Post by Tig on Dec 17, 2021 10:40:35 GMT -5
I've been playing The Outer Worlds by Obsidian on PS4 since April. It's a HUGE story-driven RPG-light with tons of dialogue developed by some of the original makers of Fallout 1 and 2. It looks like it was made more by the people from Fallout 3 and 4 because the animation and character modeling, as well as how dialogue is presented, is exactly the same format, so it feels like a recent Fallout mod more than a new game. I want to say I've been playing it eight months because it's good, but I keep stopping for weeks at a time before returning to it. For as much text and voice-acting there is in the game, and there's a lot, it's really not that interesting. In a Firefly-type universe where man has expanded to stellar outposts and they terraform and build little Wild West towns, global corporations have taken over everything. The objective of humanity has turned from exploration and survival to gaining profits for a company, creating this land-grab rush and, at times, deadly competition between faceless corporate entities. It's a great idea and it's supported by fun art and impressive ideological and philosophical twists. The problem is, after you've been on the first planet and talked to several people, you've played most of the game. Almost all the weapon models are unlocked immediately and each planet is made up of repeating textures and objects, many found across different planets. No matter where I am, I pass the same crate, the same building, am challenged by the same thug, and I shoot them with the same weapon. Each planet has a gorgeous distinct landscape, making some really cool screenshots, but there are only four or five models for wild animals on each planet and they all look the same. The colors are dazzling but the pallet never changes so they all look like different parts of the same planet. The same people wearing the same clothes all drone on about boring corporate interference to the point that I'm skipping dialogue left and right, which is problematic when I have to make a choice on something and realize I haven't been listening. The entire game just turns into white noise because of repetition in almost every aspect.
Then a part of the main mission snaps into place or there's a twist to one of the millions of side missions and I'm back on board. Avoiding my usual loadout for stealth ranger, I went with loud ranger with a high persuasion rank and talk as much as I shoot, which is a very useful skill in such a heavy dialogue-based game. The missions vary widely from seek and destroy to grocery runs, scavenger hunts, getting two people to talk to each other, etc. At face value there's a thousand hours worth of gameplay here with tons of missions, and 2 DLC's available. As an amateur author, however, I'm curious what the process was to monitor and approve the writing. I really don't feel like the people that created the dialogue and mapped the story had an objective person look over their shoulder and say, "It's supposed to be a parody; don't have them actually talk like business people." I don't play a game to listen to Mark Cuban run his mouth. So I lose interest put the game down, and come back after several weeks. I have no less than five unfinished games on my PS4 alone; I'm determined to finish this one, even if I have to sleep through the dialogue to get there.
Then a part of the main mission snaps into place or there's a twist to one of the millions of side missions and I'm back on board. Avoiding my usual loadout for stealth ranger, I went with loud ranger with a high persuasion rank and talk as much as I shoot, which is a very useful skill in such a heavy dialogue-based game. The missions vary widely from seek and destroy to grocery runs, scavenger hunts, getting two people to talk to each other, etc. At face value there's a thousand hours worth of gameplay here with tons of missions, and 2 DLC's available. As an amateur author, however, I'm curious what the process was to monitor and approve the writing. I really don't feel like the people that created the dialogue and mapped the story had an objective person look over their shoulder and say, "It's supposed to be a parody; don't have them actually talk like business people." I don't play a game to listen to Mark Cuban run his mouth. So I lose interest put the game down, and come back after several weeks. I have no less than five unfinished games on my PS4 alone; I'm determined to finish this one, even if I have to sleep through the dialogue to get there.