Review: The Outer Worlds

Between Players
Between Players
Review: The Outer Worlds
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Episode 021

It may come as no surprise that my brother Rob and I have some shared taste in the world of Video Games. As it happens he and I both wrapped up an initial play through of the Outer Worlds by Obsidian Games’ Special Division. On a scale of Buy, Try, or Skip: We unanimously put this game in the Buy category with a small asterisk, try to buy on sale 😉

A review summary

Private Division is the team of writers designers and developers that built The Outer Worlds most of whom are members of the same team that worked on Obsidian’s Fallout New Vegas, a game that has been praised for its gray morality scale and multi-optional approach to quest narrative solutions.

This 60’s pulp sci-fi fever dream wears its influences on its sleeve and doesn’t have any problem being self-aware while doing so. One thing that cannot be denied about the title, is the overall charm in nearly all of the dialogue. Many of your options in game dialogue are pulled/influenced directly by the statistics that you have built your character from.

There is a lot of wise cracking snark and political critiques about how a universe of corporate overlords would be a dystopia run by despotic and largely idiotic bureaucrats that are barely able to organize the means of production.

Disrupting these cold machincations with all manner of leverage, especially the “science” oriented weapons, makes for some clever engagements, familiar puzzles, and occaisional annoying spikes in monster

The Outer Worlds – on Steam.


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And thank you for listening!


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Special Thanks

Guest – Rob Meyer

IllustrationEvan McIntyre

Divinity: Original Sin 2

Between Players
Between Players
Divinity: Original Sin 2
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Episode 020

tldr;

Over the course of approximately 120+ hours, my brother Rob and I dove head first into Larian Studios second entry in their Divinity series. We pulled four heroes through the Rivellon on a quest to command the source and ascend to divinity. On a scale of Buy, Try, or Skip: I landed at a Try, and Rob landed in-between Buy-Try.

A review summary

Do you like to play Dungeons & Dragons, tactical RPGs, or make a custom character class, like a Theif-Necromancer (Theifromancer)? Do you like a world with multiple branching paths, steep learning curves, and different ways to solve problems, that largely result in you having to fight if I am honest?

If most or all of these things scream YES to you than Divinity 2 is your jam. And thankfully, you have access to it on nearly every platform from PC to Switch. We rocked through it on Steam with a few quality of life mods in the final 8-10 hours of play, but we both agree, it would be worth while to install a few to maximize your enjoyment.

While much of the game was difficult and some of the systems could have been explained better, we made it through and would overall recommend people to at least try it out.

We are looking forward to seeing what Larian does next.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 – on Steam


Let us know if you are enjoying the show via electronic mail or on twitter @betweenplayers

And thank you for listening!


Listen to the show on:

Spotify
iTunes Podcasts
Google Play Podcasts


Special Thanks

Guest – Rob Meyer

IllustrationEvan McIntyre

Loot, Die, Repeat

Between Players
Between Players
Loot, Die, Repeat
/

Episode 016

Summary

If our hobbies carried a title that was analogous to a job, ours would probably be something like, “Inventory Manager.” Mari Kondo would find our compulsion to hoard digital items found in games like Diablo, or Torchlight to be, “of great concern.”

Danh and I take a dive into the deeply addicting grind of loot collection. We share a common thread and propensity for these sorts of unending cycles in game mechanics.

As in the last episode, Diablo plays a sort of central role in the formation of our interests in grinding levels, material, and items in this Groundhog Day flavored digital experience. We have carved in literally 100’s of hours honing our goals, yet never quite gaining perfection. And maybe that is what brings us such enjoyment.

Attaining mastery is a lofty goal with Torchlight, Destiny, the Division, Borderlands, and so on. They are designed to hold our attention and yet at the same time allow us to feel the assent towards tangible success. We are getting there but, there are miles to go before we rest.


Did we miss something about the compulsion to find, collect, and keep loot? Are you bored of the grind? Let us know if you are enjoying the show via electronic mail or on twitter @betweenplayers

Thank you for listening to the show.


Listen to the show on:

Spotify
iTunes Podcasts
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Special Thanks

GuestDanh Hoang

IllustrationEvan McIntyre