To be honest, I’m only semi-optimistic ... The Outer Worlds was pretty bad in retrospect. It was just boring ... didn’t have the charm of Fallout and felt dated compared to modern games.
I think I’ve stopped believing in consistently good gamer developers ... BioWare, Obsidian, CD Projekt Red, Bungie ... just a few of the studios that have made amazing games and then also made really bad games.
Let's also keep in mind, Chris Avellone isn't any longer with Obsidian. Without his writing, these games are going to be a bit different - i.e. TOW seemed more on-the-nose and less subtle about issues (capitalism, the environment, corporations getting too powerful, and issues of the working man/working woman/employees); and was way more direct on this stuff.
Also, TOW kind of....rushes its final act a bit.
TOW is also nowhere as big or as huge as say FO: NV, in terms of huge open game-worlds & actual quests w/ loads of decisions to make. Sure, TOW has decisions - but I don't think it's on the grand scale & amounts of NV. Areas also felt smaller in TOW too.
I still prefer TOW's combat; Unreal Engine does a much better job of this. Combat on the gunplay aspect just isn't one of NV's strong-points; it's still clunky...as in FO3-style clunky.
Regardless, I still loved TOW.
EDIT:
I also think, in terms of humor and whatnot - FO:NV and FO2 (which Avellone was both involved with) is quite a bit more quirky, dark, twisted, and comedic. A lot of TOW, when it was trying to be funny & sarcastic - felt a bit more light-hearted. It was a different kind of comedic vibe in TOW there, compared to FO2 and NV. TOW also tried to get quite serious at times, too. TOW's humor, when it did it, just didn't seem as crazy, wild, and as quirky as some of the stuff FO:NV had going on.
I do think a lot of that quirky, wild, edgy, weirdness, and depth - comes from the involvement of Avellone. It's always shown in games he's involved in...in games like FO2; PS:T; KOTOR; NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer expansion; and Alpha Protocol. Just look at all of those games - there's nothing truly mainstreamed or cookie cutter about any of those, TBH. All of those had some kind of quirk, edge, twist on the genre, different mechanic of some kind, philosophy, and/or in-depth critique about something going on.
For example - KOTOR 1 from BioWare felt like a typical SW game and like it was adhering to what Lucas had going on in many ways, while Obsidian's KOTOR 2 (when Avellone was there) felt like it was always critiquing and questioning everything about the SW universe and its philosophies. NWN2: Mask had that spirit eating mechanic and felt like NWN meets PST. Alpha Protocol felt like it was taking decision-making to every sort of extreme here, while trying a spy-thriller shooter/RPG combo.
PST was way more prose & descriptive like a good book; picked the weirdest D&D setting that they could find that; avoided most CRPG tropes at that time; and basically picked on a ton of trends in gaming. Some of the things it did - you were immortal so you didn't need to always load last save and could also regain some memories just by dying and/or get moved to a new unvisited area when dying; rats work in packs and are some of the most powerful enemies in the game; wasn't tons of combat in the game; your character's story was more about saving yourself than the typical saving the entire world theme; etc etc.
TOW just...seems a bit more mainstreamed and direct, in its approach...from the game-world type(s); this sci-fi setting; the "corporations are too powerful" thing; the humor (more sarcastic and/or light-hearted in the humor); and also with its RPG elements.
Also, that 1950's is a more interesting era and whatnot that the FO series has going on to me, when compared to that the typical dystopian of the "corporations are getting too powerful" and sci-fi that was there in TOW. Also, TOW had a more Firefly type of vibe going on too.
Sure, I loved TOW - but man, FO:NV is a masterpiece on a whole another level entirely.
FO:NV is by far still the best Fallout of the modern era...since Fallout 3 did this RPG/shooter hybrid.
