The Outer Worlds Review – At the helm of the Tim Cain project (Fallout 1 and 2, The Temple of Elemental Evil, Pillars of Eternity) and Leonard Boyarsky (Fallout 1 and 2, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, Diablo III). To be picky, Cain and Boyarsky can easily be called the creators of the Fallout series. Being part of Obsidian Entertainment, responsible for the development of Fallout New Vegas, should make you understand where we want to go. Already after a few minutes of The Outer Worlds, our thoughts fly to the famous Bethesda series, its dynamics and, in part, even atmospheres.
It is also true that Fallout 4 (much less Fallout 76) has not completely satisfied Fallout 3 and New Vegas fans. So the idea of getting your hands on an unreleased title. Which takes full advantage of Fallout, directed by two veterans of the industry, and role-playing games could and should cause excitement in the genre’s fans. We fall into the latter case: here are our impressions, however objective, on The Outer Worlds!
The Outer Worlds Review in 2020
Our video review of The Outer Worlds is made with gameplay clips taken from our gaming sessions on PS4 Pro and summarizes the following paragraphs’ concepts. Good vision!
Let’s start, as usual, from the story. In The Outer Worlds Review, we step into the shoes of a space colonist. The game frame is, therefore, purely science fiction. The very nice mega-corporation of Alcione is responsible for the colonial journeys towards the same name’s star system. It has decided not to come to our rescue: on the other hand, saving a hundred people costs too much, better to send new ones!
A fugitive scientist named Phineas Vernon Welles decides to give a damn about the mega-corporation by trying to save her ship and the people trapped on board. Too bad, he manages to save only the protagonist, reversing the fate of all the other colonists left on the ship on him. With an escape pod, the protagonist crashes on one of the Alcione system planets, and from there begins your adventure based on conspiracies (was it really too expensive to save the colonists or was there something else behind it?) And factional battles.
The colonial ship and the colonists on board serve as a gimmick for creating a unique character, yours, through a classic editor to adjust the features that have a lot in common with the last chapters of the Fallout series. There is no real class of belonging: the player decides which stats to focus on to have advantages in firefights, physical ones, engineering, sneaking, and the like. However, from a role-playing point of view, the character continues to evolve during the game thanks to the perks and some gimmicks that we will talk about shortly.
Fallout New Vegas 2?
Now, we’ve already brought up Fallout over and over again, and the problem, if you can put it that way, is that we need to keep doing it in the next few paragraphs as well. It is useless to go around it: The Outer Worlds has many (perhaps too many?) On the other hand, it is Obsidian herself, who says that she is the spiritual heir of New Vegas.
It’s called Tactical Time Dilation: the excuse is that after more than 50 years of hibernation. The protagonist’s brain processes the concept of time in a different way. Obviously, the duration of this dilation and the frequency of use depend on various factors. Such as specific perks that you decide to unlock during the growth phase of the character. This fire mode also allows us to obtain useful information on the enemies in front of us, including often irreverent descriptions and weak points to hit to cause secondary effects. Such as blindness or burns. Unlike the SPAV.
The view is in the first person, and we will be dealing with rather classic fights based on the use of firearms or hand-to-hand. The latter is managed better than we thought in the sense that if you are faced with an opponent who uses them. There is also a system of parades to start real duels. Increasing our melee skill even unlocks charged shots. The problem is that a nice long-range plasma rifle could fix it in seconds.
The outer worlds Review steam.
The tactical dilation of time works in every situation. There are various levels of difficulty. This obviously affects various factors, including the damage you suffer, those you manage to inflict, and any resources found on corpses and environments. The artificial intelligence of the enemies does not always shine for inventiveness (indeed, rarely). You still have to manage the fighting wisely by exploiting the battlefield.
If any character then advises you not to go to a place or warns you of its danger, pay attention to him. In this regard, there are stealth mechanics that depend on the equipment you are using. How you distribute the skill points, and also on the terrain you are on. In fact, you can hide in tall grass (obviously in non-urban contexts), and to add further value to these mechanics. There are also indicators of attention from the enemies.
We assure you that they will be very useful, adding that pinch of tension to the whole that certainly does not hurt. Fights also affect the system of defects. A practical example: after a fight against a team of overgrown killer lizards. It is a sort of barter: for example, you decide to accept raptifobia or malus to the characteristics. When you fight reptiles in exchange for advantage points (the perks to be clear), that could, for example, make you more resistant or faster. A nice way to improve your characterization and to change your playstyle!
The Outer Worlds also focuses heavily on managing teammates. You can form a real team of 3 characters, including yours. The spaceship, which will become your hub of reference very soon in history, also acts as a base and a management point for the party.
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The outer worlds peril on the gorgon
However, the companions will gain experience, will use weapons and armor that you will give them, and will be able to count on specific skills that will come in handy in certain situations. Nyoka instead unleashes her minigun and launches a particularly explosive burst of fire. You can also manage a series of rudimentary strategies that every companion must adopt in battle from the inventory. Ultimately a mechanic that we liked.
The inventory management is quite classic, with maximum transportable weight and various tabs to manage weapons, armor, and other objects of various kinds. Like Fallout, you will find yourself with an inventory full of cans, more or less edible fruits, battle drugs. You will soon become a traveling grocery—more drastic structural changes that modify the type of bullet used and so on. In short, there is the customization of the character’s abilities and the way you manage your weapons.
The gunplay is certainly not comparable to an FPS, how much more precisely to a Fallout RPG. The fact is that the firing modes change between one weapon and another. And we didn’t mention scientific weapons! Some special weapons have somewhat peculiar effects on enemies.
One of the first (screenshot above) can miniaturize your enemies: so it’s easier to hit them! Another alters gravity, and so on. Part of the fun is also discovering them all. We may have forgotten something about the gameplay, but the point was not to bring everything back to you. The more to emphasize how layered and studied at the table. On the other hand, Obsidian and the two-game directors have some experience with RPGs. The Outer Worlds really tries in every way to satisfy fans of the genre.
The outer worlds DLC ps4
This brings us to the dialogue system. The Outer Worlds, as a good RPG, evolves according to your actions. The dialogues in this regard play a key role in the unfolding of events. Specific skills will affect your degree of persuasion, unlocking extra dialogue; the same applies to specific skills such as hacking or engineering. Needless to mention again, other games that take advantage of these dynamics. The important thing is that situations can be solved without fighting, preferring a sharp tongue or specific skills.
The plot takes a while to get going, in the sense that the starting world appears in some ways simplified to let you enter all the game dynamics with the necessary calm, without attacking you with dozens and dozens of variables. The tutorials continue even after several hours from the start. This is not a bad thing because we are surprised several times by the continuous arrival of news. So don’t worry if the first few hours might seem slow. The Outer World is a bit of a diesel, but it knows its stuff when it starts.
We talked a little while ago about the starting world. Note of merit also for the extreme characterization of every single element that makes up the various colonies. There are typical foods, famous people, warring factions, and lots of extra material to explore. The various explorable sections of the planets have loading phases, for example, to enter cities or certain important locations.
The technical sector constitutes a large part of the painful notes of Obsidian’s work. On Xbox One X, it plays in 4K while on PS4 pro, it includes improvements from 1440p up to 4K. Not only for a graphic discourse but also for practicality. It’s a whole other experience.
The outer worlds DLC game pass
Although they are not comparable to an FPS, the combat phases still require aim and precision, and in this sense. Returning to the graphics, we are certainly not facing a Red Dead Redemption 2. It really seems to be facing an evolution of Fallout New Vegas.
The views can be evocative, and we must acknowledge this, but especially on consoles. The game world in some situations seems a bit empty, uninhabited. Still, it is also true that the context (colonies in crisis in a distant solar system) also lend themselves to this. In any case, the gameplay and evocative atmospheres soon make us forget these defects. Leaving entirely room for the character’s growth and the various stories that The Outer Worlds Review has to tell. Not bad the music, but obviously the dialogues, dubbed professionally in English, are the masters. Don’t worry, though, as you may have guessed from the screenshots shown so far. The game is entirely translated into Italian. A not insignificant pro!
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Final judgment
The Outer Worlds Review – Final Judgment – The Outer Worlds is one of those classic RPGs that should be enjoyed with due calm. At first, it seems slow, too derivative, but the more you go on, and the more you become attached to the context. Its characterization, and all those differences that try to evolve the Fallout game system. Suppose the mechanics may not seem original, even if there is indeed an attempt to diversify and propose important innovations. The same cannot be said of the setting and the story, completely unpublished and studied at the table.
The world and all its lore open not only to the possible creation of a sequel but also to creating a real independent saga, capable of evolving and detaching itself more and more from its main source of inspiration. They are easily forgiven for any technical shortcomings also due to a budget not exactly triple-A. The hope, now that Obsidian Entertainment is under the protective wing of Microsoft Studios. Is that The Outer Worlds does not fall into oblivion, perhaps becoming one of the reference sagas for a platform (Xbox) that needs new reference titles more than ever.
Also, Read the Shadow of the Tomb Raider review.