Back in July, I attended a special event in Santa Monica to go hands-on with Obsidian and Private Division’s upcoming galaxy-sized RPG game, The Outer Worlds.
I could have had 24 continuous hours with the game and it still would not have been enough. Obsidian is taking thousands of brand new IP elements and scattering them across a story of exploration. Much as with their time on Fallout: New Vegas, the team has constructed a game that emphasizes survival, exploration, strategy, and relationships.
There are hundreds of different ways to play the game. Will you be a hero? Villain? Nice guy? Total douchebag? No matter what way you go, we all start at the beginning of the game’s premise.
Lost in transit while on a colonist ship bound for the furthest edge of the galaxy, you awake decades later than you expected only to find yourself in the midst of a deep conspiracy threatening to destroy the Halcyon colony.
You will build your own unique character to unfold this story with but we can’t quite go into detail yet. Halfway through our gameplay session, we started a vertical slice with a premade protagonist and two companions you’ll pick up along the way. Between the perk system, time dilation combat, NPC story branching, optional quests, there was simply too much to take in. That’s far from a bad thing because your expectations are probably accurate. From what we’ve seen so far this is a space Fallout. What’s wrong with that? Haven’t we all been waiting for The Fast And Furious to drive space shuttles through Saturn’s rings? Most things are made more interesting by putting them in space.
TOW is no exception. Much of this feels like a Fallout game yet there’s a depth no journalist has even scratched. Obsidian is making choice more than an illusion. Because you can harm and save anyone in this game, consequence affects your timeline constantly. Some choices will bear fruit immediately while others may take a bit of getting through the game to see the effects. When I was given a mission of convincing a rogue settlement to give their power to the last outpost, one of the devs told me I could have simply killed characters and been turned into a villain without ever having to say another word to the NPC.
There’s a Terry Gilliam science fiction feel to The Outer Worlds. Every detail from encountering random signs to overhearing NPC conversation tells a quirky story of its own. It’s the calm before the storm just moments from having to put down a group of rampaging beasts using an adult-sized Ratchet & Clank style armament or bludgeoning device. Wildlife wasn’t the only thing we encountered during our time. From marauders to death machine robots you’ll find plenty to battle across this big open world.
Best of all are your companions. Making certain dialogue choices and gameplay decisions will unlock companions with their own unique skill sets. You’ll be able to command your partners to attack targets and open things just to name a few skills. Most importantly, each has their own mesmerizing animations for certain attacks. Every time I started a fight with a group, I’d press an ability of my companion and she’d begin to mow down smaller enemies with a minigun. Just watching hundreds of rounds of ammunition spray like a raining fire in slow motion never got old.
While the build we got to try was still an early version, my only caution was the lack of a navigation system waypoint. I found myself constantly having to open the map to navigate myself to points that weren’t mission-centric. With so much to uncover and future tech at its story disposal a custom GPS simply fits.
After my time with The Outer Worlds, I still don’t grasp just how much detail is in this game and that might be the best compliment I can give it. Never have I played something, where it seemed like every button mapped, had multiple necessary purposes. Obsidian is clearly raising their ambition levels with this game and so far it superkicked my senses leaving my soul on the floor clenching my jaw while whispering, oh yeah I want more of that.
The Outer Worlds launches on PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 on October 25, 2019 with a Nintendo Switch version to somehow follow.
