9) The Outer Worlds (2019)

In 2016, Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky, creators of the Fallout franchise, headed development of The Outer Worlds at Obsidian Entertainment. Drawing inspiration from Firefly, Futurama, and Deadwood, the game depicts a future in which a distant star system is colonized by megacorporations. The player assumes the role of a cyrogenically frozen passenger from a lost colony ship, rescued by mad scientist Phineas Vernon Welles, with the goal of helping to save the colony. After being ejected to a nearby planet in a escape pod, we then assume the identity of ship captain Alex Hawthorne, for reasons, and begin building a crew to travel the system.

This is another game that I have tried numerous times to play. The combination of Fallout creators, Obsidian's pedigree, and a brand new IP are certainly more than enough to get me excited, but things are bit off. While it maintains surface level similarities to other games I love, there's either not much going on beneath the surface, or what is there is wholly unwelcome. Still, at its core, I believe this game to be a competent RPG that struggles to find its own identity.

To start, the first character we meet is Phineas Vernon Welles, and we get very little information on him upfront. What little we do get paints him as a mix of Doc Brown and Rick Sanchez, unfortunately taking on the worst aspects of both. I do like how the character creation system shows him choosing which cyro pod to take, switching to different ones as we change the stats. Since, for whatever reason, you can't just go bare handed in this game's combat, I had to create a new character to play as. I chose to make an older, melee wielding, former lunch lady, with stats geared toward strength and intimidation. While the backstory, age, and gender didn't matter to the game in the slightest, it did allow me to have more fun.

I think one of the biggest problems I have with this game and the worlds it establishes is how stupid and, frankly, bleak it paints itself. The majority of characters you meet are either completely stupid or so entrenched in their megacorporation's BS, often both, that it's a bit painful to interact with them. They spout out company slogans and taglines as though they're part of the regular vernacular. It often times felt as though I was in the world of Idiocracy, only without the charm and humor. It's hard not to compare the game and its world to Fallout, but even the dumbest characters in Fallout have a line of thinking you can trace back to the pre-war world, which often serves as the punchline. Here, the characters are just stupid because that alone is the punchline.

Beyond that, every main quest you do in the game has multiple ways of being completed, but almost none of them feel satisfying and serve only to move one or two of a handful of reputation sliders around. Almost every ending to every quest feels like either a worst case scenario or a poorly conceived concession. Now, I'm always a fan of having to choose between the lesser of multiple evils, but that only works in cases where either I, the player, screwed up, or when the best option available is still not good. Often, the best, most logical solution to a problem is simply not an option, because everyone is a bumbling moron. This makes it so every outcome to every problem is deeply unsatisfying.

Outside of the writing for the world and the plot, we have our companions, and you can absolutely see where a lot of the inspirations draw from. We have a vicar of a space religion who has a dark past and a crisis of faith, a boozing and drug using hunter, a well meaning though dimwitted cargo handler, a morally grey medic, a cleaning robot with acid attachments, and a sweet, naive mechanic. The only one that's even somewhat original is the robot, and he doesn't even have a personality. Granted, when using broad strokes like this, it's easy to dismiss all of these companions, but they do very little to stand out. I found myself most often heading out with Felix, the cargo handler, and Parvarti, the mechanic, as they were not only the most pleasant to be around, they also tended to be the funniest characters, even if it mostly came down to how their lines were delivered.

On that note, I do have to give special recognition to Parvarti. She's the only character with a romance built into her story, and it's not only really sweet, it's actually one of the best explorations of asexuality I've seen in media. She mentions how she's always found sex to be off-putting, leading others to label her as cold. She comes to terms with her asexuality while also exploring her romantic side, finding a healthy, loving relationship in which she can be herself. It's refreshing to see, as asexuality is rarely explored, and when it is, they're portrayed as being cold and clinical. Here, Parvarti is the warmest, most bubbly member of the crew.

In terms of gameplay, there's not a ton to write home about. It's your standard first person shooter with roleplaying elements that we've seen done before, and done better. There is a mechanic that allows you to slow down time briefly that, while interesting, I found myself pretty much never using. There are a number of side quests that allow you to use your social skills to either make easier or bypass entirely. There is a flaw mechanic that, on paper, sounds really interesting. Every so often, you'll be given the option to take a flaw, which is a negative attribute, in exchange for a free perk. The problem is that almost all of these flaw boil down to you taking increased damage from a source you've already taken heavy damage from and nothing more. The biggest exception to this is robophobia, which still has you take more damage from robots, but also unlocks what I think is the funniest optional dialogue with your robot companion.

Fortunately, where the main game fails, I feel the DLC really shines. Both Peril on Gorgon and Murder on Eridanos, in addition to having fun new areas to explore, feature good, engaging plotlines. Both are essentially mysteries in which the player must uncover the truth and decide how best to handle things. Murder on Eridanos is my hands down favorite, as it takes the idea of everyone being stupid to the logical conclusion of having the player solve a murder, with enough twists and turns to make it interesting. The DLC actually has me excited for what the upcoming sequel may have in store, as they show that the setting and characters can absolutely work when given a compelling story.

While The Outer Worlds doesn't do a lot wrong in the technical sense, the overall experience comes off as forgettable and hollow. The idea of a game inspired by Firefly by the creators of Fallout should have been a home run. Instead, it finds itself mired in the things it's inspired by and struggles to find its identity. The DLC, while not offering a lot in terms of gameplay, sees the world and writing come into its own. Honestly, without the DLC, I would have been content to have played the few hours that did initially, and then be done with the experience.