The Outer Worlds

The makers of Fallout return with a thrillingly reactive RPG

They say the secret to good comedy is timing. Which might explain why we enjoyed a guilty chuckle at The Outer Worlds’ grand unveiling. At a point when Bethesda couldn’t escape negative headlines for Fallout 76 – for issues ranging from its not-so-micro-transactions to the quality of its limited-edition bumf – here were the co-creators of the original Fallout re-teaming to create a singleplayer-focused RPG. The response, inevitably, was wildly enthusiastic. “Let’s be clear,” Obsidian’s Tim Cain says, straight-faced. “We had planned all this stuff months ago – years ago. That timing was not part of our plan.”

The game may be set in a futuristic space colony rather than on post-nuclear-war Earth, but Cain and co-director Leonard Boyarsky accept the Fallout comparisons are inevitable, and they’re not about to distance themselves from them. “Even if we weren’t who we are I think people would still see similarities simply because of the basic things that you do in this style of game,” Boyarsky says. “It isn’t heavily based around cinematic cutscenes for your character or a voiced protagonist. It’s a hardcore RPG where you talk to people face to face.”