Despite the total failure of Starfield, the game managed to make a lot of noise upon release. Bethesda Softworks is actively working to fix this “masterpiece,” and players are once again hoping for mods. Today, we won’t delve into that project; besides, we’ve already shared our impressions in the relevant material before. Instead, let’s remember the underrated The Outer Worlds. After all, why would you need Starfield when it already exists in another form?
Statistical Data
Let’s start with a brief overview of the statistics. Xbox and Bethesda Softworks are very pleased with the results and consider the project extremely successful. It’s not for nothing that shortly after the release, they boasted about the total number of users who experienced the game.
The Outer Worlds had a much rougher time after its release. Extremely low sales, performance issues, and gamers’ reluctance to accept the abundance of female characters sank Obsidian Entertainment’s project. Despite all the discounts, The Outer Worlds didn’t hit the five million copies sold mark until last year. However, as time has shown, there may be games much worse, so we want to talk about many nuances that turned out better for Obsidian Entertainment than for Bethesda Softworks…
Fallout: New Vegas in Space
That’s what Obsidian Entertainment’s creation was dubbed at launch. And it’s more of a compliment than criticism. Fallout: New Vegas turned out to be an extremely successful game, still considered one of the best in the series, so gamers had high hopes for The Outer Worlds. And if you objectively assess the final product, those hopes should have been justified.
Now let’s get to the essence and immediately note the extremely successful role-playing system. Yes, Starfield has quite a few useful skills and branches of progression, but the overall system is imperfect and almost useless. In TOW, the developers tried to give players the opportunity to play the character they want. You can take a rifle or a cudgel and go chopping heads left and right, use stealth to silently sneak into the enemy’s lair, or engage in diplomacy and negotiate with anyone you meet.
These basic mechanics constitute the gameplay, but they don’t limit the player and allow them to choose their own way to complete missions. Perhaps stealth doesn’t work as flawlessly as desired, but the weapons feel satisfying through the screen. Destroying enemies is fun, you can feel the recoil of each “tool,” and it all looks quite colorful.
What can’t be taken away from the game is its incredibly engaging storyline. And it’s not surprising, as Obsidian Entertainment has always been able to immerse viewers in the atmosphere through readable text. Despite a very serious subtext in the script, there is room for humor, comic situations, and references to popular science fiction. The meticulously crafted world offers a special atmosphere with memorable characters, a well-thought-out backstory, and plenty of exciting quests. Moreover, there’s significant non-linearity, allowing players to resolve conflicts in multiple ways.
The successful design of this space western can also be highlighted. The developers’ commitment to the retro-futurism genre didn’t make them focus on monotonous locations—there are diverse landscapes with colorful flora and fauna everywhere. Here you’ll find mountain ranges, water plains, and acidic wastelands. There’s an abundance of unique locations. You’ll find everything your heart desires.
And flying between systems on ships won’t make players groan at the screen. Moving between planets is very easy without forced meaningless space collisions. The developers rightly focus the player on the important features of the game, offer quality content, and don’t make them engage in the same activities constantly. And it’s impossible to describe all the events in just two words. Dealing with the greed of capitalists will be interesting and fun, and the events that unfold will surprise players.
What’s in Common?
In terms of graphics, the 2019 project wasn’t the most revolutionary, but it almost didn’t differ externally from Starfield. Five years have passed, and the “shed” still hasn’t advanced in technology, so it couldn’t create a colorful picture on par with modern titles. Common features can be found in the unsuccessful implementation of facial animation, the large number of loading screens, and the not very diverse world in the far corners of the planets.
Taking the current situation into account, The Outer Worlds offers a truly playable assembly, rather than a set of several mechanics united by one idea. Even now, immersing yourself in the “Outer Worlds” is extremely exciting because the project doesn’t look like a piece of unfinished code and reveals the authors’ concept in detail, with each mechanic working flawlessly.
With such an approach, it’s entirely possible that Obsidian Entertainment’s next project, titled Avowed, could surpass Skyrim in popularity, offer an extremely rich world with plenty of activities, and allow fans of fantasy universes to enjoy a well-developed lore and engaging gameplay. We’ll find out the outcome of this soon enough this year… if there are no delays, of course.
