no Outer Worlds 2 thread ???
- Thread starter DigDog
- Start date
sandorski
No Lifer
- Oct 10, 1999
- 70,794
- 6,352
- 126
- Jun 3, 2011
- 14,675
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oof. i guess i must be out of touch with the general populace.
What i like:
1. it's hard.
i did choose "hard" at the beginning, and then imagine my shocked pikachu face when the game turned out to be hard! who coulda known. But yeah, mobs do hit hard, requiring me to squeeze out every ounce of FPS sk1lz to take them down. Which is a welcome change since in F3 only Cazadors and Deathclaws had a chance to hurt me.
2. dialogue aren't expositional.
You need to pay attention to what people say, and guess which attitude is going to work to manipulate them. Speaking to NPCs actually takes effort.
3. the game hides information well.
Just like IRL, you don't have an arrow pointing you to the keycard on the desk, but just to the generic area where your target might be.
The visuals are ok. The combat is .. acceptable. The game mechanics are a bit weird, but i got used to them fairly quickly. Enemies are a bit too spongy, but i put that down to having starter weapons.
The movement is not great; you have a doublejump which is integral to the gameplay, but at the same time the geometry doesn't allow for any creativity, there are too many hidden "ledge grab area" everywhere, but if they are not there you can't really interact with the map - creative exploration doesn't exist.
finally, i would say that the world building is perhaps the closest thing i have seen to the original Fallout 1. It really has *that* kind of absurdist, grim aspect about it, made up of fanaticism, ignorance, and having accepted the twisted reality that the NPCs are born in - between the hyperconsumeristic Auntie's Choice, and the drone-like quality of the Protectorate.
What i like:
1. it's hard.
i did choose "hard" at the beginning, and then imagine my shocked pikachu face when the game turned out to be hard! who coulda known. But yeah, mobs do hit hard, requiring me to squeeze out every ounce of FPS sk1lz to take them down. Which is a welcome change since in F3 only Cazadors and Deathclaws had a chance to hurt me.
2. dialogue aren't expositional.
You need to pay attention to what people say, and guess which attitude is going to work to manipulate them. Speaking to NPCs actually takes effort.
3. the game hides information well.
Just like IRL, you don't have an arrow pointing you to the keycard on the desk, but just to the generic area where your target might be.
The visuals are ok. The combat is .. acceptable. The game mechanics are a bit weird, but i got used to them fairly quickly. Enemies are a bit too spongy, but i put that down to having starter weapons.
The movement is not great; you have a doublejump which is integral to the gameplay, but at the same time the geometry doesn't allow for any creativity, there are too many hidden "ledge grab area" everywhere, but if they are not there you can't really interact with the map - creative exploration doesn't exist.
finally, i would say that the world building is perhaps the closest thing i have seen to the original Fallout 1. It really has *that* kind of absurdist, grim aspect about it, made up of fanaticism, ignorance, and having accepted the twisted reality that the NPCs are born in - between the hyperconsumeristic Auntie's Choice, and the drone-like quality of the Protectorate.
- Jun 3, 2011
- 14,675
- 3,022
- 136
- Jun 3, 2011
- 14,675
- 3,022
- 136
brief update, i have found this game to be really growing on me.
and then i had a game-breaking bug.
i have since restarted, but it took me a whole day to shake off the annoyance of having wasted 14 hours.
on the main quest, a dead body that is supposed to hold a keycard without which you cannot advance, has not spawned in. at the same time, a machine you're supposed to interact with bugged and, after interacting with it, i lost the ability to interact with some other machines .. one of which is the navigation system in my ship, which allows me to change map. completely stuck, can't be fixed.
and then i had a game-breaking bug.
i have since restarted, but it took me a whole day to shake off the annoyance of having wasted 14 hours.
on the main quest, a dead body that is supposed to hold a keycard without which you cannot advance, has not spawned in. at the same time, a machine you're supposed to interact with bugged and, after interacting with it, i lost the ability to interact with some other machines .. one of which is the navigation system in my ship, which allows me to change map. completely stuck, can't be fixed.
- Jun 3, 2011
- 14,675
- 3,022
- 136
after the restart i managed to get back to the spot where i was stuck, and pass it. it seems a mob that was carrying a keycard may have fallen off of the geometry into a void during my previous run.
for those playing it, it's the first fight on Greater Tranquillity station - you will be fighting 2 mechs and a handful of flies, and at least 1 human that holds the card.
THIS spot: https://img.game8.co/4323172/7000877bb17c362b8491057f445b497d.mp4/show
for those playing it, it's the first fight on Greater Tranquillity station - you will be fighting 2 mechs and a handful of flies, and at least 1 human that holds the card.
THIS spot: https://img.game8.co/4323172/7000877bb17c362b8491057f445b497d.mp4/show
EXCellR8
Diamond Member
- Sep 1, 2010
- 4,076
- 906
- 136
It's alright. I'm all for half-serious space shenanigans, but there've been times where it feels a bit exhausting. I also feel like every single gun I have is terrible; that makes combat a lot less fun.
I'll most likely stick with it and play for a few more hours, because I do like Obsidian stuff, but if it doesn't hook me in I might dip early.
I'll most likely stick with it and play for a few more hours, because I do like Obsidian stuff, but if it doesn't hook me in I might dip early.
- Jun 3, 2011
- 14,675
- 3,022
- 136
OW2 suffers from the same problem as the Oblivion remaster - the difficulty levels are unbalanced.
I started playing on Hard (there's Easy, Normal, Hard, and even harder?) because i figured, i got a ton of experience in what is essentially a FPS, and it was brutal. Mobs hit incredibly hard, generally 2 hits means you're dead, maybe 3-4 hits with the shield.
After the restart i played on Normal, and then switched back to Hard once i got back to where i was before. The difference is night and day, on Normal you mow down monsters by just pressing fire. On Hard i was crouching for my life, more than once.
Once you get geared up, the game flows a lot smoother. The various assault rifles you find on the second planet are vastly better. Now, there *is* a mechanic where you're supposed to match damage type to monster, for example, a incendiary shotgun will rekk animals, and a shock SMG will rekk automatons .. but it's not mandatory once you have more capable guns.
Putting points into the Guns skill is almost mandatory, though; good thing at least it boosts all guns, not just rifles.
i also found very early on, during my second playthrough, an armor that has 22 base; before that i had the plasma caster armor that was 11-rating. I have no idea where i found it.
One problem that is very real with these games is that, i'm constantly picking up TONS of junk. There is no weight limit, but when i'm picking up literally hundreds of coils, springs, flywheels, vodka, biscuits, crisps, nuts, bolts, cannisters, energy cells, animal skins, etc there is absolutely no way i can actually pay attention to what i'm picking up. (almost) none of them are particularly important and the resale value is very low, because you're basically meant to hoover up all this just, constantly.
it's not a perfect game, but i am really liking it a lot. I tend to be very negative when it comes to RPGs, so this is particularly unusual for me.
- Jun 3, 2011
- 14,675
- 3,022
- 136
well, i have completed the game. here is my spoiler review.
game was overall fun.
had a handful of bugs, one of which serious, which forced me to restart. i have not found others with the same bug online, so i cannot say how rare it is.
other minor bugs, once my quest markers disappeared, restart fixed it. once i had a npc block me in a room, restart fixed it. When fullscreen, alt-tabbing crashed the game, about 50% of the time.
the combat was good, which is quite important to me in these kind of games, and was also really bad in OW1. there's plenty of viable weapons, and they are all basically point & shoot, there is some small bonus if you couple weapons & targets, e.g. fire with animals, shock with robots, but it's a minor thing that you don't need to pay much attention to.
you get almost immediately double-jump and a shield, which actually gave combat some depth. stealth is also fairly well done, although if you try stealth and you fail, you're gonna be up the creek. you also do get extra gadgets that you'll use maybe twice, and then they disappear.
there are several different maps "planets", but by the end of map 3 you're pretty much maxed with your weapons. there is a good variety of fun weapons, but imho when you get the heavy machinegun, which for once has realistic range, and pinpoint accuracy, you'll use that until the end of the game.
gathering loot was a chore. you're not exactly starved for resources, but also not swimming in them either.
you do get the option of many different builds, but when it comes to equipment, it's really barebones - one helmet, one armor, two guns. no rings, boots, capes, anything like that. skill checks are reasonable, but you will still probably get 4-5 skills to 10 (out of 20) instead of putting a bit into everything. you cannot lock yourself out of the game though, so if you really want, you can do that too.
you get 6 companions, all with their own subquests. these were .. good characters, if you accept that they are not stereotypes, so a couple of them can be .. difficult. the main guy you get, Niles, is such a dumb asshole, and ?Ilsa? is another one that i really could not stand. You can however just dismiss them and they will be gone for good. You can only have 2 companions when you are in-game, and each has special abilities and levels up too; but, they are really weak in combat, some are useless. You may occasionally need a specific companion to progress in a quest. Each companion represents one of the factions in the game, the Order, the Protectorate, Auntie's Choice, a cultist of the rift, and then you, Niles and the robot VAL are from Earth Directorate.
The politics are kinda weak. As far as *i* can tell, you really only get the choice to either side with Auntie's Choice, or with the Order. And frankly it's not a difficult choice.
The dialogues were pretty strong. I liked pretty much everyone, NPCs, companions (except Niles), major and minor antagonists, and yeah maybe a couple are assholes, but that's life. I had enough fun that i played as my character rather than trying to minmax my success.
There is a clear Fallout 1/2 vibe to the game, best seen in the art and in the factions. They are all .. potentially realistic, but at the same time absurd, but not past the point where it just wouldn't work. The Protectorate is a fascist police state, the Order are agonizingly tedious science nerds, Auntie's are hyperconsumeristic to the point of near-enslavement, and the cultists are just standard-issue insane.
The story overall was good, with some caveats.
1. it is obvious that the first planet got the most attention and depth, the second less, the third even less, and from the fourth onwards it's vastly less detailed and with vastly less content.
2. quests are well done, scripting was generally fine, but later on you get several quests which look like they are independent, but you actually cannot complete any of them until you complete other steps from others quests of the same group, so making it just a single big quest divided into different-name quests.
3. game balance is .. decent. fairly typical for a game of this nature. guns early on are fairly weak, and ammo isn't abundant, which kinda sucks because early on is also the time where you get the most freedom to roam freely and explore. Later on, you now CAN just casually walk around the map and investigate every monster cave .. except that the devs have not had the time to give the later portions of the game the same level of depth and polish that the first parts have. So you're all dressed up with nowhere to go.
4. i felt the story was well paced, but also that about midpoint we just got to the end, but the end was stretched out a lot. And also this last part is quite linear, almost a gauntlet.
All in all i would say this is a much bigger win for Obsidian than OW1 was. I'm not sure why OW1 got more praise, back then, when it was clearly inferior, and this instead got shrugs if not hate, while being superior.
I would recommend this. It's a good Fallout experience. It's not as open world, but then again it does better in other parts. Sure, comparing it to a game from 2008 maybe is not completely fair, but we're talking game design, not product quality.
game was overall fun.
had a handful of bugs, one of which serious, which forced me to restart. i have not found others with the same bug online, so i cannot say how rare it is.
other minor bugs, once my quest markers disappeared, restart fixed it. once i had a npc block me in a room, restart fixed it. When fullscreen, alt-tabbing crashed the game, about 50% of the time.
the combat was good, which is quite important to me in these kind of games, and was also really bad in OW1. there's plenty of viable weapons, and they are all basically point & shoot, there is some small bonus if you couple weapons & targets, e.g. fire with animals, shock with robots, but it's a minor thing that you don't need to pay much attention to.
you get almost immediately double-jump and a shield, which actually gave combat some depth. stealth is also fairly well done, although if you try stealth and you fail, you're gonna be up the creek. you also do get extra gadgets that you'll use maybe twice, and then they disappear.
there are several different maps "planets", but by the end of map 3 you're pretty much maxed with your weapons. there is a good variety of fun weapons, but imho when you get the heavy machinegun, which for once has realistic range, and pinpoint accuracy, you'll use that until the end of the game.
gathering loot was a chore. you're not exactly starved for resources, but also not swimming in them either.
you do get the option of many different builds, but when it comes to equipment, it's really barebones - one helmet, one armor, two guns. no rings, boots, capes, anything like that. skill checks are reasonable, but you will still probably get 4-5 skills to 10 (out of 20) instead of putting a bit into everything. you cannot lock yourself out of the game though, so if you really want, you can do that too.
you get 6 companions, all with their own subquests. these were .. good characters, if you accept that they are not stereotypes, so a couple of them can be .. difficult. the main guy you get, Niles, is such a dumb asshole, and ?Ilsa? is another one that i really could not stand. You can however just dismiss them and they will be gone for good. You can only have 2 companions when you are in-game, and each has special abilities and levels up too; but, they are really weak in combat, some are useless. You may occasionally need a specific companion to progress in a quest. Each companion represents one of the factions in the game, the Order, the Protectorate, Auntie's Choice, a cultist of the rift, and then you, Niles and the robot VAL are from Earth Directorate.
The politics are kinda weak. As far as *i* can tell, you really only get the choice to either side with Auntie's Choice, or with the Order. And frankly it's not a difficult choice.
The dialogues were pretty strong. I liked pretty much everyone, NPCs, companions (except Niles), major and minor antagonists, and yeah maybe a couple are assholes, but that's life. I had enough fun that i played as my character rather than trying to minmax my success.
There is a clear Fallout 1/2 vibe to the game, best seen in the art and in the factions. They are all .. potentially realistic, but at the same time absurd, but not past the point where it just wouldn't work. The Protectorate is a fascist police state, the Order are agonizingly tedious science nerds, Auntie's are hyperconsumeristic to the point of near-enslavement, and the cultists are just standard-issue insane.
The story overall was good, with some caveats.
1. it is obvious that the first planet got the most attention and depth, the second less, the third even less, and from the fourth onwards it's vastly less detailed and with vastly less content.
2. quests are well done, scripting was generally fine, but later on you get several quests which look like they are independent, but you actually cannot complete any of them until you complete other steps from others quests of the same group, so making it just a single big quest divided into different-name quests.
3. game balance is .. decent. fairly typical for a game of this nature. guns early on are fairly weak, and ammo isn't abundant, which kinda sucks because early on is also the time where you get the most freedom to roam freely and explore. Later on, you now CAN just casually walk around the map and investigate every monster cave .. except that the devs have not had the time to give the later portions of the game the same level of depth and polish that the first parts have. So you're all dressed up with nowhere to go.
4. i felt the story was well paced, but also that about midpoint we just got to the end, but the end was stretched out a lot. And also this last part is quite linear, almost a gauntlet.
All in all i would say this is a much bigger win for Obsidian than OW1 was. I'm not sure why OW1 got more praise, back then, when it was clearly inferior, and this instead got shrugs if not hate, while being superior.
I would recommend this. It's a good Fallout experience. It's not as open world, but then again it does better in other parts. Sure, comparing it to a game from 2008 maybe is not completely fair, but we're talking game design, not product quality.
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