I’m a big fan of dystopian future narratives and cyberpunk environments in literature. The easiest way to introduce readers to these sorts of stories and environments is to throw them something from Ray Bradbury or Phillip K. Dick. Even then, one of the toughest things to get over in these sorts of stories is the disconnect between our world and the one in between the pages. When telling a story about the future, you run the risk of being too futuristic and alienating points of reference for your audience. Play it safe, however, and you end up making sorry attempts at social commentary that don’t make a point or evoke any emotional response.

The narrative central to The Outer Worlds is inherently political, especially as major world powers begin to once again fight for the broken promises of capitalism when faced with international cries for help. Protests currently occurring in Chile, Hong Kong, Iraq, and Lebanon, detest the tension between power and the powerless, and you see the same tensions in Obsidian’s new sci-fi RPG. On top of the well-executed themes of its campaign, Obsidian shines doing what it does best: offering total control over your character’s destiny while providing gameplay addicting enough to get you invested in what’s happening. It’s a winning combination every time, especially in a world lacking agency and individuality.

Is The Outer Worlds a Critique of Capitalism?

Something I love about The Outer Worlds is the fact that it doesn’t feel driven by its social and political commentary. This is still a space RPG full of action and decision-making. From the get-go, the game pits you in-between detractors from a local, corporate-run community, and a town draining its people dry. I wouldn’t go so far to say The Outer Worlds is a critique of capitalism, but it rightfully focuses on labor as the dominant struggle. Rather than diving into the economic approaches to an expanding human race, the key element of distress for Halcyon residents lies in the fruits of their labor being transformed into resources and riches they don’t see themselves.

There are also elements of racial divides between the classes of The Outer Worlds, but they’re weaker than the class commentaries. When you come across people struggling to make a living in the corporate hellscape of Halcyon, many of them are not white. While it’s great there is a hint that oppressed groups of people often lead the charge for political action, I doubt that it’s intentional on behalf of Obsidian.

The lack of interpolation of racist and sexist policies and rules into the game’s class-focus is a major limitation to its argument that class warfare is an eternal struggle within capitalist environments. We’ve seen time and time again that race and sex play important roles in the class struggle, and its lack of a presence in the game is an oversight I didn’t appreciate.

The concerning parts of The Outer Worlds to me aren’t necessarily in its world-building, however. Despite consistently making arguments for capitalism’s upsides as well as its downsides, it’s still a game focused on the evils of corporate greed and control. Overall, the story is effective, and its themes do a great job of getting the player to realize how messed up these practices are. You’d hope, no matter the player’s socioeconomic background, that they’ll realize Halcyon and our world aren’t so different in some cases. Enough of all that, though. Let’s get to the gameplay.

Can I Coin the Phrase Fallout-ish? – The Outer Worlds Gameplay and Combat

I wouldn’t go so far to say that The Outer Worlds shares much with Fallout: New Vegas, another game from Obsidian. Of course, the similarities are there, and the game’s combat sequences feel Fallout-ish. Instead of the V.A.T.S. system where you pause time and plan your shots, The Outer Worlds implements something called Tactical Time Dilation. Essentially, you’ve been frozen in hibernation for 70 years, and it has given you some odd control over time and space. You can slow time to get better angles, approaches, and advantages over your enemies. It’s fun, but it feels like you can really take advantage of it. You really have to work hard to run out of it, unlike V.A.T.S., which needed to be used strategically.

The gunplay isn’t great, and it’s honestly my biggest gripe with the game. It’s a little like Borderlands in its free-wheeling run and gun style you almost naturally fall into. There seem to be less wild encounters, like when you’d explore the Wasteland. Now, when you come across enemies, it feels much more sequential, as if they’re the next thing in your current mission you need to accomplish, i.e. their death and destruction. Combat isn’t a strong point of the game, and despite lots of fun tech weapons and explosives, the modifications yield little in terms of real, tangible differences in results. Plus, you end up scrapping your weapons for parts so often that you don’t feel a desire to really build one up for the long run.

Lastly, fans will notice one big thing missing from Fallout games in The Outer Worlds – an abundance of game-crippling bugs. The Outer Worlds runs so smoothly it’s almost disarming, seeing something that looks somewhat like a Fallout game not randomly break right before your eyes. Obsidian does an amazing job making the experience of this game an uninterrupted voyage of planet-hopping and space-centric action. I look forward to seeing its performance on the Switch as well, which is releasing at a later date.

Overall Impressions of The Outer Worlds

All in all, the game’s strong suit is its world. The political undertones of the various colonies you visit are vivid and full of life. There are a lot of NPCs to talk to, all of which offer interesting dialogue trees that ebb and flow with your experience points and in-game choices. If a sequel is coming, I’d hope to see some changes to combat, as well as a bit more big-picture missions. A lot of the quests you take are either about getting a part of a larger item you need, simply eliminating enemies, or fetching materials. It’s a typical RPG setup, but I got bogged down in the monotony of it all sometimes. Still, my experience was overwhelmingly positive, and I’m glad to say I’m still looking forward to time exploring The Outer Worlds after 30+ hours.

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The Outer Worlds

$59.99

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• Great Dialogue Options and Story
• Wonderful Story Themes and Political Undertones
• Runs Great and Visually Appealilng
• Hopefully the Start of a Great Series

Cons

• Combat is Lackluster and Limited in Diversity
• Mods and Scrapping of Weapons Gets Really Old, Really Fast