Best RPGs of 2019
Honorable Mention: The Outer Worlds
Guides Editor Chris Jecks: The Outer Worlds is like RPG comfort food. The more you play of it, the harder it gets to stop. Set in the Halcyon Galaxy where a Phineas Welles releases you from an eternal sleep on a spaceship slowly trawling through space, your task is to uncover the conspiracy to end the Halcyon colony once and for all.
To do so you’ll explore various alien planets, help NPCs track down items, hack into terminals, lockpick doors and safes, use Speech skills to pass checks, slow down time in combat with Tactical Time Dilation, and generally be a space-hoppin’ bad-ass.
It does have its own, unique features with Flaws being one of them. If you repeatedly take damage from a certain enemy type or from an environmental hazard, or if you constantly get caught when trying to steal or lockpicking a door you shouldn’t be, you’ll be given the chance to take on a Flaw.
This may increase the damage you take from a particular enemy, or just make you even more jittery when picking locks. In return, you get another Perk Point to invest in your character. It’s an interesting trade-off element that frequently tempted us to up the ante.
In almost every facet of Outer Worlds, its inspiration stares back at you. It’s all very Fallout, but with a corporate-dominated world that makes for an interesting backdrop to all your shooting and colony-saving antics.
Do you side with the corporations in their predicaments with employees, who will help you in return? Or do you stick up for the little guy, give the finger to the corporation, and figure out an alternative with your friends?
On many occasions, I faced severe decision paralysis. But then I realized the game’s meant to be played multiple times for you to take all the various outcomes and endings in.
Outer Worlds truly is a fantastic RPG. It may not last you hundreds of hours, but its replayability, immersive and interesting world, and varied environments make for one of the best games to binge. Seriously, Outer Worlds is the western RPG to beat in 2019.
