The first of the two expansions included in the Obsidian RPG Season Pass covers familiar ground, albeit without poor results.
The announcement that Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky were co-directing an RPG after years of working at different companies put the kind of expectations on The Outer Worlds that would intimidate any game. Bringing together the original creators of Fallout under the roof of Obsidian (the studio responsible for New Vegas, for many the best installment of the FPS stage started by Bethesda) was like the return of a classic rock band to the stage. Of course, the analogy is twisted when said band does not have the rights to their greatest hits, so they must compose others that sound familiar, appeal to fans who know old songs by heart, but who also find their own identity so as not to leave with the sensation of listening to a tribute band that bases its career on imitation.
The result garnered rave reviews, sales, and even abundant Game of the Year nominations, although for some it did not end up outperforming previous studio efforts. In a generation where Fallout 4 simplified role-playing and Fallout 76 suffered from a legendary concatenation of problems, The Outer Worlds excelled by emphasizing sarcastic script and meaningfully branching dialogue trees, but also evidenced that Obsidian’s independence – prior to its acquisition by Microsoft— imposed certain limitations. The license was built from scratch at the narrative, artistic, playable and technical levels, getting rid of many of the bugs that plagued the legacy engine in New Vegas, but requiring concentrating or in some cases splitting ideas in an almost surgical way to maintain scale and scale. budget under control. This resulted in a fairly moldable RPG, but also brief, something that Danger in Gorgona tries to remedy a bit.
New link in the chain
The first and most important feature of Danger in Gorgona is that, unlike most expansions released months after the game they supplement, it is not intended as a direct continuation or adventure outside of the core narrative. While optional for obvious reasons, the studio has implemented it as a new succession of intermediate missions that are unlocked automatically during the course of the main story. Specifically, after completing the part related to the planet Monarch, which has no specific order given the semi-open structure that the game adopts shortly after obtaining the Fallible (ship to travel through the system), although it does require some preparation given its greater difficulty with respect to other regions accessible at the same time.
Once the «Radio Monarca Libre» mission has been completed, the next trip to any destination is interrupted by a messenger who leaves a very peculiar correspondence in our ship: a box with a severed arm and a recording that urges us to travel to Gorgona, again Large asteroid that appears on the map after installing the DLC. In the mansion located in one of the fragments that orbit around it, Wilhelmina Ambrose welcomes us, a lonely and sorrowful young woman who takes advantage of our arrival to order the search for her mother’s diary in a facility abandoned by Space Ganga (a company with severe influences and effects). throughout the entire campaign). A simple starting point that, of course, gets complicated as soon as we enter the Gorgona itself.
The anti-corporate black comedy tone that proliferates throughout the rest of the game makes this section quite predictable, but important despite its late appearance, and with a somewhat more macabre point than usual. The mysteries of the Ambrose family may not be so mysterious, but they are tied to the general background in a way that would make this sequence of missions one of the most relevant if it were included in the base game. With an approximate duration of 5 hours (plus an extra couple if we complete secondary tasks), the investigation is not limited to Gorgona and makes us travel both to already known planets and to new locations in other parts of the system, thus managing to better link it to the rest of the story and not remain as a simple lost fragment that is glued together at one corner.
This also means that our colleagues (Parvati, Vicario Max, Ellie, etc) have new dialogues for the occasion, so even ignoring the implications of the story arc, the expansion serves to get to know them a bit better and see new dynamics based on the Discoveries and dialogues with NPCs of the bonus content. Similarly, the resolution of the conflict follows in the wake of the rest of the subplots and adds several screens to the final sequence of the main development to reflect our decisions and what they augur for the future of the galaxy. Because, how could it be otherwise, the revelations soon lead to ramifications where the player arbitrates and creates their own outcome based on what they consider best – or worse, if we like to see the world burn – and also what they allow. its attributes.
More of the same, with the good and the bad
Although largely unpopulated, and again brief if taken as its own product and not part of something larger, Gorgona does not fail to deliver good characters and dilemmas. The script continues to be the strong point of a game where Obsidian also introduces some flexibility when it comes to solving certain situations through stealth, locksmithing or persuasion. The combat, of course, is practically inescapable during exploration, and that is where The Outer Worlds does not finish emerging. The replacement of the V.A.T.S. of Fallout for the more active tactical dilation of time (which allows to slow down the action to scan weaknesses and benefit from other advantages for a few seconds) leaves the title more in the field of shooter-looter, although without the precision of games dedicated to that loop of improvement and with an abundance of resources that trivializes something the improvements and the stores.
With enemies above level 30, a range slightly higher than that of the final stretch of the main campaign, Danger in Gorgona requires either to be faced just before completing it or at least since we have enough command of their systems to overcome rivals with several levels above our character. Something that makes sense as post-launch content – players who finished it months ago can load the last save point and go straight – but during the course of a normal game it ends up trivializing the rest of the game even more if its exploration is ahead of other areas. Given that The Outer Worlds bases its appeal as much or more on narrative flexibility than on playable —particularly combat-oriented—, it is perhaps not a serious problem, but it is something to consider when planning routes.
On the other hand, although Gorgona’s breadth gives rise to the need to use the map to orient oneself along the paths that trace its plains – distributed at two heights with specific connections instead of open in all directions – and labyrinthine interior facilities, the design is quite conventional and mainly contributes aesthetic variations to what has already been seen during the main game. The same goes for enemies, ranging from recurring marauders — in a new variant, the colossi, sometimes accompanied by bots that regenerate their life — to creatures recolored to suit the local ecosystem. As a result, the result is solid and visually striking, but it doesn’t shake things up much and fits perhaps too literally as a corner that should always have been there.
Needless to say, there is nothing inherently wrong with it, as it is dedicated mostly to people who were left wanting more after finishing the initial version. But even within its solvency, it is easy to miss some extra refinements (in performance, combat or loot management), more new weapons and enemies or even the introduction of a companion that we could then take on adventures across the rest of the planets. . We’ll see if the next expansion, dated 2021, decides to break the mold a bit more. At the moment we are still covering familiar ground, although, like the band of old glories that gathers for the commemorative tour, it offers comfort to the most faithful public without the need to reinvent itself.
CONCLUSION
Danger in Gorgona is an expansion that fits into the bulk of The Outer Worlds both narratively and playable, extending your experience without renewing it in a major way. This means that fans of the original game will enjoy it, although they will hardly find it necessary to purposely return to play half a dozen hours on their own. It does work better as a trigger to launch into a complete game, be it the umpteenth replay trying different options in its versatile system of dialogs and attributes, or playing it for the first time in the case of those who still have it pending. Some technical details – like load times that undermine fast travel – remain unpolished, and the looping and enhancement loop is not as fine-tuned as the other RPG elements, but Gorgona adds more packaging to a development that was short-lived. new difficulty peaks and also offers some extra reveals to enrich the world envisioned by Obsidian.
THE BEST
- The landscapes of Gorgona create striking and differentiated contrasts from the other planets.
- The plot is well spun and complements the rest of the game.
WORST
- Quite continuous, it does not implement substantial changes or additions.
Okay
It meets the expectations of what a good game is, has quality and does not present serious flaws, although it is missing elements that could have taken it to higher heights.
