Ask anyone reviewing an RPG on a tight deadline how they’re doing, chances are, you’ll receive either stony silence or a murderous glare. These are typically vast things, where the main storylines alone can last upwards of 40 hours: and with such a huge variety of quests, narratives and locations, it’s necessary to put the time in to get a feel for the title. There’s also plenty of world-building going on, meaning some quests are lore-heavy, and some storylines will inevitably be less interesting than others. Which is fine, because you can simply move onto a better one with ease.
But what happens when you pick the wrong one, and you’ve only got an hour?
This, unfortunately, is the story of my Outer Worlds hands-on demo session – in which I spent 90 per cent of my time on one of those duller side-quests, and the other 10 per cent wandering around aimlessly. Whoops.
