The Outer Worlds Release Date, Trailer, Gameplay And Multiplayer

From the creators of fan favorites Fallout: New Vegas and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 comes The Outer Worlds. Touted as a sci-fi shooter with sardonic wit, this single-player RPG takes place in an alternative version of the future where mega-corporations have taken control and continue to colonize new planets across the galaxy. Playing as the Stranger, you are given complete autonomy to explore and fight where and who you want. 

Obsidian Entertainment has already released quite a bit of gameplay showing off the different weapons and enemies you can come across throughout The Outer Worlds. They have also made it clear that the game will focus heavily on roleplaying, allowing players to fully customize their character's appearance and stats. The storyline will even evolve based on your actions, leading to a number of different potential endings. Although The Outer Worlds will not be available for purchase until October, it has already generated a lot of attention from gaming publications and industry critics. Here's everything you need to know about Obsidian's sci-fi opus.

So far, two different trailers have been released. The first was the official announcement trailer, which sought to introduce the premise and overall tone of the game. The second trailer, a gameplay reveal, was showcased during Microsoft's E3 2019 briefing and offered more insight into the setting and decision-based storyline. The gameplay release trailer also delved deeper into The Outer Worlds' lore. It touched upon not only the setting of Halcyon, the furthest colony in the galaxy, but also the Board. The Board is a collection of powerful corporations who own and operate the entire colony of Halcyon. However, a stranger arrives to shake up the existing power structure.

This is where your decision making comes into play. As the gameplay trailer says itself, you have the potential to be whoever you want, "a villain or a hero ... or a psychopath." Players are given complete freedom to shape how their character will turn out. The trailer also showed off weapons, melee combat, and the Tactical Time Dilation ability in action.

Even though The Outer Worlds won't be available to purchase until October, Obsidian Entertainment met with a representative from Game Informer and allowed them to release ten minutes of gameplay footage in December. From their visit, Game Informer learned some new details about The Outer Worlds, such as the fact that companions can give out special quests. Game Informer also discovered a bit more about melee combat. Apparently melee attacks deal more physical damage than ranged weapons. Melee characters also perform a wide sweeping motion when attacking, which means they can hit multiple enemies in one swing.

More gameplay footage was shown off during PAX East 2019. This footage showcased some of the science weapons that can be found in The Outer Worlds such as the shrink ray and the mandibular rearranger. At E3 they went on to reveal a full 40 minutes of gameplay showcasing the games holographic disguise system, inventory, and various skills. The holographic shroud is one of the most intriguing features coming to The Outer Worlds, which allows players to trick enemies and talk their way through sticky situations.

For a while there it seemed like single-player games were going out of fashion. With incredibly popular multiplayer battle royale-style games like Fortnite and Apex Legends boasting millions of players, other developers started to follow suit. Games traditionally known for their single-player campaigns, such as Call of Duty, leaned into the online multiplayer wave as Treyarch stated that its newest Call of Duty title would not include a single-player campaign. Even the long-standing single-player franchise Fallout took a shot at online multiplayer with Fallout 76, which now includes a battle royale mode.

However, in the last couple of years, single-player games have been making a bit of a comeback. Games like God of War and Marvel's Spider-Man proved that solo adventures can still be widely successful in today's gaming climate.

Drawing inspiration from their previous title Fallout: New Vegas, Obsidian has already assured fans that they will not be including any form of online multiplayer. Since the developer is focused on providing an RPG story-driven experience, The Outer Worlds will be single-player only.

The Outer Worlds takes place in the Halcyon colony, which is owned and operated by corporations. The game is set in an alternate timeline, the key difference being that US President William McKinley was never assassinated. This means that Theodore Roosevelt never became president, and therefore large business trusts were never broken up. This led to a classist society controlled by mega-corporations who ravenously colonize new planets. 

You play as the Stranger, one of the many people originally selected to colonize Halcyon. However, it turns out your ship was knocked off course and you arrive over 70 years later than planned. The Stranger is rescued from cryogenic hibernation by scientist Phineas Wells, who wants your help bringing down corporate rule. Although the main storyline will have a number of potential endings depending on your actions, whether you decide to align with either Phineas or the Board will set your character on one of two basic paths.

From the gameplay that has been released so far, it is clear that The Outer Worlds contains a variety of different enemies. Many of these enemies, such as Marauders and Outlaws, are humans foes. Other opponents, like the Malfunctioning Guardian MK1 and Malfunctioning Sentry MK2, will be robotic. Each area you explore will also be inhabited by a wide range of deadly wildlife, such as the Raptidon or Canids.

Players can choose to develop flaws after fighting a certain type of enemy enough times or almost being fatally wounded. Some fears, like Raptiphobia and Robophobia, make your attacks less effective against particular opponents. Other flaws, such as a fear of heights or the dark, will make your character more vulnerable under specific circumstances. Although these flaws apply permanent negative attributes to your character, they grant an immediate perk point to even things out. There are about two dozen various flaws players can choose from, but they are limited to how many they can take depending on the difficulty setting. Players are allowed three different flaws on normal difficulty, four on hard, and five on the most challenging setting.

Even though The Outer Worlds provides players with a wide variety of different science-fiction weapons to choose from, such as plasma rifles and inferno scythes, Obsidian has also included unique weapons in the game known as science weapons. During an exclusive interview with Game Informer, The Outer Worlds co-director Tim Cain explained how the science weapons are designed to have "inexplicable effects that we thought would be funny, and we didn't care in any way if they were realistic."

As of right now, there are five science weapons that can be found in the game, each one falling under a different category: light melee, heavy melee, handgun, long gun, and heavy gun. Just like regular weapons, they can be improved upon by using Science skills. Unlike regular weapons, however, these science weapons come with some pretty outrageous effects. For example, the shrink ray can collapse the space between atoms, effectively shrinking enemies down to minuscule sizes. As enemies grow smaller their damage threshold also reduces, making them much more susceptible to your attacks.

Although it was confirmed that The Outer Worlds will be getting a physical release by the official Twitter account, as of right now it is unclear whether or not there will be any type of special edition. It seems unlikely that there will be any kind of collector's edition available at launch, since there has been no mention of it from either Obsidian or publisher Private Division, despite the fact it will be released in a few months.

However, there is always the chance of a special edition being released after launch. The Outer Worlds co-directors have already stated that adding DLC worlds to the game in the future is a very real possibility. If Obsidian ends up adding DLC content, then there is a good chance they will release a complete or deluxe edition that includes all of the expansion content.

The Outer Worlds will include four difficulty options: Story, Normal, Hard, and Supernova. Those who wish to focus on the game's narrative without having to worry about combat can choose Story Mode to reduce enemy health and damage. For players who prefer a more challenging experience with a focus on combat, Hard Mode increases enemy health and damage without additional alterations. Thrill seekers and RPG veterans looking to put their prowess to the test can try out Supernova, a mode that makes your playthrough much more dangerous. 

In Supernova, your companions can die permanently, depriving you of their aid and locking you out of entire questlines. Auto-saves are more limited and you can only manually save while inside your ship. To survive, you must eat, drink, and sleep regularly, and you can only sleep indoors. When at zero durability, your weapons and armor perform poorly and your sole method for healing crippled body and limb conditions is through bed rest. It's important to note that you must choose Supernova difficulty at the start of the game and if you reduce the difficulty at any point, you cannot re-enable it.