Review: The Outer Worlds (PC)
HOWEVER, I think what many people don't realize is that those traits aren't unique to Fallout, they're unique to a designer who helped create Fallout.
Leonard Boyarsky, as far as the average gamer goes, doesn't get the celebrity he deserves. He made his mark at Interplay (eons ago in the ancient 1990s) as Art Director of the first Fallout game, pulling double duty as well polishing dialogue, and cemented that notoriety with his broad stroke involvement in nearly every aspect of Fallout 2. Thought Boyarsky was obviously not alone in the creation of those games, he is largely responsible for their unique style of art and at least marginally for its literary tone.
After leaving Interplay he formed Troika Games with Interplay alums Tim Cain and Jason Anderson, where he was the Project Lead and Art Director on the cult classic Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (whose sequel is currently in development at Hardsuit Labs). He followed this up by joining Blizzard Entertainment as the Senior World Designer for Diablo 3 and its expansion Reaper of Souls.
So why do Boyarsky's career highlights matter? Because I think giving credit where it's due is important. His influential reach, whether it's noticed or not, blankets the entire RPG genre to this day, and The Outer Worlds is a perfect microcosm of everything he does exceedingly well.
The setup for The Outer Worlds is pretty straightforward videogame fare: You're a space-faring colonist who is awoken from cryosleep by a more likable version of Rick from Rick & Morty who goes by the name Phineas Welles. You are then tasked with helping him take down the malevolent "Board", a group of extreme-capitalist companies who collectively manage and oversee your new home: the distant space-colony of Halcyon.
Boyarsky's games have always had player agency at their hearts, and The Outer Worlds is no exception. From the moment you're dropped on the stylistically-Seussian tutorial world of Emerald Vale you are able to craft your own destiny. The story moves you through at a pretty quick pace, especially in the beginning, and soon you pick up a couple of companions (most notably Parvati, a likable engineer with a heart of gold) and make your way off planet.
By the time you leave Emerald Vale you'll have leveled up at least a few times. The leveling system allows for a great deal of specialization without forcing you to min-max for optimal performance like many RPGs. Skills are grouped into sets of three, and when you level up you receive a set amount of points to put into those groups as you see fit. These allocations increase each skill contained within the group simultaneously. Once you've got 50 points (out of 100 total possible) in any one skill in a group, that group "locks" and you can only increase the skills within it individually, allowing for you to specialize without being forced to leave behind any related (though perhaps less important) skills.
In this way you can add depth not only to your playstyle but also to your character. Did you create a melee-wielding corporate stooge only to find the game too difficult without the ability to hack computers or pick difficult locks? Just spend a couple of levels dedicating skill points to the Stealth skill group (thereby increasing your Hack and Lockpick skills simultaneously) and you can quickly return to maximizing how much destruction you can cause.
The Halcyon system is as expansive culturally as it is visually. Each planet is distinct in its landscapes and creatures, while the humans who inhabit them have markedly unique problems and ideas. No one planet or faction feels like a rehash of another, and the attention to detail is sometimes staggering.
As is tradition with Boyarsky's RPGs, your actions will absolutely change how different groups react to you and early on you're faced with a difficult decision between two warring factions. As I neared the end of the quest I had an unsettling feeling that I would be forced to choose between the two, when I was already piecing together a way for them compromise in my mind, only to be pleasantly surprised that compromise was a choice! It wasn't an immediately apparent choice, and it's one that's not even available to you unless you read a specific computer entry in a nearby area, but the simple fact that it was there was enough to impress me. Where most games would force you to pick a black or white conclusion, The Outer Worlds allows you the agency to find the middle ground yourself, and that's not a common occurrence even in modern day RPGs.
In this same vein, as the game progresses, this once starkly contrasted universe of Corporate Evil and Rebellious Good becomes more muddled. I won't spoil it here because it's a fairly big plot point reveal, but suffice to say Halcyon is in much worse shape than you're led to believe, Phineas isn't exactly a saint, and the Board is...well, just play the game.
There is also a small arsenal of "Science Weapons" that have unique effects, like the Shrink Ray (which does exactly what you think it does) and the Prismatic Hammer (which knocks your enemies to the ground with elemental damage from afar). These are unique and not easily obtained, meaning there is only one copy of each in the game and you have to go out of your way to find them, but if you've got a decent Science skill they can make an already fun game a little wackier.
What The Outer Worlds gets right is the same thing that Boyarsky's games have always gotten right, with varying degrees of success: Allow the player to make their own choices, give those choices meaningful consequences, and create a unique universe that keeps the player coming back for more. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone in the industry as accomplished at those three things as Boyarsky, and I think it's time he's more broadly recognized for his contributions not only to the games he makes, but the effects they've had on video games as a whole.
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