RPG Tourist

Mild Spoilers    I have spent quite a few hours already on The Outer Worlds. My journal plans haven’t worked out. I don’t have much of a handle on my character or the game. I did create the high intelligence low charm character I planned but there’s nothing stopping me from assigning skill points wherever I want. It is so hard not to allocate points to the dialogue category. I’ve stuck with it for the most part trusting the developers that the game won’t punish me for such an unbalanced character. I’ve had to flesh her out a bit in my imagination. She is very on mission and possesses both good temperament and intentions. If a sarcastic response doesn’t seem appropriate she goes for the most direct one. I have to admit I felt some disappointment as I played through the initial learning section of the game. I thought it was just a really colourful Fallout. Thanks to high long gun skills I had even inadvertently recreated my New Vegas sniper. The time dilation thing is...

Henry is going on hold for now because The Outer Worlds is sitting on the PS4 drive ready to unlock tomorrow morning. This is the first time I have bought a game before launch so it could get interesting. Ever since I played Final Fantasy VIII, I have thought about designing a game that employs a leadership skill so I was interested in The Outer Worlds right away. It's not looking like it's implemented in any way I imagined so I might be disappointed. Trailers do look fun and reviews are good so far however. I wanted to go completely against the grain and make a big dumb melee character but it seems a lot of people are planning that so now I'm considering a highly intelligent female with lower than average charisma. We'll see.

According to Steam, I have logged 214 hours in this game. Henry is now presiding over a habitat for humanity project in Pribyslavitz. Although he is almost guaranteed substantial profits in the long term, funding requirements have Henry treasure hunting, lock picking and haggling in earnest. Clearing out enemy camps is so lucrative that Henry has finally resumed the Rattay missions. I am shocked to report that Henry can survive fights with multiple armoured opponents. He has been so successful at avoiding fights that his combat stats aren’t very high but he is quick enough now that he can move backwards and avoid being flanked. If he keeps his stamina up and defends, sometimes a weak opponent will move in and lock on. A quick death triggers a perk. As hard as it was, not riding Pebbles to raise that vitality stat paid off. Battles go even better if Henry has had time for an Aqua Vitalis. I can’t remember when I started to enjoy one on one combat. I just remember Henry dancing arou...

Warning: Spoilers Henry got to test the trebuchet as a reward for his hustling and bustling. It was the most Henry thing ever. The mighty wrecking ball only managed to elicit a surprised cluck from a chicken. While the engineer rambled reassuringly about trajectories, the leadership group received an urgent message about a new threat marching towards Talmberg. As Henry raced off to help repel these invaders, I thought about how obvious the trebuchet must be to the castle occupiers. Henry acquitted himself quite well in the ensuing battle and the invasion force was defeated quickly. But of course, the aforementioned trebuchet was now under attack. Henry thought Pebbles was the fastest way back but she continuously threw him off. Henry hadn’t ridden her enough to get the Warhorse perk and I figured that may be the problem. Oh the trade offs one makes in this game. So he ran as fast as he could. The allies prevailed but Henry got bloodied in this battle. After healing up and re...

Warning: Spoilers When Henry reached Vranik, the enemy occupied fort, a warning flashed that progressing further would cause some uncompleted side missions to fail. I assumed that from here Henry gets locked onto the main quest and that seems true to a degree. I tried to look into these quests while avoiding plot reveals as much as possible. Things don’t look good for Talmberg. It’s been quite obvious all along that Henry was missing key parts of his life story but I still managed to be surprised somehow by the Vranik plot twists. Part of this was due to not remembering much about early game Skalitz. Henry made multiple escape attempts but sneaking or fighting his way out just didn’t seem possible and he tried making a run for it. I had to watch a You Tube video to learn why Henry couldn’t just jump over the palisade at the designated point. Henry was being spun around so often by combat lock on that I never noticed the use prompt at the palisade. He finally vaulted over and r...

Warning: Spoilers Predictably Henry spent many sleeps trying to get out of the monastery. If he had high lock picking and pick pocketing skills or even a Padfoot recipe he could have short circuited the whole thing though that might not have been as easy as it sounds. Even so, the monastery presented a bit of a catch 22 since Henry needed lock picks anyway and the items he could exchange for them seemed limited. At first he was fully committed to his monk schedule and tried to solve his various dilemmas during the day. It sort of reminded me of my son rolling around the floor laughing while I tried to obey traffic laws in Grand Theft Auto only to crash the car anyway. He spent at least 2 nights incarcerated in the cellar before he learned that he could probably get away with sneaking out of the dormitory at night. As a bonus he got the fatso achievement down there. From then on all the doors opened for him literally but progress was slow. I am glad things turned out this wa...

Warning: Spoilers Henry has indeed turned a corner. He has triggered a number of missions many of which require minimal combat. That does not mean Henry hasn’t created any obstacles for himself. He rushed off to Sasau Monastery seeking aid for Merhojed. He didn’t anticipate that he would be tasked with finding the solution and had forgotten most of his conversations in Merhojed. I could have just looked this up but I forced Henry to do this quest all over again. Lol. Why? He ultimately made the right choices but while waiting for the outcome reported to Radzig on his primary Merhojed investigation. Is Henry beginning to see Radzig as a father figure? He engaged Radzig in a rather cool philosophical discussion. At least I thought it was cool. He was dispatched to Sasau again in full investigator mode. He gained a mysterious and hard nosed temporary ally who lent a hand with the only tough combat sequence for Henry. They parted ways but will we see him again? I hope so. He...

Warning: Spoilers It didn’t take too long to tire of grinding stats or dealing with the Farkle scoring conundrum for that matter. So it’s been on to the main quest and moments of triumph and sadness for Henry. He had attempted and failed at this quest already and thanks to a guide I knew that this big battle preceded a boss battle hence all the preparation. I was hoping that Henry would be able to pop a couple of potions in between the battles but of course not. Other than not quite full health, Henry was in good shape for the boss fight. It took 6 or 7 tries. I knew Henry could win because Henry’s wasn’t the only blood flying but I was still shocked when the extended kill animation cut scene loaded in. Henry was competent and savage. I was thrilled. There was of course some humorous reminders after the fact that Henry is still a novice. He didn’t get Radzig’s sword back either. After the cut scenes ended all open quest options concerning Matthew and Fritz ominously fail...