I played Outer Worlds by Obsidian back when it came out. I liked it, thoroughly enjoyed the writing and the humour, it was a genuinely funny game with great characters, engaging dialogue and very good writing. Oh and the gameplay and weapons were quite good too, not only are there diverse weapon types, you can even modify any weapon with interesting mods, even changing the type of damage they do to plasma or shock, etc. Each different weapon class actually feels different in meaningful ways, it’s not simply a meaningless numbers game like you would find in the Borderland games.
But I got bored. I wasn’t sure why at the time but looking back I know it was me, not the game, I was very impatient back then, or more impatient than I am now, really. I didn’t take the time to appreciate the colourful, very well designed planets and environments Obsidian had crafted, nor did I take the time and effort to investigate dialogue options and dive deep into conversations with characters, I couldn’t be arsed, I just wanted them to get shut the hell up, get on with things and tell me where I needed to go next so I could go maim more marauders and watch their limbs get torn from their bloody body as I peppered them with barrages from my assault rifle.
That was a big mistake, not only was I doing a disservice to a lovingly crafted incredibly rich game but I was missing out on the best part of the experience. Today, after 5 years and lots of therapy (not therapy on how to properly enjoy video games but how to deal with my shit including anxiety, depression and childhood trauma) I am a different person, a bit more patient, much more self-aware and bit less irritable, a bit more authentic.
Armed with these new tools I revisited Outer Worlds. But first let me explain why.
Starfield. That’s right, hang on to your knickers and panties, we’re going to talk about that game, but bear with me, I promise to keep it short, you’ve already heard enough shit about it.
TL;DR Starfield
Starfield is a piece of shit. No matter how you try to justify it. It’s a very bad copy of Outer Worlds. Don’t believe me, look it up, or better yet, go play Outer Worlds. Obsidian, the developers of Outer Worlds, made Fall Out New Vegas for Bethesda (the Starfield developers) and it turned out to be the best Fall Out game ever made, precisely because it wasn’t made by Bethesda. Then Obsidian made Outer Worlds in 2019 and what did Bethesda do for their extremely overhyped magnum opus that was supposed to not only save the company but also save the Xbox? They made a very poor copy of Outer Worlds. With more modern technology, an insanely bigger budget and more than 6 times the amount of developers. And the best they could come up with was a shitty copy with barren planets, cliched characters and boring, samey gameplay!
The stats are these:
Outer Worlds budget: $20 million
Starfield budget: $200 million
Yes, you read that right, Starfield’s budget was 10 times more than for Outer Worlds.
Developers on Outer Worlds: 80 people
Developers on Starfield: 500
Any way you slice it it’s completely unjustifiable. And don’t even get me started on the hype and strongarm tactics Microsoft used to virtually force people to install that crappy game on their consoles and PCS.
Back to our story
So anyway, back to the story, I was actually playing Starfield, on Game Pass of course, I wasn’t going to pay for that crap, to see if it was any good, surely, I though naively, it has to have something good, right? After all the time, effort, money and hype that went into it. So I played it, I didn’t like it, got bored right away but it did remind me of Outer Worlds quite a bit and it got me thinking I should try it again so as to get my Sci-Fi fix.
I’d bought the physical version of Outer Worlds for the PS5 when it came out but I had foolishly traded it in later so no longer had the game. I used to be subscribed to PS plus and they had the Outer Worlds Spacer’s Choice Edition there for members and I had downloaded that some time ago and played the whole prologue. I remembered the first part of the game quite well and wasn’t keen on repeating it, if there is one thing in life I hate it’s repetition, it drives me mad, it shunts directly into that traumatised piece of my brain that is constantly nagging and reprimanding me for “wasting time”, so actually replaying all this was a bit of a chore. But I valiantly stuck with it for the greater good.
But I wasn’t a PS plus member anymore so couldn’t play it. 😢
Game Pass to the rescue! There it was, in almost all its glory so I downloaded it and started yet another adventure. I had to steel myself to repeat the prologue yet again. But I did it, you know, for the greater good.
Much to my surprise I was enjoying it immensely, not only after coming from Starfield but just on its own as well, it’s an incredibly good game with some of the best dialogues and storylines in any video game, ever and your companions are also the best, this side of The Last of Us.
The Whore
Those of you who came looking for scandal, intrigue and sex (you know who you are) are asking yourselves “Where the hell is the titular whore in all this?” I’m getting to it.
So there I was enjoying life and marvelling at the mighty magnificence that is Outer Worlds when I hit the fly in the ointment, the chink in my armour, the Achilles in my heel. Apparently, there was a better version. Wait a minute, what do you mean better?
According to the internets, the Spacer’s Choice version included not only both Outer Worlds DLCs but also, get this, better graphics! oh and apparently tweaked dialogues and more animations but better graphics!
Now, I will admit I am a graphics whore, yes that’s the titular whore, me! But I’m not a graphics whore in the sense that I will buy any sort of trash that has realistic graphics, no sir! Even a whore like me has his dignity! I love art, UI, presentation, design and good graphics. They don’t have to be ultra realistic graphics, in fact I prefer them not to be but well-crafted visuals are a particular weakness of mine. I shall never forget Zelda: The Wind Waker’s cartoon visuals for as long as I live. So when I read that there was a version out there with enhanced graphics I just had to have it. Problem was, how to acquire it?
It wasn’t available in Game Pass and I wasn’t about to pay £60 pounds for the game just for enhanced graphics. Xbox store had an upgrade for a measly £3.50 but it didn’t include the DLCs, damn! I was still available on PS5 with Spacer’s Choice edition which did include the enhancements and the DLCs! But I wasn’t a member of PS Plus anymore, I’d cancelled my Game Pass and PS Plus subscriptions when I was made redundant at work and no longer had income. I’d subsequently renewed the Game Pass subscription because I needed to play Forza Horizon and later Outer Worlds, but I din’t want to also renew the PS Plus membership, not only because I didn’t have any income but also because I didn’t think it was really worth it. With Game Pass it’s a no-brainer, you get very good games and first day releases of first party games. With PlayStation, you don’t get very much.
It was a conundrum, as convoluted as Sila’s burial fees. Plus there was the whole repetition thing, if I got it on PS Plus I would probably have to start from scratch for the fourth time! I couldn’t even check if I had any saved data in the cloud for it without paying because PlayStation will not let you see your data unless you pay for the privilege! I really didn’t want to repeat the 15 hours I’d just put in on the Xbox, but enhanced graphics, man, enhanced graphics!
Naturally, I subscribed back to PS Plus just to try it out. And I’m glad I did! The enhanced graphics are not groundbreaking but they are quite nice, you can definitely tell there’s been a lot of work on the character’s faces and that’s appreciated. But more important, you now get flies buzzing over corpses! Just that is worth the price of admission. And the dialogue tweaks are a very welcome addition, I wouldn’t have noticed this had I not had to play the same scenes 3 times but in this version there is less dialogue repetition when you approach the same character repeatedly and this adds to the world’s immersiveness and believability.
Having it on the PS5 also allows me to play with a better controller that has some force feedback, also appreciated.
All in all, the enhancements of the Spacer’s Choice edition are very welcome.
Having been forced, by the Space Gods obviously, to replay the first 10 hours of this game twice in two days had some unexpectedly positive side effects. Not only could I appreciate the enhanced graphics (corpse flies!) and tweaked dialogue but not having the cognitive load of trying to figure out where to go and what to do, I was free to look around and enjoy the visual and auditory feast mucho more. And there is a hell of a lot to enjoy in this game, enhanced graphics or not, the games visuals are wonderful and lovingly crafted, land on any planet and take the time to soak in the views, not only of the diverse terrain but don’t forget to look up and bask in the glory of a sky with multiple moons with decadent colours, or stand still for a bit and enjoy a multi-planeted sunset. If inside a town or facility, don’t rush about from waypoint to waypoint trying to speed-run the game, take the time to open all doors and investigate what’s behind them, you might find some surprisingly interesting contraptions and inventions or even characters who will give you wonderful side quests. This is one of the few games out there that genuinely rewards exploration in meaningful ways. And whatever you do, do not skip reading the logs and messages in the myriad terminals you find throughout the game, some of them contain mindless drivel from the corporations but many also contain extremely well-written stories about the world and its characters, there’s even one that has brief chapters or never published novels by one of the characters that is actually better written than most of the crap that is out there in bookstores today.
Yes, all in all I would say this game is a masterpiece, a feast for the senses and a delight for anyone who cares about story and writing.
This is when it dawned on me what I had been doing wrong the first time I played this game: I didn’t take the time to smell the flowers. And this is a game that begs to be smelled and seen and experienced in all its glory. Take your time with it and it will reward you in multiple ways.
In conclusion: go play The Outer Worlds, you can thank me later.
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