a while ago i bought this game as a surprise gift for my partner, which she had said she'd wanted to play in passing ... only to realize afterwards that what she actually wanted to play was outer wilds. you understand my confusion, right? two games, nearly identical names, nearly identical release dates, similar-ish topics?? so we went ahead & bought the right game this time, played it, had our lives changed forever, yada yada ... and then decided to give this one a go. by no means is it on the same level as its accidental doppelgaenger, but ... it's good! it's alright. it's just fine.

first, the stuff i liked. i really loved the companion NPCs & overall character work in this; i felt like the cast was interesting, creatively designed ( both in terms of visuals as well as individual storylines ), and entertaining, and although i sometimes felt like character arcs were oddly paced, or concluded in dissatisfying ways, i still felt charmed by them in the end. i can't remember another game with a party that felt this lively & fun to be around.
i also like the gameplay; i have my gripes with it -- which i'll get to in a sec -- but you don't really see first-person RPGs ( or sci-fi RPGs, at that ) all that often, so the novelty of that was engaging on its own.
and i liked the overall tone & the art direction -- somewhat. the level of brevity & lightheartedness was good, i feel: not too callous or excessive. it made being in the world enjoyable without overstaying its welcome, or not leaving more serious moments enough room to breathe. as for the world itself, there weren't very many planets / environments to travel to, but the ones we got were great! whimsical & futuristic when needed, gritty & grimey when not, a great spread of palettes & aesthetics that made me eager to go out & see & explore. and asset art -- 2D & 3D alike -- were all just gorgeous. but this leads me into my main issues with the game, and why i didn't come out of it being wowed ... and that's its reliance on fallout.

obsidian made new vegas, which was good by modern fallout standards, and the outer worlds draws SO much influence from their time on this title. like in some ways it's very much it's own thing, but in so many critical other ways, it's Just Fallout Again. i don't know the Why's or How's of it, but regardless of the reasoning, i think this game is made arguably weaker by the tropes & mechanics taken from its spiritual predecessor.
eg. the ironic 20th century art is great, but it's been done before. repeatedly. i suppose i like how gratuitously on the head the messaging of this game is ( made more obvious by the art direction ) but i don't really think they're saying anything especially motivated or inspired here. they're just relying on their old foundations to do the work for them. which may have been fine, if their gameplay ... was also not woefully uninspired!!!
it's similar to new vegas in terms of action as well as skills, and they didn't really think about how to integrate these things in a more involved or meaningful way in this new title. as an example ( spoilers ) : for the final fight, you can either choose to fight the boss -- if you're combat efficient -- or choose to hack a computer & bypass the boss completely -- if you're tech efficient. cool on paper, right? it's great to see alternate paths you can take based on how you've built your character. but in practicality, this meant that, for the tech character, the end of the game COMPLETELY lost any driving force it was trying to build up. it was woefully unremarkable, and it felt ... well ... kind of bad to beat the game. a real "that's it?" type moment. which i felt was also a problem in new vegas, and i was frankly disappointed to see again here.

and this isn't even bringing up game-breaking bugs & loading times so long on the PS4 version ( nearly 2 minutes to enter or exist a building?! ) that we almost stopped playing. there's a lot of problems with the outer worlds that sometimes feel like a time-crunch issue, and sometimes just feel like a concept issue. and like, i complain, but i did think this was fun -- i just wish it was more, and with a supposed sequel coming out eventually, i'm hoping to see some growth. because i'd really love to play it and love it. you know?

and ... maybe try to not release it at the same time as an all-time classic again ...