Details
The Outer Worlds is an action role-playing game developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Private Division. The game was released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows on October 25, 2019, with a Nintendo Switch version to be released in 2020. The game received generally favorable reviews from critics.
The Outer Worlds is an action role-playing video game featuring a first-person perspective. In the early stages of the game, the player can create their own character and unlock a ship, which acts as the game's central hub space. Though the player cannot control their ship directly, it serves as a fast travel point to access different areas in the game and acts as the player's persistent inventory space. The player can encounter and recruit non-player characters as companions who have their own personal missions and stories. When accompanying the player, the companions act as an aid in combat. Each companion has its own individual skills and special attacks, and it can also develop its own skill specialization. When exploring, the player can bring up to two companions alongside them, while the rest stay on the ship. The player can make numerous dialogue decisions, which can influence the game's branching story. They can also respond to NPCs in various ways, such as acting heroically, maniacally, or moronically.
During combat situations, the player can use various weapon types such as melee and firearms, which have three ammo types: light, heavy and energy. These weapons can be customized to add elemental damage. The player can use stealth or social skills (persuasion) to avoid combat altogether. As the player progresses, they gain experience points, which the player and their companions can use to level up and unlock new skills. The player can develop their technical skills, which are further divided into three categories: Science, Medical, and Engineering. For instance, the player can use a shrink ray to shrink down an enemy. The player is able to invest points into these skills, which will unlock new perks that enhance combat efficiency. The player can also enter a "Tactical Time Dilation" state, which slows down time and reveals opponents' health statistics, which grants the player tactical advantages. As the player leads their companions, they improve their companions' combat strength and resilience. The player can also gain a "flaw" that occurs when the player fails repeatedly in certain gameplay segments. Flaws impede the player in some way, but also give additional perks and advantages.
The game is developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Take-Two Interactive's publishing label Private Division. Though Obsidian was in progress to be acquired by Microsoft Studios at the time of the game's announcement, the project had been under development before that point, and Take-Two had secured the publishing rights prior to Microsoft's acquisition offer.
Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky, the creators of the Fallout series, served as the game's directors. The duo directors described the game as "the combination of [Boyarsky's] dark morbidity and Tim's silliness", and they hoped to seek a balance between silliness and drama when creating the game's tone and narrative. Romantic options were initially considered, but the feature was eventually cut by the studio. The game's writers include Boyarsky and Megan Starks.
The game has been in development since at least May 2016, when Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart mentioned that a small number of people in the studio which included Cain and Boyarsky were working on "something completely new" in the Unreal Engine during an interview with Game Pressure. Obsidian later revealed the game's development in 2017. In December 2017, Private Division announced the project as their first slate of published games. It was announced at The Game Awards 2018 in December, and was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on October 25, 2019. In March 2019, it was announced that the game would release exclusively on the Epic Games Store and Microsoft Store, with its original Steam release being delayed for at least one year. Fan response to the announcement was negative. In July 2019, Obsidian announced the game would also be released on the Nintendo Switch in 2020.
