One of the games I was most excited to see during E3 was The Outer Worlds from Private Division and Obsidian. Having a great trailer on Microsoft’s stage last Sunday only served to further drive my impatience as I awaited my Tuesday appointment to see the game in action! Needless to say I didn’t come away disappointed.
For anyone unfamiliar with The Outer Worlds, it is a first-person role playing game where user choices can affect the outcome. Players find themselves stranded on a planet that is owned by a mega corporation Monarch. Now that you are there it is up to you to determine your fate! Whether or not you will help out the people or keep them oppressed is up to you. Or you can always be plain out psychotic!
As the gameplay demonstration began we found ourselves at the town of Fallbrook. Fallbrook is home to the Sublight Salvage and Shipping Corporation who smuggle in goods from other colonies in the system. Being new to the colonies not many people are willing to work with you but Sublight isn’t going to let your newbie status get in the way of their goals. Sublight is run by a woman named Catherine who wants control of a local factory. The dialogue options of the game first appear during this mission briefing and depending on how you have built your character, different options become available like lying, intimidating or charming a target.
after accepting the mission to claim the factory for Catherine we are introduced to our 2 companions for the demo, an alcoholic “Big Game Hunter” and a fast talking “Medic.” The demo character has 4 different weapons available including a sniper rifle, plasma carbine (which has a powerful charge attack), a machine gun with shock rounds and finally a poisoned blade. Creatures on Monarch have mutated into massive beasts as a side effect of the terraforming efforts to colonize the planet. Creatures will be found in the wilds and can be attacked or avoided depending on your play style. while dealing with raiders you might accidentally aggro some of the planets creatures so always be aware of your shots.
One of the abilities our character has is to slow down time due to cryo sickness. this ability allows players to scan enemies and figure out details about them. You can also use the slowed time frame to line up an opening headshot on an unsuspecting enemy. You can also queue up commands for your companions to unleash great combos against enemies. Once arriving at the factory, numerous tactics can be used to accomplish the goal of taking it over. You can run in guns blazing and take out everyone inside or you could find a disguise and walk right in. There is also the option of sneaking in and getting to the current owner of the factory completely undetected.
In our gameplay demonstration the stealth option was used and we made our way into the factory through the sewers hidden behind a waterfall. From this point we were introduced to the Cysttipigs, a genetically modified pig that grows large bacon flavored tumors that fall off when they reach a large size. Yeah they look as nasty as they sound! After sneaking through the pins we got to see the companion system at work as we used our medics lying skill to help us clear out the factory floor of all human contacts. Finally we reach the owner of the factory who then tries to pay us off to kill Catherine. You can then decide if that is the option you want to take or proceed with the original plan.
Everything about The Outer Worlds comes down to choice and the short gameplay demonstration really highlighted this. I seriously can’t wait till October 25 to try out many different scenarios for myself! Look out Fallout an new king of choice driven narrative is on the horizon and it looks amazing!
