Bethesda Needs to Take a Look at 1 Underrated Gem That Set the Benchmark for RPGs Without Having 100 Hours of Gameplay

When you talk about RPG titles, then you can never go past Bethesda. This American video game developing company has surfaced probably one of the best RPG titles of all time, for example: The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, and Starfield. Be it enormous exploration areas, stunning visuals, or captivating gameplay, these games have always garnered huge fanbases for this reason.

One of the major complaints against these RPGs is their massive playtime. You will need around 40 hours to complete the main storyline of Starfield. On the other hand, Skyrim takes a staggering 109 hours to complete the main storyline along with the side quests. However, there was a title that was released 5 years ago that beat all of these RPGs in terms of quality, and it never needed 100 hours of gameplay.

The Outer Worlds Is a Criminally Underrated Gem

The only game that has successfully streamlined the Bethesda formula into a brilliantly compacted format is the spacefaring role-playing game, The Outer Worlds, developed by Obsidian Entertainment, the same company that created Fallout: New Vegas. This role-playing game efficiently reduces that fat and is better for it. The game should serve as a model for other video games five years after it was released.

In addition to being a science fiction game, it is basically an alternate history game. The game is set in a future in which Theodore Roosevelt would never become president of the United States because William McKinley was not assassinated in 1901. This indicates that the world became a highly class-centric society dominated by capitalism and mega-corporations because the enormous businesses of the time were not dismantled.

That concept is central to this game, which continuously parodies and criticizes the perils of capitalism through its narrative, such as propaganda posters about being a “good worker” that are displayed everywhere and the requirement that citizens use their corporate catchphrase whenever they speak to anyone.

You take on the role of the “Stranger,” a colonist who spent many years in cryosleep aboard a ship named the Hope. After being awakened by a crazy scientist named Phineas Vernon Welles, you discover that you are in the Halcyon star system, a frontier that is extending humankind throughout the galaxy. You must now fight against all of the corporations that own Halcyon and attempt to return power to the people if you so choose.

Is The Outer Worlds Still Relevant in 2024?

October 25, 2024, marked five years since the game’s 2019 release, players looking for a game that fills the sci-fi or RPG niches, or veterans thinking of revisiting The Outer Worlds, shouldn’t hesitate to boot up this classic.

Any game series’ fifth anniversary is a huge milestone, and since development cycles are getting longer over time, it makes sense that The Outer Worlds sequel would take several years to release because studios tend to switch between projects. Prior to creating this title, Obsidian Entertainment had experience making space role-playing games, most notably Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords.

The Outer Worlds, on the other hand, was its response to BioWare’s lack of a space RPG IP. The developers of Fallout: New Vegas contributed to the development of The Outer Worlds, and the Fallout IP is evident in both the game’s world and combat system. But when it comes to its companions and role-playing, where The Outer Worlds really shines, it outperforms Fallout 4 and Fallout 76.

Have you ever played The Outer Worlds? Then let us know your views about the game in the comment section.