…Now before I start this article, I just wanted to preface by saying that I’m not saying that The Outer Worlds is a bad game at all; it’s just not a 9 out of 10 to me any more (For now – This opinion could change again upon completion), and here’s why.
When I played my first 2 sessions of The Outer Worlds, I was thinking that it would be my GOTY, worthy of a definite second playthrough and all that jazz, but now… I’m not so sure. After the first 10 hours or so of playing, I started to notice some flaws, and I think this is the ‘Mr Gaming Pessimist’ in me who notices flaws in everything, especially after playing the perfection that is Dark Souls (I really need to stop writing about that game)… However there are some things that have started to irk me, and the bright neon glow has started to dull for me. Here are some of my complaints about The Outer Worlds…
Multiple quest markers
I have spent so much time switching between the map and quest just to work out which objective is nearer on the map; I’d much prefer to be able to choose a bunch of quests for a new spaceport and be able to go through completing them 1 by 1 instead of constantly having to switch back to the menu all the time to work out where to go. It wasted too much time, but this maybe to extend the play time hours a little more?
Samey side quests
I’m starting to feel there’s a lot of “run here and talk to x, then get this and bring it back to Y”; I’ve admittedly skipped a lot of dialogue because I just ended up not caring! Now I realise that me skipping the dialogue makes it less interesting, however it’s making me uninterested – A cycle of hatred! I don’t care about Pete’s accordion, and even some of the companion’s special quests have left me feeling a bit empty and dissatisfied.
Samey Combat
Now I think this could be solved by playing on hard (maybe), but it’s pretty basic gunplay whilst being able to stop time. I’ve also found myself using my companion’s abilities a lot more just to end the battle quicker – I am seeking out combat to break up the running in between quests but… It’s no Witcher, is it? I know not every game is, especially these types of RPGs, but I even gave up on using the Science Weapons because they didn’t add a lot of fun for me… God I really am a miserable old man aren’t I! But I did find that I stuck to the same weapon for ages just because it was really powerful, and gave me the most quickest way through battles.
Levelling up is easy, and in turn this makes everything EASY
Again, this is down to game length I’m sure, but because I seem to level up on the hand-in of most quests, it means I can raise my attribute points, meaning every situation I’m in I can talk my way out of. I’m not really feeling the consequence of my actions, so in turn I’m not scared to break the law but don’t feel challenged. For example I can steal something and just be like “oh well”, and the guards like “oh well”, and that’s it. I understand that may be due to my stat choices, but I’ve been able to get around most things in the game by being able to choose the correct dialogue option from an early stage. Some people love this, but maybe I’ve made a mistake?
So many items are unnecessary
I’ll admit this is always an issue for me, even in The Witcher 3 where certain potions and items are instrumental to killing certain beasts, I still took the longest time to get round to using. But there are so many pointless items that just clog up your inventory in The Outer Worlds. ‘Add 25% to base health for 2 secs’, or ‘-1 to all attributes but it increases x’; I felt many were pointless and just bloated my inventory – The loot collecting kind of became unnecessary as I didn’t feel the need at any point to spend my thousands of bits (ingame currency); I was just collecting and selling for no real reason. In turn I could equip the items to my companions (weapons and armour), but it made them feel really generic and they kind of lost their uniqueness, except at certain dialogue points.
Flaws & perks
I really think the perks are shit and uninspired in the end; I remember reading it as main point of interest, but for me they weren’t as interesting as Fallout. I’ve actually got to a point where I don’t care for the rest of the perks available, and don’t feel they’ll really benefit me in a huge way. You can also get flaws which are a small sacrifice for a new perk, but the effects are ‘-1 from certain attributes when fighting certain monsters’; this is fine, but I didn’t feel that affected, and equally didn’t feel motivated to take the flaw for a relatively useless perk.
Look, I know I’m being a miserable old man, especially as a few days ago I loved it and so does everyone else it seems… So I am really hoping that I turn around on this, so stay tuned to see if I go from hot, to cold, to hot again, or at least warm!
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