The Outer Worlds

Flaws, companions and factions all feed the same story, and Spacer's Choice Edition folds the expansions into one package. Here is how the systems work and which release to buy.

You can be flawed, on purpose

The Outer Worlds tracks what you are not good at and then offers you a deal about it. Keep getting attacked by Raptidons, and the game will offer the Raptiphobia flaw: a debuff when you are up against those creatures, paid for immediately with an extra character perk. The offer is a response to what has actually been happening to you, and it is always optional.

Because the perk arrives up front rather than at the end of a quest, a flaw is a way to accelerate a build at the cost of one specific vulnerability, which is a good trade when the vulnerability is something you can avoid. Declining every flaw keeps you flexible; taking the right ones buys perks that would otherwise take several levels to reach.

Your choices reach four places at once

The game is explicit that your choices affect the way the story develops, your character build, companion stories and the endgame, which means a decision made for narrative reasons can still change what your character can do. Halcyon is a colony owned and operated by a corporate board, and you meet various factions all competing for power inside it, so siding with anyone is a position on the board as much as a personal choice.

Companions are the part of that worth slowing down for. You meet a host of characters who want to join your crew, each armed with unique abilities and carrying their own missions, motivations and ideals, and the game leaves it to you to help them reach their goals or use them for your own. Either way the choice is yours to make, and it shapes the story you build with them.

What you are actually doing out there

You wake decades late on a colonist ship bound for the furthest edge of the galaxy, in the middle of a conspiracy that threatens to destroy the Halcyon colony. From there the game is exploration with a corporate flavour: you find your ship, build your crew, and work through settlements, space stations and other locations rather than crossing one continuous map.

The setting supplies the conflict. Halcyon is owned and operated by a corporate board, and the terraforming of the colony's two planets did not go to plan, which left alien monsters sitting in the middle of corporate infrastructure. That mismatch, powerful institutions meeting a place that will not cooperate, is the engine behind most of the quests, and it is why the faction you side with is a real answer to a real question rather than a colour swap.

The original and Spacer's Choice Edition

There are two releases of this game on PC, and they are not interchangeable. The original 2019 release is the one this review describes, and its Steam listing no longer sells it: on Steam the page is still up, but it shows no price and no buy option, and it no longer turns up in a store search. The version you can buy is The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition, which bundles the base game and all of the add-on content in one remastered package, with an increased level cap, overhauled lighting and environments, a dynamic weather system, and grenades.

For a new purchase on Steam, Spacer's Choice Edition brings the game and both expansions together. Peril on Gorgon and Murder on Eridanos send you to a mysterious asteroid and a set of distilleries respectively. Availability on other storefronts should be checked separately.

One naming trap worth flagging: The Outer Worlds 2 is a different game and a different purchase. This review is about the first one.

Should you play it

Yes, if you want a role-playing game where the interesting decisions are about who you side with and who you keep around, and where those decisions reach into the character sheet. Your choices shape the story, your build, your companions' stories and the endgame, so a call made for narrative reasons can still change what your character can do.

The flaws system is the reason a second run plays differently. Each flaw is offered in response to something you have been doing, and it trades one specific vulnerability for a perk that arrives straight away, so the trades on offer follow how you have played so far. The crew is the other half: every companion arrives with their own abilities, missions and motivations, and helping them or using them for your own ends is left to you. Around all of it, the factions competing under Halcyon's corporate board each want something different from you, so siding with anyone is a position rather than a colour swap.