The Outer Worlds is a roleplaying game developed by Obsidian Entertainment, and while it is a unique roleplaying game in its own right, it is very often compared to Obsidian Entertainment’s fan-favorite Fallout game, Fallout: New Vegas. Partially, this may be due to many recent missteps by Fallout publisher Bethesda leaving fans longing for another Obsidian Fallout game, but The Outer Worlds team didn’t exactly shy away from the comparison, even putting “Creators of Fallout: New Vegas” in the original game announcement. The question is: how much is The Outer Worlds a true successor to New Vegas, and how much is just talk?
Superficially, The Outer Worlds has very similar mechanics to Fallout: New Vegas. It has a few different elements, notably more damage types and a lack of thrown explosives, but much remains the same. There is a limited weapon and armor modding system in both games, less intricate but arguably less cumbersome than the one in Fallout 4 and Fallout 76. There’s even a mechanic similar to Fallout’s V.A.T.S. system, the Tactical Time Dilation mechanic, which allow the player to slow time as a side effect of the player’s extended rest in cryo-sleep.
The way that companions are handled differs slightly. In Fallout: New Vegas, the player can have one human companion and one pet (either a cyborg dog or a pet robot), but The Outer Worlds lets the player have two companions in their party at a time. That means that the companions get a chance to interact with one another, and creates a feeling that you have a team rather than just a person who follows you around and carries your stuff. As you level up, you can level up your companions as well, choosing perks for them. Plus, the fact that your crew travels with you on your ship reinforces the idea that all your companions are a close-knit group.
The aesthetic choices differ as well. The Outer Worlds' original video announcement featured turn-of-the-century style advertisements that played up the retro-futurism science fiction connection with the Fallout series. In-game, these aesthetics are mostly limited to advertisements, with a more generic space sci-fi aesthetic in most of the world. It has a recognizable art style but doesn’t combine the same sort of historical aesthetics with science fiction elements that Fallout: New Vegas does.
The most obvious way that the games are similar is the design ethos that comes through in their gameplay. Fallout: New Vegas has a wide variety of choices, not just in what weapons you use or what skills you choose to level up, but also how you play the game and solve problems. It contains no essential NPCs and ample opportunities for speech checks. In fact, it is possible to complete the game both by killing every single character in the game or by playing a complete pacifist and never using a weapon.
The Outer Worlds continues this trend. There are no essential NPCs in the game, meaning that it is possible to kill everyone you have physical access to. The Outer Worlds developers have also confirmed that pacifist runs of the game are possible as well. This wide variety of gameplay options are what make The Outer Worlds a true successor to Fallout: New Vegas.
The Outer Worlds may have some superficial differences from Fallout: New Vegas, especially in regards to companion management and progression, but the multiple gameplay options that it allows and freedom of choice that it offers make the two games more similar than different.