The Outer Worlds - a proper Obsidian RPG. - The Bear and Badger

Blocks100

Touted as Obsidian's attempt to recapture the dark humour of its Fallout days, a FPS/RPG hybrid set in a future dystopia where ghastly mega- corporations do unspeakable things to a unsuspecting citizens in Space. Borderlands without the cel shaded graphics but with added dialogue choices?

Not sure what to make of it really. The promise of a sci-fi wild west, shown in earlier teaser materials, doesn't really seem to be there. And let us not forget that Obsidian have few of their original Black Isle members left these days. Chris Avellone departed years ago and has recently been sniping at his old colleague Feargus Urquhart for his mishandling of the company ( remember when a individual developers name actually meant something?)

Pillars of Eternity 2 bombed, so after being bought out by Microsoft, they have ditched their love affair with isometric viewpoints and instead produced a first person sci-fi shooter, because there simply isn't enough of those on the market huh?

If the script is suitably dark and twisted, then maybe it'll help elevate it above most of the other sci-fi shooter fodder, but at this very early stage, Void Bastards looks like a safer bet to fill the void for darkly humorous sci-fi FPS's. Someone go make a thread about that instead.

Yossarian

Weirdest OP ever.

AJ

If there's as much RPG as FPS, I might be interested. If it's just another game with RPG elements, it'll have to be a lot better than that trailer suggests for me to be interested.

g.man

Looks alright...but terrifyingly similar to Rage2. They should probably release both games the same week for the lulz.

FranticPea

I thought for a minute that this was the game that isn't out yet but people got for free for watching something on Mixer. That's The Outer Wilds though.

Frosty

The comedy is not doing it for me. Too Wacky.

It's like a pair of novelty socks.

ShabbyMcCrabby

I trust these guys to do something interesting with the FPS RPG more than the other bigger devs. I mean, they're a much smaller group and they're already making something that looks better than what Bethesda vomit out.

Jaco

Hmm. I like the aesthetic, but it does seem like it's trying a bit too hard. "I'm mad, me" syndrome.

Mikemsp

I think it looks good.

Jaco

If we're doing "cowboys in space", someone needs to crack on and just make a decent Firefly/Serenity game. 3rd person action, multiple characters, heists, shindigs, space battles, pirating, sneaking past Alliance cruisers, running away from reavers. It'd be shiny. Especially if they could get the original cast to do the voices.

This will never happen, of course; but a boy can dream.

AJ

Surely, if we're doing cowboys in space, someone needs to do a BraveStarr game; it's practically made for it.

Eyes of the hawk!

Jaco

Now we're talking.

hunk

Why does this and Rage2 and every other game look like Borderlands?

Speedhaak

Odd. Although I like what Take Two are doing with this Private Division. Nice to have a middle ground between Indie and Triple A games. Having said that, this really didn't do anything for me. I am however expecting some returns from Obsidian when they begin their exclusive development for Xbox and PC.

tigersgogrrr

Obsidian's are up there as one of the top 3 RPG studios, for me (along with CDProject and the Divinity guys). Consider me watching this.

Will wait and see if the action does ACTION, but I imagine the writing will be decent enough.

Facewon

Looks kinda promising. With the Fallout 76 fallout, maybe they'll have a spot to slip into.

ShabbyMcCrabby

I'm guessing that's why they chose to put in the "by the makers of the original fallout" in there. A sly jab perhaps

Roujin

I'm in even if it's shit because I still feel like giving Oblivion even more money for Fallout New Vegas.

Blocks100

Yep, couldn't agree more - I'd rather pay money to play Oblivion than go anywhere near New Vegas again

tigersgogrrr

Stop propping up garbage from Bethesda and invest in developers who can write! You always seem so down on Obsidian, but they undoubtedly have chops.

Blocks100

The only chops they ever had could be found in Alpha Protocol's character creation screen.

Blocks100

Ok, some more gameplay footage here and things are looking a bit better. Proper dialogue trees with dumb (low intelligence score) response options make a return, a proper throwback to the proper Fallout days, always welcome. AI controlled companions could be an issue though if they don't come with a touch of the 'smarts'

Gunplay looks mechanically like Fallout, Bethesda era, but at least it comes with a bullet time mode. I am loving that cyber scythe thing though. Graphically it looks a tad rough, but at least it's running in Unreal 4, not a repurposed Creation Engine.

It's like a tick box of Obsidian RPG design. You want perks that also give you negative traits? You got 'em! Just surprised they never put in a variant of VATS just to troll Bethesda. If this really has been in development for more than two years ( a blink of an eye by today's standards) then maybe it might have a bit of spit and polish about it. I might even forgive them for KoToR 2 if it does.

AJ

That video's not working...

Blocks100

Should be now, posting on my stupid tablet.

Raiziel

Watched that vid a couple of days ago. I guess as far as new games coming out next year it’s probably my most wanted, but it does look a bit rough around the edges. Hype is there, but it’s well in check.

AJ

Sounds better than I was expecting. I like the companions thing and the home ship. The bullet time mechanic alleviates some of my worry about the combat just being a cookie cutter shooter.

Still on the fence though; out sounds a little too much about choosing between paths rather than making your own, but we'll see. A good example of what I want and Bethesda games offer is one of my Fallout 3 games. I decided to put all my points in speech and sneak and the like, in order to be a conniving cunt. This meant that I was so poor at combat that I had to break into pretty much every house in Megaton and rob it of stupid things you wouldn't normally bit with, so I could afford to hire a merc before I could get anywhere without mole rats killing me.

Basically, I want enough detail in the sandbox to allow properly emergent play, rather than simply picking between a handful of things the designers decided on.

Blocks100

Here is an hour worth of footage. Obsidian have been pretty open about the fact that they don't have a AAA budget for this, and I hope therefore that they're not intending to charge a AAA price for this either....

Sound design has come in for a lot of criticism. The NPC interaction, specifically the facial tech, hasn't evolved since Fallout New Vegas. And was rather disappointed with the perks that don't have negative and positive traits. That's a minor flaw, and it's clear this game has much bigger problems to contend with. Less than three months to go before release? Ooops.

Minnesänger

It looks gloriously janky and Obsidian to me. I will buy it and love it, and be the only fucker not shutting up about it years from now. Never 4get Alpha Protocol. That wonderful mess.

tigersgogrrr

Story is all.

Obsidian do good story.

regmcfly

Minnesänger wrote:

It looks gloriously janky and Obsidian to me. I will buy it and love it, and be the only fucker not shutting up about it years from now. Never 4get Alpha Protocol. That wonderful mess.

Yesterday I literally said to elm "everybody wants to be like Mike "

Minnesänger

Renegade Shep take notes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUydx57te9s

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