The Outer Worlds: objective criticism of a sub-par Obsidian game.

[Tamaster]

Since I can't review this game, I can at least make a fair criticism of it for those interested.

Obsidian always had excellent quality standards, that's a fact. From Pillars of Eternity to new Vegas, its RPGs were about as good as it can get. Every single time they nailed it.

Then came The Outer Worlds, which is not a terrible game, but for what is to be expected from Obsidian, it's mediocre, sub-par at the very least, light-years away from any other production of this dev.

The Outer Worlds falls short in the following elements:

1. The lore:
At a first glance, and visually even rightly so, the world of this title may appear as a dazzling, vibrant mix of modern and antique, much as seen in games such as Bioshock (Rapture) to make a close example, where advanced tech mixes with retro-style. But, Obsidian falls short on building the lore of this world: first of all, it uses an overly clichè, stereotyped, and very exaggerated "dystopian corporate ruled future" as a baseline, then proceeds to fill it to the brim with situations, events and happenings which are, at best, mind boggling, or outright ridiculous, utterly unrealistic in anything but a straight up comedy.

The way corporations have shaped society, interact with worker-citizens, and act as political social and military rulers all in one is extremely exaggerated and honestly, for a game that wants to have a "dark" background tone in depicting the evils of corporate power, does so in a way so overly-inflated that just results comical, if not sad. Besides this, there isn't just much lore or depth about the world itself, the best source of such lore are dialogues and found documents, which even if read very attentively, do not disclose at any point many elements of the lore, particularly technology, history and social evolution to the current situation.


2. The role-playing choices:
Most if not all quests will propose to the player just two ways to act, one which is clearly "right" and one which is clearly "evil" - only a few ones do blur a bit more the confines between black and white - but generally this does not happen. If you want an RPG that gives you many faceted choices to solve a situation, this is not for you. Compared to the multitude of choices seen in Pillars or New Vegas, this game absolutely pales, proposing a dumbed down, diluted roeplaying experience nowhere near Obsidian's previous works in depth or branching.


3. The gameplay, combat in particular:
The base character progression system, regarding skills (and skills only) with scalings and everything, similar to New Vegas, is pretty good - but that's it.

First of all, the removal of deep attributes and dumbing down to Personality, Body and Mind "skill groups" is really a blow, then adding a selection of uninspired, generic perks which do not even depend on character skills to be unlocked is another nail in the coffin, which removes depth even more.

Combat has been as well dumbed down with 3 generic ammo types for all weapons, quite limited weapon variety, very few really unique weapons (while most are just overly modded named ones you can make yourself...), only 5 damage types, two of which are basically useless also, while borderline useless companion active skill system and "slow-motion" o emulate Fallout's VATS - generate a combat system which is very "Fallout 4 Like", simplistic, chaotic, approximative, and really not what is expected from obsidian in their rpgs.

Supernova, the "hardest" difficulty, is basically a joke simply because of how utterly idiotic companion AI is, and since they can permanently die, i leave to you the conclusions. Supernova does not make enemies harder compared to Hard, only adds some good mechanics such as survival needs, which are good, but also removes fast travel which is a stupid design choice given how empty and bland the world generally is - it's just asking for even MORE filler. Hard difficulty is definitely too easy instead, balance is so broken i can't even begin.

The open world has been filled with 60% meaningless filler areas. Forget the detailed, unique handcrafted dungeon of new vegas as example, here there are just some generic buildings and areas filled with enemies and some crates just thrown there, very few really meaningful or unique locations outisde of quest related ones. Exploration won't be nearly as satisfying or deep as you could expect.

Modding of weapons, armors, repairs and management are also very simplified with Armor and Weapon parts generated by scrapping unwanted gear, and used for repairs, while most mods are gimmicky / useless, same for perks, and only a few are the really good ones.

Bottom line is, gameplay in all its aspects has been casualized, simplified, watered down to cater to a casual playerbase.


4. The political agendas.
Let's face it: this game markedly wants to promote CERTAIN political agendas, namely leftist ones, SJW culture, and so on. It does so noticeably but at least does NOT become ridiculous with it - it's bad sure but i've seen worse, they somewhat restrained themselves in this aspect, the SJW one at least.

What they didn't restrain in at all instead is the marked anti-capitalism propaganda they want to make, exaspertaing, exaggerating to ridiculousness the even true disadvantages and evils of a corporate society. They will put players through such situations, and such events that simply could not be plausible even in the most deranged future society. This factor takes away all seriousness or any dark tone from the game because after a whille most players will just say" come on this is ridiculous" and just have a laugh about it. If this was the intention of the devs it is even worse.

Doesn't matter if you are PRO or AGAINST this type of agendas: the sole fact they use a game and its lore, worldbuilding, characters as deceptive tools to make propaganda about real-world politics THIS much and THIS markedly, more or less subtly, is a no-go objectively.


5. The characters.
Companion personalities are a straight track, forget multi faceted, complex, meaningful, evolving characters you were used to from obsidian... you will not find this here. Instead be prepared for generic, uninteresting companions, which are simple minded, one-tracked characters that won't change much no matter what happens. Their quests are all bland, uninspired, and barely change them at all even once completed. Automatons.

General NPCs are the same. Hell, I am playing this game right now and can't even remember 3 NPC names of main story or important side quest ones. This should say a lot about how generic they are.

===

These are about all my points.

Opinions?

[kmanitou81]

I finished the game last night after 19 hours and one ♥♥♥♥♥♥ boss fight. I've rarely been more frustrated with a game.

Once you find a way to remove all the blur and chromatic aberration and ♥♥♥♥ like that, then accept the mild stuttering and average visuals, I think it makes a good first impression. I'm not in love with this kind of game, but I do like sci-fi and the original idea is great. As soon as I reached the Groundbreaker, things started turning for the worst.

The conversations and characters are so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ bland and boring, and there's always more unnecessary chatter once the information is given, with only rare wit or humour. It's like 40% bloat every time you receive an objective, talk to a merchant, etc. The level checks in conversations always feel stupid, as if you've used instant mind control no matter how grave the situation. The combat, items and gaming systems are not very good either, but I can just ignore most of it. Very little enjoyment in exploring as well, fast travel is a must, and thankfully well-implemented.

I started skipping dialogue and terminals after 10 hours and just started rushing toward the end, missing a lot of content because I was always frustrated and bored out of my mind. I just dashed through Monarch and Byzantium hoping the finale would be interesting, but no. I do think that if you stay interested throughout the game, you have a nice deep conclusion about the state of the solar system.

Oh, and I assume I'm a typical toxic male gamer because I don't want every female character to be an unlikable edgy butch? What's funny is that all this dumb girl power made me sign off eventually, just like men stop giving a ♥♥♥♥ in society. Nice social commentary, there.

Thank you, Game Pass.

[Hedonism]

引用自 Tamaster：

...Since I can't review this game, I can at least make a fair criticism of it for those interested. ... SNIP

I just finished it the game (full quest, reading, exploration etc ... on super nova difficulty).

I agree pretty much on all points, I'll just add a few points:

- It took me around 35 h with a lot of afks so I'd say it's more like 30 h. I would be completely fine with that even though that's a bit short for a completionist blind playthrough IF the story was great.

- I'll emphasize on the fact that the story is very shallow compared to what the trailer let you imagine. The main story-line only really progress the first 5 min game, 5 min here or there and for last hour or so of the game .

- The music and art are pretty good overall.

- The character design is pretty bad, no one is really memorable and companions are cute/ a little funny at best and just plain annoying caricatures the rest of the time.

If you're looking for the "spiritual successor" of FNV this isn't it and it's pretty far from it .

I paid full price for it (the only reason I finished it ...) and I definitely not recommend it. If you really want to try it for yourself, I advise you to purchase the Microsoft game pass.

[Lord Likhus]

引用自 kmanitou81：

Oh, and I assume I'm a typical toxic male gamer because I don't want every female character to be an unlikable edgy butch? What's funny is that all this dumb girl power made me sign off eventually, just like men stop giving a ♥♥♥♥ in society. Nice social commentary, there.

Thank you, Game Pass.

Girl "power" in 2019 apparently means being obnoxious and unlikeable. Parvati is nice though, which actually gives her more power, because her Captain doesn't intentionally get her killed in combat.

A certain someone kept annoying my Vicar.
To be fair at least with Ellie you can sort of see how she ended up like this through her quest, which made me empathize. However, like I mentioned previously, this trope is on repeat, the game is littered with these, making the outcasts the norm, which then makes them boring and annoying.

[Stelar Seven]

引用自 Lord Likhus：

引用自 Stelar Seven：

OP clearly does not know what objective means.

Like them or hate them its objectively wrong to state that games and other media having a message or "pushing an agenda" is a new thing. Especially with fiction. There is always a subtext to any story, it inescapable. Even with just a bland recetation of events listeners will contextualize the data.

My other criticism is that while I see lots of opinions, and lots of hyperbole, I see very few specific criticisms.

The three ammo types, yup that's a specific criticism. "The game pushes its agenda like you are strapped to a chair". That's garbage. When? What is an example of this? Are there several examples?

Did you ever take a course on persuasive writing? I know from the OP what your opinion is, but I don't value it without some specifics I can agree or disagree with your impression but we can't have much of a discussion.

Thus it reads well to people who agree with you and reads like nonsense to those who don't.

Although I think the problem lies in a lack of imagination and depth in the writing, resulting in the same tropes over and over because of writing staff political leanings, here is a example from the top of my head which can be seen as pushing propaganda.

The factions that have a male leader (except the "person of color") are incompetent and have a female second in command that is the one being pragmatic and logical, doing the real work. It is mentioned through your companions, journals and interactions that this is the case. The female faction leaders do not have a second in command, or need any help, they are very strong and competent.

Even the girl that ran away from the Botanical Lab and ended up with the mauraders became a leader of the bloody mauraders. At first it made me think that maybe it was more to the mauraders, that they were just rebels in a dystopian corporate world, but no they didn't use that opportunity.. All the males that I had to investigate their unfortunate situations they had died in horrible ways. Cannibals, eaten by manticore, (like you would expect, I am not criticizing that) the list goes on.

I just think its unfortunate bleed through of own thought process and ideological world of writers, not bad intent.

So, keeping with world 1 examples. The girl that ran away wasn't in charge, she was bribing the marauders with drugs. Mauraders who had previously been identified as barely speaking sub human monsters. She had wild and misguided fantasies about being a pirate queen, but I don't see that it was ever reality. She even admitted she was nearly out of drugs when I talked her into rejoining the botanical folks.

Similarly though he was a corporate shill, the leader of town 1 wasn't incompetent. He had no staff and no support from corporate so things were failing. They were also out of Tuna so his infrastructure didn't work. He was technically illiterate. His plan would have worked. It just wasn't a good long term solution.

The female faction leader was also heavily flawed, willing to destroy the colony and its walls for her spite. They also underlined how precarious her position there was. With no defense structures and only one combat capable follower.

Now, my question is when games have most of their competent, or even all of their competent leaders be men, is that an agenda? Do you object to that framing of a virtual world? Do you want a game to have to include at least some competent men? Do they need to be in positions of power?

Those are questions of representation and if the game is slanted, it's an outlier for it. I feel the disparity being noticed, as a vehicle for greater criticism of the media, is valid.

[Sentient_Toaster]

It's more anti-idiocy and anti-corporatism than anti-capitalism. There's effectively no free market when the companies go to extremes to prevent their employees from using the services or products of other companies, for instance... and Byzantium is there pretty much to suggest that almost the entire upper class is of oblivious idiots who are either unaware of the impending crisis or so clueless so as to have run into it and exacerbated it with bad policy. It's strongly implied that the original colonists that did make it (before the Hope) included almost no scientists and engineers, and probably included far too many middle managers.

[DivineLion]

引用自 Grebo Punter：

The only agenda I see on many gaming forums is some people ranting about the imaginary SJW straw man meme. It's pure projection, who really has the agenda here?

This game is no more heavy-handed in its themes or diversity than New Vegas, or the other games I listed that also have satirical elements. You can use satire without it being some sort of fad politics of the day. If this game was released prior to 2014, people would not be crying over video game hair cuts as if it was some personal terrifying threat against their masculinity somehow. When New Vegas came out there weren't culture warriors lurking on every forum looking to push their agenda where everything is part of the SJW conspiracy.

And for the sake of argument, when in the last five years did the archetypical runaway corporatism long employed in fiction suddenly become so politicized that depicting it has an agenda? It's a long-used universal trope, like crushing bureaucracy, or prison food or zombie outbreak. It's not like the original Fallout games from the same directors don't explore the same things. The stories haven't changed much over time, just how some are reacting.

I suppose we will have to sit through the same nonsense trollubation over Cyberpunk 2077 for also having a corporate faction and weird threatening hair cuts.

too true

[Lord Likhus]

引用自 Stelar Seven：

The female faction leader was also heavily flawed, willing to destroy the colony and its walls for her spite. They also underlined how precarious her position there was. With no defense structures and only one combat capable follower.

Now, my question is when games have most of their competent, or even all of their competent leaders be men, is that an agenda? Do you object to that framing of a virtual world? Do you want a game to have to include at least some competent men? Do they need to be in positions of power?

Those are questions of representation and if the game is slanted, it's an outlier for it. I feel the disparity being noticed, as a vehicle for greater criticism of the media, is valid.

I never said they had an agenda.

World 1 was fine, I was really into it then, took longer for me to see that there was little variation, it was the same tropes on repeat. Journals as well were pretty much all uninteresting with many of the same kind of stories and interactions repeating themselves throughout the galaxy. Tobson wasn't a faction leader though which were my example. But I guess that doesn't matter.

I just think it was a missed opportunity to not give us more lore to actually do world building and give us more meaning and insight. I started to get into it and get involved with the Iconoclast and MSI, but there was nothing there really. I feel the Caears Legion and NCR had a much more thorough and understandable logic and realistic existance. I could judge them through many more factors. Their economic, political and military strategy. And my gripe is that this game HAD minor characters to fill such a gap, they HAD journals you could hack of the faction leaders. But there was nothing there but comedic elements and regurgitation from conversations.

And this is a fundamental flaw through the whole game, in my opinion, it doesn't take itself seriously, which fires back at me who actually tries to get involved so I can enjoy it, only to hit a brick wall. "Aliens.", conclusion: "Aliens, kek." Remember when you did a whole quest chain for sublight and the paranoia and possible UDL subversion led to a bad joke and that's it? Pretty much summarized the game for me. No twists, very predictable and shallow.

Still a good game though, had a lot of fun.

[Lord Likhus]

引用自 The Badman：

引用自 Lord Likhus：

Do they even mention 'capitalism' in the game? There is no private ownership beside the Corps afaik, hard to get any info in the game, all the extra lore is about random ♥♥♥♥ no one care about.

Outside the corps, most thing are still privately owned. It's more of a wild west small town vs morally bankrupt barons than PROLETARIAT RISE UP™

"Privately owned" but is that really in the sphere of the Corpos? The Botanical Lab for example is a rogue faction. Monarch went rogue. I don't think there is private ownership on corp planets, which is what I referred to, since it was that political system that was being discussed. Is there really private ownership within the Colony proper? But I think we have already went deeper than the writers did, since I haven't found any explanations on anything of interest in-game. Your guess is as good as mine.

Edit: Should be noted that the Iconoclasts actually wants to get rid of bits as a currency, but it isn't explained if they want to abolish money entirely or just go over to another form of currency. They might be some sort of spiritual communists but since the game only gives some catchphrase philosophy and no economics, politics or strategy, it's anyones guess.

[The Badman]

If the writers havent gone reee-ing about the form of ownership they like or hate then suffice to say it's the standard private ownership. Botanical lab is unclear but Monarch is obviously private. Stellar Bay is run by Sanjar, sure, but a lot of people there doesnt work for him like the hunter, the chef, nyoka... Fallbrook's whole deal is providing accomodation for freelancers, rogues and tourists. Vicar quest even lead you to a guy trying to find some gold all by himself.

Iconoclast sounds like anarchist communist, with a heavy religious slant. So just anarchist communist.

[Revolucas]

This entire game is the result of Trump's space force.

[Lord Likhus]

It is possible, despite your political leanings, to create a game that doesn't have every NPC and journal entry confirm your beliefs. If they could have just restrained themselves a little bit. Been more conscious about the difference between their lives and opinions and the lives in an outer space colony you know? They definitively had it in them to create such a game. Maybe hired someone to do more lore and backstory, to lay the groundwork for meaningful quests.

I admire many authors that I disagree with politically. They are thinkers, that can create a fictional world which is not their ideological mirror. But a space they use for free thinking and creativity, in such a setting it is beneficial to challenge yourself, but that is far from what we see here!

[Lord Likhus]

Challenge your own ideas as a writer I mean, to create an interesting world.

[Tamaster]

Damn that's a lot of comments!

Well, glad to see several people appreciated this "article" - i would like to reply in detail to everyone but at the moment i may not have that much time.

[kmanitou81]

引用自 Tamaster：

Damn that's a lot of comments!

Well, glad to see several people appreciated this "article" - i would like to reply in detail to everyone but at the moment i may not have that much time.

If you played this boring trash to the end, you have time for anything.

[Mefit]

My criticism( some same , some not):

1. No third person
2. recycled mobs on every map and planet
3. Combat
4. No facial animation
5. Stale Voice work

As for political agendas , save your money , get loans , make games without it or with your type .

RPGs are written by people who are going to put their person ideas and feelings into their writing .
That’s just how it is and always been .
Everything from TV , Podcast , Comics , Movies , Books , Music .... etc has political agendas .
It’s the way it’s always been and always will be .

On OuterWords each company acts like a communist dictatorship .
Look at some of the companies art on loading screens , it strongly looks like Soviet Workers Communism propaganda.

Simply don’t buy it , boycott the game , see how that works for you