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

I played about 30 minutes or so?

It was late so I figured I'd check it out real quick, did not buy it, of course, I received a review copy from Tim. *wink*

I played all the way up to that first NPC, he gave me a gun, I put a bullet in him and watched him flop over all stiff like with physics from 2009. I reloaded and poped him a few more time and then just quit.

That was 3 days ago and I haven't gone back.
I find it hard to find any motivation to go on further.
 
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Screw Danlon said:
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.
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This was actually one of things that got me to like the game, though.

I liked that they basically wrote the Garden lady as a stealth villain after making her seem like the "good guy" choice. Some of her dialogue is even grimy before you make your decision there. Even if you give her the power in her outside utopia, she flatout states that she will not help anyone that comes from Edgewater just incase they're corporate loyalists - leaving the entire town to essentially die (no medicine, no food production, no power). Meaning that helping edgewater is a "better" decision, no matter who's in charge.

I just don't know if they wrote her intentionally grimy or if having her basically condem the entire town to death was a poorly written "YAAAAS QUEEN!" moment.

I also like that there doesn't appear to be a good/bad morality bar like in many other RPGs and I hope all the other choices are as morally gray as the ones I've found so far. I found the game portrays nearly everyone as shit heads and I was really worried about a lot of the negative hype it was getting in various places.
 
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Tanner Glass said:
This was actually one of things that got me to like the game, though.

I liked that they basically wrote the Garden lady as a stealth villain after making her seem like the "good guy" choice. Some of her dialogue is even grimy before you make your decision there. Even if you give her the power in her outside utopia, she flatout states that she will not help anyone that comes from Edgewater just incase they're corporate loyalists - leaving the entire town to essentially die (no medicine, no food production, no power). Meaning that helping edgewater is a "better" decision, no matter who's in charge.

I just don't know if they wrote her intentionally grimy or if having her basically condem the entire town to death was a poorly written "YAAAAS QUEEN!" moment.

I also like that there doesn't appear to be a good/bad morality bar like in many other RPGs and I hope all the other choices are as morally gray as the ones I've found so far. I found the game portrays nearly everyone as shit heads and I was really worried about a lot of the negative hype it was getting in various places.
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But it was really obvious that she was the “””stealth””” villain. I’m not even sure I’d agree they were setting her up as the “Good Guy” choice. Even if she wasn’t a vindictive bitch, it’s pretty obvious there’s no way that splinter group could shelter all the refugees. It’s basically just the Gecko power plant again.
 
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rabo said:
I played about 30 minutes or so?

It was late so I figured I'd check it out real quick, did not buy it, of course, I received a review copy from Tim. *wink*

I played all the way up to that first NPC, he gave me a gun, I put a bullet in him and watched him flop over all stiff like with physics from 2009. I reloaded and poped him a few more time and then just quit.

That was 3 days ago and I haven't gone back.
I find it hard to find any motivation to go on further.
Click to expand...

Lul, I played just a bit further than that and killed a couple enemies in the 'tutorial,' and went to where the ship was and then quit. Tim Cain should start over again so he can BE good again, and do smaller stuff. Just make more games with directdraw graphics and the nerds will flood you monies.

Honestly, I think the gays at obsidian were taken over by the womens. The gays were fine because they can conceptualize well (ever seen Justin Cherry's(Nivbed) work?). The blandness is the issue, and I nearly saw through this game from before it came out, but it literally took 30 minutes for me to disown this shit like that feeling of meeting someone online; "got to get... out of here, need to as fast... as possible."
 
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Vault Boy said:
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,
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That pretty much sums up my gripes with it so far. It's neat, but when I got to LMG Mark II, that was a kick in the balls. With FO4, you had some nice customisation with each gun. Sure, there was an optimal selection, but you didn't have to choose those if you didn't want to. Melee is also not as satisfying as FO4, no crunch or weight. Other issue I outlined in a previous post is you end up being a jack of all stats before beginning to specialise. If you want to be a heavy weapon expert, you will also be decent at pistols and long guns as well because of the group levelling. Want to be an intimidating monster with a big gun, well you are also good at lying and being persuasive.

Other thing I found in Monarch was the factions seemed to be Edgewater 2.0, but for different reasons. You have the corporate city and the group that left. Found it much more expedient to kill one of the faction leaders to go along with the storyline than do all the quests that time. Also, there isn't too much in the way of enemy types. You have the bandits/humanoids you get in every game, robots, the mantis alien, the dog alien, the lizard alien that spits acid, the monkey looking alien...and that's about it.

In spite of this laundry list of complaints, I don't think it's a bad game. It's not a AAA game with infinite funding behind it, but it's good. Companions and dialogue/choices are great, there is a lot of fluff when you talk to NPCs to find out, the game universe itself is interesting enough. I hope that Obsidian makes some DLC or updates in the following months/year to improve, iron out and add more things to the game.
 
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I saved Edgewater but got the deserters to move back into the city and got that corpse fertilizing hippie chick to take over. I had to lie about her 'methods' of course. The town is now much better developed. The corporate guys are actually far more reasonable.
To be honest imo the corporate guys seem the nicest so far. The rebels and independent groups are all unreasonable assholes. I put in 15 hours (level 12) and am full committed to the corporate cause. My intention is to weasel my way onto the board and become part of the corporate bureaucracy. I already have a pass to Byzantium. I'm intending to betray the rebels.

Also, I threw all my points into guns and verbal skills. Dialogue is so OP. I can lie, persuade and intimidate anyone. I can also bust some caps in dat ass.

The quest structure is very well done, I have done some roundabout things, and every time the game handled it perfectly, allowing me to make the choices I wanted to make.

This is a more stable, better version of Fallout 3 New Vegas imo. Only crashed once in 15 hours and haven't run into any fucky quest bugs. I'm running at 60 fps at 3440x1440 ultrawide with a mix of medium and high settings.

A solid 8/10 so far. The weakest element is the spongy borderlands-esque combat. But new weapons can change that up for the better and they stay relevant for hours at a time. But then again I'm more reliant on dialogue than combat.

Yes, outside of interest points exploration is weak/non-existent. To me this isn't really an open world sandbox, its far more structured and it enhances enjoyment sticking to the story and quests and actually talking to npc's in detail.
 
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MrTickles said:
I saved Edgewater but got the deserters to move back into the city and got that corpse fertilizing hippie chick to take over. I had to lie about her 'methods' of course. The town is now much better developed. The corporate guys are actually far more reasonable.
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Funnily enough, you don't need to lie at all. The bowler hat guy is so indoctrinated in the ways of Spacers Choice that he applauds the idea of putting "expired resources" to good use.

Got a genuine chuckle out of me with that. Only bug I ran into was when picking up the holographic cloaking device, I leveled up at the same time, so when I entered the menu, it brought both the skill menu and the infograph about the cloaking device. Couldn't exit the menu or do anything. Quick exit and reload of the game fixed it. Otherwise ran pretty well.

Currently massacring all the guards in Byzantium after I couldn't speech my way through a certain section. Maybe I will try a dialogue heavy build next playthrough.
 
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So the deserter leader and the corporation aren't that different after all. She makes for a perfect fit. I do like that, there is no clear cut 'good vs bad' crap like we get in fable games (lol).
 
Slimy Time said:
Currently massacring all the guards in Byzantium after I couldn't speech my way through a certain section. Maybe I will try a dialogue heavy build next playthrough.
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Same, did an objective and my rep dipped enough with The Board to become shoot on sight while I was in Halcyon's offices. Now I have to shoot up Byzantium.
 
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Right, beat the game by beelining the story, killing my way though everything and ignoring the side missions. Once you do, the game shortens quickly. However, by the time you go past the point of no return (which the game makes very very clear), even things I did way back had an effect on the finale (became chummy with the Groundbreaker forces, who docked in the finale and sent armed forces to help the final leg of the story).

Have already started a second playthough with a focus on Charisma Science and Pistols. Am going to take this one nice and slow and do as many of the side missions as I can, do companion quests etc. Maybe I'll take the other options as well.
 
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Slimy Time said:
Right, beat the game by beelining the story, killing my way though everything and ignoring the side missions. Once you do, the game shortens quickly. However, by the time you go past the point of no return (which the game makes very very clear), even things I did way back had an effect on the finale (became chummy with the Groundbreaker forces, who docked in the finale and sent armed forces to help the final leg of the story).

Have already started a second playthough with a focus on Charisma Science and Pistols. Am going to take this one nice and slow and do as many of the side missions as I can, do companion quests etc. Maybe I'll take the other options as well.
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How does the conclusion feel in comparison to past Obsidian games?

Does it feel reasonably fulfilling like New Vegas, or does it leave you feeling empty like KOTOR 2?
 
Vault Boy said:
How does the conclusion feel in comparison to past Obsidian games?

Does it feel reasonably fulfilling like New Vegas, or does it leave you feeling empty like KOTOR 2?
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For someone who rushed the story with minimal involvement in either companion quests or side missions, it was pretty alright. It reminded me a lot of New Vegas. All companions get a mention, even one I didn't bother to unlock as a companion. Each location you go to gets a mention, one part had a little bit of humour that made me laugh. One of the story mission choices got brought up regarding how successful I was in achieving my overall objective. It definitely goes into the future of Halcyon and what happens there.

Like I mentioned here and in my above posts, I beelined the ending midway through Monarch due to time and focusing on combat, killing NPCs if it was expedient for me to clear it faster. Did it feel fulfilling? Kinda, but I can see and suspect that had I spent more time doing things differently, doing more side quests and getting invested in the world at large, as opposed to prioritising the end goal ahead of everything, then it would have been even more fulfilling.

One of the things that surprised me is I did a side quest for a minor NPC early-ish on, then near the end game, I got a video call from the NPC requesting I turn up. I didn't because I was determined to finish the game, but I found that interesting. Am replaying it again nice and slow, and differently, and I'm looking forward to it.
 
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I did a full, complete everything/good ending playthrough on Hard difficulty.

It's a pretty solid game, though you can see that a bigger budget would have been welcome at points. Not as good as New Vegas, and much smaller, but well worth a play-through imo. Skill checks and actual choice are refreshing. Story and setting are great, though the shades of grey become black and white when you get to the cartoonishly greedy and stupid upper classes. They should have at least attempted nuance there.
The perk system is seriously underwhelming, with only level as a requirement, no perk trees and some perks being incredible while others are near useless. Gear needs a balance patch too, with some choices being notably shittier than the rest.
The two big revelations in the story are pretty great sci-fi horror twists, but I'm a sucker for that stuff.

It's definitely worth a play-through imo, but there's not enough replayability for a second run.
Play on Hard, Normal is so easy I don't know why they included a Story Mode difficulty.
 
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Can someone tell me how to obtain a ((review copy)) please? I'm looking to grow my channel.
 
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