Obsidian Entertainment’s The Outer Worlds promises to be a game that fans of the developer will love. While their previous efforts have been steeped in memorable decision-making and dialogue choices, the upcoming FPS/RPG will have a strong emphasis on combat as well. Much like Bethesda’s Fallout titles, there will also be a slow-mo option in combat that gives players an edge.
Co-director Tim Cain and lead designer Charles Staples revealed to Game Informer that the team didn’t want players occupied with too much combat. “I don’t want anyone to either think our combat’s boring, but I also don’t want them to think there was too much rote combat in the game. I want them to come away thinking that combat was exciting, it was fun when it happened, it was a little scary—you could always die, there’s always a chance you could die—but that if you basically thought about it and were tactical, you could get through pretty much any encounter,” said Cain.
Speaking about the slow-mo, or Tactical Time Dilation, the devs explained that the system lets players target specific body parts. As you’d expect, different bonuses are enabled when doing so. The TTD meter can drain in different ways depending on how you use it with combat. Regarding companions, they’ll have their own abilities and can be given “perks” to modify the same.
One interesting new option for players is the “leader”, who can gain the combat skills of his companions. It’s a good trade-off for those who aren’t as good at combat. As for weapon types, there are energy, kinetic, and melee weapons with different “brands”. For instance, there’s Spacer’s Choice, which is cheap to fix but also breaks a lot. Some weapons have a lot of mod slots, owing you to cater it to your style of play. Don’t worry though – you’ll gain access to more powerful gear as the game progresses.
The Outer Worlds is out in 2019 for Xbox One, PS4, and PC.
