Playtime: 6-8 Hours
Score: 7/10
The Outer Worlds was my GOTY of 2019 and I was really excited when they announced DLC for it! This DLC has you visit the Gorgon asteroid to solve a mystery!
The story, writing, and voice acting are still top-notch as they were in the base game, along with tons of choice and consequence which I always appreciate in RPGs! The game really lets you play how you want and either help or screw over all the characters you come across. And of course, in Obsidian fashion, you're presented with a morally grey choice at the end of the DLCs story. The Gorgon asteroid is fun to explore and the use of color mixed with the art style always makes everything look really cool! You also get to visit small bits of previously unexplored places like Olympus as well as new areas added to places from the base game like the Groundbreaker. The new science weapons are also cool and while you don't get a lot of new armor and weapons, you get MK3 versions of all the gear from the base game which are even stronger variants, as well some new unique weapons.
There are some new perks added for you to acquire which are pretty cool as well as some new ones for your companions. Skill checks also require a high skill level in most quests in this DLC, which is an improvement from the base game where high skill check requirements were only presented towards the endgame. They also allow you to increase skills past 100 and up to 150 now which is a nice addition for new players and ones looking to do another playthrough which is cool. There are new flaws added as well, but none of them popped up for me during my playthrough of the DLC.
This DLC unfortunately has some areas that I wish Obsidian did better in, like the lack of any new armor or weapons other than the new science weapons. There are also only 3-4 new side quests to do outside of the main story which was disappointing and only really one stood out to me as really good. It also would have been cool if we got some new companion quests, especially for the ones that only had one in the base game, but sadly there are none here. And while you do meet a lot of characters in the DLC, a lot of them are in one building and not spread out around the map as much. The characters you meet do hint at what happened on Gorgon, but a lot of asteroids history you have to read about in computer terminal entries, which I did in the beginning but after a while, I got tired of reading about everything and just wanted to learn about it through the interesting characters I met. One of the DLCs major plot points you find out from reading an email on a computer and while you do get reactions from your companions afterward, I would have rather had learned that from one of the NPCs during a conversation and not by reading about it in a boring email. My other issue with this DLC is that a lot of the new additions seemed geared more towards new players or older players looking to do a second playthrough. The level cap gets raised but only from 30 to 33, meaning you only get 30 new skill points to distribute and one perk if none of the new potential flaws popped up as it did for me. Because of this, if you're someone who loads up their endgame character who's already level 30 like I did, you won't get to really build or advance your character that much. I'm not saying the level cap raise must be like 20 levels, but maybe 10 or 5 like what Obsidian did with the Fallout: New Vegas DLCs, would have been appreciated here. Because of this, if you're someone who hasn't played this game at all, it might be better to wait until the second DLC comes out so that when you do a playthrough you can fully build out your character how you want to and not feel limited as a returning endgame player like I did.
Overall, I did enjoy this DLC, its new areas to explore and its engaging storyline to partake in. It's just some of the choices Obsidian made with regards to new gameplay additions felt damaging to returning endgame players. And the fact that the next DLC is only coming out in 2021 is really heartbreaking!
Score: 7/10
The Outer Worlds was my GOTY of 2019 and I was really excited when they announced DLC for it! This DLC has you visit the Gorgon asteroid to solve a mystery!
The story, writing, and voice acting are still top-notch as they were in the base game, along with tons of choice and consequence which I always appreciate in RPGs! The game really lets you play how you want and either help or screw over all the characters you come across. And of course, in Obsidian fashion, you're presented with a morally grey choice at the end of the DLCs story. The Gorgon asteroid is fun to explore and the use of color mixed with the art style always makes everything look really cool! You also get to visit small bits of previously unexplored places like Olympus as well as new areas added to places from the base game like the Groundbreaker. The new science weapons are also cool and while you don't get a lot of new armor and weapons, you get MK3 versions of all the gear from the base game which are even stronger variants, as well some new unique weapons.
There are some new perks added for you to acquire which are pretty cool as well as some new ones for your companions. Skill checks also require a high skill level in most quests in this DLC, which is an improvement from the base game where high skill check requirements were only presented towards the endgame. They also allow you to increase skills past 100 and up to 150 now which is a nice addition for new players and ones looking to do another playthrough which is cool. There are new flaws added as well, but none of them popped up for me during my playthrough of the DLC.
This DLC unfortunately has some areas that I wish Obsidian did better in, like the lack of any new armor or weapons other than the new science weapons. There are also only 3-4 new side quests to do outside of the main story which was disappointing and only really one stood out to me as really good. It also would have been cool if we got some new companion quests, especially for the ones that only had one in the base game, but sadly there are none here. And while you do meet a lot of characters in the DLC, a lot of them are in one building and not spread out around the map as much. The characters you meet do hint at what happened on Gorgon, but a lot of asteroids history you have to read about in computer terminal entries, which I did in the beginning but after a while, I got tired of reading about everything and just wanted to learn about it through the interesting characters I met. One of the DLCs major plot points you find out from reading an email on a computer and while you do get reactions from your companions afterward, I would have rather had learned that from one of the NPCs during a conversation and not by reading about it in a boring email. My other issue with this DLC is that a lot of the new additions seemed geared more towards new players or older players looking to do a second playthrough. The level cap gets raised but only from 30 to 33, meaning you only get 30 new skill points to distribute and one perk if none of the new potential flaws popped up as it did for me. Because of this, if you're someone who loads up their endgame character who's already level 30 like I did, you won't get to really build or advance your character that much. I'm not saying the level cap raise must be like 20 levels, but maybe 10 or 5 like what Obsidian did with the Fallout: New Vegas DLCs, would have been appreciated here. Because of this, if you're someone who hasn't played this game at all, it might be better to wait until the second DLC comes out so that when you do a playthrough you can fully build out your character how you want to and not feel limited as a returning endgame player like I did.
Overall, I did enjoy this DLC, its new areas to explore and its engaging storyline to partake in. It's just some of the choices Obsidian made with regards to new gameplay additions felt damaging to returning endgame players. And the fact that the next DLC is only coming out in 2021 is really heartbreaking!