The Outer Worlds
Obsidian Entertainment once released what is arguably the best 3D RPG about the post-apocalyptic world - Fallout: New Vegas. It had everything: a well-developed role-playing model, a varied thoughtful and living universe, a fascinating plot and progressive - at least at the time of the release of the game - graphics.
After that, the studio was given a huge credit of trust from gamers, and it justified it, releasing one very good project after another. Yes, Obsidian Entertainment's games released in the past decade have been quite distinctive, but still good.
And in 2018, the studio announced The Outer Worlds. From the promotional materials, it became clear that this is still the same Fallout: New Vegas, only in a space setting and on a new engine. And, in fact, this is more praise than criticism.
Qualification "No obvious peculiarities"
The distant future. Humanity became cramped on Earth, and it began to develop nearby territories. Ships with colonists scattered all over the space, including the "Nadezhda", crammed with scientists, engineers and cultural figures dormant in suspended animation. Fortunately, the main character does not belong to any of them.
However, the ship does not reach Alcyone itself. For some unknown reason, it goes astray and travels back and forth through space for several decades. It would have drifted further, but scientists from Alcyone still find it.
Wells, the same scientist, awakens the main character and tells him something like "You have to save Hope, and for this you need to find a special chemical." Then the character is packed into a lifeboat and sent to Alcyone, where he will roam in search of a target. Only Wells thawed the wrong passenger. Of all the scientists, engineers and cultural figures, he awakened from suspended animation a junior worker - with miraculous opportunities for qualifications like "Wiring Specialist", "Beverage Technician" or "Open Field Farmer". Well, or you can choose "No obvious specifics" and do whatever you want.
Meanwhile, Alcyone itself is already in full swing with life. Well, how "successful". The colonists clearly either did not read Karl Marx, or followed every letter of his fundamental work, but enchanting capitalism clearly reigns here. Alcyone is run by corporations that turn workers into almost slaves - with 16-hour shifts in factories for close to zero wages. Where the created products go is not clear. Possibly sold to aliens, but not.
Now the main character will not only have to get the same chemical to save the "Nadezhda", but also to establish a new world order in Alcyone. More precisely - on the two planets that make up it, Monarch and Terra-2, in each of the cities. The passage of The Outer Worlds in the story will guide the protagonist through all possible locations, delighting him with beautiful views, horrendous poverty, and some kind of enchanting bombast. Additional places can be seen if at least sometimes you take side quests.
The Outer Worlds World and Gameplay
The world of The Outer Worlds is made in the style of retrofuturism, albeit in some decline, and also devoid of flying machines (that's very insulting for that). At the same time, everything is sustained as uniformly as possible. Even the interiors and exteriors of houses are made in the Art Deco style.
It's difficult to talk about The Outer Worlds "picture", you want to show it by pointing your finger at some separate unusual elements. Here are the luminous markings on the road, here is the most wonderful logo of the Just Space corporation, here are lamp computers that have acquired artificial intelligence ... In general, this is the future as people envisioned it in the 1960s.
And in terms of gameplay, The Outer Worlds is a very bouncy RPG. The role model here is worked out, interesting and varied, but at the same time the gameplay itself does not slip into a pedantic distribution of skill points along the sliders of different character characteristics. Sometimes you need to get a weapon and deal with an external threat.
The Outer Worlds Characters
But Obsidian Entertainment should definitely be thanked for the elaboration of the central plot characters. They are not just thoughtful here. At some point, you begin to understand why the insidious capitalists drove the unfortunate colonists into labor bondage.
Freedom fighters are also not very kind and positive. Yes, they want more rights and less responsibilities. And also labor legislation. And then it turns out that one of the freedom fighters kidnaps the corpses of workers in order to grow vegetables on them.
At some point, you finally understand that there are no unambiguously good and bad outcomes in the game. All morality is exclusively "gray". And go ahead, choose the right shade, and there are far more than fifty of them.
