Outer World's was supposed to fill the Fallout: New Vegas void in my heart.
Spoilers! It didn't.
I decided to get the digital version of the game after so many positive reviews about it came out. But let's be honest, those reviewers never got through the game.
Which is exactly where the issues of Outer Worlds lie. From this point on, I will be discussing the plot of the game. If you want to avoid spoilers, please jump to the end of this page for a bolded number review or find something else to do. What do people do these days? Minecraft? WoW Classic? Whatever.
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
I played about 18 hours of this game and soon after my disappointment set in. Before I even reached the end of the game, it seemed obvious to me that I would have to jump between the same three to four planets to get mediocre quests done. It didn't matter if you tried to do all the quests on Groundbreaker or whatever other shithole you were on, you were bound to travel between a select few planets, killing and collecting loot based on the quests you were on.
Speaking of which...did you think your choices mattered? I retrieved the diet toothpaste recipe from the marauders on Roseway but decided not to give it to the doctor who had created the thing in the first place. I mean, it sounded bad based on all the hacked computer files I read. Guess what happens? I don't get a trophy. That's it. I try to save such an important compound from the hands of those who would sell it for a destructive profit and my reward is absolute shit. No one ever mentions it again or cares to discuss that time we were on a planet looking for unique formulas....
Outside of the above, there's the issue of the ending. Deciding the future of the Hope and it's crew should have felt more drastic than it was. I mean, the game pits you against the Board from the get-go, but you can easily just slide onto their side. And let's be honest, their side isn't terrible. I diverted power on Edgewater to the group that was producing real crops and later found out that was the "bad" choice. How? No one on the Board (come to find out) had much hope for Edgewater and it was a shit town. They weren't even packaging the ONE product they were meant to can. Yet it made me the bad guy because the Board was tired of sending supplies. Which was mentioned maybe twice in dialog and a few times on terminals. If your company has abandoned you, why am I the villain for giving power to the only people who know how to grow fresh fruit?
Forgoing the nitty gritty of the above...oh. Wait. You mean there wasn't anything else? Just your lame companion quests that didn't do anything to affect the game and hardly touched the ending? Neat.
I thought the attempt to betray Phineas was going to be unique. I mean, I went through a lot to get Bedom on my side so I could have his sigil to grant me access to Byzantium. Turns out all that was for nothing, because I would have gotten said sigil no matter what I did. Cool. Great.
Byzantium is supposed to be the crowning glory of the universe and yet it's incredibly small and dull. There are limited side quests and what you can do (becoming a movie star!!!!) end so quickly that it really doesn't matter. Dialog may make mention to some actions, but it doesn't help you any, even if you're supposedly the big new star of Byzantium's serials.
I never felt out of place in Byzantium, even with the occasional two people talking down to me. There wasn't enough shun and clearly what you wore didn't matter. I would have loved to either gruff and fight my way through or dress like a dandy and slip through the ranks. But no, it didn't matter. Even in the most dire of situations (retirement, anyone?).
And the end. THE END. The end was the worst. After all your work it boils down to two useless choices. You didn't get real answers from either side and, no matter what you choose, there is no utopia ending. Your choices didn't matter. After all that, you were just a useless pawn. Not even in an interesting "Oh I fucked up".
All that time you spent trying to help your companions? It doesn't matter They stick around whether they agree or disagree with your choices. The "story" ending might not be the most happily ever after, but your companions are there regardless of action. It's like they wanted to go with Mass Effect 2 character choices but couldn't commit to lasting character development or even death for any of your teammates. Which, lets be honest, were hardly fleshed out. I thought the Vicar's transformation was interesting until I realized it was basically a "Oh, well maybe there isn't a god. Moving on..." This fucker was preaching for decades about the PLAN and suddenly, after smoking some iowaska, he realizes it was for naught.
New Vegas had better character development and those endings were all based on you listening to dialogue. I hated the companions in this game. There was no emotional attachment to anyone. It was so obvious who was going to join you at any time and, the fact you could kick them all off your ship if you felt like just proved how unnecessary they were. Even Parvati, who I felt was adorable, fell short for me. Great, it's a lesbian storyline without the sex. Congrats. You're really pushing boundaries here, Obsidian.
All these complaints and I still haven't brushed on the Universe map. Hey look! Interstellar travel! You can go anywhere! Well, except this planet. Oh and this one. Definitely not this one. But hey, you get a satellite for one quest, that has to make up for something!
DLC has been a stain on video games for a while. I understand it's purpose to an extent, but if you dare show me all the place I can go that are not available in the full game, I'm going to be pissed. I'm looking at you, Ubisoft. DO NOT include these places on the map. Otherwise, you'll have players like myself going "Hey, I've only been to two planets and a satellite, but there are four more planets left!"winding up disappointed. I did not pay $60 to just travel to four out of ten planets on a map of the GALAXY.
Basically, Outer Worlds disguises itself in a barrel of fun for the first 10 hours but shortly after it's flaws begin to show. Will the DLC help? Who knows? But I paid $60 for an open world RPG with few secrets while the rest of the gaming world is still uncovering mysteries of Fallout or evening God of War!
Needless to say, this game left me disappointed. I honestly have been stuck in a gamer limbo since because I had planned for this game to take at least 60+ hours to beat. You know an open world game sucks when you'd rather be playing old school New Vegas than the best and newest version of the game.
Spoilers! It didn't.
I decided to get the digital version of the game after so many positive reviews about it came out. But let's be honest, those reviewers never got through the game.
Which is exactly where the issues of Outer Worlds lie. From this point on, I will be discussing the plot of the game. If you want to avoid spoilers, please jump to the end of this page for a bolded number review or find something else to do. What do people do these days? Minecraft? WoW Classic? Whatever.
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
I played about 18 hours of this game and soon after my disappointment set in. Before I even reached the end of the game, it seemed obvious to me that I would have to jump between the same three to four planets to get mediocre quests done. It didn't matter if you tried to do all the quests on Groundbreaker or whatever other shithole you were on, you were bound to travel between a select few planets, killing and collecting loot based on the quests you were on.
Speaking of which...did you think your choices mattered? I retrieved the diet toothpaste recipe from the marauders on Roseway but decided not to give it to the doctor who had created the thing in the first place. I mean, it sounded bad based on all the hacked computer files I read. Guess what happens? I don't get a trophy. That's it. I try to save such an important compound from the hands of those who would sell it for a destructive profit and my reward is absolute shit. No one ever mentions it again or cares to discuss that time we were on a planet looking for unique formulas....
Outside of the above, there's the issue of the ending. Deciding the future of the Hope and it's crew should have felt more drastic than it was. I mean, the game pits you against the Board from the get-go, but you can easily just slide onto their side. And let's be honest, their side isn't terrible. I diverted power on Edgewater to the group that was producing real crops and later found out that was the "bad" choice. How? No one on the Board (come to find out) had much hope for Edgewater and it was a shit town. They weren't even packaging the ONE product they were meant to can. Yet it made me the bad guy because the Board was tired of sending supplies. Which was mentioned maybe twice in dialog and a few times on terminals. If your company has abandoned you, why am I the villain for giving power to the only people who know how to grow fresh fruit?
Forgoing the nitty gritty of the above...oh. Wait. You mean there wasn't anything else? Just your lame companion quests that didn't do anything to affect the game and hardly touched the ending? Neat.
I thought the attempt to betray Phineas was going to be unique. I mean, I went through a lot to get Bedom on my side so I could have his sigil to grant me access to Byzantium. Turns out all that was for nothing, because I would have gotten said sigil no matter what I did. Cool. Great.
Byzantium is supposed to be the crowning glory of the universe and yet it's incredibly small and dull. There are limited side quests and what you can do (becoming a movie star!!!!) end so quickly that it really doesn't matter. Dialog may make mention to some actions, but it doesn't help you any, even if you're supposedly the big new star of Byzantium's serials.
I never felt out of place in Byzantium, even with the occasional two people talking down to me. There wasn't enough shun and clearly what you wore didn't matter. I would have loved to either gruff and fight my way through or dress like a dandy and slip through the ranks. But no, it didn't matter. Even in the most dire of situations (retirement, anyone?).
And the end. THE END. The end was the worst. After all your work it boils down to two useless choices. You didn't get real answers from either side and, no matter what you choose, there is no utopia ending. Your choices didn't matter. After all that, you were just a useless pawn. Not even in an interesting "Oh I fucked up".
All that time you spent trying to help your companions? It doesn't matter They stick around whether they agree or disagree with your choices. The "story" ending might not be the most happily ever after, but your companions are there regardless of action. It's like they wanted to go with Mass Effect 2 character choices but couldn't commit to lasting character development or even death for any of your teammates. Which, lets be honest, were hardly fleshed out. I thought the Vicar's transformation was interesting until I realized it was basically a "Oh, well maybe there isn't a god. Moving on..." This fucker was preaching for decades about the PLAN and suddenly, after smoking some iowaska, he realizes it was for naught.
New Vegas had better character development and those endings were all based on you listening to dialogue. I hated the companions in this game. There was no emotional attachment to anyone. It was so obvious who was going to join you at any time and, the fact you could kick them all off your ship if you felt like just proved how unnecessary they were. Even Parvati, who I felt was adorable, fell short for me. Great, it's a lesbian storyline without the sex. Congrats. You're really pushing boundaries here, Obsidian.
All these complaints and I still haven't brushed on the Universe map. Hey look! Interstellar travel! You can go anywhere! Well, except this planet. Oh and this one. Definitely not this one. But hey, you get a satellite for one quest, that has to make up for something!
DLC has been a stain on video games for a while. I understand it's purpose to an extent, but if you dare show me all the place I can go that are not available in the full game, I'm going to be pissed. I'm looking at you, Ubisoft. DO NOT include these places on the map. Otherwise, you'll have players like myself going "Hey, I've only been to two planets and a satellite, but there are four more planets left!"winding up disappointed. I did not pay $60 to just travel to four out of ten planets on a map of the GALAXY.
Basically, Outer Worlds disguises itself in a barrel of fun for the first 10 hours but shortly after it's flaws begin to show. Will the DLC help? Who knows? But I paid $60 for an open world RPG with few secrets while the rest of the gaming world is still uncovering mysteries of Fallout or evening God of War!
Needless to say, this game left me disappointed. I honestly have been stuck in a gamer limbo since because I had planned for this game to take at least 60+ hours to beat. You know an open world game sucks when you'd rather be playing old school New Vegas than the best and newest version of the game.
