On October 25, 2019, a clever, funny game developed by the veterans behind some of the PC's best-ever RPGs arrived to much anticipation and positive reviews. In most other months or years, we might've been smitten with it. But The Outer Worlds had the bad luck of launching exactly 10 days after Disco Elysium, a game that fundamentally reshaped our expectations for RPGs overnight.
"The Outer Worlds is a fun romp around a solar system infested with capitalism and space cowboys," Fraser wrote at the time in an editorial about how Disco Elysium ruined The Outer Worlds for him. "It lets me shoot stuff with my laser pistol and also loudly tell people that corporations are shit. Sometimes I do this while wearing a stetson that makes me good at dodging. This is all good stuff, but my heart isn't in it. It's been stolen by an alcoholic detective."
