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Submit Your Thoughts For The Deepest Dive On The Outer Worlds (Patreon)

Published:
2019-11-11 21:56:44
Imported:
2026-06

Content

We're about to record the second chapter of our community game club on The Outer Worlds and need your thoughts! Please leave a comment with your specific feedback on the game up until you land on the planet Byzantium, please don't spoil anything after that moment.

We're looking for specific thoughts on the game from the point you land on Monarch up until you land on Byzantium. As always, get specific. The more specific your take, the higher likelihood we'll read it on air. Let's dive in deep and talk about character lines, RPG systems, weapons, enemies, etc.

This game club discussion will be airing on Wednesday as a public YouTube video with the audio going in the exclusive audio RSS feed. Subscribe to our YouTube channel, refresh your memory with the first episode of The Deepest Dive, and get ready for a fun discussion on Wednesday! https://www.youtube.com/minnmaxgames

Files

Comments

Neill Smith

First up, I was inspired by Hanson's totally alloof approach to signposting (there's at least two conversations where it is stressed that "You'd have to be a lunitic to land in Cascadia") and decided to give that route a shot. It was a very entertaining trip through monarch at level 7-10, very much remaniscant of the deathclaw run from the starting area in new vegas to new vegas itself if you just went straight north. It lead me to more than a few places that would not normally be visited until explicitly sent there by a quest giver later in the story though so it was fun seeing the game react to my having already been in several of these places. Sanjar in particular I turned in the BOLT, UDL research, and his old executive assesment all at once and gained nearly 2 levels in the span of a single 15 minute conversation. It was only after I gained so much XP that I decided to dig a little to see what had happened and found out that these wereall seperate quests. In Amber Heights, the iconoclast city, in the bar at the north end of the map a "grizzled old veteran" Ash offers a quest to track down his old mercenary unit. His other conversation options include the choice to buy him a drink (20 bits) and if you do he'll tell you stories of his old missions. The stories are short but they're a great bit of world building that really makes me wish the areas he talks about were in the game. Sections of monarch where the tides ebb in and out for miles of land, much stronger than earth, a hot pole where it's hot enough to boil water, a cold pole where everything is ice, and somewhere in between a storm wall where the extreme temperature changes cause vilent storms. Man it would be cool to go visit those places. The dumbest little detail in the packing plant in Stellar Bay. The lead foreman is waiting for a subordinate to bring back caffine pills. If you pickpocket the subordinate while the conversation is happening the conversation changes part way through to reflect that he can't find the pills to give her anymore. Just a neat little detail that stood out to me. Anyone else feel like the family of creepy canibals is super cliche and over done? I found myself rolling my eyes over and over when I got to that part. Then after they were dead Pavarti managed to add a new twist on it with a bit of very in character dialogue for her by opining that now everyone that's missing family, on a planet where that happens pretty often because of the local wildlife, will be wondering if this is where their loved ones ended up and she sounds so genuinely horrified at the thought of people wondering that. I almost wanted to load an earlier save and bring someone else. Nothing is more peak Parvati than responding to "You ought to get out more" with "I'm getting out right now!" Let's see, man named Graham leads a band of zealots in an isolated settlement in the wasteland in an obsidian game this seems somehow familiar...

BEEFCAKE

I love this game. I made my character look like an evil version of Phineas and named him Phineas Lyinhard. Everytime an option comes up to lie, I have to take it, and I have to side with board on everything. I'm trying to do everything the opposite of what Phineas Welles would do. Really made me slip into the roll of a corporate scumbag. Which is not the usual way I'd plays these games.

Jonah Abraham

Hey MinnMaxers...my favorite non-party character so far in the game HAS to be Sanjar. His passion for organization, while also being someone who actually cares about his workers well-being, really struck a chord with me. I was genuinely giggling listening to him gush about timetables and workflow optimization. Who’s been your favorite non-party character so far?

James Pinto

Alright, I gotta say that Nyoka's quest line is easily the biggest 180 I had on any of the characters. It really made her real to me and brought some understanding to why she acts how she does. It is crazy how well most of these characters are written (except Felix is more bland than Sam somehow). Also love Nyoka's Farnsworth line from Futurama.

DJ Tommy Pizza

Hey MinnMax Crew! First time long time. Has anyone else been disappointed in the stealth? I started out trying to be as silent as possible but eventually gave up on it. I feel like there is no ability to distract or influence enemy pathing and no obvious advantage to being completely unseen, even detrimental as you would miss out on getting XP for killing enemies. Even sneaking to steal items feels moot as I am easily able to obtain what I need through looting or vending. Kinda disappointed in this element of gameplay as I now blast through enemies willy nilly, but still enjoying the experience nonetheless. Thanks guys, Tommy from Minneapolis

Jordan Edmond

Anybody find it disappointing that some quests could be easily finished by just stealing an item. It really stood out to me in monarch where npc's tell you exactly where they are keeping the item you need, like the pills for Nyoka or the tossball poster.

Noah Eberle

Towards the end of Monarch, hearing the unsurprised recording blaming the Captain for the ship's crash, I originally sided with them because the Halcyon management is so incompetent. But reading the Captain's log shows that he is well aware of how terrible the situation has been but he can't seem to get anything from The Board either made me feel bad for everyone involved. This kind of one-two punch small storytelling is all over this game and it's great! Gotta read every terminal.

AJ Lira

I really enjoyed the stories on Monarch. I thought Sanjar and Celia were extremely charismatic, if you examine Sanjar's datapad on his desk it shows you his To-Do List and one of the tasks was "Tell Celia she's doing an excellent job". It made me smile seeing that and was a great contrast to the Iconoclasts leaders Graham and Zora, who were always fighting one another. When it came to it, I sided with Zora for the leadership of the Iconoclasts and made Graham pay for orchestrating the massacre at Amber Heights. Another story I enjoyed was running into Herbert, the guy living underneath the Cascadia Bridge Safehouse. Initially when his robots attacked me, I was excited to loot them which gave me some cool armor and an awesome unique melee weapon called "The Candy Cane". But when I read his computer terminal, IT WAS ONE OF THE SADDEST STORIES EVER. You find out that the guy really wasn't dangerous and had been living under there for years. When Cascadia was abandoned, as a child, Herbert and his mother Margaret were brought down there by his father Howard to protect him from monsters and marauders. Margaret is in a coma, so Howard sets up robots to take care of her and Herbert. Howard eventually pulls the plug on Margaret, and Howard unfortunately dies from an infected leg due to an injury. This leaves Herbert alone being raised by a robot wearing a chef hat. Herbert's last terminal entry reads "howard has not moved this morning. his tummy is very still and he is very quiet like mother was when howard took her tubes out and cried all night. i think white hat is my father now. i don't know if it is able to be proud but i will try my best." It's fantastic how many hidden stories are scatter throughout the world and I regret killing Herbert :(. I also really enjoyed was running into the cannibal family who invite you to dinner, it was very reminiscent of something you'd find in Fallout to me. I loved that dialogue you have with your companions when you find the butchered body in the house.

Barnsley Pal

I have not invested a single point into combat. Everything going into dialogue, leadership, and some science. I let my companions do the bulk of fighting. It's awesome seeing SAM mow them with acid spray and obliterate enemies. He literally melts them where they stand. I was able to bring peace between the Iconoclasts and Monarch which felt like an achievement. I did have to take out Graham in the process, but that guy had it coming. I know what he did 😉

Grizzled Gaming

Have any of you found the Mind Control Ray science weapon? I found it on a very off the beaten path area in Rizzo’s Lab while doing the Space-Crime Continuum side quest. It cracks me up. It plays the first part of the Spacers’ Choice jingle very fast over & over “It’s not the best choice, it’s not the best choice” while slightly damaging enemies. The kicker is the enemy you are shooting starts shooting other baddies instead of your team, basically giving you another teammate for a brief period of time. Also, does ADA look like Brie Larson as Captain Marvel or am I crazy?

Tanner Hoisington

I'm playing on hard and found that I was getting my ass kicked on the outskirts of Monarch after landing. But this forced me to go back to other planets for sidequests and my first weapon tinkering and modding and I found the whole process very rewarding. I also actually liked making my way to the Broker because it felt like a linear shooter inside a semi-open world. Did you guys get stuck at some point in the game so far? --- Meta note: Ben don't feel the need to read every comment, including this one! I think it's cool that you try to structure the topics more and incorporate questions along the way like on GI. But I get the pressure with it being Patreon.

Kezia Darling

I’ve been most impressed by the dialogue writing and voice acting. Specifically, the interactions when you speak with Graham while Max is in the party are wildly good. They do such a wonderful job of weaving real world philosophy into the fiction of the game. (Aside from gender inclusive character creation) this has been the high point of the game for me and brought it from a 9 to a 10.

Pelicanman

This is a little thing, but the loading screen tip that says “You loading screen tip could be here. Contact Spacer’s Choice for affordable marketing options” is emblematic of what makes this game so enjoyable to me. It’s a little touch, one that could be easily missed, and it’s not laugh-out-loud funny, but, in the aggregate, all these little things are adding up to form a special experience so far.

Mark Ramirez

The dialogue continues to make me laugh. The one drug dealer in Fallbrook on Monarch who audibly winks at you, getting the option to “punch him in the eye”. At first I didn’t want to, but then he was like “go ahead, punch me” so I did. I then proceeded to gain reputation with the faction because he was impressed with my strength and aggression. Also, am I the only one who thinks Monarch is a little boring environment / long in the teeth? Been playing for hours and looking forward to a new planet!

Yarrow

Hey guys, on the last part of the deepest dive, Suriel asked if they went into more detail on the rules of tossball, and they do! If you have Parvati and Felix in your party, they have some banter that progresses as the game goes on. Originally, Felix is enthusiastically discussing a recent game, and Parvati goes along until she finally tells him she doesn't understand the game, Felix then says that he will teach her. Later on, the dialogue will continue with him explaining the rules to her. Some examples included running the ball into the Saturday Goal if you're a visitor, or the Sunday Goal if you're the home team, and tumbling the ball in the Wednesday Zone, known as getting humped. It did a good job of fleshing out the world and showing progression not just in your relationships, but the relationships in between companions.

Travis Layman

I didn't keep up with you guys. I'll have to come back and watch when I get to this point. Love your content though. Have fun!

Aaron Bivens

Did you guys kill Graham? Because I killed Graham. That guy was nuttier than a squirrel sandwich, and that's BEFORE you learn he was responsible for all the deaths of the executives. Am I part of the majority, or did any of you guys decide to side with him?

Theodosius

Haven't gotten to Byzantium yet but some thoughts: (1) What's the deal with that scientist in a tube in Cascadia lab? (2) I love the game's mixed feel of Fallout NV + mass effect + bioshock. What other game(s) would mix well with, say, Obsidian's next game? (3) Playing on normal difficulty right now, and honestly I have too much bits (like +50,000). Was I suppose to buy ammo with this or what. Thanks and keep up the good work!

Isaac Cynova

Their “normal” difficulty needs some work. It’s too easy. Their Hard difficulty is Fallout standard. Also, I wish they just copied Kaylee wholesale from Firefly, not just parts of her onto the engineer girl. Thanks guys!

Xavier Perez

I loved reading through all the executive progress reviews. It was really entertaining to see what the corporations determined to be positive and negative traits. Delegation = good, hard work = bad. Or the person they determined was so good at what he did that they made it so he was never allowed to be promoted past a certain point so they could keep such a productive person in a lesser role. It all helps flesh out the world and the characters such as Sanjar and Zora and I love it.

Tanios A Bou Onk

I really feel like the companions were a missed opportunity. Most of them were interesting enough to recruit, except for Nyoka, who's introduced so much later than the others that I didn't care. This is especially true if you spent time doing a lot of sidequests. In addition, except for SAM (for obvious reasons), they all felt like pretty well written characters. Unfortunately it feels like their quests were an afterthought rather than fully thought out stories. The most detailed companion quest I played through was Max's and that ends with a deus ex machina which comes out of nowhere and doesn't really make sense in the context of the game or even within the quest's internal logic. I think Obsidian's worldbuilding is the best in the industry right now, and I wish that they'd chosen to focus on quality rather than quantity of companions and given us two or three really fleshed out quest lines.

Quenton Cassidy

Does every RPG these days have to have a side quest where you come across a weird family that are obviously cannibals? I've been enjoying the writing for the most part but that side quest was so cliche and groan inducing that it really stuck out to me (in a bad way)

StillGotGame

I love reading some of the messages from the terminals. My favourite was one that had a conversation about making workers take a dump whilst facing colleagues in the showers to speed up toilets breaks and increase efficiency. Brilliant!

Jake Palicki

Is anyone else somewhat disappointed with the unique weapons? I'm not talking science weapons (of which there are precious few) but the uniquely named weapons with the golden sunburst on the stats page. I've always loved unique weapons in videogames and new Vegas had some very great ones, but these feel so lackluster. They have some unique traits to them and some have a slightly different look, but I like when a weapon tells a story. Maybe some parts are swapped out with assets from a different weapon, a name is carved into the barrel, claw and bite marks adorning the stock, whatever. I feel it really helps the world building, that it isn't just another assault rifle, it was SOMEONES assault rifle. I dunno, it just feels like one of the few elements missing to really make this game pop.

StillGotGame

I think it is great how you can bypass so many elements of the game depending on your skill set. I went rescue Huxley from the locked room and was anticipating a lengthy quest prior to working my way to Byzantium. Because my engineering was so high I simply asked her "Have you tried pulling the handle upwards?" Saving myself a massive trek I assume.

StillGotGame

I think the phobia element is a good idea but under utilised. I never felt risk/reward was worth an extra perk. I hope this is fleshed out more in a sequel as I think this could be a great addition. Perhaps if unique perks were offered that could only be received from taking a phobia.

Jake Z

I think the idea that this game is a commentary on modern capitalism is overstated. It's really about proto-states, and dictatorial ones at that. The definition of a state in political science is an entity that has a monopoly on violence. That's basically what these "corporations" are, more governments than anything resembling a corporation in modern capitalism where competition and freedom of exit counteract corporate power.

Shawn Mills

I found myself disappointed with how binary the final choice on Monarch felt. Unlike the decision of who to give power to on Terra-2 it felt obvious to me that Graham and the Iconoclasts did not have a sustainable way of life. I wanted to put Zora in a position of power but she wouldn't talk to me after I failed to find her team during the printing press quest. How did all of you feel about the ending of Monarch and who did you give the targeting module to?

Richard Tweedy

What do you guys think about how big a difference there is between different tiers of weapons in this game? My character, who has never put a point into combat, started tearing through Mantiqueens as soon as he got his hands on a Mark 2 LMG. I don't mind, since I don't play this sort of game for challenging combat, but it did stand out as odd.

AxeWieldingGoatMan

It was boring and I quit. Maybe I'm just not in the right frame of mind.

Lewis K

Hey guys, Lewis from Glasgow here again. I find myself slowly going through the game as my time is split between this and Shadowkeep/Luigis Mansion 3. I’m still enjoying myself but the combat just feels so boring now. I don’t know if it’s because of the weapon (still the science hammer which STILL one shots everything outside Megas) or the copy and paste enemies, I’m starting to feel like the combat is an obstacle to get to the next conversation/plot point which is kinda detracting the experience for me. Overall still a fan of the game just a little disappointed. Hope the latter half is bit more interesting.

Prodigal Horse

I don’t know at this stage if I’m doing it wrong (not on the scale of Hanson skipping half the story), or if the devs are genius or flawed. The way I am made to be the final arbiter of how society plays out is either genius or annoying and I can’t decide which. You have to read every memo, every post-it, speak to everyone and take everything in before making decisions that impact everything. I’m erring in genius. I usually try and be the nice accommodating negotiator trying to get people to see sense and work together, but I never seem to find that option. I can’t sit on the fence and I can’t remember a game that from the very start has made you make difficult lesser of two evils decisions and then have to live with the consequences. However, I fully accept that this might be I did something early on that means I don’t get that option. It’s genius, but I could be an accident, it could be me, I love it and also hate that I can’t be the honourable fence-sitter. How this whole thing plays out is totally in my hands which scares the crap out of me.

Carl Nielsen

On paper I think it's a brilliant idea, that your speaking-skills can intimidate your enemies, but on the actual battlefield it's just weird. With the AI not being top tier, I can't always tell if the enemies are running away from me or just being dumb AI. I would've liked a clear indication that this ability was triggered. This may be nitpicky but I did find it bothersome. What do you think? Carl from Copenhagen, Denmark

AnotherRobot

After 22 hours the cracks are becoming clearer. The writing, while fun and clever (sometimes a bit too clever) as a whole, lacks variety. Everyone has the same sense of humor or same stern sensibilities. Conversations are more tedious than fun and I just want to shoot everyone so they’ll stop talking. I still don’t really have an idea of my purpose. Maybe I missed a computer or character, or I stopped paying attention to some dialog. More importantly, if my purpose is (x), I’m lacking a reason why I should care. Both sides (like in real life) are reprehensible so what do I care if one side destroys the other? I completed Vicar, Felix, and Nyoka’s companion quests. I did enjoy going along with the Vicar’s hallucination but was ultimately unsatisfied with the conclusion. Is there a “fail” state where the Vicar doesn’t gain peace? Felix’s was forgettable and Nyoka’s was the most epic and relatively enjoyable companion quest I completed. I know I sound down on the game, but I’m still really enjoying my time with it. I suppose my disappointment stems from the game not being fully realized. It’s possible Obsidian chose breadth rather than depth. They filled the world with a thousand little quests to make the world feel alive, but I would have rather had fewer quests with more substance with bigger payoffs and maybe lasting effects on the world. I feel like, in the end, nothing I did will have mattered.

Dan Willey

How did you all feel about the environment design in Monarch? I was hoping for a bit more variety after my time spent on Terra 2. The sulfuric acid pools on Monarch add a touch of variety and there's a bit more verticality, but the color palette, environmental set pieces, and flora are very similar. Given the limited number of maps in this game, I was hoping for a bit more diversity (maybe an icy area, a desert, etc.).

Joelle

I just want to give a shoutout to Celia Robbins. One of my favorite NPCs in the game, she has an adorable little quest where you bring flowers to a guy she has a crush on. The guy in question only sees her as a customer for his gross food items, but you can convince him to go on a date with Celia. I just liked the way her character was handled in the short time you have with her. She’s intelligent and well spoken in business dealings (and the real brains behind Sanjar) but hopelessly shy in personal matters. I guess I can relate in a way.

Ben Cooper

How did you all feel about the two factions on Monarch? I felt the writing for them has a dramatic contrast. One was silly and fun while the other was dark and disturbing. Having them at a peace meeting was a very jarring experience. P.S. SAM is still the funniest companion to have.

Joe Zwak

In the slaughterhouse-clive mission there is a terminal where you can hack the automechanicals to execute the "pink slip" order which I did right away thinking that was like sending the robots away...then I read what it was in one of the computer logs...those poor workers. 😬

FlaminQueso

I have to admit something to MinnMax. I really don't like Bioware games. Ive played several of them for several hours each and i always turn them off. The reason, you ask? I do not like games that are heavy with dialogue and dialogue trees. For me a game needs to have more action than talking. As a kid, I would skip through all text in a game and that tendency has stayed with me a lot as an adult. But....not with The Outer Worlds. For some reason, I want to engage with every NPC and exhaust every dialogue option available. Each time I level up, I'm pouring the majority of my stats into Dialogue. I don't know if it is the writing or the voice acting, but I'm shocked i want to play this way. So far, stands out are Pavarti, Graham and the Vicar. Even with the stiff animations during the interactions with these characters, the voice acting makes them feel like real people.

Breadward

I still find the combat and looting disappointing, but continue to try to get into every room because the logs and ancillary world building is really rewarding if you seek it. What keeps me moving are the options available and responses so far to my decisions. In Edgewater I gave the power to the Botanical Labs because of the portrait the logs painted of The Board. That lead to a cool moment where I entered the town — now without power for the plant — to collect what I needed for my ship facing an angry settlement fully aware of what I'd done. I walked in and grabbed what I needed and they understandably attacked me, essentially fighting for their lives as I ripped away their primary source of survival. This botched a few quests I had yet to complete including adding the Vicar as a companion and turned Edgewater into hostile territory where the people I had been helping now attack me on sight :( I can't think of another game that has responded to my actions in a way that made me think very differently about the next choices I made. Now on Monarch, after following the quest lines of the two main factions, I find myself much more tentative. With both sides asking me to retrieve the targeting module from the crashed ship and give it to their side, I decided to grab the module so neither side could retrieve it on their own and just bounce. I may still go back and do something but I'm not ready to make such a big decision yet. The same uncertainty has me starting the quest line to turn Phineas in because I want to free the people frozen on Hope, but I'm not sure what Phineas' true motivations are. Not sure what decisions I'll make but I hope the game continues to make the outcomes messy and difficult because its engaging. Maybe this will eventually come into play but I would like to see the companions have more opinions about the decisions you're making. Parvati gave her thoughts before the first big decision but I screwed over Edgewater, probably hurting friends of hers, and she still stuck with me. I'll explore that with other characters going forward by speaking with them but it would be great if the outspoken ones chimed in and maybe even left your crew if they don't agree with what you are doing.

Dunder

One of my favorite moments from this section of the game was the quest “BOLT With His Name”. I encountered an Iconoclast runner locked in room. Based on the flow of the initial dialogue, I thought I would have to go find her friend with the key to open the door. However, my Engineering skill was high enough where I was given a dialogue choice to tell the runner to TURN THE DOOR HANDLE UPWARDS to unlock the door. The runner opened the door from the inside and I was able to complete the mission. This quest really showed off the variety of ways to complete a task and the great writing and humor in the game.

picobots

"Time and budget"? More like "infinite time and massive budget"! I'm increasingly blown away by the scale of this game, especially given how sheepish the devs were about how we shouldn't expect much because of their limited time and budget. When I first arrived in Stellar Bay, I thought "Wow, this is an even bigger town with even more side quests". It took me a few hours to do everything in the town, and when I finally walked outside the town walls, I immediately thought "Holy $#!%, there's even more. This planet is gigantic." It feels like the scale of the game has really expanded on Monarch; not only is there Stellar Bay, but there's Amber Heights, Fallbrook, Devil's Peak Station, the boarst factory, and on and on. So much content. I have to say, I think Obsidian really undersold and overdelivered with this game.

picobots

P.S. When your patron email last night said "We're about to record the second chapter of our community game club", does that mean "about to tonight" or "about to sometime tomorrow" (i.e. today)? Just curious how quick on the draw we need to be with sharing our thoughts.

Edgar Vazquez

Hey Twonners, Have you done the companion quests? All I have left is Ellie, which starts in Byzantium, and Parvati’s, which ends in Byzantium, and I was pretty let down by the Max’s, Felix’s, and Nyoka’s quests. Parvati is such a great character and her companion quest is so unique that it raised the bar pretty high that the others didn’t come close to get over, especially Max’s. What have you thought of the companion quests?

Bradley Bellman

I'm really enjoying the game and the world building that Obsidian has built, but do any of you find the armor/weapons to be uninteresting? Getting new loot isn't super exciting to me despite enjoying the rest of the RPG systems because it feels like I get the same rotation of 4-5 weapons and armor pieces over and over again.

Jawarhello

Hey 2 N Crew! If you do the Sublight quests for Lilya Hagen on Monarch, you eventually deliver a huge amount of Alta-Vitae gas to her. You deliver a total of 120 cubic units which she says will sell for "a million a pop". For all your hard work, you are rewarded with a measly 2,000 bits and even if you make a persuade skill check of 100, all you get is an extra 500 bits! So out of a 120 millions bit haul, I got a puny 2,500! I know that the reward had to be small to avoid economy bloating and ruining gameplay but I chose to look at it from a roleplaying perspective; my character got screwed on that deal! So, when Lilya started yammering on about aliens, I just cut her off and walked away, determined to find way to get back at her for cutting me out of the profits. Have you guys had any moments like this where you do a 180 on a character or faction?

Charlie's Coffee Co

Hey guys! I'm really enjoying playing through the Outer Worlds with everyone. Two things I've noticed in my play through that are somewhat related are: 1) I've been trying to do a more stealthy play through but I've noticed how difficult it is in this game. I usually find myself looking around for ways to go the stealthy route but end up getting seen by an enemy then having to kill everyone only to find the stealthy route after the fact. I'm not sure if I don't have enough points in stealth or if I'm just bad at this game but I find myself wishing these routes were easier to identify. Which leads me to my next point... 2) There's been a lot of talk about the design and color in this game. While I'm usually a fan of lots of color in games, I find this to be a little overwhelming. It seems like there isn't enough contrast between the bright colors to identify what I'm looking at. Everything seems over saturated and it makes it a difficult game to "read." I don't always know what ledges I can climb up or ways I can interact with the environment. My biggest complaint about the game is the lack of subtle design queues to guide me to a certain path. A game I think that does a great job of this is Dishonored. It doesn't explicitly guide you in one path, but it's usually clear what parts of the environment you can interact with. I don't get that same sense with Outer Worlds and end up wasting a lot of time looking for fun ways to approach an encounter only to end up getting caught and having to go in guns blazing.

Daniel Dwiggins

Hey guys! I'm loving everything about the Outer Worlds so far, but I felt like Monarch was almost a little TOO big and expansive compared to what we had seen before. Going from point to point had a great feeling of exploration early on, but as the quests started to take me back and forth from one end to the other, it started to feel like a bit of a slog to get where I needed to go. And fighting hoards of Raptidons and Mantisaurs almost exclusively the entire time started to make it feel like an unnecessary grind that only served to slow my progress. I would love to hear your thoughts on how well balanced you guys thought Monarch was in general in terms of size and combat, and if there is anything you would change about it if you could. Can't wait to finish this one and see what happens!

Jeremiah Marshall

Can we talk about the science weapons for a minute? They are incredibly fun to use but the way you get them is lackluster. I appreciate Obsidian wanting players to get the most amount of time with these things by introducing them early but all these weird, wild super weapons are all just kind of laying around. All of them feel like they should be the rewards for creatively unique side quests but all they end up giving us is the exact location and a checklist. Did y'all appreciate the simplicity or would you have preferred something that made the weapons feel earned?

LaRay M. Hare

*Edit, my name is pronounced "Luh-Ray" I'm from Woodbridge, VA* Hey MinnMax, keep being Minnesota to the Max! (Dad joke out of the way) I wanted to write in! This is my first time participating in a Deep Dive as a writer, but have listened to every other shared gaming experience that you guys have worked on. Let's get down to brass tacks: I want to drill down specifically in the game's overall framing of the central conflict. I have seen (and heard) several people make the argument that the "'Capitalists vs. Anti-Capitalist' rhetoric is reductive and oversimplified!" (Requesting Seinfeld voice here for quotes.) I would argue that is not the central tenant of the game's argument. It appears that the argument is one for a purely corporate structure to society or a more natural existence. Sort of a Nature vs Nurture scenario. I would submit to you this: On Terra-2 you had the factory and the farmers. On Monarch you have MSI and those that live in Amber Heights. The people of Amber Heights live in a lawless society but off the land. However, there are three guys in a Merc group called C3 protecting a cave. They ask you "Who do you work for?" and your response can be "I'm the CEO of a company of one." Prompting a response on how awesome that is. Though these three are seen as complete chuckle-F***s by other NPCs, for whatever reason. My question: Where is the central conflict of the game spotlighted? Are we getting it all wrong?