Obsidian's The Outer Worlds is out now

At the stroke of midnight, Obsidian Entertainment blasted off into The Outer Worlds. It's a new first-person sci-fi RPG from the studio behind Fallout: New Vegas and Alpha Protocol, exploring strange space colonies in quite a NuFallout-y way. It's not one to break bold new ground (and even with the name, I've accidentally called it"Outer Wilds" thrice so far today) but it does those Obsidian things and it does them solidly, and that sounds comforting in these uncertain times.

It is the future and you, a colonist-to-be, have been woken from your spaceslumber to find you're not quite where expected. Off you go to weird colonies on the outer edge of inhabited space, chatting, questing, stealing, shooting, and that. It is quite NuFallout-y, though with distinct levels rather than one huge open world. And it's in space. And is a bit sillier.

Our Alice Bee liked the game but said in our Outer Worlds review that she wished it didn't feel so familiar:

"The Outer Worlds is alright, innit. It's good fun. Sit back and let the orange and neon wash over you. Boo the cartoonishly evil corporations. Exhale through your nose at their Diet Toothpaste. I bet I'll play it again, in fact. But you can tell it could have been great, if it had taken a few more risks. Real space cowboys take risks, don't they?"

The Outer Worlds is out now on the Epic Games Store and Microsoft Store for £50, $60, €60. It's also available through an Xbox Game Pass subscription. A Steam release will follow in 2020 after one year of exclusivity.

For an alternate opinion, our Matthew has a video review of The Outer Worlds:

Our helpful folks have an Outer Worlds guide going too.

Four times. Since I started writing this post, it's gone up to four times I've said "Outer Wilds" by mistake.

God damn it, I've just noticed a fifth within this very post. OBSIDIAN, THIS NAME...!