Outer Worlds - Massive Disappointment

This right here is a pretty fair assessment. It doesn't matter what big budget RPG Obsidian makes next. They likely won't recapture NV and I think people need to accept that. 90% of the time I've seen or watched TOW described as a disappointment, it is then followed up with "meanwhile in New Vegas, this is how they did it right". While Isometric RPGs are out there trying to get into brave new territories, 3D AAA RPGs are at this crossroads of "Do we make this an action sandbox with light RPG elements and maximum mainstream appeal, or should we go the less financially secure, niche route and open ourselves up to being directly and viciously compared to a 2010 classic?"
It's a lose lose. On its own merits, TOW is incredibly good when compared to RPGs coming out THESE days. I'm gonna say it: Between Cyberpunk 2077 and The Outer Worlds, I'm going to pick The Outer Worlds as the tighter game. It's also a decent foundation for a far superior sequel if they manage it.
It's more of a Fallout 1 than Fallout NV, but I like Fallout 1.

 

The Outer Worlds is a futurama "Tales of Interest" story stretched out for 30 hours with a firefly skin. There are some good parts about it, the shooting is fine. The role play side is lacking at points. Origins and traits feel very undercooked. The companions felt like a downgrade from previous titles. Which is disappointing because they're usually the best part of obsidian/black isle games.

• Harvati's quest in particular is underwhelming despite calling for a lotta legwork and feels like she doesn't grow from the Kaylee expy she was conceived as.
• Book Shepard, I mean Max Clooneyface has a few good lines and his quest is a little interesting, but nothing to write home about.
• Nyoka is fine, she's just a drunk hunter lady haunted by her past, I put a cowboy hat on her and it was like I was bumming around with Cass.
• Felix is great because he's every revolutionary larper who doesn't think through the actual minutia of who's leading the revolution. Used him to get his quest to proc so I could grab a jacket then benched him, sometimes he drop kicked people. So that was nice.
• Ellie has the best quest in the game and i hate her for it. She looks like a lizard person and quips like Malcolm Reynolds on xanax.
• Sam is a robot and robots aren't programmed with personal baggage. All you do is collect something so he's fully operational.

The DLC that I think only I played had one 'good' moment in it so I'll spoil it below if you don't care.

Spoiler: It's worth it I swear

The shitty moon man company were so desperate to hide evidence of their shitty NuMengele practices they compressed their failed test subjects into meat cubes. I was so insulted and annoyed I killed every "Section Head" I could find out of sheer spite. Honestly it felt like someone was messing with me because I was dumb enough to buy the DLC. Not to mention it was jarring only getting a quick chirp of ambient dialogue from your companions on the matter.

The DLC is mostly reused assets focusing on the least interesting company (actually they're all uninteresting) and most of the quests are forgettable. There were some stand-outs here and there. Most were fetch quests. I was waiting for a gut punch or theme to tie it all together, but it was the same as the base game, capitalism sure is whack dawg. Actually this might be a sequel to Life is Strange in disguise.

 

I think my problem with the game can be summarized as, "I really-really liked it but they decided to definitely go with a goofy cartoonish Futurama feel when everyone really would have preferred a snarky but believable setting."

 

I keep checking these things out, not just video games but also movies and cartoons, and it is consuming so much of my time that I can spend on more productive things.
Even as a "background noise" it is annoying as there is always a moment in which you look up and think "What did he/she say?"

Friends of mine who have played TOW have told me enough about this game as have people here on NMA. Even on its own it doesn't sound appealing to me from what I read about it.
I'll perhaps pick it up a couple of years or so from now when it has a major discount.

 

The devs wants us to remember that New Vegas is a thing by constantly plastering in every trailer how the game is being made by the creators of Fallout 1 and New Vegas.

Don't blame us for expecting too much when the devs clearly wants to remember they made New Vegas.

 

That's marketing though, and "New Vegas, same peeps!" is a good hook that'd be silly not to take advantage of.

 

Yeah, and don't whine like a little bitch when people inevitably compare it to New Vegas. You brought up the game that is most likely being compared to, expect people to feel disappointed that is not as good.

New Vegas also isn't some lightning in a bottle game writing wise, it was just done by competent people. Act like you give you shit and you should be able to have writing just as good. Obsidian in TOW clearly didn't give a shit, hence why the writing is so subpar compared to New Vegas.

So New Vegas isn't some holy grail of writing where you have to smoke a joint rolled up by God himself to make your mind clear to great writing. Obsidian then gave a shit about giving context and detail to their worlds, and that was it. That's all it took for the writing to be great.

 

Lawl, all I said was it's logical their marketing dep would use the hook that the same devs made New Vegas

 

It's logical, and then we have people saying we shouldn't compare TOW with New Vegas. When the company wants us to.

 

Good point. After all the time Tim and Leonard spent trying to temper expectations, I forget that the marketing campaign had done what marketing campaigns do.

 

You can blame the publisher Private Division for that marketing campaign. They're also the ones who took Epic's money to make it EGS exclusive. Neither of these decisions were Obsidian's.

And it's not like Leonard and Tim worked on New Vegas. They joined Obsidian a year or so after New Vegas released.

Tim did, of course, obviously, create Fallout though. lol