Finally got around to finishing this. I like it for an original ip but it needs a lot of work in the inevitable sequel. Kind of like how Assassin's Creed, the first game, was more a proof of concept rather than a good game. I think Outer Worlds is more a good proof of concept that a good game is lurking here for a franchise.
I like the art style. It's not gorgeous but it has a nice retro-future style. The writing is cool and fun. There are some nice quests mixed in with some of the usual fetch quest style stuff. The problem is that it doesn't have a good flow pacing wise to it. It often feels disjointed like when it rushes to introduce your crew who you barely know but are suddenly asking you do to companion quests for or acting like we're best buds. Game needs a bigger budget, and a lot of play testing, and a larger scale and scope to it. It has elements that remind you of the good parts of Mass Effect, and Fallout. But the thing is its not as compelling as those two franchises. Every fallout game and every mass effect game is better and more compelling than this initial take on The Outer Worlds. (Even Andromeda and Fallout 4 which most people like to shit on, but I liked both)
I could nit-pick a lot of stuff but generally speaking the game just needs to be more ambitious both in a mechanics sense and gameplay wise. I need to be enjoying myself a lot more the next time I play this franchise rather than just kind of grinding towards the inevitable end of the game which kind of happened to me here. Too much of the time I felt like I was propelling myself to just finish the game instead of having some fun in world game mechanic propelling me or a varied compelling gameplay experience pushing me forward.