Ranked on Player Opinion’s 25 point scale.
Final Score: 23/25, A-
The Outer Worlds is a 2019 sci-fi action RPG developed by Obsidian Entertainment, a company known for previous hits such as Fallout: New Vegas and South Park: The Stick of Truth. Directed by Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky, creators of Fallout, The Outer Worlds takes place in an alternate future where President McKinley was never assassinated, resulting in Roosevelt never taking office. Without Roosevelt, the Sherman Antitrust Act was never resurrected, and business trusts grew into corrupt megacorporations. About 300 years after this, these megacorporations began to colonize space, attracting thousands of humans to their colonies with the promise of a fresh start.
You, the player, are one of these humans.
You are a passenger on the Hope, one of two ships sent to a small star system called Halcyon in 2285. Alongside the Groundbreaker, the Hope was supposed to colonize the six planets surrounding the star. After a 10 year cryo-sleep, the Groundbreaker arrives. The Hope, however, was not so lucky- disappearing somewhere on the way. As time passed and the people of the Groundbreaker successfully colonized the system, the Hope faded into legend.
After 70 years, no one is looking for the Hope anymore. It’s a myth, a story parents tell their children. Until fugitive mad scientist Phineas Welles comes across it. He breaks into the ship and manages to save one passenger from their lengthy cryo-sleep: You. “The Stranger.”
Welles needs your help to secure the resources to help the other frozen passengers of the Hope, sending you down onto the planet “Terra 2” almost as soon as you wake up. But nothing around you is as you’d expected so many years ago- no, it’s a corporate dystopian nightmare. Now you have a choice. Take down “The Board,” or join them.
The Outer Worlds is a critique of corporate culture, accompanied by sharp humor and a genuinely interesting story. Your companions are three dimensional, well written characters with their own stories and opinions, keeping the player engaged. The scenery is some of the most breathtaking I’ve ever seen in a game and is paired with a beautiful soundtrack composed by Justin E. Bell. The art style is based on dieselpunk and Art Nouveau to give its dystopian feel and its loading screens mimic propaganda posters. The player has customization of their character’s appearance and traits, and gets to choose from different dialogue options throughout the game, each leading up to one of three main endings. The game took me about 16 hours to finish, though I tend to explore heavily and it can be easily completed faster.
As for its flaws, I found it hard to criticize almost anything. I have never encountered a bug within the game, and you don’t need to buy anything extra to enjoy it. There are a couple DLCs available, but they are not necessary for the story and the game never shoves them in your face or begs you to buy them. My only complaints are that, regardless of the game mode, enemies remain fairly easy to defeat. Besides this, the game is poorly lit in many areas. This looks good stylistically, but makes some parts and features of the game difficult- most notably, the customization screen.
Besides these couple little things, I had no other complaints. Overall the game is a wonderful story and truly fun to play, and earned its place as my favorite game as soon as I played it for the first time. I am looking forward to its sequel, The Outer Worlds 2, which is expected to be released in early 2026.
So, in short: Yes, you should play The Outer Worlds.
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