1. If you have been waiting for some other developer to pick up Bethesda's reins and make a game in the style of the great Fallout and Elder Scrolls games, Obsidian is that developer and The Outer Worlds is that game.
2. Given Obsidian developed a golden age, Bethesda-sanctioned Fallout release, this isn't surprising. Still, I was nervous they'd mess it all up. Who wouldn't be?
3. The Outer Worlds looks an awful lot like it was developed on the same engine as Fallout 4 to me but it's actually made in Unreal. I'm just throwing this out as a bit of trivia because, obviously, nobody actually cares about this kind of stuff.
4. The setting here is a series of planets that's are run by giant corporations who are working people literally to death in order to preserve an opulent way of life for the upper classes.
5. It is unfortunate but sometimes I interact w/ people on the internet and I get the feeling some folks seem to really want to ignore the anti-capitalist themes inherent The Outer Worlds setting in spite of them being presented here in a method that could charitably described as ham-fisted and totally obvious. "Well, it's not against capitalism," these people say to God and me on the internet, "It just against large corporations running the government and exploiting people." Law's sake, people, think about this for like fifteen seconds. You are driving me freaking crazy!
6. (Law's sake is a favorite minced oath in The Outer Worlds and me using it in this review is unequivocally hilarious.)
7. As far as gameplay, I reckon it's fine. Combat is fine. There is a paper-rock-scissors thing w/ various elemental abilities. You can craft improvements for your equipment. You get a bullet-time slowdown ability which you can use if you like. I dunno... If you are familiar w/ video games, this is one.
8. Where The Outer World's really excels is in creating a world which feels concrete and consistent and that appears to have a history that goes way deeper than what you are given. As much as it is a game, it is a make-believe place where you can go and just be, the sort of thing you want to linger over a while even if you are not making progress to some specific goal.
9. You get a choice of a few companions you can ring w/ you. They all have backstories and goals of their own which is pretty neat. It also hearkens back to the first two Fallout games where bringing along a companion or two was effectively easy mode.
10. This is not truly an open world game. It is a series of open areas that you travel between from time to time. All this really means is if you want to go to a location on a different planet, you have to fast travel to your ship, fast travel to the other planet then fast travel to the location you want to get to. I found this a bit annoying but I guess this increases immersion for some people.
11. The Outer Worlds is built from the ground up to be played through from the beginning multiple times. You cannot hedge your bets the whole game and get all the different endings from a save point a half-hour from the end . Playing through in a normal manner--as in not going and exploring every nook and cranny and talking to every NPC multiple times for the sake of it--you inevitably miss out on giant swatches of game's universe. Fortunately, a playthrough is not terribly long and they are varied enough that going through many times does not feel like a chore.
12. Going back to the anti-capitalist themes I mentioned in point 5, towards the end of the game, there is an argument presented that the capitalists are maybe not all the way in the wrong so maybe it is not so cut and dry. Then again, this argument is presented to you by chief lord of all capitalists so maybe you it is cut and dry and people are lying to you. Seriously, think about this for like fifteen seconds.
13. The Outer Worlds works on multiple levels. It's fun to play moment to moment. It's interesting to explore all the various pathways and alternative outcomes if you so chose. And if you want to pay attention, it examines our current society by exaggerating it (less than some would like to admit) and showing how things might end up if we keep heading the way we are heading. In short, it is a good video game and it's good science fiction. You should play it.
