So I just spent like 40 hours playing this and I have to get some stuff of my chest here
I wouldn't really say I am a huge fan of the Fallout series or anything like that. They're some good games but that's about it for me. Fallout 3 had a great atmosphere but awful gameplay and wooden characters. New Vegas was a step up in that regards and for all it's shortcomings I had an unreal amount of enjoyment playing Fallout 4 on survival mode going on excursions into the Boston Ruins for screws and tape for my township and ignoring the supposed plot of the game. I don't have a hateboner for Bethesda or anything like that, they still publish some good shit now and then.
But anyways like someone already said here I am pretty sure people are just shilling this game hard because you know Fuck Bethesda, but honestly this game was underwhelming to say the least and it felt unpolished, undercooked and downright sloppy in places.
I have played through this game twice now on normal and supernova and it was an absolute cake walk on both. On supernova only the first area is remotely a challenge because you have no skills yet and I wanted Parvatti to survive because supernova has companion permadeath which is pretty cool tbh. They even removed manual saves so you couldn't save scum. The only problem is that they fucked this up because the game autosaves whenever before you enter a new area or go through any load screen meaning that you can force an autosave anywhere on the map by just fast travelling to the ship. Even ignoring that the problem with this difficulty is that death is a non-issue as the stealth system is completely broken and the wilderness is not a threat. What I ended up doing was dumping points into leadership and determination decking the vicar and the mechanic in heavy armor and giving them minguns and then I just watched them mow down absolutely everything, I struggled to even get kills. The companions don't even use ammo, their gear doesn't deteriorate either so you don't have to even worry about that lol.
I wouldn't really bother with the Supernova diffilculty, it's only tedious really.
The writing (the thing Obsidian are supposed to be good at btw) was also pretty sloppy this time around. New Vegas' central conflict was amazingly presented, it bled into almost every side quest in some way and you knew every character had some stake in it be it big or small and the entire thing was morally grey, it was left up to the player to decide what was best for the Mojave and you can make good arguments for every faction, I sided with House myself as I saw him as the best chance of bringing prosperity back to the Mojave but I'm sure a lot of you think that's the wrong call and isn't that just interesting huh?
Well how does the Outer Worlds stack up in this regard? Well it fucking doesn't. Within the context of the narrative at least, there is no way to rationalise siding with The Board as they are corrupt, incompetent and generally unpleasant. Not to mention all of your companions are opposed to The Board except the cleaning robot and this a gripe I have not just with this game but wit RPGs like this in general, Pillars of Eternity had this same problem too, but why does every single companion in these RPGs always have a heart of gold at the end of the day. Like what if I was hoping to lead a band of evil scoundrels and take whatever I like from the colony? Am I going to get a literal lecture from the priest? Is it like a marketing and PR thing or something like that? In the old school CRPGs this was not an issue at all, I mean in Baldur's Gate 2 you could wear the flesh of another human being after first curing it in the blood of a silver dragon and Jaheira would leave the party in absolute disgust but Viconia would probably just get a little moist from it all.
Anyways in my last playthrough I sided with The Board and at one point they ask you to send automechanicals into Edgewater and slaughter the town. I decided to bring Parvatti with me to see what would happen, to see if she would grow a backbone and try to gun me down but no she dutifully obliged without so much as a peep. Standing in the remains of her hometown with everyone she ever knew still bleeding out on the streets she looked me dead in the eye and asked me if I would take her dress shopping the next time we're in Byzantium. I said that I would .
There is a lot of oversight like this unfortunately. In my second playthrough the Earth Minister guy (forgot his name and so did you) had an ending slide about what he was up to despite the fact that I never even met him in my playthrough because I had sided with The Board. The fuck is that all about?
The writing is inconsistent generally, people saying it is front loaded and whatnot which is true, I am not sure if it is because the game was rushed or frankly if they just didn't care that much. The plot of this game is literally a joke and I don't mean that to be dismissive, the script is a parody of modern corporations and it may as well have been (in fact it probably was) written by and for the people over at r/latestagecapitalism to get a chuckle, except the only problem is that it wasn't especially funny and the plot is played completely straight. These jokers on The Board who can't even film a video warning of the colony facing a starvation properly are expected to be taken seriously. Really?
The companions also range from unlikable to unmemorable, except for Parvatti who was charming, I give the credit to her VA for that though. In fact I think Obsidian or at least nu-Obsidian have a real problem writing characters in general. They are all just stereotypes or memes. In particular Ellie's quest stood out to me as the whole premise and payoff for it was just bizarre as in I had no idea what I was expected to feel. She selfishly runs out on her parents without so much as a goodbye or an explanation to senselessly risk her life and become a criminal and gets pissed off when they have moved on with their lives, then throws a tantrum before committing fraud and now she's a better person for all of this. Who the fuck wrote this? And did anyone else get annoyed that Max was the only character to speak about the OSI church in any meaningful way, there doesn't appear to be a single colonist who is actually devout or really even have an opinion on it, like at all. It's literally just an expletive to them. Oh not to mention that his character arc is literally just Doood WEEEED haHa. Compelling stuff. Fallout 4 had more likable and interesting companions FFS.
Anyhow, I've got a LOT more nitpicks but I think I have got the point across, if I keep going then I may find myself going full Mister Caption on this shit and making a 3 hour long video about this game.
TLDR: This is not Fallout New Vegas. Companions suck and there is no dog companion. California interns are tarnishing another RPG companies legacy so it's business as usual really 7/10 Parvatti is cute.
