Join the party!
My eyes insisted on staying extra shut this morning, and the culprit is clear: The Outer Worlds.
I traded away a good night’s rest in order to comb through the opening planet in Obsidian’s just-launched Fallout-as-hell RPG, a choice I suspect many of you made as well. I see you. I see all of you!
Could I have spent less time on the character creator? Absolutely. But also, heck no – my hero’s cheekbones needed to look just right and, until they did, from every possible angle, I couldn’t move on.
Could I have glossed over some of those early side quests in order to kick off the galaxy-spanning adventure sooner? Probably. But then I might’ve missed recruiting one of the early companions. Half the reason I even play games like The Outer Worlds is to hang out with a rag-tag group of buddies. There was also no way I was gonna leave The Frightened Engineer partially completed in my quest list.
Did I need to loot every single drawer, container, and fridge in sight? Technically speaking, no. But then I poured a bunch of bits into incremental weapon upgrades, and that fancy new armor I was eying for Parvati wasn’t going to pay for itself. There are so many tempting ways to spend money in this game.
It’s still early, but I think The Outer Worlds is going to make a lot of people, myself included, very happy. Familiar, but not too familiar. Funny, but not in a forced or overbearing way. It’s comfy, y’know?
So many never-ended video games this year have asked for their audience’s full attention, to the point where if you’re busy even for a week – just to help your poor grandma move! – you missed the cool new talked-about thing, and suddenly, you’ve fallen behind schedule. It’s a tough feeling to recover from.
I’m relieved knowing that The Outer Worlds isn’t a huge, ongoing commitment. I also appreciate that it’s not a fully open-world experience because some dude decided that’s what every game should strive to be. It seems manageable! Eventually, I’ll reach a final choice, try to talk my way through, and see an ending – my ending – and that’ll be that. I can move onto my next game without an ounce of guilt.
If you’re playing The Outer Worlds, cool. Let’s hear it. If you can’t yet, also cool. We can still chat.
