Same shit, different worlds

Peril on Gorgon presents an interesting change of pace from The Outer Worlds: a self-contained noir-infused mystery, investigating a dead bounty hunter and an industrial accident cover-up. ... until it turns into a re-hash of the main game's "evil corporation did evil thing" schtick.

Murder on Eridanos tries the murder-mystery angle again, and this time gives you a, uh, detective gun? Basically a talking magnifying glass, which reveals clues as you're investigating the area and interrogating suspects. But about half the "clues" are lukewarm gags, and your interrogations don't end up affecting the plot --

You know what, I'll spoil it, this one also re-hashes "evil corporation did evil thing." With, admittedly, a slight twist (the middle manager did it).

Gorgon and Eridanos both establish rich background lore, and even diverse environments!, that could be great foundations for compelling side-quests: some personal stories unrelated to "the mission," showing how ordinary people get by (or try to) in these weird worlds.

But Gorgon has almost no side-quests at all. And though Eridanos has plenty, none of them have any standalone substance; they're all just tiny diversions feeding back into the main plot.

Eridanos comes closest to a Memorable Vignette in one task that assembles multi-colored vodkas into a gatling gun, based on a drunk scientist's inebriated notes. (In a game that reveres its side-story personalities, like Borderlands 2, this would've been a smaller errand.)

Even these expansions' opportunity to rejuvenate The Outer Worlds's "fine" gunplay and underwhelming progression is wasted, because the level cap is only 36. I hit this cap pretty early into Gorgon, so on top of no more skill or perk upgrades, all the weapon and armor rewards I found were less powerful than the equipment I'd already upgraded.

In fairness, the cap of 36 is apparently higher than before the expansions? So if I'd played The Outer Worlds at release, I would've been frustrated by this problem even sooner.

Like the main game, Gorgon and Eridanos are stuffed with a large amount of content, but it's thoroughly one-note and unimaginative. I feel for the map designers, modelers, dialog writers, and especially the voice actors, who've put so much work into producing hours and hours of game that's so largely forgettable.

Peril on Gorgon and Murder on Eridanos aren't bad, but they are bland; and if you already felt that way about the base game, then these expansions won't change your mind.