085REVIEW
INFO
FORMATPS4
ETAOUTNOW
PUBPRIVATE
DIVISION
DEVOBSIDIAN
ENTERTAINMENT
THE OUTER WORLDS
All aboard the good ship lollipop
L
et’s say you’re not feeling quite right.
Maybe you’re ill. You come home and
how do you seek comfort? Maybe it’s
somewhere at the bottom of a big bowl
of cheesy pasta or it’s in a tall glass of wine or
perhaps you’ll find it somewhere in the end
credits of an awful Netflix Original. For the
RPG fan, The Outer Worlds takes great pains
to scratch that itch.That is to say, you’re a recently thawed hero
skill-checking and sharpshooting your way across
the universe alongside your crew of acquired
miscreants. Along with everyone else on space
colony ship The Hope (this being just the first in
a long list of endearingly unsubtle names), you
were put into suspended animation. However,
The Board (the group of space capitalists calling
the shots across the system) has deemed it too
costly to revive everyone on The Hope, leaving
the ship to idle at the edge of the stars. Naturally
you – alongside the loose cannon scientist who
revived you – cannot allow this to stand.
The acidic alien vistas you run and gun
throughcomesecondonlytothewriting.Don’tget us wrong, there’s plenty to
write home about the combat;
unloading a round into the
oversized wildlife, followed by
a quippy riposte from your
companions, does feel good.
However, we’re not convinced
that first-person melee can
ever be not-awkward. Gunplay,
as smooth as it is, is a
pitstop rather than your final
destination, overshadowed by
a conversation system whose
familiar nuts and bolts have
been beautifully polished.FULL STEAM AHEAD
Full voice acting, dialogue
choices that only appear when
you have the right skill set, and
a script to make you smirk –
it’s all here. Playing The Outer
Worlds feels like a conversation
between old friends, the chat
lampooningtheabsurdityofits
dystopiansettingandwell-
wornquestdesign.Thatis to
sayit’scomfortable,forbetter
andworse.
Thecarepouredintothis
productionis evident.This
is oneofObsidian’sbiggest,shiniest, and most stable
games to date. However, it’d be
premature to call it ‘the action
RPG’s final form’. For one thing,
set in such a timely dystopia
dominated by corporate greed,
we would’ve welcomed more
biting commentary throughout
the writing. For another,
the Flaw system adds a neat
roleplaying wrinkle by offering
bonus skill points in exchange
for a situational knock to your
stats, however it ultimately
never quite finds its place
in our universe. Last, while
solving problems using words
results in an impressive array
of outcomes, combat-focussed
quests too often boil down to
going in guns blazing or making
a sneaky back entrance. But all
that said, you won’t want to
leavethisadventure in stasis.HOME AND AWAY @KoeniginKatze
VERDICTOn all difficulty settings
except Supernova your
companions get up
again when downed.An out-of-this-world adventure
that, for better and worse, feels
far from alien, even if you’ve
been frozen for a few years.
The familiar done well and then
some. Jess Kinghorn“PLAYING THE OUTER WORLDS
FEELS LIKE A CONVERSATION
BETWEEN OLD FRIENDS.”