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The Outer Worlds

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Not to be confused with Outer Wilds.

The Outer Worlds
Developer(s)Obsidian Entertainment
Publisher(s)Private Division
Director(s)
Artist(s)Daniel Alpert[1]
Writer(s)
  • Leonard Boyarsky
  • Megan Starks
Composer(s)Justin E. Bell
EngineUnreal Engine 4
Platform(s)
Release
  • Windows, PS4, Xbox One
  • October 25, 2019
  • Nintendo Switch
  • TBA
Genre(s)Role-playing
Mode(s)Single-player

The Outer Worlds is an upcoming role-playing video game developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Private Division. The game will be released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows on October 25, 2019, with a Nintendo Switch version to be released later.

Gameplay

Pre-release gameplay screenshot of The Outer Worlds.

The Outer Worlds is a role-playing video game featuring a first-person perspective. In the early stages of the game, the player can create their own character and unlock a ship, which acts as the game's central hub space. Though the player cannot control their ship, it serves as a fast travel point to access different areas in the game and the player's inventory.[2] The player can encounter and recruit non-player characters as companions who have their own personal missions and stories. When accompanying the player, the companions act as an aid in combat. Each companion has its own individual skills and special attacks, and it can also develop its own skill specialization. When exploring, the player can bring up to two companions alongside them, while the rest stay on the ship. The player can make numerous dialogue decisions, which can influence the game's branching story. They can also respond to NPCs in various ways, such as acting heroically, maniacally, or moronically.[3]

During combat situations, the player can use various weapon types such as melee and firearms, which have three ammo types: light, medium, and heavy. These weapons can be customized to add elemental damage.[4] The player can use stealth or social skills (persuasion) to avoid combat altogether. As the player progresses, they gain experience points, which the player and their companions can use to level up and unlock new skills. The player can develop their technical skills, which are further divided into three categories: Science, Medical, and Engineering. For instance, the player can use a shrink ray to shrink down an enemy. The player is able to invest points into these skills, which will unlock new perks that enhance combat efficiency. The player can also enter a "Tactical Time Dilation" state, which slows down time and reveals opponents' health statistics, which grants the player tactical advantages. As the player leads their companions, they improve their companions' combat strength and resilience.[3] The player can also gain a "flaw" that occurs when the player fails repeatedly in certain gameplay segments. Flaws debuff the player in some way, but also give additional perks and advantages.[5]

Plot

The game is set in an alternate future that diverged in 1901, when U.S. President William McKinley is not assassinated by Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American Exposition. As a result, Theodore Roosevelt never succeeded him, allowing large business trusts to dominate society well into the future, where megacorporations have begun colonizing and terraforming alien planets.[6] Originally bound for the furthest reaches of the galaxy, a colony ship's faster-than-light travel goes astray, leaving it abandoned at the edge of colony space. The player character awakens on board from cryosleep only to find that most of the passengers are still in hibernation, and begins a journey to a nearby colony to investigate the true nature of the corporations. The game features several factions and a branching story that reacts to the player's choices.[4]

Development

The game is developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Take-Two Interactive's publishing label Private Division.[7] Though Obsidian was in progress to be acquired by Microsoft Studios at the time of the game's announcement, the project had been under development before that point, and Take-Two had secured the publishing rights prior to Microsoft's acquisition offer.[8]

Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky, the creators of the Fallout series, served as the game's directors. The duo directors described the game as "the combination of [Boyarsky's] dark morbidity and Tim's silliness", and they hoped to seek a balance between silliness and drama when creating the game's tone and narrative.[4] Romantic options were initially considered, but the feature was eventually cut by the studio.[9] The game's writers include Boyarsky and Megan Starks.[10][11]

The game has been in development since at least May 2016, when Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart mentioned that a small number of people in the studio which included Cain and Boyarsky were working on "something completely new" in the Unreal Engine during an interview with Game Pressure.[12] Obsidian later revealed the game's development in 2017. In December 2017, Private Division announced the project as their first slate of published games.[13] It was announced at The Game Awards 2018 in December, and will be released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on October 25, 2019.[14][15] In July 2019, Obsidian announced the game would also be released on the Nintendo Switch.[16]

In March 2019, it was announced that the game would release exclusively on the Epic Games Store and Microsoft Store, with its original Steam release being delayed for at least one year.[17][18] Fan response to the announcement was negative.[19]

Reception

The Outer Worlds received generally favorable reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.[20][21][22]

References

  1. ^ Aubrey, Dave (October 16, 2019). "The Outer Worlds Interview with Obsidian's Brian Heins on Gameplay, Role-Playing, Microsoft Buyout and More". wccftech.com. Retrieved October 19, 2019.
  2. ^ Meija, Ozzie (December 7, 2018). "The Outer Worlds preview: Flaws in the system". Shacknews. Retrieved December 7, 2018.
  3. ^ a b Tyrrel, Brandin (December 7, 2018). "The Outer Worlds Is Bring Fun Back To Science Fiction". IGN. Retrieved December 7, 2018.
  4. ^ a b c Fenlon, Wes (December 7, 2018). "Obsidian's The Outer Worlds lends Firefly and Fallout into a bold, open-ended sci-fi RPG". PC Gamer. Retrieved December 7, 2018.
  5. ^ Brown, Peter (December 7, 2018). "The Outer Worlds Looks A Lot Like Fallout, But That's Only Half The Story". GameSpot. Retrieved December 7, 2018.
  6. ^ Watts, Steve (March 8, 2019). "Fallout: New Vegas Devs Share Lore Detail About The Outer Worlds". Gamespot. Retrieved August 3, 2019.
  7. ^ O'Connor, Alice (December 7, 2018). "Obsidian Entertainment announce The Outer Worlds". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved December 7, 2018.
  8. ^ Hall, Charlie (December 7, 2018). "The Outer Worlds isn't a Microsoft game, even though it's buying Obsidian". Polygon. Retrieved December 7, 2018.
  9. ^ Hall, Charlie (December 7, 2018). "Three things we learned about Obsidian's new RPG, The Outer Worlds". Polygon. Retrieved December 7, 2018.
  10. ^ Chris Ip (June 13, 2019). "Where 'The Outer Worlds' gets its sense of humor". Engadget. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
  11. ^ Bryan Vitale (June 16, 2019). "The Outer Worlds at E3 2019: Interview with Game Director Leonard Boyarsky". RPG Site. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
  12. ^ "Pillars of Eternity II is in development, acknowledges Obsidian's CEO Feargus Urquhart". gamepressure.com. May 16, 2016. Retrieved December 7, 2018.
  13. ^ Purchese, Robert (December 14, 2017). "Obsidian's new RPG is being published by Take-Two's new label Private Division". Eurogamer. Retrieved December 7, 2018.
  14. ^ Alexander, Julia (December 6, 2018). "Obsidian's The Outer Worlds looks like sci-fi Fallout". The Verge. Retrieved December 7, 2018.
  15. ^ Fingas, Jon. "Obsidian's 'The Outer Worlds' launches on October 25th". Engadget. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
  16. ^ Watts, Steve (July 30, 2019). "Obsidian RPG The Outer Worlds Coming To Nintendo Switch Too". GameSpot. Retrieved July 30, 2019.
  17. ^ Evan Lahti, Tyler Wilde (March 20, 2019). "The Outer Worlds and Control will launch on the Epic Store, not Steam". PC Gamer. Retrieved March 21, 2019.
  18. ^ Coberly, Cohen (March 21, 2019). "The Outer Worlds won't launch on Steam, will be an Epic Games Store and Microsoft exclusive - TechSpot". TechSpot. Retrieved March 21, 2019.
  19. ^ Chris J Capel (March 24, 2019). "Chris Avellone calls The Outer Worlds exclusivity deal with Epic "a cash grab"". PCGamesN. Retrieved April 20, 2019. The reveal that Obsidian's The Outer Worlds would launch exclusively on Epic Games Store – and wouldn't be coming to Steam until 2020 – appeared at Epic's keynote address at GDC earlier this week. The response from fans, just like pretty much every announcement of this type, was profoundly negative.
  20. ^ a b "The Outer Worlds PC". metacritic.com. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
  21. ^ a b "The Outer Worlds PS4". metacritic.com. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
  22. ^ a b "The Outer Worlds Xbox One". metacritic.com. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
  23. ^ Stapleton, Dan (October 22, 2019). "The Outer Worlds Review". ign.com. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
  24. ^ Senior, Tom (October 22, 2019). "THE OUTER WORLDS REVIEW". pcgamer.com. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
  25. ^ Avard, Alex (October 22, 2019). "THE OUTER WORLDS REVIEW: "OBSIDIAN OPERATING AT THE TOP OF ITS GAME"". gamesradar.com. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
  26. ^ Harmon, Josh (October 22, 2019). "The Outer Worlds review". egmnow.com. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
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