The Outer Worlds has weird priorities

[feotakahari]

There are two separate endings that you can only get if you murder Parvati’s girlfriend, depending on when you do so. They’re heartbreaking and beautiful, and I have no idea why they were created. There’s no quest associated with killing Parvati’s girlfriend. You don’t get anything for doing it. She doesn’t attack you or obstruct you in any way. The only reason to do it is if you’re just killing everything in your general vicinity.

I’ve seen two different trailers for The Outer Worlds play up the fact that you can kill almost everyone. The game certainly does a good job of responding if, say, you murder Ellie’s parents in front of her. But I’m not sure by what metric this makes for a better game than just doing the “essential NPC” thing Skyrim does. Why is killing, specifically, a thing that needs to be so integrated into the game that you can do it any time to anyone?

(I know Undertale addresses this, but I don’t like Undertale either.)

Comments

[entanglingbriars]

One of the few ways to truly, permanently die in Planescape: Torment is to kill a character whose continued existence is necessary to advance the plot. You can kill absolutely any character (except the Lady of Pain), and it won't usually do much to change the plot, and you yourself can die infinitely due to a handy immortality blessing/curse. But kill a handful of characters, and there's generally no indication that they are such a character, and it's game over.

[lb_lee]

I'm honestly just kinda perplexed by the thing in newer games where you can do things that have no point--like pick up every tiny rock in your path, even though you will never, ever need any one of them. Killing everyone in your path just seems to be another version of that--we're supposed to be impressed that we CAN, even though it doesn't seem to serve any point.

Also, even though video games aren't reality, I can't deny, it makes me kinda uncomfortable that being able to turn yourself in-game into a massive murder machine of genocide is considered a selling point.

--Mori