Is The Outer Worlds Worth A Play?

The outer worlds is free to those possessing the Xbox ultimate pass at the moment. It is one of the systems flagship titles, giving the service some much-needed prestige. But is it actually any good? Well, we decided to check it out. No, it wasn’t just a cheap excuse to play video games instead of doing dishes.

What is it?

At its heart, Outer Worlds is a space fearing RPG. The storyline sees your character escape a containment unit on a space ship. It would appear he is one of many held in stasis in a ship sent into space to potentially colonise an alien world. Your character is freed by a kind of anti-authority eco-terrorist type and thus your adventure begins.

Graphics

I played through the game on a large 4k TV using my Xbox One X and let me tell you this, this is a very pretty game. You know when you’re married to the perfect woman, she’s gorgeous, funny and you’d never be unfaithful but just occasionally you walk past someone so attractive that you and your wife both stop and exclaim “Dayum” well that is the perfect metaphor for how sexy this game is. From the opening moments, you feel you are in a vibrant and engaging world.

Sound

This is both a plus and a negative for the game. The soundtrack itself is unremarkable but not jarring, sound effects are perfunctory and help set the scene. There is nothing particularly groundbreaking here. Dialogue is great and helps move the story along with a dose of humour. It’s just a shame that we only get dialogue for the people we are talking to. We don’t get to hear our own character talking. This can take you out of the experience a little and in my opinion, is a system that has always been a black mark on otherwise great games like Dragon Age, but hey that’s just one guy’s opinion. What do I know?

Gameplay

The gameplay is as slick as you’d expect from the team that brought us Fallout. In fact, it will probably seem very familiar to fans of the franchise. Don’t get me wrong this isn’t Fallout in space (although most of us would buy THAT game) but if you love Fallout you will be happy here. There is also a bit of a Mass Effect vibe to proceedings and that is no bad thing all you have to know is that combat feels slick and exploring is satisfying.

Story

The underlying story is handled beautifully. I won’t spoil anything but it is a game worth playing through. Side quests are often a lot of fun as well and worth taking your time to complete. What this game does well is making sure that none of its content appears tacked on. Everything seems pretty well polished, which makes its free-to-play price tag on Xbox even more impressive.

Should I buy it?

If you’re an Xbox user there is no need and the question should be should I download it. The answer is an emphatic yes. Their campaign should keep you going for a good few weeks and the storyline is intriguing enough to warrant it. To be wholly honest if you have a decent resolution TV or monitor it is worth a try purely to gasp at the gorgeous visuals. This is a very pretty game. Comparisons between Fallout and Mass Effect are obvious ones to make but this game is neither of those games. So if you are fans of those series this is worth a try but probably won’t totally satiate that hunger.