The outer worlds launched successful reviews from critics and fans of Obsidian Entertainment. Although sometimes classified as precipitation in space, The outer worlds was in many ways a successor to Obsidian’s Fallout: New Vegas. Despite these lofty comparisons, the game held its weight. It delivered a solid premise with memorable characters, locations, and dark satire for players to delve into.
Praise for The outer worlds often went to the setting of the game, dark and satirical humor on hypercapitalization and characters. While they usually take the grisly comedy of corporate loyalty to the absurd, The outer worlds‘ characters stood out against the sinister backdrop of corporate greed and profit. In the game, the player character – the alien – can recruit six companions to travel with them through Halcyon and learn its mysteries. While each unique Companion contributes differently, there is room for improvements that: The Outer Worlds 2 can use for his new set of companions.
Consistent length and material
One of the most important notes about: The outer worlds was the length of the game, which fell on the short side. For players who focus solely on main missions, the game could quickly be completed in twenty hours or so, while complete playthroughs could reach nearly forty or more if all the dialogue, hub areas, and quest options were explored. While it wasn’t short enough that way, the game’s replayability factor for several endings was a tempting draw. The addition of two DLCs brought the entire game duration close to that of traditional RPG triple-A titles.
When it came to Companion missions and storylines, length was one factor that could see improvements in a sequel and caused some length issues of the game as a whole. Among Outer Worlds‘ six Companion characters, three had storylines that felt like they had constant length and flesh to them: Parvati, Vicar Max, and Nyoka. Not only did their storylines feature meat and potatoes of duration and travel through Halcyon, but their stories related to the world the game had set up and to their natures, wishes, and conflicts.
Meanwhile, Felix, Ellie, and Sam sometimes felt thwarted, touching essential character elements of their personalities, but preventing them from having consequences or dealing with the wider world. Sam can be understood to some extent for being the only non-human companion, but there could have been more detail in building and equipping him with the features he has to make the payoff worthwhile. Felix and Ellie had minimal action in and around Halcyon, with most of their stories merely extensions of their character traits: a stowaway and a morally gray doctor.
Romantic options in the outside world
An aspect that the Companions of The outer worlds missing was the ability for the player character to romantically engage with one of their crew members. Parvati’s storyline involves romanticizing the Groundbreaker’s chief engineer and preparing for her date by having the player collect numerous ingredients in Halcyon for the perfect date; no such element exists for the Stranger character.
While romanticizing Companions isn’t necessary for an RPG, more possible characterizations can be explored, along with even more possible endings. In addition, romantic options can lead to greater conflict, moral ambiguity, personal interests, and possible loss that can drive the role-playing elements home. This, in turn, can lead to more memorable characters and storylines.
The outer worlds is a seductive and fun RPG developed by Obsidian Entertainment that showcases a stylistic dark satirical humor of future hyper-capitalism through memorable characters. Despite allowing six Companion characters to recruit, The Outer Worlds 2 could enhance these Companion options by maintaining storylines with consistent lengths that anchor the Companions to the world, along with romantic options to fuel further potential conflict.
The outer worlds is now available on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
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