Release Year: 2019
Playing Year: FA2025
Developer/Publisher: Obsidian Entertainment/Private Division
Time to Beat: 20 Hours

Thoughts: This game looks beautiful. This game works out of the box. You start the game, you play the game, you have some fun, you see some cool places.

Why does this matter?

The Fallout of it all

You can’t bring up The Outer Worlds without the immediate comparison to Fallout. Obsidian not only created a competitor, but they did so after creating a Fallout sequel themselves (New Vegas) - and two key developers of The Outer Worlds created the original two Fallout games. So, it’s personal. I also have never enjoyed an Elder Scrolls or Fallout experience, though I’ve tried many and sunk 10s of hours into them, to no avail. I was a hater before, and now I am a more well-informed hater. Part of playing The Outer Worlds for me was to test its mettle as an alternative to Fallout for people like me.

People who love a cohesive aesthetic. Who enjoy the wonder of exploration because of the fidelity of the area. Who enjoy form over function. Who enjoy playing a game, rather than pouring over guides, forums posts, and spreadsheets in hopes of a good time.

The game itself

Which isn’t to say there isn’t function in The Outer Worlds. What makes this game immediately enjoyable is how forgiving the leveling, stat, and perk systems are. Even if you don’t play RPGs, it’s hard not to make a build that will make the game more enjoyable for your play style - something completely missing from Fallout. You can, ’til this day, find forum posts in 2025 arguing about leveling builds and specialty final builds for Fallout: New Vegas. I will say as you progress the limited weapon diversity (four elemental types and a small set of weapons that have increasingly better tiers) and lack of game-changing abilities can make the excitement fade on the RPG side of things. Not to mention on Normal difficulty, this game is quite easy.

What is exceptional about the Outer Worlds is how no space is wasted.

Every area and every bin feels intentional. Rather than filling your pockets with every item you see - with no discernable way to assess its value - and becoming encumbered immediately, essentially everything you can pick up is worth something. If it isn’t, it’s auto-sorted into the “junk” category. This streamlines the exploration process by rewarding those going the extra mile with quality and simplicity. You just play the game, and the more you play and explore, the more you get rewarded.

Now, this can backfire. Where every step you take feels curated, it can feel boring. That a game about space exploration feels already trodden, and that there is no story for you to make. Instead of vast, sparse sandbox with organic discovery, you get small, curated, and siloed experiences. But the planets you do explore are special. They emanate a specific vibe and feel like a masterclass in whichever schtick they are trying to convey. Truly a feast for the eyes.

The game feels very linear. While there is the guise of an open world, there are few opportunities to go off-script or do quests out of order. However, it makes the game feel very cohesive and the story beats continuously aligned. You get the full intended experience, no matter what.

Game inspiration

Perhaps my favorite part of this game was seeing the heavy-hitter sci-fi games that directly influenced The Outer Worlds. The companion system, hub ship, and space exploration feels very akin to Mass Effect. Also, the companion ability/playstyle control feels very BioWare. Specifically the conversation right before the end of the main story. The writing, dialogue, and world-building feel Borderlands-inspired. It’s hard not to make the comparison with space capitalism and an intentionally unique, but one-dimensional writing style. Mechanically, the Fallout influence is clearly there. Just stripped of any frustration you could imagine, so it really feels less influential than I think most people say. Lastly, there were moments/side-quests that felt very reminiscent of Prey/BioShock. This is not an immersive sim, but the visual styles, first-person perspective, sci-fi setting, and the way you move around the world feel eerily similar at times.

I can’t describe in words, but it feels good to be in good company with these influences. The games I mentioned (sans Borderlands) are some of my favorite games I have ever played.

Other noteworthy game things

I can’t express how astounded I was that this game looks so great and plays so well in 2025. I am so used to games being buggy, broken, glitchy, and incomplete. This game looks AAA and I only ran into one bug in my 20 hours. It’s just so aesthetically cohesive. There is something so rare about opening a game and just playing the fucking game. With no extra effort. The game puts you on rails and you are on the ride until the end.

I know this game is renowned for its dialogue. I think the dialogue system holds up for a six year old game, but the content feels less so. Maybe its being around annoying leftist for most of my adult life, but the “hehe isn’t it funny that we made a world that’s like an explicit version of the one we are already in” felt on the nose in 2019, like it was trying too hard with the bit, and feels impossibly overdone in 2025. Not the games fault, but these are the times we live in. While the alternate reality roots of the game are interesting, I think it would have had more staying power as a take on American cyberpunk - inspired by the US’s conditions, rather than East Asia. It feels like there is little depth once you get past the joke. Whereas, Borderlands has a similar schtick (corporate, feudal brutality), but Handsome Jack has staying power because he is an original take on the character archetype.

Though, outside the corporate sheeple dribble, there are genuinely delightful dialogue moments. Parvati’s companion quest comes to mind. I like the RPG options for dialogue, but I didn’t experience any dialogue moments that wow-ed me with my high skill - I think their utility comes from the immersive sim-esque ability to solve problems with conversation, rather than combat. Again, a la Prey. But, it is very clear, this is not an immersive sim - you can barely jump.

A few highlights:

• Companion perk synergies with your character
• Gunplay and TD work really well: One of my major complaints about Fallout is how terrible it feels to do any form of combat, especially gunplay. Outer Worlds is well above passable in this respect and that is majorly appreciated.
• Late-game science guns: I didn’t like the science guns at first. The Shrink Ray felt incompatible with my build, as did the Prismatic Hammer. But, the Mind Control gun was excellent. I ended up having so much fun when I made myself work it in to my play style.
• Faults/flaws system: Very novel system. This felt like the only real stakes for character building in the game.
• The world design: Where Fallout feels like a cobbled together Gary’s mod experiment, Outer Worlds communicates so much environmentally. The personality and culture of this world is plastered in neon everywhere you look. The fidelity of the images never fades. I just seeing that stupid moon-headed man.

Okay, I wasn’t done with the Fallout stuff

Yet, this game is better than any Bethesda title I have played. I know that the closest in release date was Fallout 4 in 2015 (still four years earlier, a whole game release cycle after), but I can’t help but express how little fun I have in those games. And The Outer Worlds let me finally understand why.

Bethesda games have an exceptionally low fun-floor, and a very high fun-ceiling. Anything can happen and the friction - both accidental, like the bugs, and the intentional, the systems - inspired by its turn-based, survival roots place you in very novel situations. However, it takes a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooot of leeway for those moments to pay off. I didn’t find wandering around Skyrim’s wilderness with fuckall happening hours on end worth it, nor did I like being one-shot by an oversized ant when I left the first god-damned town in FNV. For most players it’s either a buggy, okay experience or a game that will leave an indelible mark on the player forever.

The Outer Worlds solves every problem you could have with Fallout. The Outer Worlds is beautiful, where Fallout looked awful on launch, and worse today. The Outer Worlds works. Playing almost any Fallout game requires an acceptance of bugs or a treasure trove of mods. The Outer Worlds has a leveling system that is accessible and makes any build fun. Fallout at best rewards spreadsheet nerds and at worse ruins your character. The Outer Worlds guarantees a narrative payoff, Fallout is the all about the journey.

The only catch?

It’s not going to be as memorable. There aren’t going to be moments that are yours. Yes, the build will be yours. Yes, the decisions you make are yours. However, you aren’t going to pick a lock, go into the basement, open a casket and get turned into a vampire on accident because you decided not to check-in with anyone when you arrived into a new town. I don’t think there will be a singular moment in The Outer Worlds that I remember like I do that moment in Skyrim - a game I never completed.

The final word

Perhaps the greatest accomplishment of the Outer Worlds is that they created an enjoyable and discernibly different game than the many AAA heavy hitters. They have earned a place in the conversation. And they did so with essentially no bugs, which is enough commendation on its own!

Give it a play!