New adventures and greedy corporations await you in The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition.
Most video games do not get the chance to give a great first impression twice, especially after four years and plenty of other releases in the meantime. The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition, developed by classic RPG creator Obsidian Entertainment and published by Private Division, aims to create the ultimate way to experience this well received shooter RPG in a neatly arranged package with all the bells and whistles you would expect from a current-gen upgrade.
Although this bundle certainly has a few issues, for this game to exist is a constant reminder of Obsidian’s expertise as a narrative powerhouse. Among their previous work included is Fallout New Vegas, released in 2011, and their pedigree as a developer shines in The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition as a First Person Shooter with strong argument and art style. Obsidian has always excelled at offering creative sandboxes for players to get lost in, paired with impressive environmental storytelling.
The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition starts with the somewhat robust character creation, which depending on each playstyle, could take you quite a while to create or just a few seconds with the game’s preconceived options. It is here where most of your playthrough will be defined, as you could choose to be an outlaw with no persuasion skills or a diplomat with a silver tongue, effectively ending any kind of conflict before it begins.
By a stroke of luck, you are a colonist frozen on a stranded ship rescued by Phineas Welles, a rebel scientist whose goal is clear and appears to be well-intentioned. He requests that you aid him in finding certain chemicals that are hard to find and are needed to wake up the rest of the colonists to help its ailing galaxy. It’s a simple enough goal to keep the plot moving fairly quickly and with not much exposition. Once you are done with introductions, you are dumped on the first planet, Terra 2, which serves as a tutorial area to introduce you to the game’s many quests and decisions you will have to make.
A brilliant aspect of The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition is its many branching paths you could take, all being morally ambiguous. The quests are divided in several ways, from Companion, Faction, Task, Main and even Botched quests, all fulfilling an important role in your quest to discover the many mysteries the universe of The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition has to offer.
Dialogue choices can be defined in your run, as it can be as easy as just taking the easy route and entering guns blazing to any situation, or you can try to choose and help the many different characters you will meet. You can also just make a situation worse if you choose to do so. That is a shining aspect of the game that you get to experience time and time again, and it is gratifying to make a choice every single time.
As soon as you start playing, you soon find that all the settlements you find are actually run by corporations, which you eventually learn are the real antagonists, as corporate greed and indifference run the whole show. The way the game approaches this sad state of the galaxy is with wit and dark humor, and if sarcasm is your cup of tea, you are certain to have a good chuckle every few moments with the dialogues in The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition.
RPG elements baked into the experience include leveling up and unlocking certain perks that enhance your playthrough, like moving faster, making more damage when shooting or being better at certain dialogue choices with or without companions by your side.
Companions are also an important part of the experience as they let you go on their personal sidequests. You get to learn more about them, from the noble worker Parvati, voiced by Ashly Burch or the alcoholic adventurer Nyoka, played by Mara Junot. Depending on who is in your team, your members can also interject in between your conversations with NPCs, livening up the dialogues and having several interesting chats when roaming the open world.
As part of The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition, the first DLC, Peril on Gorgon, opens up a new meteor with a mysterious case pitting you against one of the many corporations and their evil agendas, opening an exciting new area full of action and mayhem. Murder on Eridanos was a particular highlight of the expansions, as it expands on an already great storytelling making you an independent investigator on the case to solve the murder of a famous actress. If whodunits are your jam, it is guaranteed you will have a good time with this extra content.
Different planets, moons and asteroids surrounding the galaxy offer a wide variety of environments, with each biome giving a rich amount of possibilities, characters and quests for the player to embark upon. Each new area opens up a wealth of opportunities that are up to the player to pursue, and with the night-day cycle changing the saturated and colorful art style of The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition, all the charm of each area encourages you to explore every nook and cranny.
While the shooting of The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition is not stellar, it is still a decent FPS that accomplishes what it sets out to do. Abilities such as the “Tactical Time Dilation” that basically slows down time to give you a breather in the middle of combat spice things up a little. It is possible to also dodge by pressing the jump button twice, which is especially helpful when trying to evade a powerful attack coming your way.
Weapons of note are the ones categorized as “science weapons” such as the shrink ray and gloop gun (that throws bubbles of goo) that can be usually found after elaborate side missions. The only changes that should be added for future installments are the feel of each weapon to make them feel more precise and varied, as the difference between each gun felt rather subdued.
There is a lot of fun to be had when arriving at a ghost town with your crew and blasting all the monsters that ravaged the wasteland like some bounty hunters looking for the ultimate treasure. Another interesting element is the option to hunt mega monsters, which are always a rewarding challenge to be had.
There also seems to be an underlying mystery to every place that you explore tied to certain sidequests and characters, so Obsidian tied every area of The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition well to incentivize you to not only shoot everything you see but to also to take the time to read letters, e-mails and look at the environment around you to piece together the narrative to each place that you visit.
Regarding performance, much has been said about The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition, essentially distilling it to it running way worse than the base game. Personally, the most noticeable issue was the frame drops when entering an open area, as it seems the game struggles to run in such a spacious area. Something that should be commended is the impressive increase in textures, as they do look much better, and in most corridors and closed spaces, it is nearly impossible to discern a palpable problem.
Private Division has also acknowledged the several issues The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition has been plagued with and vowed to fix them with future patches. (UPDATE: a new version 1.1 patch released on March 17th, 2023 fixed many of the visual and performance issues reported.) On PlayStation 5, small additions to the Adaptive Triggers and Haptic Feedback are recognized, although they could have been better depending on the type of weapon you are using.
To have this fun and absurd outer space adventure make a comeback in 2023 in a shiny new package is much appreciated, as its medium scope and many varied ways to approach any situation in The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition make it an unforgettable experience. While it is not as sprawling as other sandboxes in the genre, its dense and rich linear narrative with its meaningful sidequests and worthwhile storylines warrant a playthrough.
