The Outer Worlds, Obsidian Entertainment’s next big project, was officially unveiled during this year’s The Game Awards show. And now that the proverbial cat is out of the bag, those of you curious about this sci-fi RPG can check out plenty of media coverage and learn a thing or two about The Outer Worlds in the process.
Because, as we all know, a picture is worth a thousand words, let’s start with roughly 14 minutes of gameplay footage brought to us by Game Informer:
Then, let’s check out some preview articles that tell us a bit about the game, its corporations-influenced setting, two planets, moddable weapons, VATS-like time dilation feature, flaw-based role-playing system, and more. Some choice quotes:
The area housing the research facility wasn’t a narrow, linear path: there was definitely room to roam, with enemies and other locations to loot around the map. Outer Worlds isn’t one massive contiguous world like today’s open world games, but from what I’ve seen, that’s a good thing. This is not a game made by 800 people, and the smaller environments look intimately hand-crafted, but are still big enough to hold sidequests and reward exploration.
One of the most exciting things the developers talked about was the freedom they’re trying to bake into The Outer Worlds. “A lot of the map is opened up right after you get your ship, so you don’t have to follow the story immediately,” Boyarsky says. “There are points of no return, but we like to keep your options open for as long as possible.”
There’s a degree of level scaling on enemies, but within limits, which means you’ll be able to travel to difficult places early, if you want, and reap the rewards–if you don’t die. It looks and feels like a proper, open-ended PC RPG, but on a more conservative budget than today’s blockbusters. I’ve only seen a small slice, so it’s hard to say how unique the many paths through the game will feel, how rewarding it will be to take the “wrong” way and carve your own path.
On its mechanical surface, The Outer Worlds is the straightforward action-infused RPG we’ve come to know and love. It’s full of choices, people to interact with, quests to undertake and plots to foil, character customization, companions and companion customization, and loads and loads of weapons.
At first glance The Outer Worlds is reminiscent of the first-person-brand Fallout games, which is fitting, considering it’s being developed by the same studio that made Fallout: New Vegas. In it you gain experience, level up, assign ability points and perks to slowly carve out a playstyle. Maybe you’re really into swinging sci-fi sledgehammers. Good stuff! You can build into melee. Or if you want to be a silver-tongued problem solver, you can focus on social skills like persuasion, intimidation, and lying to bluff your way through dialog and avoid a fight altogether.
Or, you can build into tech skills: Science, Medical, and Engineering. If you want to make a character who’s very tech-oriented you can. For example, there’s a whole subcategory of sci-fi prototype weapons that increase in power with your science skill, rather than your gunmanship, with unpredictable, funny side effects. Things like a Shrink Ray that appropriately shrinks down anything you organic you shoot, causing it to have less hit points and do less damage. And if it’s a person it gets a high, squeaky voice.
Quests are sprinkled across the world, but there’s no need to worry about manually flying to certain areas to access them. ADA acts as the ship’s computer assistant and takes the responsibility of flying to certain parts of the planet. Players and companions travel to the planet by using landing pads. ADA also serves an unknown narrative purpose, as the developers noted that while nothing is sentient, ADA’s dialogue is enough to make one wonder.
Equipping one’s self for quests is more than preparing the main character, but the key to success is also selecting the right companions. Different companions can be recruited over the course of the game, each with their own unique abilities. They’ll also come with their own quests and their own goals. Players must decide whether to embark on missions with companions that complement their own skill set or companions that excel at skills that the main character does not.
There will be a modicum of character customization options, Boyarsky said, but players should expect a more old-school approach. For instance, you’ll rarely see your character on screen outside the inventory menus. They won’t have even have a voice. That will leave room, he said, for the developers to spend their time and treasure crafting a complex narrative adventure. Early gameplay shows branching dialogue paths with plenty of nuance, a composite of memory mechanics from games like TellTale’s The Walking Dead and stats-based rolls common in isometric RPGs.
Immediately after the game starts, Obsidian gives players the freedom to choose their course of action. While we were watching a gameplay preview, co-game director Tim Cain explained: “the scientist wants you to help collect more chemicals to save the other colonists. But you don’t have to help him do that, you could decide I’m going to hand him in to the evil board of corporations and turn this guy in to see what happens. [If you do so] you’ll get a lot of money and get to live in the city of the elite [called Byzantium].” Cain continued: “It’s really important for us that players can drive the story. We want this to be as open-end for players as possible. […] Players can drive the story, be any kind of player you want to be. You want to be an anti-hero, you want to be a hero or you want to be a psychopath?”
It’s honestly difficult for me to decide exactly how to close out a set of preview impressions like this. “I’m looking forward to it” or “I’m excited”, seem kind of pointless because, well, of course I am. On the surface, while the art style and gameplay mechanics offer a few interesting twists and wrinkles, it’s nothing we haven’t seen before. At the same time, though, we know that this is the sort of game Obsidian can do, and do well — there’s a reason that titles like New Vegas and Alpha Protocol are often praised for their reactive narratives and role-playing moxie. Seeing Obsidian return to this style of game after so many years away is reason enough to perk up a bit, but what sticks with me most is the unique setting presented. The Outer Worlds might look like something we’ve seen before, but when factoring in the general narrative premise, particular sense of humor, and the coupling of story components with core gameplay fundamentals, its apparent that what I’ve seen so for is not really all the familiar, and that’s what excites me the most.
RPG Site also offers a full-on interview with Obsidian’s senior narrative designer Megan Starks. A couple of sample questions:
RPG Site: A key component of The Outer Worlds is its companion system. From Tyranny to Pillars II to The Outer Worlds, has anything changed in scope or focus about how companions are designed?
Megan Starks: We want our companions to really emphasize that they have stakes that are important to them. They’ll ask you to help out on their quests and they’ll speak out against you if they don’t support what you’re doing, we want their motivations and goals to always be at the center of their character.
RPG Site: Just curious, are any companions mutually exclusive, or only available under certain playstyles, such as in Knights of the Old Republic 2? Or can you be a charismatic friend to everyone?
Megan Starks: You can recruit all of the game’s companions, but some of them will have allegiances to specific factions in the game. For instance, if you decide to support the Board (Halcyon’s enigmatic corporate entity), there will be certain companions that will clearly not agree with your decisions, but they won’t abandon you unless you clearly decide to part with them.
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Val Hull
Resident role-playing RPG game expert. Knows where trolls and paladins come from. You must fight for your right to gather your party before venturing forth.
