So I just beat The Outer Worlds and...I'm kinda feeling like playing Skyrim again.

[sXeth]

A buddy of mine best summed it up as "I felt like I only played the opening 3rd of a Fallout game that someone had half-finished modding for Mass Effect combat.


There was also I think Yahtzee's apt analysis of the setting/plot aa "its got one joke and it will tell you that joke a hundred times over".


So you had competent basic game present, but kind of uninspired everything around it. You didn't even get your usual staple exotic space fare wiht aliens and junk in your sci-fi, with it being curiously hard sci-fi for something with such a would-be satirical take.

 

[Trunkage]

To be honest, I didn't really get Balders Gate when I played it 20 years ago but Divinity 2 is pretty much what I wanted Balders Gate to be back then but easier to play(well, relatively speaking. It has better QoL then I remember BG having).

It’s because Boulders Gate isn’t really that good of a game. It doesn’t have that much outside the main story and the main story isn’t that great. Fallout 3’s story is way more complex than Baulders Gates and it’s just a decade older. But Morrowind is more complex than both and it’s in the middle. You know what, Daggerfall has a more complex story and it’s younger. Fallout was the same, incredibly basic, especially compared to Outer Worlds. Old Fallout or Baulders Gate would have ended at Edgewater.

It was their sequels that brought more depth to the story, but even they are still outstripped by OW, let alone a 3D Fallout. Divinity is on a whole new level. One Divinity acts are like a whole game of Baulders Gate. While I think Pillars of Eternity is only good, I recognise that getting up to the Watchers hold would have been the end of those old games.

Those old game are generally products of their time.

 

[Trunkage]

I pretty much had the same thinking about OW. But, not only was 76 bad, but people have been overhyping Obsidian for years. When you overhype, your bound to get disappointed. I played Fallout 4 after OW and realised people just pretended Fallout was bad. But I see the same thing comparing NV, 3 and 4. I personally can’t pick the best because they all have strength and weaknesses.

OW had similar problems to NV. Going off road is not rewarded, everything is gated and forced down a tunnel, the landscape is drab and lifeless. It’s positives is better writing, moral choices and characters but I still don’t find NV or OW characters exciting. I don’t care about House, NCR, Legion or Yes Man. At least Ulric Stormcloack ideals matches his sides Actions, unlike Caesar. You don’t really met the leader of the NCR and House is self absorbed. So the main quest is an utter chore.

Phineas/Rick is at least fun to talk to. He has more personality than anyone in NV.

So, all in all, OW was exactly the game I thought I’d get from Onsidian. Mainly because I stopped pretending they are the greatest thing ever and just see them for their qualities and faults. I don’t pretend their faults exist and I don’t pretend they are only faults like with how some people see Bethesda.

(With the caveat that I haven’t played 76 and it could actually be the worst thing ever. But I’ve stopped trusting reviewers so it could actually be okay.)

 

[happyninja42]

Yeah I stopped playing OW when you get to the planet where the corporations are housed. I just...didn't give a shit anymore.

I found it really boring, and repetitive, and just designed terribly. The entire premise was mind numbing, and the mechanics were watered down Bethesda Fallout mechanics.

For all the praise that game got for "showing Bethesda how to do Fallout!" and all that shit I heard forever around that games launch, they sure did copy/paste a ton of stuff from Bethesda. The perks were abysmally small in number, and were often even named exactly like the ones from FO 3&4 that they copied. I mean every time I did something I remembered thinking "oh, this is just like FO 3 or 4. Ok well...um..yeah ok...sure." The rock/paper/scissors nature of the weapons meant I had to carry around duplicate weapons with just a different damage type, which made combat tedious, because I'm still sniping people, I just am forced to change weapons, which isn't engaging, it's just busy work. The amount of trash loot they toss at you made resources pointless, which is funny considering the game is supposed to be about the planets being in a resource drought. Food items were completely unnecessary, as I rarely ever took damage, so I had no need for 100 stacks of *insert food name* , multiplied by like 50 different food items. The constant upgrading system as you leveled was another layer of tedium that I couldn't stand. It didn't make the game any fun, it just delayed how long before my guns were insufficient against the foes I was facing. It felt like every time I upgraded, I was just pushing back a timer on a Your Gear Is Shit debuff to my things.

The chameleon gear thingy was dumb, because while you had a timer to how long you could be in the illusion, the areas you had to go through were so small, you could easily just check one room, step back out to recharge, and go back in. And the NPC's were so stupid they didn't catch on at all.

And the story, ugh, the level of idiocy on display by everyone (the characters) in that game made me want to rip my hair out.

I found the game to be a complete waste of my money. Probably one of my most recent, and painful personal examples of getting caught up in the hype of something, and deciding to buy it near to launch date. I wasn't hyped for the game ahead of it's release, as I personally didn't like New Vegas, and find it to be incredibly boring, so "another game by the people who made New Vegas!" wasn't really a good selling point for me. But I saw a few let's plays of the first little bit, and thought it might be fun.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I haven't played The Outer Worlds, but from what I understand it starts off really well, and then every planet you visit gets less and less interesting with worse and worse writing. So the game gives a fantastic first impression, and then stumbles really hard at the end.

There's a reason there was so much hype for the game right when it came out, but no one has really talked all that much about it since.

 

[stroopwafel]

Really enjoyed this game. Characters all had this dour outlook but brainwashed as corporate drones it was sold with an upbeat demeanor which I found legitimately funny. World was cool, pacing was excellent, dialogue was well written, combat was..serviceable. RPG elements were also great and implemented well; giving you proper dialogue options with actual consequences. But the pacing in particular was really good. This is one of the few RPG's I actually completed as it didn't require 100+ hours of your time but it still felt like a rich and full experience. I had no expectations of this game so maybe that also made a difference.

 

[Agema]

It’s because Boulders Gate isn’t really that good of a game.

All I really remember much of Baldur's Gate is that is seems like every encounter, including the ones against random dross in the countryside, is so tough and uses so much of your spells that you have to rest and recover all the time.

That and the kobold caverns full of f***ing kobold commandos shooting fire arrows (d6 + 2d6 fire damage!!) with a THAC0 apparently in the region of 0.

 

[Dalisclock]

All I really remember much of Baldur's Gate is that is seems like every encounter, including the ones against random dross in the countryside, is so tough and uses so much of your spells that you have to rest and recover all the time.

That and the kobold caverns full of f***ing kobold commandos shooting fire arrows (d6 + 2d6 fire damage!!) with a THAC0 apparently in the region of 0.

I remember it being really hard and having to use a trainer(cheats) to boost my stats super high to finish the game. I didn't really know how D&D worked and hadn't played it at all before that, so I suspect that had a lot to do with me sucking at the game. But looking back it did feel like the game was designed speficially for people who were D&D vets and anyone coming in new was SOL.

I had a much easier time with the original Fallout by comparison. SPECIAL made sense to me, the D&D system didn't.

 

[Trunkage]

I remember it being really hard and having to use a trainer(cheats) to boost my stats super high to finish the game. I didn't really know how D&D worked and hadn't played it at all before that, so I suspect that had a lot to do with me sucking at the game. But looking back it did feel like the game was designed speficially for people who were D&D vets and anyone coming in new was SOL.

I had a much easier time with the original Fallout by comparison. SPECIAL made sense to me, the D&D system didn't.

I was in college (what we call a fraternity) at the time. My friends thought I'd like it because I liked Fallout. They taught me some things about it. THACO is really stupid

I remember the section to the east being full of scorpions that web your party up. If you didn't sleep them immediately, preferably while off screen, you'd wipe

I also remember Saverok was best dealt with by shooting fireballs way off screen and hope a dies before he reaches you

Baulders Gate encourages cheating. It doesnt really make you feel good, it makes you feel like a cheater