What The Critics Are Saying About The Outer Worlds

From the folks who brought us Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 and Fallout: New Vegas, we finally have a game that at least attempts to follow in the latter's footsteps. The Outer Worlds is a first person action RPG from Obsidian Entertainment, the company that's been making the isometic Pillars of Eternity game these past few years. And honestly? This latest project feels like a return to form.

Not to knock Obsidian's work on Pillars, but it's tough to believe the studio isn't making games like this all the time. And the reviews mostly seem to agree, with the scores coming in on the higher end of the spectrum. What exactly are the critics saying, though? What are they liking about The Outer Worlds and what would they change if they could? We dug into some reviews see how others felt about the game; now we'll fill you in.

The best thing about The Outer Worlds may actually transcend the game itself. It may be the fact that, in a sense, The Outer Worlds is a spiritual successor to Fallout: New Vegas, which was developed by Obsidian Entertainment and released in 2010. And people have really wanted to see one of those.

To many, the Fallout series did a nose dive following New Vegas, so interestingly enough, it's Obsidian (and not Bethesda) that is credited with making the last good Fallout game. But Fallout isn't the only game The Outer Worlds is drawing comparisons with. A review from the website VentureBeat referred to the title as a "Skyrim in space," and given some of the similarities between both Fallout and Skyrim on the action RPG side of things, that's a pretty apt description, too.

According to VentureBeat, "You can go off and explore the world in any order you want," and, "If you build your character to pick locks or talk your way into things, you can use those skills to run through enemy encampments." That sure sounds a lot like either Fallout or Skyrim, depending on which you play. So if you're a fan of either, The Outer Worlds might be the kind of game you'll really enjoy.

The one thing you can definitely say about Bethesda titles like Fallout and The Elder Scrolls is that they usually ship with some jank. In fact, it's almost expected at this point that you'll find all sorts of crazy bugs in Bethesda games. Bugs and Bethesda are like peanut butter and jelly: they're two things that just seem like they go together. So naturally, you might think that a game aiming to enter that space like The Outer Worlds might have some jank of its own; especially since it's coming from Obsidian, which has shipped a few buggy products itself.

So far, that doesn't appear to be the case.

According to IGN, there are numerous surprises associated with playing The Outer Worlds for the first time. But: "One surprise is how bug-free it all is," says the outlet. That's honestly a bit of a shock when you consider what kind of game this is. Even if The Outer Worlds isn't open world, necessarily, it's still a 3D action RPG that incorporates branching dialogue paths and a sort of system that tailors a character around the decisions you make. With those kinds of systems working behind the scenes, you'd think The Outer Worlds would be riddled with bugs and other issues. But it's not. It's mostly shipped in tip top condition, so hats off to Obsidian. That's not an easy thing to do.

Unfortunately, not everyone is falling in love with The Outer Worlds, and it appears one of the harsher critics of the game has some real beef with the overarching story. Namely, that nothing in the game feels all that important. You're basically running around the world completing tasks not to accomplish anything of value, according to this criticism, but because that's what video games make you do.

That take came from the website Eurogamer, which said this: "I don't hate The Outer Worlds. Rather, what I hate about it is that it's sufficiently unhateful that you can spend 30 hours playing it without noticing." The website added later that, "It's solidly-made enough that you keep hanging around in the hope of something more, like a layer of catchy percussion that never quite escalates into a song." But it seems that, in Eurogamer's opinion, the game never quite explodes into full-on music.

Of course, in the words of The Dude, that's just like... Eurogamer's opinion, man. You may not feel the same once you play The Outer Worlds for yourself. And in fact, you may not agree with any of what the critics has to say about the game. Which is why we suggest that, if you have a passing interest in the title at all, you play it yourself when Friday, Oct. 25 rolls around. If you believe in your heart of hearts that The Outer Worlds could be your kind of game, give it a shot. You could be right.