The Outer Worlds - Early Impressions

AgentBJ09

AgentBJ09

Vault Dweller
Just for giggles, I'll spend a few hours playing through Obsidian's newest game and give my thoughts. (I have some time left on my Game Pass for XBOX, so no $60 purchase.)

After POE II, what that contained, and what I've seen so far of this one, I'm near convinced that what we once knew as Obsidian is gone. Them taking Epic's offer despite having a publisher, Private Division, that is part of 2K Games was pretty infuriating too.

Though as I hear, the game was cracked within hours, so I hope it was worth it for all the parties involved.

Anyway, here we go...
 
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AgentBJ09 said:
Them taking Epic's offer despite having a publisher,
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The publisher took the offer not obsidian. Obsidian was still working on implementing steam achievements when they were told they were gonna be epic exclusive for a while.

As for me, my first impressions are that I probably won't be able to afford the game until next week but I'll be getting it on PS4 because pc gaming isn't near what it once was and is, overall, gay.
 
AgentBJ09 said:
Just for giggles, I'll spend a few hours playing through Obsidian's newest game and give my thoughts. (I have some time left on my Game Pass for XBOX, so no $60 purchase.)

After POE II, what that contained, and what I've seen so far of this one, I'm near convinced that what we once knew as Obsidian is gone. Them taking Epic's offer despite having a publisher, Private Division, that is part of Activision was pretty infuriating too.

Though as I hear, the game was cracked within hours, so I hope it was worth it for all the parties involved.

Anyway, here we go...
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Character Creation - Interesting setup. Unlocking the specialization options only once reaching 50 in an area of skills is kinda strange, though I like that they borrowed Oblivion's Perks-At-A-Set-Level idea. That was one of my favorite parts of that game.

My character is Below Average in Temperament, so no health regeneration.

Phineas Welles feels like Doc Brown in some ways. A bit endearing, that.

Sneaking is easy enough, though I can't tell yet if it's possible to lose an enemy by running out of their line of sight.

The Spacer's Choice personnel you find certainly are trained to spout sales pitches, which is annoying but fitting for the setting. Mercer seems like the typical butch type, typical of "modern" science-fiction.

The Perks are really lame. All percentile upgrades to things, outside of a few like Traveler. I am however noticing a lot of Perks that play in to the Lone Wolf gameplay style, so that's a plus.

The dialogue so far is nothing groundbreaking, and there's nothing intriguing either. Likely a result of the loss and replacement of writing staff over the years. Having The Hope be relegated to a rumor/legend is kinda neat though. Feels like a repeat of RAGE.

This might be a just me thing from playing this game on a 4K screen, but the FOV is really narrow. Probably 65. There needs to be an option to widen it. Also, I'm noticing the textures are a little low resolution, even at a short distance. I doubt this game taxes the XBOX One that much, much less a good PC.

And that's the first hour done. Doesn't feel anything like an Obsidian product yet, and I'm seeing repeats of stuff I saw in POE II which isn't hopeful.
 
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R.Graves said:
The publisher took the offer not obsidian. Obsidian was still working on implementing steam achievements when they were told they were gonna be epic exclusive for a while.

As for me, my first impressions are that I probably won't be able to afford the game until next week but I'll be getting it on PS4 because pc gaming isn't near what it once was and is, overall, gay.
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My bad. Still, with PD being an Activision branch, I'm not surprised.
 
AureliusofPhoenix said:
Well, this seems to be a bleak start.
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In setting, yeah. They pushed the commercialism hard as a theme, and it shows. Renting graves? Seriously?

Otherwise, I get the feeling they really wanted to make something akin to Fallout again, but abandoned the idea of a post-apocalypse in favor of a lighter KOTOR. Once I find the companions, then we'll really see what has happened to Obsidian since New Vegas.
 
Hour 2

- Edgewater really hits the mark as a corporate-owned hellhole. The cannery is the biggest place in town, and it had almost a western feel to things with how the town is laid out and some of the music.

And here, a nugget I found on one of the terminals.

--
[FOUND]: One (1) left hand, severed at the wrist. Some bone damage.

People. This is our second unscheduled amputation in as many months. Please exercise caution and safety around machinery. Maintenance fees will be deduced from your pay.
--

Just wow. What assholes.

- You gain XP for finding vending machines and workbenches, using Skills in dialogue, and other small things. Guess the things Fallout 4 introduced in the XP gaining department were noticed and improved on here.

- The button to initiate dialogue and open doors is also the draw weapon button, so it looks like I'm sticking up the person I'm about to talk to or whipping my gun out when opening doors as though I'm playing rookie cop.

- Stealing is pretty much what it was in New Vegas. Stolen items are marked in red, and if anyone sees you take them, you're in trouble. Pretty sure it docks some points from any nearby or related factions too.

- I swear they used the same fonts from Prey 2017 or Bioshock.

- Almost every NPC I've seen has dyed hair. Why is this so common? Also, most of the hair roots look black. Probably a lighting bug in Unreal 4.

- Found one of the quest targets for the Graveyard Fees quest. She paid for the gravesite of a coworker that committed suicide. Ouch. And the reason why? She found the poor guy.

Why can I so easily see Epic Games, 2K, or Amazon being that evil?

- Took a second quest from the man in charge of the cannery, and gained a companion in the process. We'll see what her dialogue is like.

Hour 2 End
 
Hour 3

- The quest I just got has an optional side: Talk to a local vicar about the quest and see if there are alternatives, in this case, a similar situation to Gecko in Fallout. As it turns out, this vicar is also a corporate type. The "religion" he brings up, Scientism, seems designed by the corporations to lull people into serving their whole lives to Spacer's Choice or other corporate groups. Like a corporate version of Jonestown or Scientology.

- You can adjust certain things about how a companion operates. Perks, Behaviors, Armor and Weapons. Nice to see this come back.

- Outside areas with a lot of things in the environment definitely mess with the framerate. Noticed some texture pop-in as well, though it isn't as bad as We Happy Few. We should see some patches before long. Music continues to be nice though.

- Here's a neat change: If you disintegrate someone with an energy weapon, it looks like you'll get no items from their ashes. Guess energy weapons have a downside to make up for their power. Also, the looting is exactly the same as in Fallout 4, which is a nice timesaver.

- Okay, here's another new thing. If you kill an enemy but don't get seen doing it, enemies will hunt for who fired the shot. If your companion kills an enemy and you don't attack, other enemies won't notice. After a time, the Alert level drops to Normal. So it looks like you can run and hide if the alert has been raised.

- Ammo has been really simplified. Only Light, Heavy and Energy variants exist. More than Deus Ex: Invisible War granted, but still a bit silly.

- A few things I missed from earlier. There is a Hardcore Mode in this game, but they made the same mistake Bethesda did with Fallout 4: Locking it to the hardest difficulty setting instead of it being a toggle. C'mon Obsidian. You know better. There's also a Deus Ex: Human Revolution/Mankind Divided-esque highlight system that makes objects you can pick up glow when in view. Useful, though I'm playing with that option off.

- The VATS-like system in this game has much more utility than the version in Fallout 4, and functions a lot like Point-And-Shoot in Hitman: Absolution. When activated, time slows to a crawl and it drains slowly, while any firing uses up some of the meter.

- Made it to the quest location, the geothermal plant. Looks like a camp for people who fled from Edgewater. Can't blame them one bit.

- A bit of a black and white choice, either shut down the geothermal plant and send the deserter workers back, or ruin Edgewater's cannery by taking their power source. Reminds me of choosing Goodsprings or the Powder Gangers in New Vegas. Well, since I always help Goodsprings...

- There was a reference to a pulp serial on one of the loading screens, and they're referenced in dialogue. Nice touch.

End of Hour 3
 
AgentBJ09 said:
- Found one of the quest targets for the Graveyard Fees quest. She paid for the gravesite of a coworker that committed suicide. Ouch. And the reason why? She found the poor guy.

Why can I so easily see Epic Games, 2K, or Amazon being that evil?
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Because they are and it wouldn't surprise me that they served as real world inspiration for the corporations in this game.
 
RangerBoo said:
Because they are and it wouldn't surprise me that they served as real world inspiration for the corporations in this game.
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3rd act plot twist: they name drop Amazon as having caused the world in which the game takes place.
 
Hour 4

- So it seems the geothermal plant mission isn't as clear cut as I thought, though one thing might tip it over the edge and showcase what I've been hearing about how characters in this game are presented to the player.

- Thought so. Overall, the geothermal plant and related mission are pretty good. The one thing about it that seems like it might be a recurring theme in this game is men holding most or all the positions of corruption and needing to hand things over to women for things to get better.

If that holds true as the game goes on, or through the next mission area, then it's safe to say what I noticed in POE II is being repeated in this game, and Obsidian's staff is SJW infested.
 
Whoever said that “if women ran the world, there would be no war” obviously never watched The Real Housewives.
 
Been playing The Outer Worlds, not enough to give a real thorough impression but I can say I've enjoyed it so far. I've seen a few people knock the setting as some anti-capitalist commie love fest but I think those people are blockheads. Imagine those weird ass corporate Campuses like Apple or Blizzard have, but now it is an entire planet run by Facebook and Amazon as their own little mercantile fiefdom, just think of all the crazy shit they would get up to. here are a few things I like.
  • No Hacking/lock picking minigames. if you got the skills and the equipment you just bust them open.
  • Companion equipment and skills can all be accessed from the same screen as yours.
  • Time Dilation isn't the win fight now button like VATS was, well at least at the beginning so far.
  • I don't feel punished for making my guy a dumbass. Been able to get actually get things done by being a putz.
Going try to put in some time this weekend.
 
TheGM said:
Been playing The Outer Worlds, not enough to give a real thorough impression but I can say I've enjoyed it so far. I've seen a few people knock the setting as some anti-capitalist commie love fest but I think those people are blockheads. Imagine those weird ass corporate Campuses like Apple or Blizzard have, but now it is an entire planet run by Facebook and Amazon as their own little mercantile fiefdom, just think of all the crazy shit they would get up to. here are a few things I like.
  • No Hacking/lock picking minigames. if you got the skills and the equipment you just bust them open.
  • Companion equipment and skills can all be accessed from the same screen as yours.
  • Time Dilation isn't the win fight now button like VATS was, well at least at the beginning so far.
  • I don't feel punished for making my guy a dumbass. Been able to get actually get things done by being a putz.
Going try to put in some time this weekend.
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Yeah. The hyper corporatization is unsettling as a theme, and these days it's very topical.

And those points are good ones. My character has maxed out intelligence so the dumb options aren't available to me, though I like using Time Dilation to dial in a long range shot. (Finally got my hands on a revolver, and once I get a large ammo mod, I'll have as close to a Handcannon as I can get for now.)
 
AureliusofPhoenix said:
Whoever said that “if women ran the world, there would be no war” obviously never watched The Real Housewives.
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Or know about a woman named Hillary Rodham Clinton aka The Queen of Warmongers.

By the way, I heard that the character creation for female characters is bad. Like Andromeda, it seems the devs went out of their way to make the female characters ugly. Can't have that male gaze! There is also almost no long hair styles for girls in this game. Most of the hairs are really short and masculine. Also, you can give your female character facial hair. So now you can finally live out your dream of playing as either the Gamestop tranny or as a non-binary, gender fluid whatever the fuck. In the words of this guy:
 
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I'll get it on steam as well and probably during a sale. Even though people are reporting that the game isn't very buggy, i'll still prefer to play the game with a more stable version.
 
Norzan said:
I'll get it on steam as well and probably during a sale. Even though people are reporting that the game isn't very buggy, i'll still prefer to play the game with a more stable version.
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and all the dlc from the start
 
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