Falloutfly Borderfect
The Outer Worlds builds squarely on top of Bethesda's wildly successful first-person RPG formula, and takes unabashed inspiration from some of science fiction's most thrilling and memorable stories; and yet, I couldn't help feeling bored through much of my time with it.
The gunplay is ... fine. There are some interesting elemental weapon effects, a'la Borderlands -- but nowhere near those games' breadth, or depth, of absurd gun behaviors. Use long guns at range, use shock against robots, and that's about "it."
Itemization, and loot overall in The Outer Worlds is past lackluster, well into annoying territory. I lamented Fallout 4 "[consuming] a significant amount of your precious carrying capacity with literal junk," but at least that game had something to do with junk; in The Outer Worlds, you'll pick up 10 new weapons and 10 new armor pieces on every mission, and they're all downgrades from what you've already got.
The galaxy map shows a bunch of planets, and some planets even have multiple maps to land in! ... but most landing sites are bare-bones, practically copy-pasted sterile space station corridors. Even the few larger areas have disappointingly uniform aesthetics, orange-ey jungle-ey frontier.
... and since you don't actually fly the ship, you just click on a destination and it goes there, I can't help but wonder if the whole game could've been on a single planet instead.
You'll recruit a half-dozen misfit crewmates as party members, but don't mistake them for The Dirty Dozen in Space -- all of their personalities are one-note, and most of their Companion Quest stories are paper-thin (though Pavarti's is somewhat captivating, and Max's has at least one fun bit).
And the main story isn't terrible, but... the not-terrible parts don't show up until the final act. Main missions intertwine with optional ones, inconsistently, and tediously; the few plot points that do have a payoff don't become apparent until the end.
Most of the game's writing reiterates the same theme of Workers vs. Corporatocracy over, and over, and over, and over again. It's funny the first time, but c'mon guys, you really didn't come up with any other material?
The Outer Worlds is a competently-designed and well-polished game that just doesn't have much excitement or fun in it. Hell, this is a game where you customize your character's appearance, and then never see it except in the pause screen. It's ... man, it has as much content and complexity as a full-fledged RPG adventure, but.
It all feels so paint-by-numbers, and starved for creativity.
Better than: Fallout 4: Nuka World
Not as good as: Fallout 4: Far Harbor
... but: I've already got the Peril on Gorgon and Murder on Eridanos DLCs, so I guess I might as well try them out.