Exputer reports that The Outer Worlds has sold 5 million copies.

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Tim Cain talks about the playtesting process for The Outer Worlds:

Playtesting The Outer Worlds

Tim Cain explains branding in The Outer Worlds:

Branding in The Outer Worlds

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Gamingbolt checked out The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition:

The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition Review – Nothing Of Note

The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition is a by the numbers re-release for current gen consoles that's let down by underwhelming visual upgrades and performance issues.

The Outer Worlds is an action role playing games released back in 2019. We found the game to be a classic case of a product squandering its potential, and now the developer has now re-released the game for current gen consoles under the banner of The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition. This iteration of the game includes everything into one cohesive package souped up for the new generation of consoles and PC. And I’m using the term “souped up” in a very generous fashion, because my experience with The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice edition has been filled with all sorts of performance issues and crashes that result in an underwhelming experience.

The Outer Worlds begins with the player waking from a years’ long cryosleep by one wanted scientist named Dr. Phineas Welles. The game doesn’t waste much time with its exposition, and you are quickly thrust into the thick of it as you begin your adventure to free the remainder of Hope’s colonists which should theoretically solve all of Halcyon’s long standing problems – though the narrative quickly starts to branch into a ton of different tangents not too long after.

[...]

In conclusion, The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice ends up being a half baked package that doesn’t really justify its price tag. Whatever miniscule upgrades have been done to the experience don’t really amount to much in the grand scheme of things, and with performance issues galore – Spacer’s Choice isn’t the definitive edition of the game that it clearly wanted to be. It’s an easy pass for those who have already played through the game and its DLCs. And those who haven’t played it, they might be better off sticking to other better games in the genre.

Score: 5/10

The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition is now available:

The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition – Official Trailer

The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition will be released on March 7:

The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition

The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition is the ultimate way to play the award-winning RPG from Obsidian Entertainment and Private Division.

Players who already have The Outer Worlds and its associated DLC, Murder on Eridanos and Peril on Gorgon, on Steam can upgrade to The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition for a reduced purchase price.* To enable the upgrade purchasing option, players must be signed into the same Steam Account they used to purchase the base game and its associated DLC and select the “Complete the Bundle” purchasing option.

You’ve tried the rest, now come back for the best! The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition includes the base game and all add-on content as the definitive way to play the beloved RPG from Obsidian Entertainment. This remastered masterpiece is optimized to be the absolute best version of The Outer Worlds… even if you choose to play this critically acclaimed RPG as the absolute worst version of your character.

Lost in transit while on a colonist ship bound for the edge of the galaxy, you awake decades later only to find yourself in the midst of a deep conspiracy threatening to destroy the colony. Explore the various planets and locations of Halcyon, including the mysterious Gorgon Asteroid and delightful distilleries of Eridanos. As you encounter various factions, all vying for power, the character you decide to become will determine how this player-driven story unfolds.

In the corporate equation for the colony, you are the unplanned variable.

Key Features:

• It’s The Outer Worlds you love, but even better: 2019’s hit RPG has been remastered with better graphics, improved performance, additional animations, higher-res environments, and more.
• Increased level cap: A higher level cap means even more ways to build your character from the seven branches of the skill tree.
• The player-driven story RPG: In keeping with the Obsidian tradition, how you approach The Outer Worlds is up to you. Your choices affect not only the way the story develops, they also affect your character build, companion stories, and end game scenarios.
• Lead your companions: During your journey through the furthest colony, you will meet a host of characters who will want to join your crew. Armed with unique abilities, these companions all have their own missions, motivations, and ideals. It's up to you to help them achieve their goals, or exploit them to your own ends.
• Explore the corporate colony: Halcyon is a colony at the edge of the galaxy owned and operated by a corporate board. They control everything... except for the alien monsters left behind when the terraforming of the colony’s two planets didn’t exactly go according to plan. Find your ship, build your crew, and explore the settlements, space stations, and other intriguing locations throughout Halcyon.

*Based on Private Division’s suggested retail price for The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition on PC. Limit of one upgrade per account.

Classic Game Reviews checked out The Outer Worlds:

Should You Buy The Outer Worlds In 2022? (Review)

Mxdwn has reviewed the DLC The Outer Worlds - Murder on Eridanos:

The Outer Worlds: Murder on Eridanos DLC Review

The second and final DLC expansion for the acclaimed RPG The Outer Worlds, Murder on Eridanos is framed as a detective murder mystery much like the previous expansion, Peril on Gorgon. This runs the risk of making the expansion feel rote, but Obsidian succeeded in crafting a story and world that feels distinct yet still appropriate within the game’s universe. But even just on its own, Murder on Eridanos is a remarkably solid expansion that remains consistently engaging from beginning to end.

The most immediately attractive aspect of the DLC is Eridanos itself. Since Eridanos is a gas planet, all landscapes and settlements are built on enormous platforms suspended high in the air, and this concept lends itself well to compelling art design. It is hard not to stop every once in a while and take a gander at the enormous thrusters keeping the platforms afloat or the long bridges that convey a fantastic sense of scale. Eridanos also makes great use of color; the environments heavily incorporate pinks and purples into their design, which effectively communicate the area’s artificiality and surface-level appeal. The buildings and settlements of Eridanos really lean into this design choice. The Distillation Station in particular looks like a Willy Wonka-esque pseudo-paradise, which perfectly conveys its role within the story. Obsidian really went above and beyond in making Eridanos feel like an appealing, yet slightly off-putting place.

[...]

Despite some missed potential, Murder on Eridanos really is an excellent addition to The Outer Worlds and a perfect way to conclude its short line of DLC. It may not meaningfully test players’ exploration and combat skills, but it remains a compelling mystery to unravel.

Score: 8 out of 10

IGN Middle East has reviewed the DLC Murder on Eridanos:

The Outer Worlds: Murder on Eridanos DLC - Review

Sci-fi P.I.

Obsidian has leaned hard into turning The Outer Worlds into a sci-fi detective game with its two DLC expansions – a direction that plays to the strengths of its characters and writing. That's smart, considering the combat has pretty much fully run out of gas by this point. The second and final one, Murder on Eridanos, is a more intimate and local whodunnit that has you following a trail of clues around a series of colorful floating islands to interview weird suspects and hold up a high-tech magnifying glass to highlight clues. It's not a grand sendoff for this upstart RPG, but it's another good chunk of time spent in its universe.
After a brief setup in which the star of an in-universe TV show is murdered, you're handed a badge and sent off to be an impartial investigator. I only wish we'd gotten to see or at least hear more of these noir-ish Halcyon Helen serials, since the small taste we do see is tons of fun and right up the alley of The Outer Worlds' dark humor.

[...]

The Verdict

The final expansion to Obsidian's original sci-fi RPG is a low-key but intriguing finale. The Outer Worlds: Murder on Eridanos puts us into a traditionally structured murder mystery with a few good turns to investigate across one of its weirdest planets yet. It doesn't revive the stale combat but it does give us a good reason to come back to the crew of the Unreliable to solve one last case.

The DLC The Outer Worlds: Murder on Eridanos will be released next week:

The Outer Worlds: Murder on Eridanos - Official Opening Cinematic

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The Outer Worlds: Murder on Eridanos is coming March 17, 2021 to PC, Xbox, and PlayStation. This is the second narrative expansion to the critically acclaimed and award-winning sci-fi RPG from Obsidian Entertainment and Private Division. 

The recent Take-Two Interactive news release revealed the new DLC Murder on Eridanos:

Take-Two News Release

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Announced that on February 10, 2021, it will release, along with Obsidian Entertainment, The Outer Worlds: Peril on Gorgon, the first narrative-led expansion for the critically acclaimed, darkly humorous sci-fi RPG for the Nintendo Switch. The expansion was released previously for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, and is available individually or at a discount as part of The Outer Worlds Expansion Pass, which will also include The Outer Worlds: Murder on Eridanos, the second expansion set to launch on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC this fiscal year, and on Nintendo Switch in calendar 2021.

[...]

Fullsync checked out The Outer Worlds:

The Outer Worlds review: Tell ’em I ain’t coming back

The Outer Worlds was originally released in October last year – you know, before the world went to hell. Playing Obsidian Entertainment’s tale of a future gone horribly wrong actually seems somewhat more appealing now, given the context of 2020. Over a year later, the mischievious spacefaring RPG is now available on Steam, along with first DLC Peril on Gorgon. Having smashed through The Outer Worlds via Xbox Game Pass on a laptop with struggling hardware, I was very keen to give it another run on desktop.

You are a rare new arrival in the troubled Halcyon colony, a distant collection of planets run entirely by corporations – imagine Fallout: New Vegas briefly passing Borderlands in a narrow hallway, doing that awkward step to the side, and you have a half decent idea of the game’s tone. It’s not as dry as Fallout, not as completely insane as Borderlands, occupying a witty, sarcastic niche somewhere inbetween.

[...]

The Outer Worlds overall thoughts

The Outer Worlds is a treasure that outclasses the titans of its genre in terms of charm, visual appeal and wit. For every corner it cuts, there’s another delightfully intriguing, bleak comedy-laced story just waiting on the horizon. Obsidian have proved that freedom and player choice don’t have to go hand-in-hand with old, clunky mechanics and hordes of bugs. It’s Fallout’s wittier, better-looking younger brother with a crass sense of humour. My only real complaint is that I couldn’t spend more time with my crew before it all came to a very conclusive and shockingly tidy ending. Ironically enough, this space-faring shooter is a real breath of fresh air. 

GOG recently interviewed Leonard Boyarsky and Tim Cain about The Outer Worlds.

Obsidian Entertainment is a mark of quality in the RPG genre. What is in your opinion the main reason why gamers love titles created by you? In other words, what’s the recipe for a perfect modern RPG?

Tim Cain: I think gamers like our games’ reactivity to what kind of character they make and how they act in the game world. It’s the best feeling when the game reacts to something the player does because it’s like the developers are sitting there with them, nodding and saying “we saw what you did there”. Also, our games never take themselves too seriously, so gamers know they can have fun with them.

Leonard Boyarsky: I can’t speak to ‘the perfect modern RPG’, just the RPGs we like to make. And, for us, the most important things are creating compelling worlds for players to explore with any character they can conceive of, and, perhaps most importantly, having the world react to those character’s choices.

Looking back from the day of the game’s premiere, which one of its elements makes you most proud today?

Leonard Boyarsky: For me, the fact that we were able to ship a finished, polished game that has its own unique identity, on time and on budget, is a proud accomplishment. There were of course things I wish we’d done differently, and parts of the game I wish we’d been able to push further, but, even after all this time, shipping a game with a new IP that was only a figment of our imagination 3 years before still amazes me. 

[...]

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The Outer Worlds is now available on Steam and GOG.

DSOGaming reports that The Outer Worlds will be coming to Steam October 23rd.

Obsidian Entertainment has recently announced that The Outer Worlds is coming to Steam. The first-person action-RPG will release on Steam on October 23th. The Outer Worlds has been for almost a year exclusive to the Epic Games Store, and of course the Microsoft Store.

[...]

Hardcore Gamer reviewed the DLC The Outer Worlds: Peril on Gorgon:

Review: The Outer Worlds: Peril on Gorgon

The Outer Worlds was the standout action RPG of 2019. Developed by Obsidian Entertainment, comparisons to Fallout New Vegas were almost obligatory due to the high replayability because of the way the player can develop their unique character and play style allowing subsequent playthroughs to be different experiences. That and the dark humor, interesting variety of NPC and overall solid game mechanics and entertaining story. Almost a year later we get our first narrative DLC in the form of The Outer Worlds: Peril on Gorgon, giving us reason to power up the Unreliable.

[...]

Closing Comments:

The Outer Worlds: Peril on Gorgon adds an engaging new story to The Outer Worlds. The new content, save for the new location to explore, doesn’t change up the formula too much but that’s absolutely fine. With a game like The Outer Worlds more of the same is a good thing. The new story content seamlessly weaves into the main story and feels like a natural extension of what was already there. The time to complete The Outer Worlds: Peril on Gorgon is enough where it feels like a worthwhile extension but doesn’t overstay its welcome and is the perfect reason to get back into The Outer Worlds.

Score: 4/5

Gamffine has reviewed the DLC The Outer Worlds: Peril on Gorgon:

The Outer Worlds: Peril on Gorgon Review :: It’s not the best choice, it’s Spacer’s Choice!

I should preface this Peril on Gorgon review with a disclaimer of sorts: Being a huge Obsidian fan, I played and completed The Outer Worlds at launch and loved every minute of it. This first-person RPG with a sci-fi space setting reminded me of Captain ‘Mal’ Reynolds’ escapades on the criminally underrated 2002 TV series Firefly. The game’s semi-open hub world spaces were a boon to me.

While in my teens, I loved exploring vast open worlds and dumping hundreds of hours in them. As I grew older and got burdened with (unwelcome) adult responsibilities, I started appreciating games that respected the limited time I could afford for this hobby – games that told their own small story, in which every nook and cranny were handcrafted. In those respects, consider my opinion on the game colored, and probably biased. So consider yourself adequately warned.

[...]

Real Talk

The Outer Worlds: Peril on Gorgon DLC expansion is a much-needed and welcome addition to the base game. While not perfect by any means, the DLC is an enjoyable romp, with unique locations and characters. The noir detective setting is designed well, and the choices and skill-checks provide the game with a decent amount of replayability. Although marred by certain technical limitations because of budget constraints, the bravado that the DLC’s story shows in its limited 10-hour run-time makes me giddy with anticipation for the second expansion Murder on Eridanos, scheduled to release in 2021, and the big-budget AAA sequel that Obsidian will hopefully conjure, thanks to them now being a part of Microsoft Studios.

Score: 8/10

ACG checked out the Outer Worlds DLC: Peril on Gorgon:

The Outer Worlds Peril on Gorgon Review - You're Gorram Right

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Karak reviews the Outer Worlds Peril on Gorgon DLC.

Some gameplay of the expansion The Outer Worlds: Peril on Gorgon:

The Outer Worlds: Peril on Gorgon Gameplay Walkthrough (with Dev Commentary)

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Join Game Director Carrie Patel as she plays through a new mission from The Outer Worlds: Peril on Gorgon, the first narrative expansion to the critically-acclaimed and award-winning sci-fi RPG from Obsidian Entertainment and Private Division coming September 9th for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.

A severed arm and a mysterious message lead the crew of the Unreliable to the Gorgon Asteroid, formerly the site of one of Halcyon’s most ambitious and disastrous scientific undertakings, now a lawless den of monsters and marauders. Wealthy recluse Minnie Ambrose tasks the crew with finding answers about Dr. Olivia Ambrose, her mother and the doomed project’s disgraced director, but they are soon ensnared in an intrigue that will change the colony forever.

The Outer Worlds: Peril on Gorgon is the first of two narrative expansions that can be purchased individually or bundled at a discount in The Outer Worlds Expansion Pass. 

A copy of The Outer Worlds on the same platform is required to play expansion(s).

Checkpoint Magazine interviewed the devs of Obsidian about the latest DLC for The Outer Worlds.

Hansen suggested that Peril on Gorgon should provide a pretty meaty experience by the standards of story-led DLC: “There’s the primary Gorgon asteroid, then there’s, for lack of a better word, some off-world content that comes with it. All of that stuff combined is very similar in play-length to the experience that you had playing through the Monarch critical path. So, the amount of time that the player spent messing around on Monarch and doing all the little quests there will be roughly similar to the amount of time that they’ll have with the Gorgon asteroid and its side components.”

Patel also gave some insight into Peril on Gorgon’s original conception: “Players will recognise Adrena-Time as a consumable from the base game, something they can find and use as they explore Halcyon. But the story we’re telling around that is one that we sort of discussed internally, and there was an internal lore knowledge of, but not something that was obviously super-fleshed-out in game, and certainly not something that we had even fleshed out internally to the degree we have for the DLC.”

[...]

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The Outer Worlds: Peril on Gorgon DLC is coming to PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on September 9th, 2020:

The Outer Worlds: Peril on Gorgon - Official Trailer

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Part 3 of the Noclip documentary about The Outer Worlds looks at how Obsidian designed the quests.

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In the third video exploring the design of The Outer Worlds, we talk to the level design and writing team about how they crafted some of the game's most complex quests & areas.

The second part of the Noclip documentary about The Outer Worlds focuses on the process behind the characters & companions.

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In the second video exploring the design of The Outer Worlds, we sit down with the writing team to explore the process of writing NPC's, quest givers and companions.

Part one of a documentary about the creation and development of The Outer Worlds.

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In the first video exploring the design of The Outer Worlds, we sit down with Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky to discuss how a team of fewer than 75 developers collaborated to create their sci-fi RPG.

Destructoid has chosen The Outer Worlds as their best game of 2019:

Destructoid's award for Overall Best Game of 2019 goes to...

The Outer Worlds

For years, we begged Bethesda to just give us another New Vegas.

Fallout 4 wasn't it. 76 definitely wasn't it. So Obsidian rolled up its sleeves and said "screw it, we'll do it ourselves." It's fitting, too, because Obsidian was ultimately responsible for New Vegas. Look, I have already scientifically proven that New Vegas is the best modern Fallout game. We want more non-linear, weird stories. We have spoken.

The Outer Worlds fits that bill to a tee. As I said in my review, when you kick off your tale with the phrase "not likely, bootlickers," you know the irreverent tone is on the level. From there it never really lets up with a masterfully crafted script and a completely out-there "flaw" system that allows you to truly play a role and purposefully acquire bad perks.

[...]

The Outer Worlds will get a story DLC in 2020 - Shyla said:

Greetings employees of Halcyon,

We want to take this opportunity to thank the incredible team behind The Outer Worlds. It is because of their hard work and dedication to this project that we received the Best Narrative, Best Performance - Ashly Burch, Best RPG, and Game of the Year nominations at The Game Awards.

To all of those who voted for us in The Game Awards, you are all fantastic and we are so grateful for your support. The reception to The Outer Worlds has been unbelievable to see, and even just being nominated means a lot. However, the journey isn't over yet as we are excited to announce that we will be expanding the story through DLC next year! Details will be made available at a later date.

Now we would like to allow our game directors to share a message with you all:

We just wanted to personally thank our team for doing a wonderful job and our fans for their tremendous support.

And Tim would like to say what an honor it was to work with me. – Leonard

Whatever, Leonard. Now that we’ve finished, I expect that certain photographs will be destroyed, as per our agreement. – Tim

MarkGFL has reviewed The Outer Worlds:

Would I Recommend The Outer Worlds? - Sci-fi RPG

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The Outer Worlds is an excellent sci-fi RPG that feels like a mix of Mass Effect, Knights of the Old Republic 2 and Fallout 4 all wrapped up in a World that reminds of the TV series Firefly. The Outer Worlds has been really well made with a lot of thought gone into the writing, dialogue, acting and game mechanics, plus loads of humour and funny moments. Would I recommend The Outer Worlds? Yes!

@CGM An interview with Senior Narrative Designer Megan Starks about The Outer Worlds.

CG Magazine: You guys are known for having deep narrative experiences in your games. What have you done with Outer Worlds to innovate on that while also keeping things familiar for long-time fans of your games?

Megan Starks: I think we have built up a pretty good legacy of what players expect out of an Obsidian RPG and we are trying to provide on that promise, but at the same, with every game that we make, we’re learning new tips and tricks and expanding on it. I started three games ago with the company and each one we develop little twists on the systems and we get better at providing more player choices, more ways that you can go through the game. With Outer Worlds specifically we knew we wanted to provide options, whether you want to go through and area using stealth, direct combat, using dialogue skills, or if you want to do the leadership path where you focus primarily on your companions, you make them more effective in combat and they also bring skills to the table that help you progress through the game.

On the highest level, you have your overarching story, who do you want to side with? This scientist wakes you up after you mysteriously disappeared in space 70 years ago, and he wakes you up and has an agenda where he wants to save the system. Or, you can side with the Board and move up through the ranks and reinforce what they’ve already established, or you can kind of double-cross both and go your own route. Underneath that, you can go to a different world and see a different company town where there are regional storylines and factions that are competing there and you can choose how you want to affect that area or world. Underneath that, every time you talk to a character in the game or you’re doing a quest, we’re always trying to provide points in the dialogue or the content…what interests you, how are you roleplaying, what do you find fun, and we’re tracking that and trying to have the game react to that based on your decisions.

[...]

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@Gamasutra Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky talk about what they learned from making The Outer Worlds.

Making RPGs in 2019

When Cain and Boyarsky first began working on The Outer Worlds, it occurred to them that the world of game design had dramatically changed since they last worked together on the Vampire: The Masquerade series at Troika Entertainment. 

Boyarsky noted that while the RPG genre has gotten more financially viable, it's also twisted and morphed into other genres as well. "There’s always the people who loved RPGs but the mainstream of games seemed to move away from that."

"I thought what they did with Mass Effect was really cool, I think The Witcher is really cool, but we just felt there was a lack of games where you have a blank slate character that was really generated by scratch from the player." 

Cain jumped in to point out that when he and Boyarsky first got started in the genre, most RPG designers were working off systems inspired by tabletop design, for taletop players. "I think too is that RPGs used to be heavily influenced by tabletop, and I think computer RPGs are finally becoming their own thing. You don’t have to be a D&D RPG to get a lot of people interested in your game."

With that in mind, Cain said that one of the goals for The Outer Worlds was to design it to be more accessible than some of Obsidian's previous titles. "One of our early pillars that we decided on was that we wanted this game to be easy to get into," he explained. "A lot of RPGs—and a lot of our RPGs had this. The very first thing you were hit with were a ton of numbers, a ton of stuff you had to read in order to get into the game, and for this one said ‘let’s try to move as much character creation out of character creation.’" 

"Let them spend skill points later. Let perks come later, let the flaws and stuff come later. Just do some quick character creation."

[...]

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ObSobe Gaming has reviewed The Outer Worlds:

The Outer Worlds Review, Game of The Year?, Rpg of The Year!

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@VentureBeat According to publisher Take-Two The Outer Worlds is 'outperforming expectations'. Additionally Gamespot interviewed narrative designer Nitai Poddar and co-game director Leonard Boyarsky about making interesting NPCs.

...

It was the No. 3 most downloaded PlayStation Network game in October, according to Sony. It’s also a huge part of Xbox Game Pass for both Xbox One and PC. So anyone who has a subscription to those services can play the new game at no additional charge.

Finally, Take-Two said The Outer Worlds is coming to Switch before March 31, 2020.

[...]

Are there any traits or tropes that are off-limits?

Boyarsky: Stuff that feels overdone, but sometimes taking something that's overdone and doing it in a new way can be more interesting. You know, subverting player expectations. We always like to do things that feel a little different, that feel off-center, that you're not going to see anywhere else. I would think anyone trying to tell good stories or create good characters would avoid flat characters--characters that just exist to get you to the next plot point.

Poddar: Yah if there is, I haven't found it yet. The sign of a successful character is that people tend to like it or see the value in that character. Like you said, the characters we try to avoid are just RPG characters that have nothing to say and no real investment outside of their quest. I don't really think we tend to think of our characters as tropes. We are more interested in motivation and what they have to say, their dialogue, and their personality.

[...]

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GDC play The Outer Worlds with Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky.

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he GDC team chats with The Outer Worlds game directors Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky about the making of Obsidian's new action RPG.

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Some video reviews for The Outer Worlds:

• SkyttsTV - The Outer Worlds is Awesome!
• Inside Gaming - The Outer Worlds - Review
• Sinitar Gaming - The Outer Worlds Phenomenon - A Rushed, Quirky Masterpiece
• Big Beak Entertainment - Fallouter Worlds (Review)

3CR checked out The Outer Worlds:

Review: Outer Worlds is a Competent Bethesda-like RPG

I love the Fallout series, but I don’t love all of the decisions Bethesda has been making in regards to the Fallout series lately. There’s the controversy about Fallout 76, and before that, the much maligned Fallout 4. But I have a secret confession: I liked Fallout 4 and even enjoyed many hours of gameplay past what was required for my review for Fallout 76. I could play those games, despite their flaws, and enjoy the world that they occupy. Not just for the lore, and worldbuilding–but for the expansive openness of it, and the ability to go anywhere and see anything. That’s why, when I found out Pillars of Eternity, and more notably Fallout: New Vegas developer Obsidian was working on a new IP that would be sort of  like a spiritual successor to Fallout, I was super excited–and early reviews did nothing but accelerate my hype train.

I love the Fallout series, but I don’t love all of the decisions Bethesda has been making in regards to the Fallout series lately. There’s the controversy about Fallout 76, and before that, the much maligned Fallout 4. But I have a secret confession: I liked Fallout 4 and even enjoyed many hours of gameplay past what was required for my review for Fallout 76. I could play those games, despite their flaws, and enjoy the world that they occupy. Not just for the lore, and worldbuilding–but for the expansive openness of it, and the ability to go anywhere and see anything. That’s why, when I found out Pillars of Eternity, and more notably Fallout: New Vegas developer Obsidian was working on a new IP that would be sort of  like a spiritual successor to Fallout, I was super excited–and early reviews did nothing but accelerate my hype train.

[...]

Would my opinion of Outer Worlds change if I wasn’t so immersed in the Fallout universe? I’m not sure, obviously. But I feel like most of what I enjoyed from Outer Worlds was because of Fallout, not despite it. Obsidian has done a great job creating a new IP, and making a decently fun role-playing game in it, but I can’t help but feel like it’s missing something overall. And I’m definitely missing the sense of wonder and exploration the truly open world gave me.

Score: 3/4

BBKDRAGOON has reviewed The Outer Worlds:

The Outer Worlds Review | An FPS RPG That DESTROYS The Competition

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Uh Oh Bethesda... There's a new behemoth in the FPS RPG space & it is fantastic. The Outer Worlds space western scifi adventure is an absolute gem. Exceptional performance, witty writing, no loot boxes, no crazy pre-order bonuses, just a rock solid start to finish game craft what is a masterpiece of a game in 2019. Obsidian Entertainment crushed it. Crazy in depth character creation, stat customization, weapon modification, companion synergies, and excellent writing push the Outer Worlds into legendary status for me. Plus it's on Game Pass. You can play this game.... for $1... That is insane. Check out The Outer Worlds, it's well worth your time. This Outer Worlds review will talk about how The Outer Worlds PC delivers a great experience for players. We'll talk about The Outer Worlds PS4 & console performance as well.

PCWorld has reviewed The Outer Worlds:

The Outer Worlds review: A stellar argument for deeper games, not wider ones

While it bears surface-level similarities to Fallout: New Vegas, Obsidian's created a deeper and more meaningful role-playing experience in The Outer Worlds.

Half an hour into The Outer Worlds, someone criticized my fashion sense. Thawed out from intergalactic stasis and thrown into the crumbling hypercapitalist nightmare that is the Halcyon Colony, I of course did the standard role-playing game thing: Ditched my paper-thin clothing for the first beefy set of armor I could “borrow” off a dead foe. Marauder armor, as it turned out.

And then the first civilized human being I ran into called me on it. “You uh...you may not want to wear that armor around here, lest people think you’re a marauder yourself. I’m pretty open-minded, but...”

My jaw dropped. Sufficiently chastised, I switched back into my civilian clothes and only wore clean and corporate-friendly space armor for the next 25 hours. Lesson learned.

[...]

Bottom line

I hope Obsidian gets to make more games like The Outer Worlds. That’s my main takeaway, when all’s said and done. I love Pillars of Eternity, don’t get me wrong. I want Obsidian to keep making little isometric games as well. But very few studios get the chance to make RPGs of this sort, and even fewer do them justice. The Outer Worlds isn’t as fresh-feeling as Fallout: New Vegas was circa 2010, but it does demonstrate once again that Obsidian approaches its worlds and its stories with more care than most developers. Best case scenario, Microsoft’s support allows for many more games of this size, even denser and more detailed.

And maybe other studios will take note as well. This generation’s been one of extremes, where even series like Assassin’s Creed have ballooned out to enormous sizes once reserved for the grandest of epics. The Outer Worlds proves there’s still value in the 20 to 30 hour RPG, that there are more ways for this industry to grow than outwards.

Score: 4/5

PC Gamer says that enhancing the speech skill in The Outer Worlds is not a bad idea:

Dumping all your skill points into speech works pretty darn well in The Outer Worlds

Funneling skill points into Dialog doesn't just help you lie, intimidate, and persuade—it also aids you in combat.

There's a certain thrill in the idea of crafting a silver-tongued character in an RPG, someone who in a world of violent aliens and hostile factions can talk themselves out of trouble while leaving their laser pistol holstered.

I played through The Outer Worlds attempting to do just that, pumping all of my skill points into the Dialog skill, and only the Dialog skill, every time I leveled up. It didn't mean I could avoid combat—there's still tons of it—but only putting points into Dialog didn't exactly hurt me on the battlefield because those Dialog skills not only give you more options while in conversations, allowing you to lie, persuade, and intimidate, they also give you effective abilities in combat, too. 

[...]

Thanks henriquejr!

The Outer Worlds has been launched on the Epic Games Store:

The Outer Worlds - Official Launch Trailer

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Rock Paper Shotgun has reviewed The Outer Worlds:

The Outer Worlds Is A Small RPG With Big Consequences

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ACG has reviewed The Outer Worlds:

The Outer Worlds Review "Buy, Wait for Sale, Rent, Never Touch?"

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Obsidian's The Outer Words is getting a lot of good reviews:

• Destructoid - Score: 9/10
• DualShockers - Score: 9.5/10
• Game Informer - Score: 9.25/10
• GameRadar+ - Score: 4/5
• GameSpot - Score: 9/10
• IGN - Score: 8.5/10
• PC Gamer - Score: 79/100
• PCGamesN - Score: 7/10
• Polygon
• Push Square - Score: 9/10
• RPG Site - Score: 8/10
• Screen Rant - Score: 4.5/5
• US Gamer - Score: 4/5
• VentureBeat - Score: 91/100

Here's the launch trailer for The Outer Worlds:

The Outer Worlds - Official Launch Trailer

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Wccftech interviewed Brian Heins about the gameplay and roleplaying in The Outer Worlds, Microsoft buyout and more.

How many larger settlements can we expect to see in the game?

On each world, there's at least one major settlement. A big example is Monarch, we showed it at a press playthrough in July. There is Stellar Bay, which is the primary capital of the world. But there are also areas like Amber Heights and Fallbrook that are also two other hubs in the world as well. So that alone has three big settlements you can explore and find quests in. And then the world of Terra 2, which is more segregated, the corporations control it more heavily, so each area is more restricted and travel between them isn't allowed. Each of those has its own set of NPCs and quest dealers.

And how long has it been in development for?

Tim and Leonard first started working on it, just the two of them, probably around almost three years ago now. And it was just them for many, many months while they were figuring out what the IP was. And then they got a few people to start working on stuff and then got more and more people. So I think it was a small team for probably the first year or more, and then kind of ramped up and has been in production for about two years. And now we're kind of ramping down to getting ready to ship it out the door.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky have been interviewed by Den of Geeks about The Outer Worlds.

To illustrate that concept, Cain recalls a time when a friend who played GURPS (an old tabletop RPG) decided to play as a "one-armed alcoholic fighter." Why? Well, he was trying to take advantage of the fact that the game let you build a character with inherent disadvantages in order to gain bonus points that can be assigned to other aspects. He was trying to game the system, but his plans were derailed when his group encountered a ladder in a sewer. 

"There were these rungs leading up to a manhole, and so he got to it and I asked 'Oh, by the way, have you drunk anything today? You need to make a dexterity check,'" Cain says. "It turns out he had, and so he fell, and the rest of them didn't want to stop and help him, so they all climbed the ladder and ran away while he died...The rungs didn't mean anything to them, but to a one-armed drunk fighter, it was life or death."

[...]

Some gameplay video of The Outer Worlds from TGS.

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Thanks Farflame!

VGC interviewed The Outer Worlds narrative designer Megan Starks:

The latest RPG from Obsidian, The Outer Worlds, isn’t out until October but already the studio’s new parent company is talking about growing the title into a long-running franchise.

Microsoft acquired Obsidian in late 2018 and its first-party games boss recently said he hopes The Outer Worlds grows into an “enduring franchise” for Xbox.

Speaking to VGC, the game’s narrative designer Megan Starks said it feels “really awesome” to receive such strong support from Obsidian’s parent company, and the studio already has “a full universe of lore” with which to build potential future games.

Xbox’s first-party boss Matt Booty recently said he aspires to turn Outer Worlds into a long-running franchise. It must feel great to hear that kind of support from your new parent company?

Yeah. They’ve come to talk to the studio and it seems like Microsoft is super invested and really supportive, which for a developer like me feels really awesome. It’s really exciting at the studio right now.

And are you already thinking about long-term plans for Outer Worlds as a franchise?

I guess it depends on if people like the game, but we would absolutely be interested in plans like it, yeah. I really enjoyed making this game so I would like to work on it a while longer. But I think first our focus is polishing up this game and getting it out the door!

The nice thing is, since the game is from the co-creators of the original Fallout IP, they just have notes and notes… it’s crazy. We already have a full universe of lore, which is really nice.

You mentioned Fallout there. Obsidian certainly isn’t afraid to highlight the connection between your co-directors and that franchise. Does that show your confidence in this game?

Yeah, I think so. I’m a fan of Fallout for sure, as well as Borderlands and BioShock and I love this game too, which makes me feel confident. If you like those types of games then I think you will enjoy ours.

[...]

The Outer Worlds has a new trailer called 'Come to Halcyon'.

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The Outer Worlds is an exciting new RPG with RPG elements, coming to Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on October 25, 2019!

Pre-order now at https://store.privatedivision.com/the...

Do you dream of working on the frontier of space? Can you pass a basic aptitude test? Then Halcyon is the place for you! Prosperity and adventure awaits on Terra 2, Monarch, and other exciting locations across the Halcyon colony. The character you decide to become will determine how your story on the Halcyon colony unfolds in The Outer Worlds.

Twinfinite interviewed senior designer Brian Hines about The Outer Worlds and asked about companions, exploration and killing every NPC.

Hayes: And how do you design around being able to kill any NPC in the game? How do you stop players from pushing themselves into a corner by killing everyone?

Brian Hines: So we try to find, like look at, okay who is actually critical and what information do players actually have to know?  So if this person gets killed, how else can we convey that information to keep the quest moving forward?

Whether that’s like in a terminal, or on a note on their body that would give you that information, and then if there’s just no elegant way to do it that’s when the quest fails, and that’s kind of the consequence of choosing to slaughter everyone. 

Hayes: I did notice in the save that I loaded into, in the journal, there was a failed quest section. How does failing quests affect your progress in the story? Are there any ramifications that will come later down the line?

Brian Hines: It can. So for example, in some areas you need to do a certain amount of quests in order to achieve maximum reputation with the group who’s running the area, in order to really get the most beneficial max reward, or the final quest for the faction line. 

If you fail some of those quests, then you’re not going to be able to achieve that best result with that faction or that group. 

[...]

Farflame has also summarised some gameplay details here.

World and Quests

- Monarch is just one planet you visit in the game. Terraforming went wrong there so it’s filled with strange rock formations and geology.
- Monarch appears to have four major towns; Cascadia - Fallbrook, Amber Heights, and Stellar Bay.
- The two cities I visited, Fallbrook and Stellar Bay, both had a rustic feel to them. They were definitely sci-fi, but still managed to have that kind of retro 50s feel as well.
- Loading screens have a wealth of in-game lore, from pictures of the anatomy of alien creatures to posters for fictional in-universe movies.
- There are plenty of terminals to look at, providing little clues and context for locations and characters, similarly to the Fallout games.
- Companions will often comment on locations/objects, like talking about Fallbrook’s reputation when you enter the city - Companions will interject in conversation if they know a character.
- You can talk to your companions at any time, and sometimes this will open up a new quest specifically for them. For example, at one point I talked to Nyoka and received a quest where I had to track down the grave of an old ally of hers, to dig up a precious item. The quest let me learn a bit more about Nyoka, but ultimately I wasn’t able to finish it as the next step required me to go to a different planet, something I didn’t have time for.

Thanks Farflame!

Henriquejr spotted a preview for The Outer Worlds on PC Gamer:

In The Outer Worlds, the best weapon is being able to lie about everything

In our hands-on time with Obsidian's upcoming RPG, we discovered that honesty isn't the best policy.
A lot of games have extra-difficult ways to play: you can finish Deus Ex without killing anyone, sneak through Dishonored without ever once being detected, and play Thief with absolutely zero combat. Earlier this month Phil and I each played about 90 minutes of The Outer Worlds, Obsidian Entertainment's upcoming first-person RPG, and I can already predict the toughest way to complete it:

By making it through the entire game without ever telling a lie.

It's gotta be nearly impossible because in just this short session alone I lied constantly. I lied to a drug dealer who hired me to track down his missing stashes, telling him I couldn't find them so I could keep the drugs for myself. Phil lied to a weeping mom about the fate of her missing son and claimed to be a professional athlete so he could investigate a gambler's murder. I lied to an animal rescue worker, a corporate security guard, and a shop vendor so I could get my hands on an item I wanted. I even disguised myself as an employee of a factory so I could murder the owner, and when the disguise failed I lied my way out of trouble. Twice.
[...]

60 minutes of gameplay:

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Newsweek checked out The Outer Worlds:

The Outer Worlds Won't Succeed By Bullets Alone

The Outer Worlds is heading toward its October release with a tremendous amount of hype and momentum. The latest project from Obsidian and Private Division has been lauded with E3 awards (including a best of show and best original game) and a foundational amount of loyalty from a fanbase that still talks often about Obsidian's most notable release, Fallout: New Vegas. That DNA is spread across The Outer Worlds like it's the dashboard of a white 1992 Ford Bronco. It's dystopian sci-fi at its finest, full of scathing criticism and parody aimed at runaway capitalism.

The Outer Worlds sits atop a precarious crest in its pre-release lifecycle. A promising game, sure, but one that also shepherds the hopes of RPG fans who see western-style single player offerings heading towards extinction. In an era of DLC and Battle Royales and in-game currency the single player RPG represents more risk, less reward, on the balance sheets for publishers. So as I settled in at Take Two's corporate HQ in New York for an extended demo of The Outer Worlds, I wanted to see a game that would show the world this beloved genre is still worth visiting.
[...]

Wccftech interviewed the developers of The Outer Worlds where they learned about perma-death.

Okay. So you can even work with some of the corporations in the game?

Yes, you can. We do have different choices that we want to provide in the game, from the highest level down to the smallest. The Board built the system, they went ahead to colonize space. Then they made the Halcyon colony, and, you know, proceeded with terraforming the planets and set up shop. You were actually on one of the original colony ships, but it disappeared mysteriously seventy years ago. This scientist finds you and wakes you up, so you’re no longer frozen. He wants you to help him save the system from a problem that I don’t want to spoil before you play the game, but you can side with him or side with the board and further their agenda instead. Or you can choose neither of them and kind of go your own path. Beyond that, every time you go to a different region in the game, we have storylines with competing factors there. You can learn the storylines of different towns and different planets. And what or who you want to support or side with there. And then on the smallest level, as you saw in the demo, every time you’re doing a quest or talking to different NPCs we want to provide you with choices. How do you want to play through it? Do you want to do stealth? Do you want to do combat, do you want to do dialogue? Are you interested in hacking? Do you want to be a scientist and use science weapons? So we’re always trying to allow you the most choices possible to play the game the way you want and role play it as the type of character you want to be. And then tracking all of that and reacting to it and having the world change based on your choices as you go through the game.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

PCInvasion shared their impressions of The Outer Worlds.

The presenters chose to clear out the factory floor by making their way to the control room and making a public announcement. That’s where we got our first look at the “dumb” option, which is a specific character trait for characters with below average intelligence that opens unique dialogue paths. However, be careful when going with this trait. As a dumb character, sometimes the game will only let you make a dumb response.

But being dumb doesn’t necessarily prevent you from being able to do smart things. Players can overcome their low IQ by putting extra points into science or hacking. They’d have a disadvantage compared to smarter characters, but Obsidian said it’s entirely possible to have a dumb hacker.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

Kotaku's Jason Schreier interviewed Leonard Boyarsky about The Outer Worlds:

The Outer Worlds Is An RPG About Controlling The Narrative

If you fall into the category of people who believe that 2010’s Fallout: New Vegas was the best game in the series, then The Outer Worlds might be for you. Last week at E3, I spoke to the game’s co-director, Leonard Boyarsky, for a bonus episode of Kotaku Splitscreen digging deep into this cyberpunky role-playing game.

[...]

Jason Schreier: Obviously this is a game about player choice, but it’s also a game that explores some very relevant political topics: corporations, dystopia, capitalism. Is there something you’re trying to say with this game? Is there a message you’re trying to send?

Boyarsky: Ironically, when we first started this, it didn’t seem quite as prescient as it does now, cause we started it in April of 2016. It’s become a little bit more pointed than we had hoped... Even more than this being about capitalism or corporations, it’s really about people controlling narrative and stories. And if people control the story you tell yourself, then they kind of control you.

[...]

An inside look at The Outer Worlds. The video features an interview with some gameplay commentary.

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Obsidian Entertainment have created incredible worlds and unforgettable experiences in RPGs for over 15 years. Join members of the development team as they provide the first public look at the E3 presentation for The Outer Worlds, their upcoming single-player sci-fi RPG published by Private Division.

The E3 trailer for The Outer Worlds.

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Gameplay Trailer of The Outer Worlds. The latest from E3 2019 here!

DSOGaming reports on a gameplay demo video for The Outer Worlds shown at PAX East.

At PAX East 2019, Obsidian showcased a brand new demo from its upcoming RPG, The Outer Worlds. In this 20-minute gameplay playthrough, Obsidian shows a small quest where the player is accompanied by 2 characters: Nyoka and Felix. This video also shows the game’s multiple choice dialog system, some of the weapons available, the looting and character customization system, as well as the general freedom that players will have in the game.

[...]

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PC Gamer reports that The Outer Worlds will have a survival mode.

Obsidian's Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky dropped a ton of new details for The Outer Worlds on The Game Informer Show recently, teasing a survival mode and chatting about gear customisation, companions, character progression and lots more. 

The Outer Worlds will offer a few different modes, letting you choose a difficulty that fits your playstyle, whether you just want to enjoy the story or you want a hardcore challenge. If you're the latter, you might be interested in Supernova mode. It gives you hunger, thirst and exhaustion meters, so you'll need to eat, drink and sleep. If you ignore your body, there will be penalties.

[...]

GameInformer interviewed Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky about the dark comedy in The Outer Worlds.

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In this exclusive Game Informer interview, Ben Hanson interviews the co-directors of Obsidian's The Outer Worlds Tim Cain and Leon Boyarsky about the challenges of writing comedy in an RPG and the delicate balance between absurd and dark that the creators of Fallout are going for with their next RPG. See more exclusive videos at https://www.gameinformer.com/theouter...

Thanks Farflame!

DSOGaming reports on a SteamDB entry where a August 6th release target for The Outer Worlds was discovered. Nothing has been confirmed by Obsidian yet.

Obsidian’s RPG, The Outer Worlds, is a game that a lot of Fallout fans are waiting for. And from the looks of it, its release date may have been leaked by Steam’s database. According to the game’s SteamDB entry, Obsidian targets an August 6th release.

[...]

GameInformer looks at the companions of The Outer Worlds.

You encounter them early
Opportunities to recruit companions are front-loaded, to avoid the sense of under-developed characters joining late in the journey. “You encounter all the companions in the first third of the game, because it’s no fun getting a companion in the last hour,” co-director Tim Cain told us at the game’s unveiling.

They help in battle and beyond
You can bring two companions along with you when you leave your ship. In addition to their unique special attacks, you can also give them weapons to steer their approach to combat. You also benefit from a portion of each companion's key skill scores; if a lock is too difficult for you to pick alone, bringing the right companion might give you the boost you need. If you need an even bigger boost, you can take certain perks to increase how much you benefit from your allies' aptitudes. "We realized that companions could be used a lot more tactically," Cain says. "We wanted to put in skills that control that."

You can do quests for them
Every companion has something you can help them with. While these tasks varying in length (don’t expect them all to be multi-stage, multi-hour affairs), they give players a chance to get to know the companions better – and get rewards to improve their performance or customize their quarters. “Some problem that is essential to their character that is explored in that particular quest,” Poddar says. “And that’s also something we like to ask ourselves when we start fleshing out these companions: What is their motivation? What is driving them?”

[...]

GameInformer talked to Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky about The Outer Worlds and what sets its universe apart.

Not As You Remember

“This is an alternate history,” says co-director Leonard Boyarsky. “There was a point where the timeline split off. It was at a certain point, around the time of Einstein. There was a first World War, but it was for different reasons. And maybe there wasn’t a second World War.” One of the defining features that set Earth apart in this new timeline is the nature of companies, classism, and the central importance of money-making. Imagine the already absurd power of corporations, banks, and billionaires in the real world, and ratchet it up several more degrees. “What if the trusts hadn’t been broken up?,” Boyarsky muses. “You have these robber barons at the turn of the 20th century. A couple of hundred years later, what if we still have that culture?”

n this twist on history, Earth is already the domain of massive and powerful companies as humanity begins to spread out across the stars. Rather than the intrepid explorers and diplomats of some other science fiction properties, it’s the reaching arm of capitalism that sends humanity hurtling into the void, and habitable planets across the galaxy are being carved up like parcels of land in the American Old West. This first installment of The Outer Worlds focuses on one particular solar system called Halcyon, and the ten companies that banded together to purchase it. “The corporations have pretty much taken over everything,” Boyarsky says. “But they want to go that last little bit and make it the perfect society for corporations. When Earth was colonizing the furthest reaches of the galaxy, they bought one of the furthest colonies and set up what they thought would be a corporate utopia, where they can control every aspect of people’s lives.”

[...]

GameInformer talked with Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarksy about how The Outer Worlds lets you play your way.

While the story does have choices and characters at different places along the good/evil spectrum, The Outer Worlds isn’t necessarily about picking a moral alignment and sticking to it. ‘It’s not “here’s the good choice, here’s the bad one,’” Cain says. “Instead, it’s like, ‘You could this or this. This will cause X, this will cause Y. You decide what you care about.’”

“But it’s not always extreme gray areas,” Boyarsky clarifies.

“What if the more evil choice has an obviously better outcome?” Cain says. “What if more people are saved by the evil choice? But it’s evil! But the result is better! Is it a worse choice? I don’t know if you can solve morality with arithmetic, but there are some things in the game where you’re like, ‘I am not sure if this is bad.’”

[...]

GameInformer continues its coverage of The Outer Worlds by showing some combat gameplay. Video is at the link.

...

With our new cover story on Obsidian's The Outer Worlds, we're rolling out exclusive features and videos throughout the month. For the video above, we spoke with the game's co-director Tim Cain and lead designer Charles Staples about their approach to combat. The team started out with Fallout: New Vegas as the "touchstone game," but soon deviated by adding things like companion commands and a slow-motion option called "tactical time-dilation". Watch the interview above to see plenty of new combat gameplay and learn how the team at Obsidian balanced shooting action with RPG elements.

GameInformer asked Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky 131 quick questions about The Outer Worlds. Video is at the link.

With Game Informer's new cover story on Obsidian's The Outer Worlds, we're diving in deep and explaining everything we learned about the upcoming RPG.  While visiting the studio, Joe Juba sat down with co-directors Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky and asked them 131 rapid-fire questions about The Outer Worlds' gameplay, companions, scope, and (since they created the original two games) the origins of Fallout. Check out the video above to watch the most informative interview you'll ever see about The Outer Worlds... and chocolate.

GameInformer reports that The Outer Worlds will be getting a physical release and announces the price.

In addition to its availability on digital platforms, The Outer Worlds will also be available on disc at physical retail on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Regardless of format, Private Division has shared with us that the game will retail for $60.

While we know the platforms and price, Obsidian and Private Division are still not ready to share a release date for the game. As of now, we only know that The Outer Worlds has a planned release date sometime in 2019.

[...]

Alt Char reports that The Outer Worlds will not have plot essential NPCs, meaning that you can kill anyone.

For example, killing the scientist that is shown to free the player in The Outer Worlds announcement trailer will likely lead players down another path where they can side with a different faction and proceed to complete the game. Killing their characters would mean players need to progress the story somewhere else, creating the need for a large number of different endings.

[...]

PC Gamer interviewed Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky - they still try to get better in making RPGs:

The creators of The Outer Worlds on learning to make better RPGs

Our full interview with Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky about Fallout, making mistakes, and Obsidian's RPG heritage.

I recently visited Obsidian Entertainment to see the studio's new RPG The Outer Worlds, which I called a blend of Firefly and Fallout. It may look like the space cowboy version of Bethesda's recent Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, but its roots run deeper than that: lead developers Leonard Boyarsky and Tim Cain created Fallout together in the 90s, along with other famous PC RPGs like Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines.

You can read a lot more about The Outer Worlds in my feature, but I also talked to Tim and Leonard about their careers making RPGs, and how that experience and working at Obsidian is affecting this new game. Here's what they had to say.

Wes Fenlon, PC Gamer: Tim, did you sort of have an inkling of what this game was going to be before Leonard came over to Obsidian from Blizzard, or did you form the idea together?

Tim Cain: I had no idea what it was going to look like. We had not picked any art style. We knew it was going to be sci-fi.

Leonard Boyarsky: Obsidian asked Tim to make a new IP and Tim reached out to me, because we complement each other really well in terms of what we're good at and what we're not good at, and just kind of went from there. We knew going in that we wanted it to be a space opera-y kind of thing. We hadn't really done that before. We'd done post-apocalyptic, we did Vampire, and Arcanum, steampunk fantasy.

Even before we had the art style, I definitely knew that it was going to be another one of these kinds of alternate history, weird things that most other people wouldn't try to tackle. I think it's more prevalent now, but back when we did Fallout, people didn't quite get the 1950s post-apocalyptic thing right out of the gate. They weren't quite sure what to what we were talking about.

[...]

Thanks henriquejr!

Some more impressions of The Outer Worlds from MMORPG and Matthew Singh (Senior Producer) and Charles Staples (Lead Designer) were interviewed.

PC Gamer checked out Obsidian's new sci-fi RPG The Outer Worlds:

Obsidian's The Outer Worlds blends Firefly and Fallout into a bold, open-ended sci-fi RPG

The creators of the original Fallout have spent two years on a new first-person RPG, and it looks great.

Obsidian's new RPG The Outer Worlds is not just sci-fi: it is exuberantly sci-fi. Blood red trees pepper valleys of strange cylindrical rocks and alien shrubs. A spaceship rumbles overhead, coming in for a landing at the nearest spaceport. Rings grander than Saturn's carve an arc across the horizon, and a field of stars shine impossibly bright in the afternoon sky. It's a world I already know I want to explore: the colorful vistas of No Man's Sky, but in an RPG that looks and feels very Fallout, just a million miles away and pre-nuclear armageddon.

[...]

Here are some other things I learned about The Outer Worlds:

• It's out in 2019
• It's an Unreal Engine 4 game
• Your protagonist isn't voiced
• There's a special class of "science weapons" that will have special, ridiculous effects, like a shrink ray
• There's a full character creator even though it's first-person only (you'll see your character in the inventory, and if you leave the game idling long)
• Your companions don't have separate inventories. Taking companions with you just gives you more inventory space to work with yourself
• If companions really dislike the decisions you make, they'll leave and go back to the ship. You can persuade them to see things your way
• No romancing companions. They considered it, but decided against it.
• Companions each have a special attack (one named Felix does a double drop kick) but you can also equip them with whatever weapons you want
• Hacking and lockpicking don't have minigames, and are simply based on your attributes
• There are six skills (strength, intelligence etc.) and for every 20 points you put into one (up until 100) you'll gain a new perk
• As in the creators' past games, you can play as a "dumb" character with stupid dialogue options. Your companions react appropriately.
• They're still not sure if it will be possible to play through the game completely pacifist (but you'll almost definitely have to at least kill some robots)
• Robots aren't sentient, but your ship's AI seems to have a strange degree of personality
• Tim Cain wants you to know there are a lot of drugs, but he's not going to pressure you to take them

Thanks henriquejr!

Much has been written about The Outer Worlds and there is a gameplay video from Game Informer.

Impressions:

Game Informers

3) Goofy, Dark Humor

If you have any question about The Outer Worlds’ brand of humor, just know that you can play through the entire game as a dumb guy – literally, there is a dialogue option labeled [Dumb] that will let you role-play as a clueless brute. Halcyon is also filled with fat snakes that were bred for their leather, missions about diet toothpaste, and a rare weapon that works like a shrink ray to miniaturize your opponents.

“I think humor is really, really hard to do in a game, but games that go pure dark are hard to take in every night,” says Cain. “I play games that skew dark, and after a while I just don’t want to play them anymore. We like this kind of dark humor where we can put something in the game that also looks silly, but when you dig into it, you find out it’s really horrific.”

“You can actually get a lot darker and a lot deeper into things if it’s fun and humorous,” adds Boyarsky. “Getting deep into the human condition can be a little overwhelming, but if you are having a fun time and laughing and then we sneak in some of that depth and darkness, it actually resonates a little better.”

[...]

Gamespot has video also.

The Outer Worlds is being designed around freedom of choice, which often manifests during verbal exchanges. You have free agency to lie, play dumb, betray allies, or align with would-be enemies. These concepts aren't limited to Fallout games, but it's--again--hard to deny the similarities at play when even the amount of camera zoom during dialogue brings Fallout 3 to mind.

Whether The Outer Worlds is intentionally built to remind us of Fallout is a question we'll likely never get answered by Obsidian, but odds are it's not a coincidence. Obsidian's work on Fallout: New Vegas is cited by many fans to be the best thing to happen to the series in recent years. You could argue that any similarities between The Outer Worlds and Fallout are due to the fact that there are so many ex-Fallout devs working on the game, but there are elements that go beyond mere creative tendencies.

[...]

IGN

The idea is this small corner of the galaxy and its two planet-like celestial bodies were discovered, purchased, and terraformed for colonization. But something went wrong. Tera 1, now known as Monarch, didn’t take to the terraforming, and it’s now become a moon full of monsters. The other planet, Tera 2, known as Halcyon, fared much better. It’s Earth-like, with plants and trees and animals, but it’s not really Earth. Those trees are Mostly-Oaks and Kinda-Pines, trademarked, most likely. That animal crawl-slithering in the grass-like field is a Leather Boa, a snake-like-thing that’s broader and fatter than Earth snakes, because it’s been genetically modified and bred to produce more leather. Profitable, most likely.

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Shacknews

One idea that Obsidian is taking to the lengths of delightful absurdity in The Outer Worlds is the concept of branding. Virtually everything in the game is branded. Every consumable item and every weapon has a corporate brand name attached to it, along with marketing buzzwords and slogans. Narratively, it shows that corporations are the ultimate master in Halcyon. Every single NPC in the game works for a company. It's a world that has progressed beyond racism and sexism, but it's a world that's entirely consumed by competition between companies. It's a story inspired by the robber barons of the late 19th century, but with the concept taken to its next level.

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The Outer Worlds has been announced by Obsidian at the game awards and the Steam page is up.

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About This Game

The Outer Worlds is a new single-player first-person sci-fi RPG from Obsidian Entertainment and Private Division.

In The Outer Worlds, you awake from hibernation on a colonist ship that was lost in transit to Halcyon, the furthest colony from Earth located at the edge of the galaxy, only to find yourself in the midst of a deep conspiracy threatening to destroy it. As you explore the furthest reaches of space and encounter various factions, all vying for power, the character you decide to become will determine how this player-driven story unfolds. In the corporate equation for the colony, you are the unplanned variable.

Key Features

• The player-driven story RPG: In keeping with the Obsidian tradition, how you approach The Outer Worlds is up to you. Your choices affect not only the way the story develops; but your character build, companion stories, and end game scenarios.
• You can be flawed, in a good way: New to The Outer Worlds is the idea of flaws. A compelling hero is made by the flaws they carry with them. While playing The Outer Worlds, the game tracks your experience to find what you aren't particularly good at. Keep getting attacked by Raptidons? Taking the Raptiphobia flaw gives you a debuff when confronting the vicious creatures, but rewards you with an additional character perk immediately. This optional approach to the game helps you build the character you want while exploring Halcyon.
• Lead your companions: During your journey through the furthest colony, you will meet a host of characters who will want to join your crew. Armed with unique abilities, these companions all have their own missions, motivations, and ideals. It's up to you to help them achieve their goals, or turn them to your own ends.
• Explore the corporate colony: Halcyon is a colony at the edge of the galaxy owned and operated by a corporate board. They control everything... except for the alien monsters left behind when the terraforming of the colony’s two planets didn’t exactly go according to plan. Find your ship, build your crew, and explore the settlements, space stations, and other intriguing locations throughout Halcyon.