A mediocre, utterly unoriginal, boring game.

[Ellorien]

Folks, first of all, I feel sorry for any of you who paid the full price for this game. I also blame myself for falling for the oldest trick -- "50% off." I did not save 30 bucks. I lost 30 bucks. And that's the sad truth, folks. This game ain't worth more than $20, and I am being generous.

Allow me to be blunt. Obsidian is not known for originality. They usually use someone else's IP.
So, it should come as no surprise that the game is a weak reiteration of Mass Effect, especially the failed ME: Andromeda. A Low Budget Junior High edition. Similarities are stunning. But the sad fact is the ME series is much, much, MUCH better, even the aforementioned failed Andromeda. In every aspect. In. Every. Aspect.

Another comparison usually made is related to the Fallout 3 and 4 and New Vegas (which is still considered a Bethesda game, lol). Folks, don't insult Bethesda with the comparison. Just don't.
I am serious. You can find multiple flaws in Beth games but they are still lightyears ahead of the pathetic pile of mediocre junk called The Outer Worlds.

Graphically, the game looks very dated. Like, 2000 dated. Music... Come to think of it, I don't remember if there was any music. Was there? Yes, totally forgettable.

Exploration is non-existent. There is no climbing or swimming as far as I can tell. No exciting locations to discover. No cool loot. No memorable enemies. No clever mini-stories scattered around (think FO4 terminals). The world is bland and bare. You run along a few corridors with invisible walls and that's about it..

Character customization is one of the nicer features but nothing to write home about. It absolutely does not matter how your character looks anyway because you will never get to see him/her in your game. And you will never hear them speak because your protagonist is mute. No cinematic dialogues that show your char. And, given the fact that the dialogues are generally verbose and full of tiresome, pretentious juvenile humor, I ended up hitting my spacebar way too often to skip them. I mean, Spacebar is your friend in this game, you will learn to appreciate it soon enough.

Very few NPC around. None has any kind of daily routine. For example, in the starting town the population is supposedly oppressed and overworked but you will never actually see anyone working inside the infamous cannery. A few idle NPC are just standing somewhere 24/7 gossiping or drinking in a bar. A guard or two are patrolling the premises. The end. Lifeless and pointless.

♥♥♥♥♥♥ women and lesbians are in charge everywhere, lol. All male NPC are totally low IQ beta losers, even the alleged villains. The "politics" are one-dimensional, in-your-face BS, everything is banal and predictable as McDonald's menu. At some point you just stop taking the game seriously.

Most quests are simply boring. I realize that tastes differ and what is boring to me can be super-exciting to someone else and vice versa but that's my opinion and I am sticking to it. There are not very many quests in this short game so to compensate for that you are awarded thousands of points for each quest completion. You even get hundreds of points for "finding" workbenches.
There are some choices and consequences -- one of the few redeeming qualities I have to mention. Having C&C is always a big plus. But trust me, you will never agonize over your choice. Because the game makes it hard to care one way or another about anyone or anything.

GUI/ inventory management, especially "food" and "medicine" is reminiscent of the worst games in history. You have to experience it first hand in order to appreciate the other game designers who you hated for their own clunky GUI in the past.

Combat and encounters are poorly designed. One of the worst I've ever seen and I've seen plenty of bad combat during my 35 years of gaming. There is nothing tactical about it. Or strategical. Or whatever. No cover, no climbing to reach a spot for effective sniping, no true backstabbing. Just pew pew, spray and pray. The time-slowing feature is awkward and, in my experience, fairly useless. No enemy variety either.

Weapon/armor customization is meh. You can't swap mods unless you invest all your points in the related skill.

Overall, I would not recommend this over-hyped game to anyone who is not a die-hard Obsidian-can-do-no-wrong fanboy.

UPDATED MY JOURNAL

EDIT: Since I found out that my thread was still popular (thanks to someone mentioning it in another forum), I thought it might be appropriate to add a comparison to Starfield which was released a year ago. There are only two similarities between these two games: both are in space and both are, shall we say, full of identity politics.

In every other aspect SF is miles ahead. The main story, side quests, the cool factions and their questlines, the characters, voice acting, gameplay, top notch combat, space combat, combat in low G, enemy AI, the sheer scope, visuals, soundtrack, ship building, base building, mining/production/trade sim, weapon and armor modding, a vast skill tree, endless replayability… Just like every other Beth game SF will be played to infinity and beyond, unlike TOS which is already mostly forgotten.

[Icedfate]

i've been on Steam for 10 years and usually whenver imsee a post like this where one person is saying a game sux and another is defending it, it always plays out the same way.

one side makes long posts, presenting mountains of evidence to support their argument, while the other side just makes small posts like just "nope, you're wrong" or "I don't have time to read your wall of text, so i'm gonna ignore it. . oh yeah, you're still wrong" and it's the digital equivalent of a child plugging thier fingers in their ear yelling "LA LA LA, I'M NOT LISTENING!"

I'll let ya's all figure out who is who

[Groogo]

Icedfate a écrit :

i've been on Steam for 10 years and usually whenver imsee a post like this where one person is saying a game sux and another is defending it, it always plays out the same way.

one side makes long posts, presenting mountains of evidence to support their argument, while the other side just makes small posts like just "nope, you're wrong" or "I don't have time to read your wall of text, so i'm gonna ignore it. . oh yeah, you're still wrong" and it's the digital equivalent of a child plugging thier fingers in their ear yelling "LA LA LA, I'M NOT LISTENING!"

I'll let ya's all figure out who is who

I have been on Steam for 11 years and I have always posted what I am thinking and you want to compare that to a guy with a level 0 Steam account that posts "walls of text". So there's that...maybe something fishy... In the grand scheme of things no one really gives a crap anyway. LOL

[Icedfate]

an example of the brilliant writing in the game.
high ranking member of the board : "i want you to destroy edgewater"
parvati : "you're a monster!"
Vicar Max : "I cannot condone this plan!"
you : "i'll do it"
parvati : "I won't! you're better than this"
you : "trust me"
parvati "don't make me choose between you and my people"

later, as you're destroying it, with parvati and max helping you

parvati : "woo, yeah!"
max : "good job captain!"

.
.
another example could be when you do the thing for sublight where they want you to kill eva chartrand because the lady there thinks there are aliens taking over and then you go there and you talk to eva and she tells you her plan andmyou can either kill her or talk her into working for the board or for welles, but no matter what choice you pick, it has absolutely no effect on anything else in the game. nothing changes. you never see her again. the game's epilogue never mentions her. if you send her to welles, you never see her there. welles never mentions her. the only reason to do that quest is for the end rewards.

.
.there's also that old cliche where someone give you a quest, they want you to kill someone for them and say "don't ask questions, just do it and i'll reward you" or "that person is evil, you need to kill them and don't talk to them because they will try to cloud your mind with lies"
and then they ask you to bring back a personal possession of the target to prove you did the deed and whenever they say that, you know it's gonna give you the option to "persuade" the target to give you the object without having to kill them and it always turns out that if you talk to the target, they end up not being as bad as the original noc that sent you there said they were and you know morally that the target does not deserve to die, so in the end, you take the object back and lie and say "yeah, i killed them" and get the reward.

this game does that at least 3 times. but I can't blame them for that really, that trope exists in every rpg game

[Icedfate]

Groogo a écrit :

Icedfate a écrit :

i've been on Steam for 10 years and usually whenver imsee a post like this where one person is saying a game sux and another is defending it, it always plays out the same way.

one side makes long posts, presenting mountains of evidence to support their argument, while the other side just makes small posts like just "nope, you're wrong" or "I don't have time to read your wall of text, so i'm gonna ignore it. . oh yeah, you're still wrong" and it's the digital equivalent of a child plugging thier fingers in their ear yelling "LA LA LA, I'M NOT LISTENING!"

I'll let ya's all figure out who is who

I have been on Steam for 11 years and I have always posted what I am thinking and you want to compare that to a guy with a level 0 Steam account that posts "walls of text". So there's that...maybe something fishy... In the grand scheme of things no one really gives a crap anyway. LOL

i made a general statement, directed at nobody in particular. if you determined that it applies to you, that's on you.

[Groogo]

Icedfate a écrit :

Groogo a écrit :

I have been on Steam for 11 years and I have always posted what I am thinking and you want to compare that to a guy with a level 0 Steam account that posts "walls of text". So there's that...maybe something fishy... In the grand scheme of things no one really gives a crap anyway. LOL

i made a general statement, directed at nobody in particular. if you determined that it applies to you, that's on you.

As I said, it matters not.

[Icedfate]

and actually, i just looked and apparently, i've been here for 11 years as well. FO3 was the first game i ever bought on steam

[midnite rule]

Icedfate a écrit :

every game has its flaws, but i think that person above has a point about the "gameplay loop".
this game is just "go to this place, shoot your way through the enemies, grab the loot" and the loot doesn't really change. it's the same 3 bullet types, the same 6-7 guns, the same armors. in the midgame, you get access to a higher tier of guns, but they are just "2.0" versions of the starting weapons with higher stats.

Most people who don’t like The Outer Worlds seem to be trying to play it with mentality of a Looter-Shooter.

The actual gameplay loop (if that’s what you want to call it) in The Outer Worlds is:
Talk a bit > Walk a bit > Talk a bit > Shoot a bit > Walk a bit > Talk a bit > Shoot a bit > Talk a bit > Walk a bit > Talk a bit > Shoot a bit > Talk a bit.
Looting is entirely optional in most cases.

Case in Point: The Back Bays on The Groundbreaker
(This is where Junlei sends you for spare parts to fix the radiators.)
The hoodlums down there will attack you unless you talk them down. Obvious you wont be looting any corpses if you don’t kill anyone and picking the containers clean is considered stealing, since even junkies have a concept of private property in this universe.

So, the diplomatic path means foregoing all the loot. But it doesn’t matter, because the loot is barely worth the effort of picking it up anyway.

This isn’t a Looter-Shooter, get used to it.

Chungo Beepis a écrit :

What's the point setting a range of 150 points for attributes but asking you to choose between 30 different hats that provide a bonus of 3-7 points? It might make sense if you have 10 clothing slots but you get 2, Ii can't express how deeply meaningless that is as a gameplay mechanic

It’s for passing skill checks.
Say hacking a computer requires 60 hack skill and you only have 55. Equip a hat with +5 hack and Bob’s your Uncle.

Icedfate a écrit :

FO4 IS a good game.

Chungo Beepis a écrit :

Man anyone that thinks FO4 isn't one of the greatest technical achievements in gaming history has no idea what games are or how any of it works and probably should just be quiet. It's not an opinion, it's just straight fact,

Groogo a écrit :

Fallout 4 is one of the best games that I have ever played, outer Worlds does not even make the top 20. *shrug*

Comparing The Outer Worlds and Fallout 4 is like comparing Apples and Artichokes.

I have no idea if Fallout 4 is a good game or not. It’s not the kind of game I enjoy playing, I’m not the target audience, so I can’t evaluate its quality.

I do resent that Fallout 4 claims the mantle of Fallout. I’m a fan of the original Fallout games, from the 90s, I don’t recognize any Fallout in Fallout 4.
At least Fallout 3 and New Vegas were still basically RPGs. I don’t even know what Fallout 4 is.
It’s like if Hollywood rebooted Die Hard as a Romantic Comedy. Even if it’s a great romantic comedy, it has no business calling itself Die Hard.

The Outer Worlds is my kind of game. And I like it just the way it is, I don’t want it to be a Bethesda game or Mass Effect, or whatever game from your limited reference pool you make believe it’s channeling.

Chungo Beepis a écrit :

models just go on straight basic physics trajectory on death, like wtf, couldn't even setup a rig and do ragdoll? what amateur hell is this?

I’m pretty The Outer Worlds does use Ragdoll.

But Ragdoll is overrated anyway.
Look at No One Lives Forever

https://youtu.be/soZHsPNJ8LQ?t=10773
Enemies tumble down the stairs, rather than awkwardly glide down like with Ragdoll physics. (Example @ 2:59:35)
Enemies on a balcony fall over the guardrails when killed. (Examples @ 6:12:30 and 6:17:30)

Location specific death animations. It looks a little awkward, but the game is from 2002.
I wish games had gone down this road instead of the much cheaper Ragdoll paradigm.

Icedfate a écrit :

one side makes long posts, presenting mountains of evidence to support their argument, while the other side just makes small posts like just "nope, you're wrong" or "I don't have time to read your wall of text, so i'm gonna ignore it. . oh yeah, you're still wrong" and it's the digital equivalent of a child plugging thier fingers in their ear yelling "LA LA LA, I'M NOT LISTENING!"

The OP wrote a giant wall of text and it’s so stupid that it’s not worth taking seriously.
So, I just wrote a parody response:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/578650/discussions/0/3006675644858239957/?ctp=12#c3117046824731240600

Verbosity ≠ Verity

[Icedfate]

i'm also a fan of the first 2 fallouts and i was pissed when imheard that bethesda was turning it into an "elder scrolls-like", but then i played it. The humor and the spirit of the series was still there.

and i already mentioned that the fallout games can't be compared to this. all the bethesda games are open world sandboxes.
it's possible that much of the hate for this game stems from expectations. people expected this game to be an open world sandbox as well.

i always try to find the "diplomatic" solutions in these type of games instead of just shooter looting my way through.
not because i'm not a psycho, but because the diplomatic solution usually requires more thought and it usually yields a better result.

as for those guys in the back bays of the groundbreaker. . .after i solved the mission diplomatally and got the rewards, i went back down there and murdered them all. . .because i could. .with no consequences. . .and the ai was really stupid too. i went into each room in turn and was able to kill the guys in there without aggroing anyone else. the guys in the main hall ought to have heard the screaming and the gunshots but they were completely oblivious.

it actually bothered me that i could do that with no consequences.

i saw this flawed ai all through the game. like i'm storming tartarus and the prisoners are all hostile because i failed to persuade the guy to give me the disguise ID. and i got the board to send their men to help me fight and people are shooting everyone. and then i look off to the side and amidst the chaos, there's just a single guy just standing there with his back turned to me , drinking some rizzos drink and i just walk up and execute him.
i then proceeded to sneak through and snipe each guy that the ally npcs failed to kill and never took any damage

[Groogo]

Fallout 4 2,343.6 hours played.

Fallout New Vegas 1315.8 hours played.

Outer Worlds come anywhere close to that for anyone, anyone at all?

[wrOngplanet]

Groogo a écrit :

Fallout 4 2,343.6 hours played.

Fallout New Vegas 1315.8 hours played.

Outer Worlds come anywhere close to that for anyone, anyone at all?

Lets see...

Fallout 4, 27 hours played.
Outer Worlds, 33.5 hours played. (And counting)

Yep, Outer Worlds wins, it's closer to your numbers than FO4 :-)

[Groogo]

wrOngplanet a écrit :

Groogo a écrit :

Fallout 4 2,343.6 hours played.

Fallout New Vegas 1315.8 hours played.

Outer Worlds come anywhere close to that for anyone, anyone at all?

Lets see...

Fallout 4, 27 hours played.
Outer Worlds, 33.5 hours played. (And counting)

Yep, Outer Worlds wins, it's closer to your numbers than FO4 :-)

When you get over 1,000 hours out of Outer Worlds come back and tell us about it. Then we will talk about going for 2,300 hours.

[Icedfate]

TOW Fans *crap on FO because it's not TOW*
FO Fans *crap on TOW because it's not FO"
.
.
can't we all just get along?

[wrOngplanet]

Groogo a écrit :

When you get over 1,000 hours out of Outer Worlds come back and tell us about it. Then we will talk about going for 2,300 hours.

Lol

I wasn't being entirely serious maybe? (Except ofc that TOW wins :P)

I'll play it as long as I find it enjoyable. And I find Outer Worlds is just that. I have serious doubt it'll last me 1000 hours though, and I'm perfectly okay with that.

Btw I even skipped the last 3-4-5 sales, being on the fence about it. Finally gave in, and then also got the DLC. So for now I'm looking forward to all that.

I'm not sure why FO4 fizzled out for me, a few years ago so I don't remember. I actually bought the Expansion Pass thing on sale just recently, so I'll def take another look at it. Hopefully it'll be more interesting.

But for now it's TOW time!

Icedfate a écrit :

TOW Fans *crap on FO because it's not TOW*
FO Fans *crap on TOW because it's not FO"
.
.
can't we all just get along?

This :)

[midnite rule]

Icedfate a écrit :

as for those guys in the back bays of the groundbreaker. . .after i solved the mission diplomatally and got the rewards, i went back down there and murdered them all. . .because i could. .with no consequences. . .and the ai was really stupid too. i went into each room in turn and was able to kill the guys in there without aggroing anyone else. the guys in the main hall ought to have heard the screaming and the gunshots but they were completely oblivious.

it actually bothered me that i could do that with no consequences.

Why would there be consequences to killing the hoodlums in the Back Bays? They’re criminals unaffiliated with any major faction.
But there’s no reason to kill them, the loot (as I already mentioned) is worthless and the xp will only get you so far due to the level cap.

Though there is kind of a lack of consequences for killing people in this game.

I went berserk on The Groundbreaker once and ended up killing Junlei. Parvati basically just said “I wish you hadn’t done that” and got on with her life. This was before Parvati and Junlei had really gotten to know each other, might have been different if I had progressed further in Parvati’s quest.

This is a departure from Fallout 2 (etc.), where, for instance, Sulik would attack you if you joined the Slaver’s Guild.

Icedfate a écrit :

TOW Fans *crap on FO because it's not TOW*
FO Fans *crap on TOW because it's not FO"
.
.
can't we all just get along?

The Internet decided to turn The Outer World into an anti-Bethesda meme as soon as it was announced.

It was about a month after the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ launch of Fallout 76, and the trailer happened to mention Fallout: New Vegas (I guess “From the developers of Dungeon Siege III” was rejected by the Obsidian marketing department.)

But apparently nobody on Twitter had ever seen a trailer before, so it was interpreted as Obsidian throwing shade at Bethesda.

Nothing of the sort was intended
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqeEfcg_AaQ

Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky don’t have any hard feelings toward Bethesda. Cain has even praised Fallout 3
https://youtu.be/m4XVW6qcuzM?t=109

But it was to no avail, the Internet had declared war on Bethesda and The Outer Worlds was to be the battlefield.
Then Bethesda fans retaliate with scorched earth tactics

Nerd Wars, sad.

Now, I couldn’t care less about Fallout 76. I was never gonna play it, I hate MMOs categorically.
And though I liked New Vegas, I didn’t want a spiritual successor to it.

I love The Outer Worlds for what it is, which is a First Person Fallout 1 and/or Arcanum.

[Aku]

Groogo a écrit :

Fallout 4 2,343.6 hours played.

Fallout New Vegas 1315.8 hours played.

Outer Worlds come anywhere close to that for anyone, anyone at all?

The hours played argument...

Fallout 4 - sandbox game
New Vegas - sandbox game
Outer Worlds - story game

I played Bioshock Infinite for 36 hours. I played ESO for 1933 hours, and counting. Bioshock Infinite was a great game.