Your Choices in The Outer Worlds May Turn You Into the Villain

Like many of Obsidian Entertainment’s other games, The Outer Worlds is largely driven by player choice. This time, however, the decision-making possibilities will run even deeper. Players will choose to become whatever kind of character they want, hero, villain, something nestled between the two. Yet, these choices won’t exclusively affect the protagonist. Opting to go the villainous route, whether intentionally or by accident, could very well turn The Outer Worlds‘ player character into The Outer Worlds‘ villain.

A recent interview with GameSpot and Senior Narrative Designer Megan Starks revealed how player-choice can inform the protagonist’s taking a villainous turn. Based on a brief summary of how the game begins, it seems the first major fork in the road appears fairly early on. 70 years before The Outer Worlds‘ events, corporations under the thrall of a group called the Board began colonizing solar systems. The player character, intended to be among the first colonists, got lost in transit. 70 years later, the character is awoken and faced with a seemingly difficult choice.

Starks explained,

The scientist Phineas Wells finds you. He wakes you up. The Board is trying to stop him because he wants you to help save the system. You can either decide to go with his plan and help him out or you can join the Board and go forward with their agenda. Or you can try and double cross both of them, and be a lone wolf… You [can actually] end up being the antagonist of the game, based on your choices.

To avoid story spoilers, Starks did not divulge many more details. Yet, according to GameSpot, she did hint that the player’s becoming The Outer Worlds antagonist would severely affect how the overarching narrative unfolds.

Obviously, big picture decisions aren’t the only way in which players will be able to influence the game world around them. Smaller choices will result in interesting moments, too. For instance, something as relatively insignificant as walking around naked will draw the attention of other characters. Taking lives is likely to draw more than curious looks and pointed commentary, though. “A lot of [the story] is based on the actions you take in the game,” Starks added. “If you kill someone that [another character] cares about, they’re definitely going to be very opinionated.” It’ll be interesting to see how drastically choices of this nature change the narrative from player to player.

Become who you want to be later this year when The Outer Worlds hits the PlayStation 4, PC, and Xbox One on October 25th.

[Source: GameSpot]