On Friday, Oct. 25th, video games “The Outer Worlds” developed by Obsidian Entertainment and “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare” from Activision were released.
The creators of the “Fallout” series, Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky, were the directors of “The Outer Worlds.” Their new game is a “Fallout”-style first person, single-player shooter taking place in a distant solar system known as the Halcyon Colony. This is an alternate reality where William McKinley is not assassinated in 1901, Theodore Roosevelt does not become president and laws are not put into place to prevent corporations from becoming too powerful.
A group of 10 companies form the Halcyon Holding Corporation in the 23rd century. They then purchase a solar system and begin sending cryogenically frozen colonists there on a ten-year interstellar journey. The Board rules over the solar system like a communist government. One of the ships transporting colonists is lost in the outskirts of the Halcyon Colony, the Board decides to leave it there and pretend it never existed to avoid a public relations nightmare.
Decades later the protagonist is freed by a scientist, deemed a terrorist by the Board, who tasks him or her with securing more chemicals to free the others from their frozen sleep.
The gameplay and graphics stay similar to “Fallout.” The world is explored in a similar fashion and side quests add more hours to the game than the main story. Dialogue options such as lie, persuade, perception and more are available to change the course of conversations. Instead of exploring a post-apocalypse Earth, the player can explore a mid-apocalypse Terra 2, as well as another planet, a moon, a large asteroid and two space stations.
Along the way, companions can be picked up by the player. Each companion has a unique personality with a fleshed-out backstory to be explored through dialogue. Companions also have side quests to complete, such as helping the engineer Parvati court an engineer, Junlei Tennyson, she has a crush on. This quest will take Parvati across the solar system to find the perfect dinner and the best outfit. There are six companions to pick up and they can all live on the protagonist’s ship “The Unreliable.”
The game launched on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One systems and the Epic Games Store on PC. It will come to Steam and be released on Nintendo Switch sometime in 2020.
“The Outer Worlds” received a review score of 82% from Metacritic, 8.5/10 from IGN and 95% of Google user votes have been thumbs up as of Wednesday.
On the same day, Activision also released its remaster of 2007’s “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare,” another first-person shooter with online multiplayer.
According to Activision, the 2019 “Call of Duty” title has had the best release of any “Call of Duty” game in the last six years. It brought in $600 million in sales and now holds the record for most digital sales in three days on the PlayStation 4.
The campaign lasts a little less than ten hours, however the focus of “Call of Duty” games is the multiplayer matches. Whether it’s Online matches with multiple people on each team, or a one-on-one fight, the game offers multiple ways to play against and with others.
Metacritic gave “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare” an 82%, IGN gave it a 7.5/10 and Google users have voted 88% thumbs up at the time of writing this article. Despite selling so well, the reviews coming in have been subpar.
John Ancilotti, Staff Writer
ancilljm19@bonaventure.edu
