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Part 1: Halcyon and On and On
MUSIC: Hope (Title Theme)
Welcome to The Outer Worlds! As lovely as the main theme is, we probably shouldn't spend all day sitting here in the main menu so let's just go ahead and start a new game. You can see we've got both DLCs installed; if you press X or Y, you can read some info on how and when to start Peril on Gorgon and Murder on Eridanos respectively, but that won't be relevant until much later so we'll just ignore them for now.
Also, I won't post links to every single music track, just the ones I want to highlight like the title theme.
We'll just play on Normal difficulty. I briefly considered putting it on Story mode because the combat really isn't the focus especially with my playstyle, but that's maybe a bit too easy so Normal it is.
Of course, if you're some sort of masochist, you can always set the difficulty to Supernova Mode. Here's the full in-game description:
quote:
Supernova Mode is the hardest difficulty and can only be selected at the start of the game and is recommended for advanced players.
Supernova Mode adds additional challenges to the game:
- If you reduce the difficulty below Supernova, you cannot re-enable it.
- Enemies have more health and deal more damage.
- You must eat, drink, and sleep to survive.
- Companions can die permanently.
- Crippled body and limb conditions can only be healed with bed rest.
- Weapons and armor work very poorly at zero durability.
- You can only fast travel to your ship.
- You can only manually save while inside your ship and Autosaves are limited.
All I have to say is fuck that. I wouldn't really mind having to sleep, eat, and drink because that gives you an actual reason to use the many beds and many, many food and drink items in the game, which end up pretty underutilized. The rest of that list just seems to make the game more tedious and frustrating.
Finally, before we begin, we get to choose our subtitle options and font size. The latter is pretty useful for SSLP purposes, but some elements of the UI are still so small that I just went with 720p screenshots to make some of this stuff legible. At launch, there were no text size option, which was a bit of a problem because the whole game suffered from can-barely-see-the-fucking-text-itis. I think they patched in the bigger font options around the time the Switch port came out.
As I said in the OP, I will transcribe all relevant text in the screenshots to accommodate screen reader users, so there's gonna be some repetition but hopefully that means more people will be able to follow along.
Speaking of barely visible text, I don't think this tooltip had loaded in fully. It says "Raising your stealth skills unlocks sneak attacks for bonus damage, previewing items in locked containers, and the ability to hack vending machines."
The loading screens have some nice art, tooltips, and lore, but I'll only show them if there's something interesting aside from that.
VIDEO: Intro
ADVERTISEMENT: Why stay Earthbound when prosperity awaits you in the stars? Come to Halcyon, the only colony on the edge of the frontier owned and operated by corporations!
Oh boy! Who wouldn't want to live in a colony owned and operated entirely by corporations?
ADVERTISEMENT: A trip of short years will feel like mere minutes, thanks to the comfort and safety of your very own hibernation chamber.
The future of The Outer Worlds is set in a timeline in which the Gilded Age never ended, which is why we're getting these old-timey newspapers dated 2285 and talking about hibernation chambers. This is an interesting setting with a ton of potential, and I think they could've done so much more with it. But we're getting ahead of ourselves.
ADVERTISEMENT: You'll wake up in a perfect society designed to maximize your productivity, with guaranteed full employment!
Wow, just what I've always wanted! As many have noted, the satire in this game is roughly as subtle as a bag of bricks... carried by a truck made entirely of bricks. It can be a bit much at times, but then again "fuck capitalism" is a message I can get behind.
ADVERTISEMENT: With only a minor term of service, you will become the master of your own destiny when you go out of this world... to the Halcyon Colony!
Lovely.
TOP SECRET: 10 - 23 - 2320 HALCYON HOLDINGS CORPORATE BOARD
INCIDENT REPORT: COLONY SHIP HOPE FOUND DRIFTING, COLONISTS UNABLE TO BE REVIVED
If October 23 sounds vaguely familiar, that - October 23, 2077 to be exact - was the day the "Great War" (i.e. the nuclear apocalypse) happened in Fallout. In case you didn't read the OP, The Outer Worlds was directed by Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky, two of the original creators of Fallout who would later form Troika Games with the third Fallout creator, Jason Anderson. I believe this is the first time Cain and Boyarsky have worked together since Troika Games closed after 2004's Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, with Cain specifically asking Obsidian to bring Boyarsky on board.
The Fallout reference aside, we're more interested in the fact this incident report is from the year 2320. The ads said the colony ships should make the trip to Halcyon in ten years, but that clearly didn't happen for whatever reason.
TOP SECRET: 12 - 05 - 2320 HALCYON HOLDINGS CORPORATE BOARD
DETERMINATION: HOPE TO BE LEFT AT EDGE OF COLONY
Annnnd the corpos have decided to just to leave the colonists drifting in space forever because they couldn't figure out a way to revive all those people. Of course.
ALERT: BREACH OF HOPE SECURITY CORRIDOR
UNIDENTIFIED SHIP
SECURITY CAMERA: ACTIVATING
05- 15 - 2355
And now, it is 2355. Hope has been drifting in space for 35 years, having already spent 35 years traveling to Halcyon. It seems they have a visitor...
The security camera footage shows a smaller ship docking on the Hope.
An older gentleman emerges after some minor technical difficulties with the ship's exit ramp.
PHINEAS VERNON WELLES
STATUS: FUGITIVE, WANTED BY HALCYON HOLDINGS BOARD FOR CRIMES AGAINST THE COLONY
The security cameras have identified the intruder, and we discover he's a wanted man. "Crimes against the colony" can mean quite a few things.
Breaking into a long-forgotten colony ship's hibernation bay may or may not constitute a crime against the colony.
PHINEAS WELLES: Hundreds of thousands of colonists. Left to drift out here forever, just to keep from damaging the Board's bottom line. Disgraceful.
The camera pans to several pods and stops on this particular one, containing a young woman with short hair.
And that takes us to character creation. The attribute system is vaguely similar to SPECIAL (or ACELIPS, as Tim Cain initially called it until someone pointed out the following day that SPECIAL might sound a bit better), but here we have three main attribute groups (Body, Mind, and Personality) and six attributes: Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Perception, Charm, and Temperament. Hm... I don't think SDIPCT exactly rolls off the tongue.
I allocate the six points we get like this. The maximum three points to INT, taking it to Very High; two points to Perception to get it to High; and one point to Charm. Now, I have no idea if Charm is actually worth taking (there are a few Charm checks but not a whole lot) but I always feel weird making a speech-based character without putting any points into the charisma equivalent.
This gives us boosts to critical damage (INT), headshot/weakspot damage (PER), companion ability refresh and faction reputation (CHA), as well as various skills. Now, if we really wanted to minmax, we could've put all our points into two attributes to gain the max number of skill points to use, but this will be fine.
I'm not going below average on any of the attributes because the penalties aren't really worth it unless you want to do a low intelligence run. I haven't done that in this game, so I don't know how it compares to the Fallout ones. I know you get some unique dialog options, but I'm not sure how many there are.
Skills are pretty much what you'd expect from a game by the creators of Fallout, but this time the specialized skills are under core skills (like 1-Handed and 2-Handed being under Melee, as the game says here). You can put points into a core skill until the skills under it reach 50 (I think it's until the highest of them hits 50, but I'm not 100% sure), after which you can start investing in specialized skills to get them over 50. The maximum is 150, which you probably won't hit unless you really focus on a specific skill.
We can tag two skills for an immediate +10 boost, so I put those points into Dialog and Stealth. As you can probably guess, I tend to play a speech and stealth based character who also dabbles in medicine and science.
Next, we have aptitudes. This is your background that may also relate to what you're supposed to be doing in Halcyon during your term of service. Each of these shitty menial job backgrounds gives you some type of minor bonus, so minor that doesn't really matter what you pick and it's more for flavor than anything else. I chose Medical Technician, Junior Grade to get that extra Medical point, although my favorite of these is Bureaucrat, Level 0 which of course gives you +1 to Block.
Finally, it's time to choose our character's appearance. This female character we saw in the pod is the default and there's nothing wrong with her, but let's just have a look at the options.
There are more sliders to play with than you'll ever need, and I'm sure you can create some absolute monstrosities here. I'm just gonna switch to a different preset and adjust the eye color. There's no real reason to spend half an hour here because you never see your character outside the menus and the idle camera.
Despite the fact there are 30 different hairstyles, none of them are that great. This one will do. The lighting also makes it really, really difficult to determine what the hell the colors actually are. Why do so many games make you create a character in this kind of environment?
There's a variety of makeup, dirt, and scar options as well. This particular one seems to be for those wishing to roleplay a character that went into hibernation looking like a member of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. We'll just go with the default makeup.
And, of course, we'll need a name. Cornell Vectrex is a character I made in Final Fantasy XIV a while back. He was named after the late Chris Cornell from Soundgarden and the almighty Vectrex game console from the early 80s. The closest female variant would be Cornelia Vectrex, so that's what we'll go with. It just fits the character limit as well!
There's our character sheet. Let's finally get this show on the road.
I'm going to guess the ominous red light isn't good.
PHINEAS WELLES: Looks to be your lucky day, my friend.
Our pod is grabbed from storage and moved to Welles' ship. The man himself has clearly worn out his welcome, so we're getting off the Hope and we're doing it quickly.
And we're off.
UDL ASSAULT TROOPER: Please power down your engines and prepare to be boarded.
Judging from the sudden appearance of the Universal Defense Logistics ship, breaking onto the Hope and taking one of the colonists with you does in fact constitute a crime against the colony.
PHINEAS WELLES: Not likely, boot lickers.
Despite the accuracy of the statement, the UDL folks aren't pleased about being called boot lickers and open fire on Welles' ship.
One of the blasts hits the ship and causes a massive fiery explosion.
PHINEAS WELLES: Initiate skip jump.
Skip jumping using a skip drive is this universe's version of FTL travel. Despite the damage to his ship, Welles has managed to escape.
Terra 2
Orbiting Laboratory
Halcyon System
PHINEAS' SHIP COMPUTER: Status: Integrity down 25%. Power levels, down 90%. Skip drive, inoperable.
PHINEAS WELLES: Shit.
Cornelia comes to, and the first thing she sees is a dingy lab and this weird old man fiddling with... something. Not her cryopod, as we can see that across the lab. This probably isn't the kind of awakening she had expected.
PHINEAS WELLES: Ah, there you are! Wondering what's going on, eh? Bit of bad news there, I'm afraid. Your colony ship was inexplicably knocked out of skip space and forced to complete its journey at sub light speeds.
He slams the door shut, and we find ourselves in a different pod.
PHINEAS WELLES: This means that you - and every other colonist on the Hope - have been in suspended animation for seventy years. Give or take. Normally, reviving someone after so long leads to some quite horrifying results. It's called explosive cell death, but it's really more of a liquefaction.
Well, that's... reassuring?
PHINEAS WELLES: Something wrong? Oh. Yes, well, not to worry, I've pumped your body full of a special concoction I devised to keep you from dying so horrifically. Hopefully at all, but I guess we'll see, yes? Unfortunately, I used the last of my chemical supplies saving you. I know it's a lot to ask, but I must have your help securing more if we're to save the rest of your fellow colonists.
And that right there is the main plot objective. Not a whole lot to go on, much like "Find a water chip" in the original Fallout. It also turns out that Phineas here is a proper mad scientist who has injected Cornelia with lord knows what to hopefully keep her alive long enough to achieve her goal. Wonderful.
PHINEAS WELLES: I'd see it done myself, of course, but the Board has a sizeable bounty on my head. Now, my ship... is inoperative, but I've managed to hire a smuggler to help you out. He'll be... oh! I see we're in position. Good luck!
Sounds like we're going to need it. I like how he just casually pulls out the wanted poster to show us.
Welles presses the button, and we're off.
Welles presses the button again, and we're off.
Welles hammers on the control panel again, and now we're off.
PHINEAS WELLES: Can you hear me? Is this thing working?
Well, at least we haven't died yet.
PHINEAS WELLES: Ah, there you are. Now where were we... oh yes, the smuggler! His name is Hawthorne, and he should be waiting for you at the landing site. He's to be your chauffeur, so to speak. Not to worry, I'm told he's a specialist. Dashing gunslinger, one of a kind ship, that sort of thing. You'll like him, I'm sure.
He sounds like a video game protagonist! Can't wait to meet him, we'll have all kinds of adventures together.
PHINEAS WELLES: I've also outfitted you with a simple wireless monitor, so I can track your progress. I'll check in with you as soon as you land. Good luck. I'm... all the colonists are counting on you.
Great, thanks for the "Hold A to skip cutscene" prompt there.
We still seem to be in one piece, so let's get out of this escape pod.
Terra 2 (I don't think Phineas told Cornelia where we are, but that's what the cutscene showed) certainly looks quite pretty. Unfortunately, we don't have time to admire the scenery, as Welles contacts us on our wireless monitor.
PHINEAS WELLES: Ah! You've landed! Good! Hawthorne should be close by.
We didn't see anyone, though. Unless... oh dear.
PHINEAS WELLES: What in Law's name? Is that him? That idiot - I told him to plant the beacon and move away, not stand there holding it.
I see we're working with only the best and brightest Halcyon has to offer. Well, we were. I don't think Captain Hawthorne here is going to work with anyone anytime soon.
But at least this place is really pretty. As I mentioned in the OP, this is the original release of the game, not the updated Spacer's Choice Edition. The visual changes in that rerelease just don't look right to me, as it fucks with the lighting too much (for example, this scene would look much redder) and makes other changes I don't care for.
PHINEAS WELLES: Oh well. No sense in letting his ship go to waste. Hawthorne won't mind you taking his ship. Better you than the Board, eh?
Well, Hawthorne certainly is in no position to argue, so it seems our immediate objective is to make our way to his ship.
PHINEAS WELLES: Not sure I trusted the fellow. Might've gone after the bounty on my head. Shame about the whole... squashing thing. Nasty way to go.
Captain Hawthorne's final adventure has ended rather unceremoniously, but our adventure has just begun. Onward!
I wanted to get through the basic tutorial in the first update, but as it turns out we've only just landed. I didn't really want to make the character creation a separate update either since it happens in the middle of all the plot. So maybe I'll just cut this here, and next time we'll start exploring Terra 2.
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