The Outer Worlds - Obsidian

[Riggswolfe]

Yeah, I would say that's one thing I've noticed so far - I got off the first planet without one single death. At no time did I really feel threatened. I'm hoping that changes but I'm already a killing machine at level 6.

It's the companions. I died a few times until I got my first companion then the game got much easier. I don't mind much as I'm in it for the roleplay but I can see how some people would be annoyed by it.

[Sky]

It lacks ceiling fans and uncomfortable chairs?

[schild]

it lacks superior haplogroups

[Reg]

You're really going full Margalis on this game aren't you?

[schild]

I don't know what game Margalis defended in such a way that there's a "full margalis" for it. Remind me.

[Reg]

He hated games from Bioware. It was his hobby to jump into bioware threads and announce how shitty their games were.

[schild]

This isn't quite like that. These 2 games are high visibility RPGs one from an unknown company (ZA/UM) and the other from a well-established company (Obsi

you know what

here

https://www.pcgamer.com/disco-elysium-has-ruined-the-outer-worlds-for-me/

I'm not alone here. I don't know how someone who has played both would avoid talking about both in the same breath - or what the purpose of such an exercise would be.

[Riggswolfe]

After all the effusive praise for Disco Elysium I took a look at it but was turned off by having a set character to play. I know you can modify him based on dialogue choices and stuff but I really enjoy having a character creator and some freedom to make my character, well, mine. From looks to initial skills to gender to hair style. The only RPG I ever enjoyed that didn't have that was Planescape: Torment. I just find being handed a pre-made character such a turn off in an RPG.

[schild]

It's literally just better planescape torment and Morte is a gay cop.

You can't get this level of writing and character development with custom characters. Sorry, brosef.

[Trippy]

After all the effusive praise for Disco Elysium I took a look at it but was turned off by having a set character to play. I know you can modify him based on dialogue choices and stuff but I really enjoy having a character creator and some freedom to make my character, well, mine. From looks to initial skills to gender to hair style. The only RPG I ever enjoyed that didn't have that was Planescape: Torment. I just find being handed a pre-made character such a turn off in an RPG.

Though the only non-skill/attribute choice that really matters in The Outer Worlds character creator is gender which is referenced occasionally in dialog. You play in first person, you don't see yourself in conversations, and your character inventory paper doll head gets covered with a helmet pretty early on in the game.

[Lucas]

I think both Tim Cain and Boyarski succeeded in what they set out to create right from the start. Sure, game gives you "deja-vu" feelings, but it's perfectly packaged, almost bug-free (incredible, by Obsidian standards) without being bland, IMO. They might decide to take more risks in a second game of the franchise, who knows.

As we recently witnessed, some of these "great returns" can end quite badly (Underworld Ascendant, Shroud of the Avatar. We'll see what happens with Warren Spector and SS3 *crosses everything*) or just be really "meh" like Bard's Tale IV or Torment (which was a bit better but could have been much more, without the notorious cuts, change of direction etc.).
 

[Falconeer]

Uhhh this is not a "return" though, this is a brand new IP. And even without an indie group of Estonians making it sound like a high school project, it doesn't feel brand new and especially not special.

[Tebonas]

Come on people, I love Disco Elysium too. But that doesn't make the Outer Wilds a lesser game. Outer Wilds doesn't have to be brand new. It fits the Fallout mold in a way that Bethesda can't manage anymore. And that it executes perfectly. They didn't have compete with Disco Elysium, which is in its own little niche in the wider RPG family.

[schild]

Come on people, I love Disco Elysium too. But that doesn't make the Outer Wilds a lesser game. Outer Wilds doesn't have to be brand new. It fits the Fallout mold in a way that Bethesda can't manage anymore. And that it executes perfectly. They didn't have compete with Disco Elysium, which is in its own little niche in the wider RPG family.

Thing is, it does. It raised the bar on writing in games - AND made a more cohesive and interesting world across a tiny map than Outer Worlds manages to do across 11 planets or whatever the hell.

Also, honestly, even without Disco Elysium - The Outer Worlds feels like it has no soul. No part of it feels like someone had fun making the game.

[Reg]

Weird. Nobody has posted in the Disco Elysium thread for three days.

[Yegolev]

I find it amusing that the name people are getting wrong is Outer Worlds instead of the less-common Disco Elysium.

Of course Outer Worlds is a return. Fifteen minutes into it and you'd swear you are playing New Vegas. Except your controller is smaller and the graphics are better.

[Tebonas]

Damn, you are right. Other Wilds is that other game 

[HaemishM]

I haven't played Disco Elysium and I can understand how playing the two one after the other would seem to diminish the one that isn't as out there. Outer Worlds is a good solid game, it's fun to play and the writing is good - I actually think it's some of the better quest writing I've seen in games since Mass Effect 2. The first main quest has some brilliant subtlety to it - you are essentially being asked to choose between killing a town or killing a commune with the possibility of actual people dying because of it, and the only reason you are doing it is because you need to move the game forward by fixing your ship. The moral dilemma it sets up as well as its commentary on the state of space capitalism makes what is essentially a binary choice into one that does have some shades of gray. The resolution is a little too pat, IMO, and lets your character off the hook a bit (or at least the resolution I chose). But it is nice that what is essentially a binary choice made for meta reasons does have a lot of layers to it.

It's not going to be as out there or boundary pushing in the writing as Disco Elysium - it's just not. I realize that tuning your expectations away from that is difficult - you've been wowed and nothing lesser will do. That doesn't make Outer Worlds a bad game, it's just different. And people who do not like the weirdness of something like Disco Elysium shouldn't think Outer Worlds isn't worth playing because of it. Outer Worlds is absolutely worth playing unless you just don't like Fallout-style FPS RPG's. Considering how bug-free and stable the game seems to be, I think about the only real criticism I can give it is that it shouldn't have been an Epic Store exclusive.

[Riggswolfe]

After all the effusive praise for Disco Elysium I took a look at it but was turned off by having a set character to play. I know you can modify him based on dialogue choices and stuff but I really enjoy having a character creator and some freedom to make my character, well, mine. From looks to initial skills to gender to hair style. The only RPG I ever enjoyed that didn't have that was Planescape: Torment. I just find being handed a pre-made character such a turn off in an RPG.

Though the only non-skill/attribute choice that really matters in The Outer Worlds character creator is gender which is referenced occasionally in dialog. You play in first person, you don't see yourself in conversations, and your character inventory paper doll head gets covered with a helmet pretty early on in the game.

Well, I selected the option to hide helmets on myself and my companions like 10 seconds into the game. Yes, both this game and cyberpunk are annoyingly first person only. Doesn't mean I don't want a character creator and the ability to make my character look how I want and have the skills and attributes I choose. I just think premade characters take away from one of the core concepts of RPGs. If it is a premade character I'm being told a story about someone else's character instead of going on an adventure with my character.

[Falconeer]

Outer Worlds is not bad at all. The problem with Disco Elysium is that exposed 99.9% of all the other games as written by amateurs. They are still playable, they can still be fun. But right now, they feel twice as "MEH" due to Disco Elysium.

[HaemishM]

Video game writing is of course written by lesser writers, for the most part. Most of what they are allowed to write is just interactive versions of 1) derivative fantasy stories or 2) shallow action movies.

[schild]

Video game writing is of course written by lesser writers, for the most part.

they don't think that

[schild]

jokes aside, apparently Outer Wilds is incredible

I wouldn't know though since it's on the worlds worst platforms

[Jeff Kelly]

Outer Worlds: the new obsidian Fallout-esque game.

Outer Wilds: also a Game. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Wilds

[Lucas]

Uhhh this is not a "return" though, this is a brand new IP. And even without an indie group of Estonians making it sound like a high school project, it doesn't feel brand new and especially not special.

Sorry, should have explained myself better: it's a return to their "traditional" CRPGs roots for both Tim Cain and Boyarski after more than a decade (last game they did together was Arcanum, Cain didn't work on Bloodlines).

[HaemishM]

Video game writing is of course written by lesser writers, for the most part.

they don't think that

Lesser writers never think they are lesser. I should know. 

[Cyrrex]

It’s possible that you are one of the greater lesser writers.

[Jeff Kelly]

Outer Worlds is not bad at all. The problem with Disco Elysium is that exposed 99.9% of all the other games as written by amateurs. They are still playable, they can still be fun. But right now, they feel twice as "MEH" due to Disco Elysium.

There's nothing inherently unique though about Disco Elysium. It's just better written. You could put many of its themes into a lot of other contemporary games, especially games that claim to explore moral ambiguousness and 'political' themes. Like for example Bioshock or Fallout.

The island on which Revachol is situated could be the stage for any open world game. The special economic area and it's role, i.e. how it is treated and ignored out of convenience by the world's powers, how it has been affected by the revolution and its subsequent brutal put down, how the power and philosophical struggles of different ideologies have shaped its inhabitants and its economy, how the resulting power vacuum has led to the rise of all kinds of shady blue and white collar criminals and how the Realpolitik of it all affects it could be the backdrop for everything the player does. It could even fit in a Call of Duty game without looking out of place.

The only difference is that DE is being written by people that are significantly more skilled than most other game writers.

[Falconeer]

It's just better written.

That was my only point.

Conversely, usual writers could have taken that world, that setting, those premises -which are GOOD- and crafted an OK game no one would have ever heard about.

[Sky]

Also, the good writing makes that world more believable, because the characters inhabiting it are more believable, even the garbage can has more personality than most rpg npcs.

We all know crpg is rife with shit writing, DE showed it doesn't have to be. And it's hard to jump right back into another by-the-numbers rpg (even a good one) after that. Drinking water may be good for you, but then you get to taste beer once and suddenly you're just trying to forget how good that beer tasted.

Just watching gameplay/trailer/review stuff for this game is difficult, and the character design and VO of that not-doc-brown dude ain't helping. I was going to day 1 this and was excited about it...now, meh.

[HaemishM]

Dr. Phineas Wells is more Rick of Rick and Morty than Doc Brown. The writing is surprisingly good for a "by the numbers" RPG - your first companion in particular is one that has really stood out for me. The voice actor is doing a bang up job and she's a somewhat nuanced character with daddy issues and a genuine sweetness that is refreshing.

[Trippy]

Ashly Burch has voiced a number of memorable characters: http://www.ashlyburch.com/acting

[Ironwood]

Oh, she was that lassie that did that tabletop once with Wheaton.

Yeah, I like her.

[Wasted]

People are acting as if well written, bug free games not jam packed with micro transaction bullshit are just falling off tree's at the moment.

[Tebonas]

I half suspected his Science weapon to be a portal gun, but then Rick IS a parody of Doc Brown, so same difference.