The Outer Worlds

I don't get excited for many new releases, but The Outer Worlds was one that I was expecting quite a lot. From Obsidian one of the top RPG makers going on in the past decade and it being a first person action RPG, it quickly gave memories of Fallout New Vegas which they also developed and is one of my favorite games. The idea of them taking New Vegas to the next level was something, like damn this could be one of the greatest games ever. Well now that it's out and completed: it's definitely not.

It's almost impossible to not mention New Vegas because the game copies so many things from it. The same idea of factions, dialogue choices, first person exploration, perks, slowing down time, and the list can go on. The problem is that it doesn't do anything new, and you quickly get a feeling of "I've played this before". One of its best accomplishments is that the bugs are fairly low, especially close to launch like this, it was normally a time to avoid Obsidian games since they take months to get things ironed out. The graphics are very good, the game is well polished with all dialogue being fully voiced, this is definitely well done all around on the technical side.

The gameplay is however kind of just okay. Yes I love me a good shooting RPG, and the shooting parts are definitely fine, but it seems that after the first area you've kinda seen everything that the game has to give. There's little to no systems that are introduced after 20% of the game is completed, so there's nothing that really keeps the game and exciting, there's no wonder to it all and it's easy to figure out. One thing that's missing from New Vegas (and other Bethesda titles) is that the map is all unveiled and there's no sense of discovery, you don't get to find random buildings and whatnot cause everything is already on the map. It's hard to even call it open world since the areas are generally small, there's no feeling of "damn I can go anywhere and do what I want". The upgrades to your weapons feel empty, you're just adding some stats numbers to them and it never feels like it makes much of a difference... also the weapons feel a little bit limited, it's like there is one set of them and then the 2nd half of the game features a better version of them and that's pretty much it. They weren't aiming for the biggest RPG ever, but it would have been nice to have a little bit more depth to the systems, and not just a rehash of what most of the Obsidian fans have already played.

It's not to say that it was a bad game and I've enjoyed my time with it, but it kind of feels like this was done by Ubisoft rather than Obsidian. It's like it's scared to take it up and notch with more depth, and it literally introduces nothing new to the table. It's very comfortable without taking much risk, but as I was playing I felt like I was just running through the numbers and playing an inferior (but more polished) version of one of my favorite games. The lore and the characters are all fine, and there isn't any major problems anywhere... but the game never really reaches any amazing moments where it's really impressive. Worth a shot, and will scratch that itch a little for this type of game that we hadn't got in a while, but I was definitely hoping for something bigger and better. I'm not even excited about a sequel now, unless they do a complete overhaul and go on a more innovative route.