10 Things Nobody Wants To Admit About The Outer Worlds

10. Dialogue Checks Haven't Evolved Since 2008

On one hand, the fact that The Outer Worlds features robust dialogue checks at all is a good thing. Being able to pump XP into Lie, Persuade and Intimidate skills and having more than one way to bluff your way through quests and open new dialogue trees is satisfying, and adds to the classic RPG structure that Fallout and Mass Effect moved away from.

However, it's very much a classic system to a fault. For the most part, these prompts only serve to skip conventional gameplay and progress the game quicker, with the only input from the player being how much time they've put into upgrading specific skills.

It can be satisfying, but using a dialogue check rarely opens up new gameplay possibilities. Instead, they replace parts of quests entirely. Choosing the dialogue option is the gameplay.

This is how it worked back in 2008 with Fallout 3 and even before that. It's nice to see it back at all, but there should have been more evolution after over a decade.