Welles jettisons the Stranger in an escape pod onto Terra 2, where a contact, smuggler Alex Hawthorne, is waiting.

Welles tasks the Stranger with securing the resources needed to revive the remaining Hope colonists, who he believes hold the key to Halcyon's salvation. Due to the after-effects of prolonged cryosleep, the Stranger has substantially higher mental and physical abilities, including the ability to briefly slow time. Welles informs the Stranger that the Halcyon colonies have fallen on hard times due to the incompetence and greed of the various mega-corporations (referred to collectively as 'The Board') that govern every aspect of life in Halcyon. In 2355, the Hope is discovered drifting on the outskirts of the Halcyon system by mad scientist Phineas Vernon Welles, who manages to safely revive one of the passengers (the 'Stranger'). The Groundbreaker, meanwhile, goes into permanent orbit near Terra 2, with the original crew and their descendants converting the ship into an independent port and armored citadel. While the Groundbreaker successfully arrived in Halcyon, colonizing the planets 'Terra 1' (later renamed Monarch) and 'Terra 2', the Hope and its cargo mysteriously disappeared in transit, slipping into myth among the citizens of Halcyon.

In 2285, two colony ships were dispatched to colonize Halcyon - the Hope and the Groundbreaker. Traveling to Halcyon requires both the usage of advanced spacecraft with a faster-than-light 'skip-drive,' and a ten-year cryosleep for the colonists. Hundreds of Earth residents, lured by the promise of a fresh start, sign up for the chance to travel to this new frontier.Īmong them is Halcyon, a small, six-planet star system. As a result, Theodore Roosevelt never succeeded him, and the great business trusts of the era were never broken up, leading to a hyper-corporate, class-centric society dominated by the power of megacorporations, which, by the distant future, have begun to colonize space and terraform alien planets to varying results. President William McKinley is not assassinated by Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American Exposition. The game is set in an alternate future that diverged in 1901, when U.S. Flaws impede the player in some way, but also give additional perks and advantages. The player can also gain a 'flaw' that occurs when the player fails repeatedly in certain gameplay segments. As the player leads their companions, they improve their companions' combat strength and resilience. The player can also enter a 'Tactical Time Dilation' state, which slows down time and reveals opponents' health statistics, granting the player tactical advantages. The player is able to invest points into these skills, which will unlock new perks that enhance combat efficiency. For instance, the player can use a shrink ray to shrink down an enemy. The player can develop their technical skills, which are further divided into three categories: Science, Medical, and Engineering. As the player progresses, they gain experience points, which the player and their companions can use to level up and unlock new skills. The player can use stealth or social skills (persuasion, lying and intimidation) to avoid combat altogether. These weapons can be customized to add elemental damage. ĭuring combat situations, the player can use various weapon types such as melee and firearms, which have three ammo types: light, heavy and energy. They can also respond to NPCs in various ways, such as acting heroically, maniacally, or moronically. The player can make numerous dialogue decisions which can influence the game's branching story. When exploring, the player can bring up to two companions alongside them while the rest stay on the ship. Each companion has their own individual skills and special attacks, and they can also develop their own skill specialization. When accompanying the player, the companions act as an aid in combat. The player can encounter and recruit non-player characters as companions who have their own personal missions and stories. Though the player cannot control their ship directly, it serves as a fast travel point to access different areas in the game and acts as the player's persistent inventory space. In the early stages of the game, the player can create their own character and unlock a ship, which acts as the game's central hub space.

The Outer Worlds is an action role-playing video game featuring a first-person perspective. Pre-release gameplay screenshot of The Outer Worlds.

The outer worlds update