Topic: The Outer Worlds Discussion

If I may chime in I'd 100% recommend you try Fallout New Vegas if you can @Th3solution (Though the performance is really REALLY choppy on PS3 and has the same memory leak issues that Skyrim had on PS3) as it has a rather well written story with the multiple factions, some really interesting quests and the DLC is pretty good stuff too.

Fallout 4 is really watered down compared to NV or even 3 (Which I'm not as enamoured with compared to most people. I also don't think much of Skyrim despite multiple attempts and having loved oblivion).

It's fun enough gameplay wise but it's really buggy like any bethesda release, it doesn't particularly look very nice, the story is naff, the dialogue options are completely worthless, the added microtransaction shop is horsesh*t... The DLC doesn't really change things up too much (Though the locations themselves are fairly nice) & the encampment/base building stuff was annoying and clunky as hell to work with.

... Nick Valentine was kinda cool. That... was basically the only character I really liked/was rather interesting in Fallout 4 😄

@Th3solution It's not a terrible game it's just not a brilliant game either. If you haven't played Fallout 3 (my personal favourite) or New Vegas then you will probably enjoy it based on the fact you don't have a reference from either of them games. The story's are alot better or 3 and NV the side quests are better on them 2 games, levelling up seemed more rewarding also.

The game is a bit buggy like most Bethesda games, the Encampment building side is as time consuming as you make it, I got bored so just left them to there own defences by the end of it. I would say give it a go seen as you haven't played the other 2 but as Kid already stated it's not essential your not missing out on a classic if you don't play it.

@MaulTsir @Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy @Kidfried Thanks for the input. It makes sense. Perhaps I’ll see how I get along with Outer Worlds before I plan on anything else. I’ve only just begun, but I do remember after finishing Skyrim on PS3 I was hungry for something like it and bounced around but never found my way to Fallout. I think I was looking exclusively in the fantasy realm and not in the Sci-Fi realm at the time. That’s how I came upon Kingdoms of Amalur, Dragon’s Dogma, and Dragon Age. For some reason the Fallout franchise has never caught my eye.

Like Maul very accurately points out you don't have a frame of reference for the Fallout series compared to the rest of us so that'd be a benefit no doubt if you ended up giving Fallout 4 a shot @Th3solution. With it being part of the PS Plus collection on PS5 there's no harm I suppose in giving it a shot. It's free after all (beyond your valuable time of course)

Fallout 3 & Fallout NV are very drab looking (In the main game especially) and made before Skyrim's updated engine too so... They probably look quite ugly going back to those and Fallout 4 at least has some colour injected into it. 😅

Hope you enjoy the Outer Worlds sol... I've not purchased it myself but I've been tempted and interested in it from everyone else's praise of it and I'll be following your progress/thoughts on it!

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Yeah, as far as color, Outer Worlds seems to have remedied that shortcoming, as the game is quite colorful and bright so far. My first alternate armor I’ve found is a multicolored patchwork quilt of sorts! I love it! Perhaps the drab monotone color palette was a lot of what turned me off about the fallout series, although Skyrim is no basket of fruit in that regard either. But I was going through a dragon phase in my life, clearly, and was trying to find any game that had dragons in it.

Also I wasn’t sure the Fallout games relied upon prior knowledge of the series, narrative-wise and I felt hesitant to jump into something in the middle, thinking I might be lost as to what l’s going on or who’s who. It seems clear to me now that each installment is narratively independent of one another, although I’m sure there are winks and nods to series fans that would go over my head.

@Th3solution I thoroughly enjoyed Fallout 4, but was a little disappointed by how dumbed down the RPG mechanics are compared to 3 and New Vegas. One of the biggest changes is instead of being able to assign skill points as you level up, there is now a table of perks to choose from. I didn't particularly like the base building and agree with @Kidfried that it's quite gimmicky. A lot of the gameplay seems to be based around it (and building up bases too much tanks the game's frame rate), but there is still a large number of regular RPGish quests.

@Kidfried Ooh The Outer Worlds is hilarious! I love its sense of humour. Parvati is awesome too.

@Th3solution Fallout 4 is fine but I think tried to make itself too much of an action RPG. I still had fun with it and keep toying with a repay as I’ve been to Boston since playing it!

Outer Worlds is a good looking game though, like you say, and each world does feel quite distinct which I really liked. In a lot of ways the game does “less is more” in that way by focusing on a small number of places but does overload you with things to do in them.

How far in are you at the moment?

@Thrillho Oh, I’m not far. I’m at the first town, have taken on a handful of side quests. I’m supposed to be finding a power source for the ship that I’m basically stealing and posing as the dead captain of. I spent way too much time mucking around with the character creator, like I always do. And since I’m new to the Fallout type series I’m playing around with the mechanics and it’s all new to me, so it’s taking some time.

Is it advantageous to wander around and explore, or is it just better to go straight to the objective markers? I’ve been spending some time wandering around the outside areas and occasionally I find a little marauder camp or a lockbox with an item in it, but mostly it seems like the game isn’t designed to reward exploration, but I’m not sure. I don’t want to miss something key. Do you typically get plenty of XP by just playing through the main quests and a few side quests?

@Th3solution
I'd say you're far better off speaking to a bunch of npcs and getting some quests first in this game. The quests you get should take you to most areas naturally.

@Th3solution You can do what you like really but very early in the game most enemies will be higher level than you. I didn’t struggle too much but it’s easy to come across an enemy who will overpower you.

With multiple small(ish) worlds rather than one massive map like Fallout though, you’re never going to run into anything that will one hit kill you as it’s waaaay too overpowered to you. And as said above, you’ll end up going to all the main areas eventually anyway.

There aren’t really any quests like Skyrim that will trigger by stumbling on a magical item in the pocket of an enemy or anything.