Completion time: 11:40:00

As I was playing The Outer Worlds, I started remembering bits and pieces from my first failed playthrough on the PS4 when the game released. I came across an area that I remembered as the part where I stopped playing originally, which took me maybe 15+ hours to get through years ago.

It was literally one stop from the final portion of the game, only this time it took me like nine hours to get to that point.

I had no idea that The Outer Worlds was truly this brief. I didn’t willingly bother to do any side missions really, as there was no incentive to bother. I still was gaining levels at a fair pace, and even with the lack of side mission completions, with the levels I gained and the fact that I put a majority of my skill up points in such things as persuasion, pick lock and so forth, I was able to brute force my way through a majority of the content with little issue. It also didn’t help that I had no kind of care for the storyline either, outside the very end when things were wrapped up.

There wasn’t much The Outer Worlds did that endeared me. The gameplay was sound, though a little too samey when compared to Fallout 3. Although I didn’t really care much, if at all, for the storyline and most of the characters, the writing was exceptional at least. The witty dialog nailed every attempt at a joke, and conversations as a whole were strongly written. I just wish I gave a damn about anything going on.

I went into The Outer Worlds thinking this was going to be a 40+ hour adventure, almost like Fallout in space. What I ended up with was a journey that lasted a dozen hours, bereft of any desire to care for the story or characters, with gameplay that, although solid, felt like a poor man’s Fallout 3 in a myriad of ways. I am happy that I did finally complete it, but at the same time, I feel like I wasted nearly twelve hours of my time on a game that’s mid at best. If you want a space opera, play through the Mass Effect Trilogy. If you want to play Fallout, play Fallout. There’s really no need to bother with The Outer Worlds, as much as I hate to say.

Rating: 5