The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition - Obsidian's first-person sci-fi RPG set in a corporate space colony

[Dishonoredbr]

Planescape Torment and Disco Elysium are god damn books for god damn readers, they aint god damn video games, god damnit.

Oh you again. How are you doing?

 

[the mole]

posted in the wrong thread, was meant for the things you know are true but wont admit

 

[Trashos]

Go drinking, introduce them, buy soap, get casserole, get pie, buy something nice to wear, arrange date, it went well, everybody's happy, the end.

This is fucking surreal even for the standard of this game. Why are you doing this to yourself? Don't you have a kilometer long backlog of great games like everyone else?

Failed a Volition check I guess.

Also I'm thinking that if I manage to finish this I might write a review and tell you lot wot I REALLY think. Don't hold your breath though.

Edit: also what Shadenuat said. The core gameplay loop is solid, and this is dead easy. "Just one more container." "Just one more sidequest." "Just one more firefight." The evil ape is not a learning animal

The same trick was used in Arcanum, where the game allowed us to level up very often to get our adrenaline fix. It is one of Tim's old tricks.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

Continuing on the discussion about the vapid writing, i'll share this about Ellie because you've probably all missed it. When you first meet her, her recruitment quest will have you go help this other chick inside the infirmary. If you straight up kill her and go back to Ellie, she'll tease you and mock you, calling you a psychopath and tells you that you should not "bother [her] because you probably have other people to murder". Isn't that just GREAT writing? Behavior exactly how a real person would behave when facing a known murdered, armed to the teeth? You know, call a very obviously deranged murderer a psycho, and encourage him to go murder someone. You say all that and expect to NOT get killed? That's valley "writer" girl logic right there.

I said this before and say this again: a majority of the gaming industry's writers have no understanding of people AT ALL. That is either because they either don't interact with many people on a regular basis at all, or are just emotionally stunted.

About Privati: She is a teenager through and through. Naive, dumb, inexperienced and awkward. Only she's obviously NOT a teenager and so that makes her growth-stunted. You can be downright abusive to her in dialogue though. That's always fun.

 

[Latro]

She's this uncertain bubbly teenager type when you first meet her (despite being 28, apparently), and she sticks with the uncertain bubbly teenager schtick all through.

most 28 year old women are like this these days

 

[McPlusle]

I hate to admit that this game is at least less mechanically painful than New Vegas. And hearing that it's under 20 hours is honestly nice to hear.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

My take on the quality of writing: the setting is struggling to differentiate itself from similar IPs. That's why it feels "in the middle" so to speak and never quite seems to find its own character.

Personally I would prefer if TOW went further into the absurd and the wacky, but then it would be closing onto the Borderlands territory. If they made it even more like space-western, it's the Firefly territory. If they add some woo-woo and horror elements, it's Bioshock territorry. If it becomes too epic, it's a Mass Effect territory.

It feels as if the setting is constantly trying to balance between its various inspirations and never quite finds its own feet. It's not that original of an idea, basically. Tim and Leon were probably talking about it for years before the development started, during the era when few sci-fi games were being made, but inbetween the idea and the launch, god know how many similar games came out..

 

[Dishonoredbr]

Continuing on the discussion about the vapid writing, i'll share this about Ellie because you've probably all missed it. When you first meet her, her recruitment quest will have you go help this other chick inside the infirmary. If you straight up kill her and go back to Ellie, she'll tease you and mock you, calling you a psychopath and that you should not "bother [her] because you probably have other people to murder". Isn't that just GREAT writing? Behavior exactly how a real person would behave when facing a known murdered, armed to the teeth. You know, call a very obviously deranged murderer a psycho, that shouldn't bother you, and should instead go murder someone. You say all that and expect to NOT get killed? That's valley "writer" girl logic right there.

I said this before and say this again: a majority of the gaming industry's writers have no understanding of people AT ALL. That is either because they either don't interact with many people on a regular basis at all, or are just emotionally stunted.

Really strange. Parvati reacts right if you kill Reed or Junlei.

Edit: Also if you kill a certain NPC in Ellie quest.

 

[Jarpie]

It's a shame because she's otherwise pretty well written.

I'm really curious about this statement because... well I know I've been skimming this, but I honestly don't get her as being written at all. She's this uncertain bubbly teenager type when you first meet her (despite being 28, apparently), and she sticks with the uncertain bubbly teenager schtick all through. So far she's ventured one or two opinions siding with one faction or another. But I really get no sense whatsoever of her personality, temperament, character, past history, or anything else, other than "vapid" anyway.

The same is true for all of them except Vicar Max who's just kind of a silly jackass instead. The only character in the entire game so far that has the makings of a personality is the mad scientist (forget his name... Welles?) that defrosts you in the start, at least he's somewhat funny in a dad-joke kind of way. Everybody else is, as I said earlier, Pismo Beach on their very first larp.

It's almost like she was written by someone who's in their late 20s/early 30s who's mentally stuck in their teens.

 

[fantadomat]

less mechanically painful than New Vegas.

I disagree, in NV you have shit combat unless you pump up your weapon skills. Once you get the skills up,the combat is decent. Here it is just bland.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

Really strange. Parvati reacts right if you kill Reed or Junlei.

Yeah, she "reacts" after firing on them herself. And each time you can just convince her that you did the right thing and she'll follow. She STILL wants to stick to you even though you are so obviously a fucking maniac. She outright calls you a psychopath with a violent streak beforehand too. They are all like that to varying extents. I mean, Privati is willing to lock herself with you, A MURDERER WHO'D KILL ALMOST ANYONE ON FIRST CONTACT, in a metal prison... in fucking space. Wow, yeah she reacts, AWESOME REACTIONS.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Really strange. Parvati reacts right if you kill Reed or Junlei.

Yeah, she "reacts" after firing on them herself. And each time you can just convince her that you did the right thing and she'll follow. She STILL wants to stick to you even though you are so obviously a fucking maniac. She outright calls you a psychopath with a violent streak beforehand too. They are all like that to varying extents. I mean, Privati is willing to lock herself with you, A MURDERER WHO'D KILL ALMOST ANYONE ON FIRST CONTACT, in a metal prison... in fucking space. Wow, yeah she reacts, AWESOME REACTIONS.

Considering she's autistic, none of this seems that strange.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

As for Parvati, have you folks ever sailed on a Firefly?

She is bit by bit copy of Kaylee from Firefly minus the occasional lewdness. Even the voice actor hits a similar cadence. No need to overanalyze this character further.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

Finished second playthrough - kill everyone.
It was handled very poorly by the game, especially the ending. Didn't change much from peaceful playthrough..
This game makes me want to reaply Fallout: New Vegas. Even Fallout 4... Exploration was done quite poorly.

 

[toro]

She's this uncertain bubbly teenager type when you first meet her (despite being 28, apparently), and she sticks with the uncertain bubbly teenager schtick all through.

most 28 year old women are like this these days

if you are in the friendzone otherwise they are complete sluts ... gurgling piss and shit.

Spoiler

that's what I've heard

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

Considering she's autistic, none of this seems that strange.

Dunno about autistic, but a 28 year old teenager who really like ships is... something. Anyways, I did think about this myself, and I would be willing to be understanding if she was intentionally written as an autistic character - but she's not. Unless you want to tell me that they are all purposefully written with autism in mind.

 

[fantadomat]

As for Parvati, have you folks ever sailed on a Firefly?

She is bit by bit copy of Kaylee from Firefly minus the occasional lewdness. No need to overanalyze this character further.

I don't remember the episode of firefly where you had to run around 3 planets to buy generic garbage for her lesbian date.

 

[Junmarko]

Only problem is that given who was in the kitchen, I expected an actual meal.

But 1,000,000 words in a crpg is equivilant to a burnt meal. Lol.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

As for Parvati, have you folks ever sailed on a Firefly?

She is bit by bit copy of Kaylee from Firefly minus the occasional lewdness. No need to overanalyze this character further.

I don't remember the episode of firefly where you had to run around 3 planets to buy generic garbage for her lesbian date.

Had to? You didn't have to run around planets, you chose what quests to finish. As it happens, it's scientifically proven that low-T individuals are willing to do stupidest shit if pretty lady asks them nicely.

 

[mondblut]

Finally got to the good part of the game.

You should play match-3 with these 100500 shortcuts.

What? I don't understand what you are saying mate. What is match3 and what is 100500?

 

[cvv]

The fact ya'll fuckers aren't seeing anything wrong with a pretty girl being a mechanic is another proof you've been sitting in that pot with that hot soy juice for too damn long. How many female mechanics, repairmen or maintenance workers have you seen IRL?

I'm 35, I've gone through all walks of life and I've seen precisely zero. Not even in our grorious commie past when it was a bit more normal seeing women doing traditionally male jobs. Not even the Party forced them into servicing machines.

And yet Kwan entertainment is full of this idiotic archetype - a bubbly, pretty girl being all passionate about tinkering and repairing shit. Fucking Kaylee, Rey from Shit Wars, now Parvati and loads more. Breaking news - bubbly pretty girls are too busy reading Cosmopolitan, doing their make-up and dating chads to waste their time playing with greasy cogs.

"Baaaah, I haaaaven't seeen any SJW inphluenze in this gaaaame baaaah." Even the Codex is getting soyized.

 

[Dexter]

Yeah, it might not be on F4 boss / The Division grade, but cRPG mechanics just go bad with shooting mechanics IMO, and it shows. Living organisms go down because of internal organ failure not some fucked up health bar, and nowadays, weirdly enough, decent shooters can imitate that better with their dispensable enemies, than shooter RPGs hard bound to their stat vs. damage systems.

Destiny 2 manages this rather well, although it's more on the Shooter side of things.

I can't wait for TOW to be released on Steam. The angst will be glorious!

It already has 70 negatives in a dumpster like Metacritic, though it's far surpassed by the sheer amount of drones upvoting it.

Nobody will care a year from now. I'd wager most people will probably not care 1-2 months from now.

 

[toro]

As for Parvati, have you folks ever sailed on a Firefly?

She is bit by bit copy of Kaylee from Firefly minus the occasional lewdness. No need to overanalyze this character further.

I don't remember the episode of firefly where you had to run around 3 planets to buy generic garbage for her lesbian date.

Had to? You didn't have to run around planets, you chose what quests to finish. As it happens, it's scientifically proven that low-T individuals are willing to do stupidest shit if pretty lady asks them nicely.

Even lower-T individuals are doing the same shit in videogames. So, how was the date with Parvati?

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

It already has 70 negatives in a dumpster like Metacritic, though it's far surpassed by the sheer amount of drones upvoting it.

All the ratings i see are +80. On PS4 it's actually much higher, but hey, their platform is starved for RPGs. Anyhow, TOW is a true 6/10 game in my opinion.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

As for Parvati, have you folks ever sailed on a Firefly?

She is bit by bit copy of Kaylee from Firefly minus the occasional lewdness. No need to overanalyze this character further.

I don't remember the episode of firefly where you had to run around 3 planets to buy generic garbage for her lesbian date.

Had to? You didn't have to run around planets, you chose what quests to finish. As it happens, it's scientifically proven that low-T individuals are willing to do stupidest shit if pretty lady asks them nicely.

Even lower-T individuals are doing the same shit in videogames. So, how was the date with Parvati?

No idea, I only bothered until the Groundbreaker part since the location was conveniently on the way.