For a role-playing game like Obsidian Entertainment’s The Outer Worlds, even one that’s partly a first person shooter, crafting is more or less a fundamental part of the experience. Despite this, the developer has confirmed that there is no crafting in the game. The reason? Because it would interfere with the game’s core message of corporate branding and having to buy everything.
As lead designer Charles Staples told USGamer, “One of the reasons we sort of shied away from it was with all the corporate branding that we had. We felt like doing a lot of your own crafting sort of took away from one of those themes that we were trying to hammer on quite a bit and get across.
“So if the players were doing just a lot of making their own things, it sort of lessened that message that we were trying to talk about. But we still want to allow a little bit of customisation. We support that through modding weapons and armor.”
As footage for Byzantium City from PAX East 2019 showcased, spending lavishly is pretty important. If you’re not coming across advertisements in the game world, then various NPCs will bring them up as well. It’s an interesting take but thankfully, the weapon variety and modding helps diversify the gameplay.
The Outer Worlds will be out later this year for Xbox One, PS4, and PC. It will be an Epic Games Store and Windows Store exclusive on PC for one year, after which it will arrive on Steam. According to Obsidian Entertainment, this decision was down to Private Division, the game’s publisher.
