The Outer Worlds launched successful reviews from critics and fans of Obsidian Entertainment. While sometimes classified as Fallout in space, The Outer Worlds was in many ways a successor to Obsidian's Fallout: New Vegas. Despite these lofty comparisons, the game held its weight. It delivered a solid premise with memorable characters, locations, and dark satire for players to delve into.
Praise for The Outer Worlds often went to the game's setting, dark and satirical humor on hyper-capitalization, and characters. Though usually playing up the grisly comedy of corporate loyalty to the point of absurdity, The Outer Worlds' characters stood out against the sinister backdrop of corporate greed and profit. In the game, the player character - the Stranger - can recruit six Companions to journey with them throughout Halcyon and learn its mysteries. While each unique Companion contributes differently, there's room for improvements that The Outer Worlds 2 can utilize for its new set of Companions.
Consistent Length and Material
One of the main notes regarding The Outer Worlds was the game's length, which fell on the shorter side. For players focusing solely on main quests, the game could quickly be finished in twenty or so hours, while completionist playthroughs could get close to forty or more if all dialogue, hub areas, and quest options were explored. While not an insufficient length that way, the game's re-playable factor for different endings was an enticing draw. The addition of two DLCs brought the entirety of the game length near to that of traditional RPG triple-A titles.
When it came to Companion quests and storylines, length was a factor that could see improvements in a sequel and bore some length issues of the game as a whole. Among Outer Worlds' six Companion characters, three had storylines that felt like they had consistent length and meat to them: Parvati, Vicar Max, and Nyoka. Their storylines not only contained meat and potatoes with duration and travel across Halcyon, but their stories related to the world the game set up and to their natures, wants, and conflicts.
Meanwhile, Felix, Ellie, and Sam felt stymied at times, touching upon essential character elements of their personalities, but keeping them from having consequences or dealings with the broader world. Sam can be understood to some degree as he was the only non-human Companion, but there could have been more detail involved with building and equipping him with the features he has to make the payoff worth it. Felix and Ellie had minimal action in and around Halcyon, with the brunt of their stories just extensions of their character traits: a stowaway and a morally grey medic.
Romance Options in The Outer Worlds
One aspect that the Companions of The Outer Worlds lacked was the opportunity for the player character to involve themselves romantically with any of their crew. Parvati's storyline does involve her romancing the lead Engineer of the Groundbreaker, preparing for her date by having the player gather numerous ingredients throughout Halcyon for the perfect date; no such element exists for the Stranger character.
Though romancing Companions isn't necessary for an RPG, it allows for more possible characterizations to be explored, along with even more possible endings. Furthermore, romancing options can lead to more significant conflict, moral ambiguity, personal stakes, and potential loss that can drive home the role-playing elements. This, in turn, can lead to more memorable characters and storylines.
The Outer Worlds is an enticing and fun RPG developed by Obsidian Entertainment that showcases a stylistic dark satirical humor of future hyper-capitalism through memorable characters. Despite allowing six Companion characters to recruit, The Outer Worlds 2 could improve these Companion options by maintaining storylines with consistent lengthsd that anchor the Companions to the world, along with romance options to drive further potential conflict.
The Outer Worlds is available now on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.