The worst thing for any author is to be misunderstood. This is what happened in my last article. How could it be that he encroached on something sacred?! Some were so angry that there was a wave of downvotes all over my blog. And something tells me that these “smart guys” didn’t even read the articles themselves. But closer to the point.

I hope many of you are familiar with the phenomenon when a person tends to superficially call things that are not very interesting to him with negative names, be it “garbage” or “shit”. Therefore, I am ready to admit that I was too careless in my assessment. Obsidian Entertainment – creative people (which I already noted) and make good games. But I still think they should have been more restrained and not incited more hatred towards Bethesda, which is already quivering with a blue flame. This is a trivial question of ethics.

I can also say that the topic is deeper than just a conflict between two companies. People from Interplay, like the future Obsidian staff can be called one of the pillars of computer RPGs. They made a huge contribution to their development in the late 90s and throughout the 00s. But you should understand that gaming then and gaming now are different things, the gaming industry has undergone monstrous mutations. Obsidian games were the most common back then, everyone played them. Subsequently, they turned from an ordinary developer into someone who seemed to be given the burden of maintaining the so-called “old school”. Meanwhile, other developers were already basking in the benefits of the changing gaming industry: large budgets, scope, popularity. It’s as if some child was forced to take care of his sick grandfather, while other children were having fun on the playground.

And looking at the present time, I wonder: why exactly these talented and creative people are bypassed by all the laurels? Why do they have to use crowdfunding to whip up another low-budget “old-school” project, whose audience, to put it mildly, cannot be compared with that of more popular titles?? Why do priceless man-hours to create a large open world go to milk cows like Assassin’s Creed? Why Fallout 4 I decided to do the gazebo myself, although the experience of New Vegas clearly showed who should do it? I would like to blame everything on the bad world around me, publishers, consumers, the industry as a whole. But maybe someone himself is stuck in the position he is in?

The industry changes, role-playing games change, but only Obsidian is like war. Are they making good games now?? Yes. Outstanding and memorable as before? I doubt. And I didn’t just call the company “holy fool”. Throughout most of its history, it has been like a traveling handyman, bouncing from publisher to publisher, franchise to franchise, and someone else’s franchise at that. First we make continuations for BioWare (Neverwinter Nights 2, Knights of the Old Republic 2). Then we do an ambiguous experiment in the form Alpha Protocol. It was clearly visible how the company lagged behind its competitors. But then perhaps the best event in the history of the company happened – Fallout: New Vegas. For all its crookedness and absurdity (for which much of the blame lies with the poor conversational engine), I believe that this is their best game, and among Fallout fans it is also considered almost the best in the series. But our guys don’t stay in one place for long and are again commissioned to make a continuation of someone else’s franchise – Dungeon Siege 3, which, by the way, became the worst part in the series. After it comes a fun game based on the mega-popular universe – South Parks: Stick of Truth. The second part of the game was not made by them, which is again significant. And now, dark times have come for the company. With nowhere to go, we had to turn to crowdfunding, which was gaining popularity at the time, in order to scrape together money for the first “pillars”. Despite the success Pillars of Eternity, Chris Avellone, a native of Interplay and one of Obsidian’s key figures, is leaving the company. Between additions to the “pillars” one becomes so hungry that one already has to make online masturbations for mail.ru in the amount of two pieces (Skyforge, Armored Warfare). The proceeds are enough for only the third original project in the company’s history – Tyranny. Some more time passed, crowdfunding again, already for the second “pillars”. And so our story ends in the still current year, 2018, in which the title of RPG of the Year goes to.. Monster Hunter World. I don’t know about you, but I was a little shocked. In general, these are not some nitpicking of mine, the company really experienced difficulties and in general, the fate was difficult, no one hid it. It’s time to change something?

Apparently, somewhere after Tyranny there was https://bingositesnotongamstop.co.uk/bingo-sites-ngs/ a rethinking of their prospects within Obisidian (and at the same time Leonard Boyarsky returned to the team). Development has been underway since 2016 The Outer Worlds. I just have a question: why were the second “pillars” needed?? After all, the company has already found a publisher, and not just anyone, but Private Division, which, along with the giant Rockstar, is the property Take-Two Interactive. Private Division was created just a year ago specifically to finance mid-sized projects, between AAA and indie games. What is The Outer Worlds? I see it as an attempt to break into higher-end game development. And they decided to start with what they already had great experience in – with the ideological successor to Fallout: New Vegas. I can say that the type of game Bethesda created in Fallout 3, the developers of the original Fallouts really liked it. This is evidenced by the very existence of New Vegas, and its mention in the trailer of The Outer World, and a number of similar details, which will be discussed further. Of course, these features together bring the new project closer to NV, and not individually.

But first, it’s worth saying what TOW definitely won’t have – a huge, seamless open world, like in its ideological predecessor. Instead, the game’s plot will unfold on two planets, each of which will be presented in the form of several separate locations. In this regard, the game will be more similar to classic Fallout with their global map and hand-made “locations”. Most likely, this is dictated by the game’s limited budget.

In all other respects, TOW resembles Fallouts of the “arbor” type (let’s call them for convenience fallout new, or FN, a kind of collective name for F3 and NV). Of all the possible options, Obsidians decided to make a non-linear action-RPG from the first person (and although a third-person view is also available in FN, it was much less popular than the first-person view). The player will have to create his own character, receive a certain main task and go “for a walk” through the world and side quests.

FN’s ears are most visible in dialogue. The camera angle characteristically zooms in on the face of the character with whom the main character is talking, and at the bottom of the screen a dialogue box is shown with a choice of lines. In the same way, among the lines you can see explanations in square brackets, talking about the influence of the hero’s skills on the line or talking about its character (like the famous “sarcasm”).

Still on the side of the screen the name of the new quest, completion of the old one and receiving experience points are shown. The HUD itself is filled with indicators of the main character’s health and energy, the amount of ammo, a compass on which the familiar quest marker looms, as well as new items – partner statistics and a quick access panel.

Searching all kinds of containers and corpses – one in one from Fallout 4. Lockpicking was demonstrated, but without a mini-game, but only with a test of the main character’s skill. Experience points are still awarded for successful hacking (and in general for any use of skills).

The system did not remain forgotten either VATS. Only now she looks more like the one from Fallout 4. The player can use the energy already mentioned above to slow down time in battle, while the effect remains active – the energy is consumed.

A stealth mode was demonstrated, which works similar to that from FN. The use of an in-game computer was also shown, which in its entirety again refers us to FN.

Nothing has been said about the game’s role-playing system yet, but one interesting thing was highlighted in the gameplay video: during combat, the player may develop a phobia for certain types of opponents. Subsequent encounters with them will inflict a debuff on the player. Oddly enough, the phobia can be immediately “rejected”, but as a reward for “accepting” the phobia the player will be given 1 point for perks. In the screenshot, in the description of the phobia itself, you can see some of the main characteristics of the character: Endurance, Willpower and Temperament. Also, based on the dialogue fragments and the very existence of the concept of “perks” in this game, I can conclude that the TOW role-playing system will be a slightly modified system SPECIAL.

Well, I’ll definitely be looking forward to this game. I hope that this will be the point where Obsidian enters the field of modern gaming as a serious competitor, will be the beginning of a new era in the history of the company, in which they will create masterpieces, and I will write reviews with the words “10 out of 10”. Well, at least we already have a potential winner in the “RPG of the Year” category at TGA 2019.