Obsidian Entertainment’s sci-fi roleplaying The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition is the free game available this Christmas day on the Epic Games Store. You have until tomorrow at 5 PM to unlock it permanently in your library.
The Spacer’s Choice Edition was announced in late February and released in early March by publisher Private Division. It offers an overhauled version of The Outer Worlds featuring improved graphics (better vegetation, ground textures, character models, the introduction of volumetric lighting, and even new animations), an increased level cap, and the entirety of downloadable content released for the base game, including Peril on Gorgon and Murder on Eridanos.
However, the launch of The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition was rather riddled with bugs and performance issues, to the point where developer Obsidian Entertainment was forced to apologize for the underwhelming release. Over the following months, the studio deployed various patches to fix these shortcomings, and now the game’s recent user reviews section shows a 95% approval rating on Steam.
I enjoyed the original game, even if it fell a bit short of my high expectations, which resulted in a 7.8 out of 10 review score.
The Outer Worlds is pretty much exactly what you’d expect from Obsidian. The first-person action RPG features a great setting, fantastic writing and remarkable, complex characters to meet. The moment-to-moment gameplay isn’t as exciting, though, failing to measure up with the best in the genre. Still, there’s plenty to like here as long as you know what you’re getting into, not to mention the potential for a sequel to be much better, particularly if the developers had a higher budget to work with.
Considering that there aren’t that many sci-fi RPGs, though, you’d be remiss not to take advantage of this freebie. Obsidian Entertainment is also already working on a sequel; even though they are now busy finishing Avowed, which is due next year, The Outer Worlds 2 has its own development team and may not be too far away from launching.
