The Outer Worlds review for PS4, Xbox One, PC

If you?re an RPG fan, you?ve likely enjoyed an Obsidian Entertainment developed game or two. Whether that was Alpha Protocol, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, or Fallout: New Vegas, Obsidian has maintained a pretty solid track record over the years. You?ll find that their newest release, The Outer Worlds, only manages to bolster that record considerably. Borrowing elements found in their previous works, The Outer Worlds offers an amazing level of exploration and excitement that propels you forward throughout the engaging single-player narrative, making it one of the best games you?ll play all year.

The easy comparison here is that The Outer Worlds feels like Fallout in space. You wouldn?t necessarily be wrong in that comparison, but The Outer Worlds elevates that concept a bit by offering up some spectacular vistas through the locations that you visit, compelling side quests, and some of the best companions to ever be featured in an RPG. It also cuts out the long-winded nature found in other, similar RPG?s, making for a shorter, more interesting experience overall.

For those that aren?t familiar with Fallout or Obsidian?s previous works, The Outer Worlds puts you behind the perspective of a silent protagonist, built from scratch using a fairly robust character creator. There?s a lot of skills that affect things like melee/ranged damage, defense, intelligence, stealth and so on. As you gain experience and level up you?ll earn points to further enhance skills with bonuses granted every 20 points applied. For every other level up, you?ll also earn perks for additional bonuses to further customize your character. 

Combat is focused on melee and ranged weapons. It?s also probably the weakest element in The Outer Worlds, requiring you to bump up the difficulty level also immediately if you want any sort of challenge. There?s not enough weapon variety or enemy variance to liven up most encounters, and the result is that most of your enjoyment comes from avoiding combat as much as possible. You can still earn experience in a variety of ways, so avoiding fights isn?t completely detrimental, however, it?s odd to have such a weak element present in an otherwise polished product. 

And I think polished is the right word to use in conjunction with The Outer Worlds. These types of open-world RPG?s are notorious for various bugs, but overall I had very few problems pop-up during my time with the game. No broken quests, missing NPC?s or teleporting enemies occurred to impede my progress. I also never found myself stuck on the environment, and on a PS4 Pro, I found the framerate to be rock steady more often than not. The only technical issue that really stood out was the font size, which is far too small for anyone that sits a decent distance away from their television. 

The Outer Worlds is an absolute steal if you?re opting to go the Xbox Game Pass route, but even at $60, it?s well worth your time. It?s exciting to see a viable alternative to the Fallout series, which is exactly what Obsidian has created here.

Note: Private Division provided us with The Outer Worlds PS4 code for review purposes.