loot would be worse than the Witcher 3's if you removed the Witcher Gear from it.

- Exploration kinda sucks. The planet maps are well designed and their sizes are usually just right but there's almost never anything interesting to find.

- Gameplay is fine and serviceable but nothing particularly interesting or good. Combat mechanics feels midway between New Vegas 'and FO4's. Enemy AI is brain dead. Half the time if I snipe and kill an enemy the other nearby enemies will just continue to stand around. Enemy variety is also fairly low. Also, is there even any throwables in the game?

- Performance is weird. I have a 1080ti, an i7-7700, and have it installed on a M2 SSD but still get a lot of hitching and texture pop-in.

Overall the game is underwhelming. It feels like a project a developer would put out just to keep the lights on... except people working on it described it as their 'dream game', which really makes me worry for Obsidian.

 

[Keroruma]

So, I don't know if anyone else is seeing this, but TOW setting is basically the USSR. You have a planned economy. You have constant denials and coverups of the mistakes. You have the state owning all land and means of production. You have the idolization of the Chairman. You have a duty to work. You have assigned workplaces in which you don't get a choice. You have famine as the main issue of the day. And so on and so on. This is Horseshoe Theory: The Game.

 

[murdered meat bag]

im enjoying the game. Its a condensed down version of fallout, you can accomplish the missions in numerous ways (way more than new vegas), the story is servicable. the writting is ok, sometimes funny, sometimes overdoing it.

but yes the game makes my pc run hot and textures pop in like crazy

 

[GloJojo]

Omg the german bans

Bambus: bamboo wtf??

Dunno about German, but bambus means nigger in Polish, not only a plant. They may have some vague idea of European slurs...

 

[Slimy Time]

Finished up Monarch yesterday. Today I tried doing some more side quests I had in my journal but I just can't find the motivation to continue.

- The main plot hook is weak to the point of being almost non-existent. I felt like there was never a compelling reason for the MC to continue on in the plot after he got his ship off the ground.

- The factions are fairly bland and forgettable. The conflict between factions also felt samey - in Edgewater it's corporate goodbois vs a breakaway group that wants to be independent; on Monarch it's corporate goodbois vs a breakaway group that wants to be independent. I never was engaged enough by the factions to actually want to help them achieve their goals like with House in New Vegas, rather they felt like the Boomers - more like a quest chain to complete and then move on.

- The 'lol corporations mirite' humor wore thin by the end of Edgewater. The writing in general is just okay; nothing memorable or really interesting. I doubt there's any story moments or characters that anyone will remember in a year's time.

- Loot is god awful. I can't remember a recent game with worse loot. Event Assassin's Creed is better in this area -- at least in the last two of that series there's a good number of truly unique items. This game's loot would be worse than the Witcher 3's if you removed the Witcher Gear from it.

- Exploration kinda sucks. The planet maps are well designed and their sizes are usually just right but there's almost never anything interesting to find.

- Gameplay is fine and serviceable but nothing particularly interesting or good. Combat mechanics feels midway between New Vegas 'and FO4's. Enemy AI is brain dead. Half the time if I snipe and kill an enemy the other nearby enemies will just continue to stand around. Enemy variety is also fairly low. Also, is there even any throwables in the game?

- Performance is weird. I have a 1080ti, an i7-7700, and have it installed on a M2 SSD but still get a lot of hitching and texture pop-in.

Overall the game is underwhelming. It feels like a project a developer would put out just to keep the lights on... except people working on it described it as their 'dream game', which really makes me worry for Obsidian.

Finished the Monarch part as well. I'm getting somewhat the impression that there is a lot of busywork that you need to do to forward the story. You go to find this guy to forward the story, problem - can't do what he needs to do because the two factions are having problem. I go to the nearest ones, they give me their series of quests. I finish the series of quests, then they say they want to "arrange a meeting with the other faction", to resolve the issue at hand I assume. I go to see the head of the other faction...and the guy (and game) wants me to finish all their quests as well. I shit you not I decided "nah fam" and blew him away with my LMG. Problem solved, I get to now go to the next area and continue the story.

IDK why, but I have this urge to get though the main story ASAP (haven't yet, so pls no spoilers) and am quite literally at the point where if shooting someone gets me there quicker, then all the better.

I'll probably do more of the faction quests and try to RP on a second run through. I don't think I see it as underwhelming as you do, maybe because I'm playing a melee-heavy gun build that requires me to get into the thick of things (I'm guessing you went for sniping) but I am starting to see more things that irk me, loot being one of them, planet factions being similar being the other. Hopefully they do some DLC which irons out these things.

 

[Ruin]

Finished it in about 20 hours. Main quest +90% of side quests. It's ok, my personal rating is 7/10.

Kinda wished I had picked up Metro Exodus + Bloodstained instead which were also on my list and would have cost the same.

Also I'm totally ok that there's no romance mechanic in this game. Worst waifus ever.

 

[Dr. Geronimo]

Finished it in about 20 hours. Main quest +90% of side quests. It's ok, my personal rating is 7/10.

Kinda wished I had picked up Metro Exodus + Bloodstained instead which were also on my list and would have cost the same.

Also I'm totally ok that there's no romance mechanic in this game. Worst waifus ever.

They're not waifus when they'd be offended at the term

 

[Azazel]

As it happens I just finished Monarch too so I guess I'll give my (midgame? idk) thoughts so far.

Combat is definitely the weakest aspect of the game, that loop is just awful. I tried to make a stealthy sniper too and it's basically pointless because after the first shot (even with a silencer), unless the enemy was separated off by himself, they all become "aware" of me, and the sneaking skill just seems to affect how the awareness meter decays. I'm probably going to re-spec because stealth just doesn't work outside the first or second shot. After that I have to get the machine gun out because 6 enemies just bulldozed through my companions to melee me to death, despite couching in a bush 80 feet and having a sneak of 80, and both companions having the threaten generator perk while standing in the open closer to them.

Weapon variety is really weak too. This is no borderlands, and it's where I realize this is a AA with a decent budget, not a AAA game with an infinite budget. I've sank at least 25 hours in and I'm still using the same weapon models I was at the start, now they are just "Mk2", that really disappointed me when I realized that's how they will upgrade weapons. The ones they do have look and sound nice, there's just not nearly enough of them, I'm tired of looking at the same gun for 30+ hours.

AI is pretty bad too, melee will just charge right at you, ranged will sometimes they will take cover but most of the time stand out in the open taking shots. Both types frequently get stuck on objects. Unit variety is pretty poor too. You basically got humans, robots, and 3 species of alien beasts. You just fight these 5 types over and over again, seemingly at random. Every mission involves going to some place overran with one of these factions, trying something/someone, and going back. So fighting the same enemies with the same guns, in missions that aren't really that different...is burning up my interest quickly. Thank god it was on gamepass.

On the pro side, I like the writing and the voice acting. I could see how the story wouldn't compel most but I think it's got a better hook than Fallout 4, so I dunno. Too subjective to really judge, but I like the companions, especially Parvati. The ship interior is nice even if they did borrow pretty heavily from Firefly. The maps are pretty nice as well.

 

[Biggie Smalls' Taint]

Game seems pretty neat with all its stats and interesting quests with multiple parties involved but there's one tiny little thing that bothers me about this game...
It's fucking hideous. Everything looks hazy, foliage has this weird almost water-color fringe effect, some of the pieces of the environment (like the Dr Seuss looking puff balls in the first area) have their lighting completely messed up so they don't look like they belong there.

It's a mess. I'm running it with everything on ultra and it still looks like all the textures haven't loaded in. This is a problem mostly with Unreal 4. Once I saw the blurry textures, the mismatched saturation on the objects, the world-rending pop-in and the weird haze covering everything I knew this was an Unreal 4 game. What a detestable engine.

I can't play it for more than 15 minutes without feeling like my eyes have gone senile.

 

[Screw Danlon]

Maybe I’m just being petty or expecting too much after people kept talking up how deep the roleplaying would be vs Bethesda’s games - esp since I really enjoyed Tyranny - but I’ve actually been finding the dialogue choices pretty weak.

I wanted to tell the two factions on Edgewater that I didn’t care if neither side survived, I saved the gardens because they were the only beautiful place I’d seen so far. At least I got to tell bowler guy that it wasn’t personal, but I couldn’t tell the other lady anything close to that.

 

[Vault Boy]

Finished up Monarch yesterday. Today I tried doing some more side quests I had in my journal but I just can't find the motivation to continue.

- The main plot hook is weak to the point of being almost non-existent. I felt like there was never a compelling reason for the MC to continue on in the plot after he got his ship off the ground.

- The factions are fairly bland and forgettable. The conflict between factions also felt samey - in Edgewater it's corporate goodbois vs a breakaway group that wants to be independent; on Monarch it's corporate goodbois vs a breakaway group that wants to be independent. I never was engaged enough by the factions to actually want to help them achieve their goals like with House in New Vegas, rather they felt like the Boomers - more like a quest chain to complete and then move on.

- The 'lol corporations mirite' humor wore thin by the end of Edgewater. The writing in general is just okay; nothing memorable or really interesting. I doubt there's any story moments or characters that anyone will remember in a year's time.

- Loot is god awful. I can't remember a recent game with worse loot. Event Assassin's Creed is better in this area -- at least in the last two of that series there's a good number of truly unique items. This game's loot would be worse than the Witcher 3's if you removed the Witcher Gear from it.

- Exploration kinda sucks. The planet maps are well designed and their sizes are usually just right but there's almost never anything interesting to find.

- Gameplay is fine and serviceable but nothing particularly interesting or good. Combat mechanics feels midway between New Vegas 'and FO4's. Enemy AI is brain dead. Half the time if I snipe and kill an enemy the other nearby enemies will just continue to stand around. Enemy variety is also fairly low. Also, is there even any throwables in the game?

- Performance is weird. I have a 1080ti, an i7-7700, and have it installed on a M2 SSD but still get a lot of hitching and texture pop-in.

Overall the game is underwhelming. It feels like a project a developer would put out just to keep the lights on... except people working on it described it as their 'dream game', which really makes me worry for Obsidian.

To piggyback off your post, here are some areas that I find Fallout 3 & 4 did better than this game.

• Combat: Like you said, a weird in between of NV & 4. Some weapons like the light machine gun feel alright, but others like the shotguns feel like wet noodles (even Fallout 3 had the decency to make shotguns feel satisfying). I know that people like to disparage 4 as being a shooter instead of an RPG, but that game's four years old, even Fallout 76 had better combat in spite of its limitations. I understand that some things had to give due to the lower budget, but Obsidian really needs to take a second look at combat for TOW2.
• Perks: To sum them up, they're boring. There's no restrictions for taking them outside of getting enough of them to unlock the next tier, there's very little specialization outside of the science weapon and solo perks, and the best ones are so obvious and easy to get that getting flaws is pointless outside of unlocking them slightly earlier. They don't hold a candle to the perks in 3 & 4, let alone New Vegas.
• Exploration: Obvious since this one is Bethesda's biggest strength, but even New Vegas handled exploration better. Outside of a couple of bins full of leveled loot (which isn't even that good given how abundant supplies and money are), most locations are quite bland. In the 10+ hours I put into the game, I only found one unique weapon that wasn't tied to a quest or a vendor, and that was in the first area of the game.
• Weapon Variety: Putting aside how two categories aren't featured at all (unarmed and explosives), there's not much that set weapons apart aside from their level and their damage type. In the time that I've spent with the game, I've found two weapons per type, be it light/ normal or light/heavy. Yes, I know there weren't too many weapons per type in 3 & 4, but the ones in 4 had the benefit of being very modifiable, whereas the mods in TOW feel more like the kind you find in KOTOR (not even like in KOTOR II) where they aren't that special.

Forgive if I find the claims of TOW "dethroning" Bethesda to have been hogwash. Decent game, but needs improvement,

 

[Azazel]

I wanted to tell the two factions on Edgewater that I didn’t care if neither side survived, I saved the gardens because they were the only beautiful place I’d seen so far. At least I got to tell bowler guy that it wasn’t personal, but I couldn’t tell the other lady anything close to that.

Spoiler

The "true neutral" thing to do is side with Edgewater, then you can go to the gardens and convince that hysterical shrew to take over the town. Just tell Bowler Hat Boy to get lost, with some basic persuasion skill you can just talk him out of his job. And you literally say the same "It's nothing personal" to the garden lady, before you install her as the mayor. You can only help them both, I don't know of any way to screw them both though. A really unsatifying end, as the lady hates you even after you brought her to power because you ruined her cool nature science adventure and made her get a job, and Bowler Hat Boy has the air of someone about to hang themselves.

 

[Dr. Geronimo]

Spoiler

The "true neutral" thing to do is side with Edgewater, then you can go to the gardens and convince that hysterical shrew to take over the town. Just tell Bowler Hat Boy to get lost, with some basic persuasion skill you can just talk him out of his job. And you literally say the same "It's nothing personal" to the garden lady, before you install her as the mayor. You can only help them both, I don't know of any way to screw them both though. A really unsatifying end, as the lady hates you even after you brought her to power because you ruined her cool nature science adventure and made her get a job, and Bowler Hat Boy has the air of someone about to hang themselves.

You'd think that with how gender neutral this game tries to be that it would let you have more neutral approaches. I guess Chris avellone was right about leaving.


I'm gonna give about 4 or so more hours. After that I'll decide on dropping it.

 

[Jeffrey Epstein]

Game seems pretty neat with all its stats and interesting quests with multiple parties involved but there's one tiny little thing that bothers me about this game...
It's fucking hideous. Everything looks hazy, foliage has this weird almost water-color fringe effect, some of the pieces of the environment (like the Dr Seuss looking puff balls in the first area) have their lighting completely messed up so they don't look like they belong there.

It's a mess. I'm running it with everything on ultra and it still looks like all the textures haven't loaded in. This is a problem mostly with Unreal 4. Once I saw the blurry textures, the mismatched saturation on the objects, the world-rending pop-in and the weird haze covering everything I knew this was an Unreal 4 game. What a detestable engine.

I can't play it for more than 15 minutes without feeling like my eyes have gone senile.

EXACTLY, ghosting and blur. I fucked with turning settings down and other options, but when I especially try to move or try or pay attention to the screen, things are fuzzy and unfocused in a way that drives me crazy. Obsidian has always managed to make quality products, but without the extra step or finances to make them truly amazing usually. I played a bit of this game, and I'm sorry, it does not seem like truly competent or talented people made it. Pretty bland and boring. I thought that Tim Cain being a based gay and creating so many great games in the past made me think that he was immune to adipose tissue dangerhairs gave me false hope.

You'd think that with how gender neutral this game tries to be that it would let you have more neutral approaches. I guess Chris avellone was right about leaving.


I'm gonna give about 4 or so more hours. After that I'll decide on dropping it.

I always think of abalone when I think of his name. Also, I don't think I'm giving it anymore than the 30 minutes I already gave to it. The fact that the very pronounced male bulge in character creation was fun, didn't detract me from thinking that it could've been a feminist idea to flip gender exploitation perhaps??
Anyway, I thought that this game was going to be a Bethesda breaker, but I'm sadly very wrong.