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Caricature Capitalism - How The World Criticizes Everyday Life in The Outer Words (Topic)

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Caricature Capitalism - How The World Criticizes Everyday Life in The Outer Words

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As you may recall, Game Informer recently staged a "storm" on Obsidian Entertainment, and after observing and many hours of conversations with the creators, journalists have prepared many exclusive stories. The last one tells about the world of The Outer Words, and that it is much closer to ours than it seems. The new creation of Obsidian Entertainment brutally ridicules bureaucracy, corporate culture and capitalism in general. How exactly? We'll find out now.

Our world is a different story

As it turned out, everything that happens in the game is an alternative history of our planet. The divergence of events from our history begins during the life of Einstein. Also in the universe of the game there was the First World War, but the Second was not. In this world, class discrimination and the cult of making money have become the main principles of development. This is already similar to our realities, but Leonid Boyarsky is one of the main developers, for the sake of completeness, he advises us to imagine the absurd power of corporations, banks and billionaires, and to increase the degree of absurdity several times.

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As in our world, humanity in The Outer Words set out to conquer space, but not in order to explore it or contact with other intelligent beings. Instead, the hand of capitalism takes a person and throws him into a cold vacuum space, so that he looks for planets, to colonize and develop new business empires on them. The land is already inhabited by large corporations, and these same corporations want to go beyond its borders in order to turn their business elsewhere. The first part of The Outer Words will tell about the Halcyon solar system, for the sake of which 10 corporations have merged. There they created a real business utopia where the bosses of these companies can control every aspect of people's lives.

Although all our attention in the game will be focused on Halcyon, the project's universe is not limited to it. According to the developers, there are larger companies and major powers that buy colonies, planets or solar systems on their own, without joining in coalitions. So in the universe of The Outer Words there is a guy like Bill Gates, he was so rich that he bought a colony on his own and mothballed it.

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But the game is not limited to corporate greed and brain capitalism. The developers spent a lot of time working on the physics and environment. There will be no excessive realism in the game, because the mantra of the Obsidians is "Fun over realism."

Therefore, in addition to alternative history, alternative science will also come to the game. The best example would be the nature of space travel, which is inscribed in the plot of The Outer Words. People in Other Worlds have found a way to reach the speed of light, but this movement is associated with a number of problems, such as a complete lack of visibility at light speed and, as a result, collisions are possible. This happens to the main character's ship.

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Your new home away from home

Even before the ship of the protagonist with the colonists wrecked, the expectations of the corporations did not come true. Two space bodies were chosen for colonization. The first is Terra 1, a satellite that orbits the gas giant Olympus. Terraforming on it did not work, and the entire fauna turned into huge plants that pose a danger to human life. Over time, Terra 1 was renamed "Monarch". The influence of the board of directors of companies began to weaken on it due to the wave of uprisings.

According to the developers, Monrah will be interesting for people who expect a "sandbox" from the game. The satellite has four large cities, and large open spaces will allow players to move between them in a spaceship.

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The second habitable object is called Terra 2. People were able to master this planet and took on the role of corporate workers there. However, not all so simple. Cities are gradually being destroyed, looters who have given up such a life frighten the local population, and the unemployment rate is growing.

Edgewater and Roseway are the two main cities on this planet, and they were shown to us in the trailer. In addition, there is a city of Byzantium on the planet - a community of the largest rich people who fenced themselves off from ordinary workers who do not have enough money to live in it. This is a closed area that hides many secrets.

An important role will be played by the ship "The Groundbreake" parked on Terra 2, on which the first colonists arrived. This station acts as the main port for the system as ships come and go from it. Leonid Boryasky describes it as follows: “Cargo ships arriving from the colony unload their belongings there and go from there to be delivered to the colony. There are people there who live a little outside the law. ”

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Looking for dangerous adventures is on the asteroid Scylla, where several laboratories and stations for transmitting radio signals are located. Also, developers remember the disgusting planet Tartarus, where the maximum security prison is located. Second Lead Developer Tim Cain explains that the planet's main export commodity is tartar sauce for Soltuna fish sticks produced in Terra 2.

“They take mayonnaise and immerse it in the caustic acidic environment of the planet for a few seconds, and then take it out. This makes the mayonnaise really pungent because the acidic environment introduces many very low levels of toxins into it. There aren't many restrictions on corporate food, ”Kane says jokingly.

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Some planets are not suitable for movement on them. So, for example, we can only go to look from the ship at the icy planet Typhon, with which the corporation does not yet know what to do. The developers also talked about the second gas giant Hephaestus, which is used to extract resources.

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The main thing for developers is to create a believable environment that will amaze and immerse in your world not only with the help of laser rifles and missiles.

Space expectations

Fact: The Outer Words is a space adventure that, like the original Fallout, will be rich in social commentary (often absurd and funny).

“We like to undermine people's expectations,” Boyarsky says. “We are attracted to a deeper social comment, although we do not pretend that we are deep or anything like that. We love to play in this arena. ”

The game wants to show not only how companies run the world, but also how people consume, giving them the opportunity to create products. How these same people accept the perverted rules of capitalism. So, for example, all people are afraid of the unemployed, because what could be worse in such a world as lack of work?

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We will be able to get acquainted with this space adventure, which will make fun of capitalism, this year, when The Outer Worlds is released on PC, PS4 and X One.

Alternative history in The Outer Worlds

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The Topic of Article: Caricature Capitalism - How The World Criticizes Everyday Life in The Outer Words.
Author: Jake Pinkman


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