Where Could The Outer Worlds DLC Go Next? | Game Rant
The Outer Worlds is a game with some great characters and storytelling and is receive tons of praise this year, but parts of the game feel unfinished, or at very least, have left room for more to come. Even the map of Halcyon on The Unreliable, the player character's galaxy traversing ship, has multiple planets that were not accessible in the base game. In other words, there is plenty of fertile ground to explore in future content.
Luckily, Obsidian has announced DLC for The Outer Worlds that is expected to come out in 2020. On its blog, Obsidian said that "the journey isn't over yet." So far all that is known is that the DLC is still a ways off and it will expand the base game's story, but how exactly it plans on expanding the world and narrative is yet to be revealed. Here are some of the best guesses at where The Outer Worlds could go next.
It could potentially be a serious disappointment if an expansion for The Outer Worlds didn't come with new locations to explore. The original game was short for an RPG of this style, but that was refreshing. Beatable in 20 hours and only taking players to a handful of major planets — as well as smaller locations like Scylla, Phineas' Lab, and the end game — there is plenty left to explore. And it should be explored. Obsidian did a fine job crafting the factions and conflicts on each planet and civilization that a new location, or two, with some different visual stylings would be welcome.
On the map aboard the Unreliable, where the player chooses where to head to next, a few planets that aren't explored during the main campaign show up. Olympus, Eridanos, and Typhon are all named, but there is currently no way to visit them in the game. It's not entirely confirmed that they will show up in the DLC, but that wouldn't be surprising. On the other hand, maybe the developers throw a curveball and add an entirely new location. It is even possible that new DLC could take place on the already established locations, but that would seemingly waste the uniquely craft Halcyon galaxy.
While The Outer Worlds had some pretty big decisions for players to make, it didn't leave much room for the players to see the fallout of their choices. The relationship between choice and consequence is a big aspect in this type of role-playing game and The Outer Worlds was light on consequence. There was not a lot to do after beating the game and, with the exception of some of the characters in the first area, most NPCs didn't react to the big choices that were made. These mostly paid off in who came to the player's during the final combat sequence of the game. It was admittedly a cool moment, but good DLC should take into account the player's choices in the main game beyond the endgame recap reel of events.
An ideal new quest line would take the player to new locations but also have them revisit characters from older quest lines. Checking in on characters and how player decisions impact their lives would be one of the most interesting choices a DLC could make. Following up with Zora and Sanjar, or whoever comes out victorious on Monarch, following the events on that planet would add complexity and depth to make the world feel more alive. Additionally, having the chance to decide the fates of characters like Hortense from a certain Byzantium side quest about workers going into retirement would be a great way to tie up some loose ends from the main game.
Whatever the new main story of The Outer Worlds' DLC ends up being about, many will want Obsidian to add a new companion and Companion Quest line. The companion characters were some of the best characters of 2019 and their quest lines featured the best writing in the entire game. The Outer Worlds will be remembered not for its overarching story, engaging but simple, but for Parvati, Vicar Max, and the rest of the Unreliable crew. A new companion would hopefully also come with a handful of quests for players to get to know the character better and revisit old locations.
Unlike Mass Effect, a game it has drawn some comparison to, there aren't many options for what type of character a new companion could be in The Outer Worlds. With S.A.M, players already got a robot to pal around with and the inhabitants of Halcyon are either human or robots made for labor. It would be interesting to have to deal with a character from an already established faction like The Iconoclasts or MSI, and this could be a new character or an NPC from a quest, main line or side, that the developers wanted to flesh out more but never got the time or budget to.
The Outer Worlds was not afraid to be silly. It took some cues from Black Isle Studios' and Bethesda's Fallout games in this way, but put its own brand of weirdness that was a little less grim dark than the most recent entries in that series. The flaws system lets players craft a character with odd fears and phobias that impacts their stats and character build. The game even lets players choose to be a "dumb" character, which gives a whole bunch of funny and useful dialogue choices that allows the player to stumble their way through speech checks.
Telling a story that tries to engage with the themes and conflicts of the main is hopefully what fans will get from The Outer Worlds' DLC, but what if it were something entirely out of left field? Leaning into the inherent absurdity of the world Obsidian created would be a refreshing take on post-game content.
The Outer Worlds is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, with a Switch version coming early next year.
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