# The Outer Worlds - new Obsidian sci-fi RPG announced



## thaddeus6th (Dec 7, 2018)

Hey, kids.

Obsidian, often noted as the original Fallout creators and developers of Fallout New Vegas (although less often given credit for the enjoyable Pillars of Eternity - still looking forward to the sequel on console), have announced their newest game: The Outer Worlds.

Obviously, premise 'spoilers' are below. So if you're in blackout mode then, well, you probably shouldn't have clicked this thread. And you definitely should stop reading now.
***

It's a single player, sci-fi RPG (or I Can't Believe It's Not Fallout). The player character wakes from hibernation aboard a sleeper ship heading for the two planet colony of Halcyon. The ship has been knocked off-course in transit. Halcyon is run by a corporate board that controls everything, except seemingly widespread alien attacks. Various factions battle for control (of the galaxy, I think), and the player character can side with this group or that to determine the course of destiny.

You get your own ship, and it sounds like you can crew it with various people (unsure if this is deterministic like Mass Effect 2 or more open, I'd guess the latter) who you can help/screw over as you like. Dialogue options look more traditional (ie varied) rather then just four options at the most. Intimidation and the like also feature in dialogue. Perks exist but not sure the precise format. So do flaws. Flaws are voluntarily taken to give yourself a weakness (say, a debuff in combat against a certain creature type against which you suffer a phobia) in return for an extra perk.

Graphics can be a bit misleading, as things can get trimmed down for playability and there's the traditional console downgrade, perhaps especially now the current gen is knocking on a bit, but the video/screenshots looks very impressive. The style seems to be a mix of sci-fi and maybe inter-war period (if you've ever seen adverts that are a bit older than Red Dead's style but more modern than Fallout's faux 1950s Americana, you'll know what I mean).

I can take or leave sci-fi RPGs. But, at this stage, The Outer Worlds looks pretty interesting. I'm unlikely to get it at launch (for a start, I want to play Pillars of Eternity 2, not to mention wait for price drops) but it seems promising and I'll be keeping an eye on it.


----------



## Brian G Turner (Dec 7, 2018)

And here's the trailer:


----------



## Bugg (Dec 8, 2018)

Looks great.  Hopefully this is where Obsidian come along and show Bethesda how it _should _be done


----------



## thaddeus6th (Dec 8, 2018)

Some more gameplay details have emerged.

The ship isn't flown in ye olde FFIX style way, it's more Mass Effect (so, you determine the destination, then it just happens). But, in better news, you can recruit several people who then have quarters on your ship. Annoy them, and they'll leave (reminds me of Dragon Age: Origins). You can also select two of them to be in your party as you engage in sci-fi shenanigans, with one designated leader (alters things somehow, probably with buffs), which needn't be you.

Indeed, Bugg. If Bethesda don't get it right with Starfield, they're in danger of looking like an unhealthy cocktail of outdated and grasping.


----------



## thaddeus6th (Jul 11, 2019)

Release date came out over E3, it's the 25th of October this year.

Really looking forward to this, although the initial price tag of £50 is a bit high. Might wait for it to go down a bit, though the game looks pretty tasty.


----------



## Vareor (Oct 25, 2019)

Hey, theaddeus6th. I've been eyeing this game for some time, but I don't I will buy it yet. Not when Red Dead Redemption 2 (On PC), Death Stranding (I guess this PS4 exclusive is something which might interest you) and Star Wars are coming out next month. But in case I do, I'll let you know if it's any good. Mind doing the same for us if you get it first?


----------



## thaddeus6th (Oct 25, 2019)

I actually got it yesterday (delivery error in my favour). Only played a few hours, but so far it's good. The gripes I have are minor technical things (small subtitles and textures sometimes take a little while to load), and the major things (cynical/humorous tone, world-building, initial plot/quests) are all good.

It already seems like character build really does alter things quite a bit, in both social and combat encounters.


----------



## Bugg (Oct 26, 2019)

It looks great, but I'm going to wait for a sale.  Too much else to play at the moment.


----------



## Venusian Broon (Oct 29, 2019)

Bugg said:


> It looks great, but I'm going to wait for a sale.  Too much else to play at the moment.


I had to buy it, it feels, as quite a few of the Youtubers I follow are throwing themselves into let's plays, and I didn't want them to ruin my own virgin run where I come across content myself.


----------



## thaddeus6th (Oct 29, 2019)

For my second playthrough (still midway in the first) I already plan to make a deliberately stupid character just to enjoy the dumb dialogue options.


----------



## biodroid (Dec 4, 2019)

Seems to be getting good reviews and it doesn't have 200+ hours of side quests like Fallout and Elder Scrolls.


----------



## Venusian Broon (Dec 4, 2019)

biodroid said:


> Seems to be getting good reviews and it doesn't have 200+ hours of side quests like Fallout and Elder Scrolls.



Seems I prefer big, big open worlds with 200+ hours of side quests (and just walking about and finding stuff and easter eggs of all sorts), after playing this. I'm finding it a bit 'on rails' and frankly, a tad shallow. However, still very good though - looks great, lots of very nice things to be positive about, no Bethseda bugs to report  - but still a different kind of game world.


----------



## biodroid (Dec 10, 2019)

@Venusian Broon  Is it not an Obsidian game?


----------



## Venusian Broon (Dec 10, 2019)

biodroid said:


> @Venusian Broon  Is it not an Obsidian game?


Yep! And although I might have front-loaded the criticism in my last post, it is a great game and looks gorgeous. Just wish it were a bit more 'open world'.

Oh and normal difficulty is too easy!


----------



## thaddeus6th (Dec 10, 2019)

As someone with the combat prowess of a baked potato, I didn't mind the difficulty.


----------



## biodroid (Dec 11, 2019)

I am enjoying Mass Effect: Andromeda despite its flaws.


----------



## Wyrmlord (Dec 19, 2019)

This game was meh. I played it for a few hours but couldn't get into the story or environment. Everything looked...the same. One of the funniest videos I've seen recently about the game involved the lead developers watching someone speed run the game in under 12 minutes.


----------

