There was a time in my life where I would’ve loved a game like The Outer Worlds. I would’ve bought it day one and spent the weekend plowing through it, exploring every corner and painstakingly reviewing my character’s stats with every level gain to see just how I wanted to build them and what I needed to get the very best equipment. Coincidentally that time was when I was a teenager and work was solely for gaming and candy money. Man, those were the days!

Nowadays, the big epic role playing adventures really have to strike home with me in a meaningful way or else I can barely even start them without moving onto something faster paced and easier to pick up and put down in 30 minutes. It’s why I have unopened copies of Tales of Berseria and Dragon Quest XI in my library right now.

I know how much attention these games demand and once I start them, all of life’s other distractions set in and it’ll seriously take me a couple months to get through a hundred hour game. I mean I’ve heard great things about Witcher 3 but will I ever get around to playing it? Probably not. Those 200+ hours will have to go to something else. More than likely the Final Fantasy VII remake I have preordered because ain’t no way I’m missing out on that. 16 year old me would be pretty disappointed.

So even with all that in mind, I wanted to try out The Outer Worlds since I hadn’t done a review on an RPG yet. It was available right away on Game Pass and that’s one less game I have to buy day one for a review. And really, it’s a good game. I’m not quite the audience for it anymore, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t appreciate all that it accomplishes or how great it looks. 

If you’re into Fallout or liked Mass Effect or Skyrim, this is up your alley. And really, it’s a lot closer to Mass Effect in what I think is a more personal approach to story and relationships and I think that’ll ultimately be a big draw for RPG fans.

So a quick plot summary is that the game takes place in the year 2355 where mega corporations run everything and colonization in space is a normal thing. Your character is in cryosleep on what was supposed to be the first colony ship named Hope that went off course while traveling decades earlier, and you’re found and brought out of cryosleep by a guy named Phineas Welles to help investigate a conspiracy that’s threatening the Halcyon system. Obviously not everything is as it seems, and even Phineas himself exhibits suspect behavior.

If it sounds familiar, it’s because it’s been used a thousand times before with the names changed. But since it’s 2019, everything’s been done 1000 times before to varying degrees of success. Just know that there’s factions to align yourself with, lots of worlds and lore to explore, teammates to meet and develop relationships with, and things to do on your way through the game’s branching story to the conclusion.

The game really allows you to roleplay how you like from the very start. You make a character from scratch and then set their initial stats up and off you go. Every level you gain gives you stat points to use to further build that character up. You want to make someone who’s stealthy and good with long ranged weapons? Go for it. Someone who’s great at melee weapons who’s also a smooth talker? Done. Make someone really bland kind of okay at everything? Have fun with that.

You also get perks that do things like give you permanent health boosts or the ability to walk or run faster, cheaper things in the shop and more. One of the ways you acquire perks, which I thought was also cool, is that you can get them offered to you by the game itself in exchange for having what’s called a “flaw”, so for example you’ll get a perk point to spend on your character if you’ll accept the flaw of being a less effective fighter against robots.

The game also has the requisite crafting system because again, it’s 2019 and everything has a crafting system. Even my cat has a crafting system. It’s mainly hairballs and turds left in a litter box, but still: crafting. Anyways you can sell your stuff or break it down into spare parts, etc. It’s everything you’re already familiar with. I don’t like crafting personally because that means I’m holding onto lots of random junk that *might* have a use for something I need to make later, and I’m a minimalist when I play games.

The whole game is first person, which means the combat is too. You can switch between a few weapons on the fly and you’ve got your choice of various melee and long ranged weapons, and you get the ability to slow down time to inflict extra damage and special negative effects on enemies like crippling or burning them. You also get the afformentioned partners to recruit into your party to help out with fighting, but I did find them to be a little less than effective at times and they’d get knocked out halfway through a fight. Since there’s no penalty for that I liked the strategy of sending them out first like a couple of red shirts on Star Trek (red shirt picture), let them whittle down my target’s health, then step in and finish them off after my partner got killed. I rule with an iron fist.

So as I said earlier, my own experience with this style of game should absolutely NOT dissuade you from buying it if you’re interested in it. My own snark aside, it’s really well done and the graphics are great. The various planets you visit are gorgeously colored, the voice acting is really well performed, and the only real gripe I have is that the game’s got a “been there, done that” feeling to me, but then if you like games like this then you’ll have a lot of fun with it regardless because it’s a story that you get to play through your own way. The game has a lot of personality, in the way of dialogue and jokes various characters make, and especially in the way of the old-style advertisements you’ll see in the loading screens and throughout the game itself.

This review is done, fellow space cadets. Remember to check out and subscribe to the Youtube channel for the video reviews and other special features. Until next time!