The Outer Worlds: Peril on Gorgon DLC Announced

Peril on Gorgon is the title of the first story DLC for Private Division and Obsidian Entertainment’s sci-fi RPG The Outer Worlds. Revealed during Microsoft’s Xbox Games Showcase event, the DLC is set to launch on September 9, 2020, priced at $14.99 or your regional equivalent, offering a good deal of fresh high-level content and a new noir-styled story.

Alternatively, you can purchase the expansion pass for $24.99 and get access to both Peril on Gorgon and the game’s yet to be announced second DLC. Here’s the official DLC trailer:

And a press release with additional information:

Greetings Captain!

We hope you’re ready to return to Halcyon for more interstellar mayhem. Today, Private Division and Obsidian Entertainment revealed details for The Outer Worlds: Peril on Gorgon, the first of two narrative DLCs.

Peril on Gorgon adds a substantial amount of content to the game’s darkly humorous universe with a brand new noir-tinged adventure that takes players to the Gorgon Asteroid to investigate the mysterious origin of Adrena-Time. While there, you’ll find new weapons and armor, perks, flaws, and the same freedom to approach your problems that made the original game so rewarding.

Peril on Gorgon requires the base game and the player will have needed to progress past Monarch to access the DLC’s content.

Peril on Gorgon will be available on September 9 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC for $14.99 and Xbox Game Pass Users will receive a 10% discount on the DLC. Peril on Gorgon will also be available as part of an expansion pass which includes the second DLC for a discounted total price of $24.99. Full details will be revealed at a later date.

Following the DLC reveal, a number of outlets published their interviews with its developers. Below, you’ll find links to a couple of the more substantial ones.

RPG Site:

RPG Site: When the main game launched, was there any overall feedback, whether from reviews or social media, that the game received that you wanted to specifically address in the DLC in some way? Either regarding gameplay mechanics or game story.

Matt Hansen: I think to an extent there was. As with anything else, so much of the creative decisions that we do are based on how people perceived the content that came before this. So we absolutely were listening to those things and trying to exemplify the things that they loved and address the things that were not hitting home for people.

As far as really specific things, I don’t know that there was a ton. By increasing the level cap, we’re introducing some cool new skill unlocks that allow for some pretty empowering ways of handling combat and conversations and stuff like that, which I think a lot of people were hungry for – more specialization if they wanted it.

But beyond that, I don’t know, that there were too many specific criticisms that we saw that we’re like, ‘we’re gonna fix that’. Obviously there is a lot of stuff we’ve added in patches related to UI experiences and such, but nothing that is strictly tied to the DLC.

GameSpot:

You called it pulp-noir, and the title evokes that. How does that come through in the narrative and how does the art direction express that idea?

Matt Hansen: I think one of the things that sells pulp so well is the idea of heavy contrasts. But within those contrasts, also having a sense of moral and spatial ambiguity, which is a really tricky thing to pull off. And we’ve tried to do that with the spaces themselves. They’re very drastic landscapes, very drastic and powerful dungeon spaces that despite their drama, tell a very nuanced story that I think helps really pull the player in and make them feel like they’re a part of this grander scheme.

Patel: I think a big trope of noir and one thing that there’s so much fun to play with is the idea that the story is always bigger than what you see on the surface. And so both with the player’s introduction, their narrative introduction to Gorgon and also what they are in the process of uncovering. I think we’ve nested several layers of intrigue and mystery and questionable motivations that I think play very well with a lot of the core themes of the outer world space game as a place that is run by these corporations that don’t have people’s best interests at heart. And that kind of a complicated bureaucratic nest of the chairman and other characters who were really just looking out for their own interests.

Hansen: It’s funny, Carrie you mentioned there’s something more beneath the surface. And that is very literally the case with a lot of our areas as well. As you’re exploring the Gorgon asteroid, you see these facades of these facilities, they’re all built into the mountainsides. And when you go in, they open up into these massive dungeons.