What Did We Play Yesterday?

I was very ready for my murder spree, so I pushed through the last area of the game. I probably should have taken my time, but I blitzed it and enjoyed myself nonetheless.

An enjoyable experience, and I'm happy to start my murder game though historically my enthusiasm usually tapers out about halfway through my second playthrough on these types of games. As I was playing they patched a few issues, including font size and guns staying holstered. The font size on item descriptions is still small so I have trouble reading those.

Edit: I can't believe I forgot my marauder/raider spiel! You don't want to miss that, oh boy.

So, OW does not fix a big pet peeve I have with Fallout-type games, which is the nameless cannon fodder hostile factions. According to the people of OW, marauders are subhuman cannibals who cannot speak properly. First, the only cannibals I have ever seen were those weirdos on Monarch. In fact, you find foodstuffs at Marauder camps and they clearly eat it. Second, Marauders do talk. They've yelled at me quite a bit! Their voices are different, they sound like they are in pain or having difficulty speaking, but they definitely have a capacity for verbal language.

I remember at least two characters remarking on the marauder propoganda. One mentioned that marauders appeared to have a different type of language, distinct from whatever the basic human language is called in OW. (~Perhaps~ mauraders have learned other ways to communicate when around hostiles, which other humans clearly are to them.) IIRC another character questioned the assumption that marauders are subhuman and noted the different groups seem to have distinct and complex organizational structures.

I REALLY HOPED Zoe's quest would shed some kind of light on this, or provide commentary, but it doesn't. I stealthed all the way to her, but could not speak to her--the game requires you kill the marauders she's living with to advance the quest. Zoe just says yeah we traded and now they're dead lol. Zoe's a bit of a shit.

Obsidian kinda addresses this in Fallout New Vegas, with the Khan faction which are I guess "acceptable" raiders who can be treated like people. In Fallout 4 there was a one-off scene I could never get to repeat where raiders recognized Nick Valentine, who was in my party, and became passive, and one even said, "Hey Nick, we didn't know you were with them. How's it going, man?" And Nick's like, "Uhhh... good to see you?" I loved that interaction. But it's an anomaly, by large Fallout 4 is just filled with people to kill, same as every other game.

Anyway, my theory is there is a lot of human experimentation done by many corporations in Halcyon, and obviously humans are having issues with the native plants, animals, and diseases. Marauders are everywhere, so we can't just say UDL did it or whatever, but possibly the issues consuming local flora and fauna make some people sick in a way that the healthier humans don't like, so they expell them, and those people get together and form groups for protection.

I am honestly a little surprised Obsidian didn't address the matter. I'm still looking for codex stuff I might have missed.

I figured out an interesting thing about Outer Worlds quest system. I returned to the Emerald Vale to finish up a few quests when I noticed several waypoints had not been updated, they pointed to a place where the quest NPC no longer was. I completed a different quest and all the markers reset. When you update one quest status you update them all, but this should also trigger whenever the player leaves a landing site to avoid the bug I mentioned.

Anyway, I'm in Byzantium and apparently the very last stretch of the game. I wasn't able to locate my hours played on XB1 (yes, I did look under stats) so I really have no idea how much time I've put in. I still have a few locked planets and I haven't finished the companion quests (just Pavarti's), but I have the vast majority of quests on the main planets and this amount of time investment feels about right for the amount of lore/meat in the game.

So, Byzantium. I loved Rockwell's vid, very enjoyable (paraphasing: I told you, you can't say shit like that, you idiots). For reference, I'm to the Ministry of Morals, I haven't gotten the gas yet.

I really like sustainability being the real issue in Halcyon, not only because it figures into our first big questline, but also because it allows Phineas to still have good intentions that are understandable while still being impractical/dangerous. One thing that bugs me is I sent the doctor to him, but when I went to visit to check on that she wasn't there and he made no reference. Instead, he warned me against being corrupted by the Board, and there's no option for conversation. The big conversation is presumably after I get the gas but still.

I initially became a bit suspicious of Phineas, in part, because as I studied Hawthorne's logs to better impersonate him I concluded he wasn't stupid, and getting squashed by my pod was... kinda stupid. But my impression of him is based in part on his interest in science weapons, and of course you can be interested in science and still be kind of an idiot, so shrugemoji

For a while there I was starting to wonder if the Board was still "present" or if the Maker had turned his back on us etc. etc. Well, they're apparently there, they're just sleeping Bureaucracy.

I understand where Ellie is coming from, and why she's like she is, but I can't say I'm sympathetic or even particularly like her as a companion. Nyoka, Pavarti, and Max tend to have the most interesting things to say, though I admit I don't take Felix out too often and I suspect poor SAM will only get play if everyone deserts me when I go careening into the murder dome. I mean, if you take Max to Monarch he just goes on and on with some of the faction NPCs, it's pretty awesome, but I've only ever had Ellie offer one-liners.

I respect that SAM actually is a robot and there's no apparent attempt to have him be more than that. I think ADA has the AI Magic aspect covered.

Regarding my build, I finally got around to modifying a decent long gun with a scope, and I can tell you, there are few things more satisfying that going into time dilation and head-shotting about 5 guys in a row and finishing before the first body even hits the ground. The companions are always like WHOA CAPTAIN! lol. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but in the beginning I found the sheer volume of consumables overwhelming, and I just kinda ignored the most of the equipment and upgrades since I was focused on trying to stealth anyway. It took me a while to warm up to the tinkering aspect, but I like it fine now and know what parts to look for next time. And of course, being able to respec was extremely helpful. Collapse

I wish there was a way to see stats for player choices in this game. The XB1 stats are skewed because of Game Pass, but only 8% of players made the same faction choice I did on Monarch, which seems low. Am I really taking the path less trodden?

I had the day off so I finished up Monarch (mostly). Spoilers under the cut.

As I was watching Sanjay and Zora leave the OSI church I thought about a character who would go to all the trouble to arrange that, only to cap both of them on their way out the door. It would certainly be an easier way to get rid of most of the planet's leadership, and Graham, while minimizing personal risk.

I want to tell you about something that hurt my feelings. I went to visit Phineas and he was behind bulletproof glass. Now, I understand the Watsonian reason (he reasonably doesn't trust me) and the Doylian (the devs don't want you murdering him as soon as you get off-planet) but it hurt my feefees also made me deeply suspicious and cranky, and I'm trying to decide if my suspicion is reasonable or if I'm reading too much into practical dev decisions, which happens all the time. Phineas, you old dog, I know you're fucking with me. You just better be fucking with me for the right reasons or so help me

I found some stuff in the Rezzo factory I didn't like with a REDACTED person and I'm trying to figure out how to get the scoop on that. I somehow managed to unravel the plot threads on Monarch in an optimal fashion so it was a very satisfying narrative experience. I also found the stuff in Rezzo where they're talking about using the pigs over at Boarst Wurst for experiments, maybe?, so I'm going there next. Collapse

This is not a spoiler. Boarst Wurst reminds me of chickynubbins and I think Margaret Atwood would enjoy this game very much. Especkishially the murder. 80% probability Margaret Atwood plays murder FPS

Also not a spoiler, all the corporate memos in the game, where workers are trying to reason with their Corporate Overlords, give me flashbacks of when I was emailing Epic Games and Private Division. I wonder if someone can make a mod that replaces "The Board" with "Epic Games."

I've been chipping away at the Outer Worlds when I can, an hour here or there. I decided to try a high-persuade, high-stealth build. For persuade I rarely encounter a persuasion option I can't trigger. Only recently did I encounter the first (55 persuade to convince Sanjay to talk about Graham, I had 50.).

Stealth is not as straightforward. I will try to avoid killing any human NPC, and so far, marauders are the only NPCs I've been essentially 'forced' to kill, either because I could not figure out a way to stealth past or because domino aggro led them to attack me.

The domino aggro is when you spend about 20 minutes caaaaaarefully navigating past a maze of patrolling aggro NPCs, and within the last five feet to the destination door one of them notices you and it triggers the entire crowd and they descend upon you like a pack of wolves and they probably kill your foolish hippie ass because you dumped all your points in silly skills like stealth and persuade and making daisy chains have no fightmsucle to speak of.

The way some of OW's stealth sections are designed it is very easy to have a domino effect. Interiors can have creative solutions that let you avoid this, but not always, and sometimes you have a crappy situation where once you sneak in, you then have to sneak out, and it's not always simple.

A good example is the printing press. I stealthed aaaaall the way to the end, triggered one of the lizard things, and the entire complex came after me. If it hadn't I would have had to sneak BACK OUT because there was no handy sealed back door or other way to backtrack past all the critters.

OW is zone-based and generally speaking, assume you're not supposed to climb mountains. So this is not a game where you can blaze a weird trail jumping up the side of a mountain to avoid a conflict. There are choke points with beasties that are difficult to kill (mantiqueens are my bane right now). On the one hand, I'm really happy I was able to do some fast talking and get C3 to help clear out Devil's Peak, since the mantiqueen in the caves could easily make chopped liver of me, but I still have to contend with various mantiqueens at choke points as I'm doing other missions. I tried luring different enemy groups to fight each other but it didn't work very well, they kept retreating back to their respective areas.Collapse

All the stealthing is turning me into a secret homicidal maniac, so I often find myself wondering how I will murder everyone in a given place on a later playthrough. I wonder what an optimal build is for a murder run.

It's early, but I am now formally in love with Pavarti, which is no surprise to anyone, and I am very happy I cannot romance her and that completing a romance arc is not necessary to see all of her characterization and development.

For one, I don't deserve her, and she deserves the best. To use the community parlance, she is the best girl.

Two, I'm Captain Fucking Hawthorne and I'm not gonna cross that line. (I'm still calling myself that, in spite of being called out twice now, no idea if it will catch up with me but god I hope so, I could almost feel Max looking at me when the salvager called me a liar.)

Three, she's too young for me.

Three, coming from BioWare games the lack of romance options and dialogue icons is actually kind of refreshing. There is no icon informing me, This Is A Formal Flirt. -> Do This For Romo -> Click Here Now

The Doylian knowledge that the game does not have romances shapes my perception that Obsidian is a bit more forthcoming in their characterization. I have some ideas about Max. They're not trying to surprise me, I'm talking to a person off and on and I'm putting some things together. It feels like a natural progression.

Going into it, Max and Pavarti were the only companions I knew about and it turns out they are the first two you can recruit so I have no idea who I can recruit or when, or even how many, which is nice. I suspect I may have a stowaway soon? That's the beauty of not knowing, lots of NPCs have names and dialogue trees and you talk to someone on a whim and next thing you know you've got another bunk taken. I've picked up a doctor who may not quite be on the up and up. We're going to check out a distress call to get money for some kind of space pass. The game never crashes. It's all good.