The Outer Worlds review – a planet-sized helping of fun

PC, PS4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One; Obsidian Entertainment
More than just Fallout in space, this action-RPG is a delightful sci-fi romp with razor-sharp writing, lashings of humour and enough content to entertain you for months

Set in an unspecified future in which humankind has begun to colonise other planets, The Outer Worlds is easy to describe but in no way derivative. In essence, as a single-player, first-person action-RPG, it's Fallout in space. There is a steampunk vibe, as well as art direction that harks back to 1950s sci-fi comics such as Dan Dare and The Eagle. But the look, feel and game world are distinctive and fully realised, and it addresses modern concerns, such as the disasters that happen when mega-corporations assume the role of governments.

In the star system of Halcyon, the furthest colony from Earth, a giant ship called the Hope, packed with hundreds of thousands of colonists in suspended animation, has been abandoned in space for inexplicable bureaucratic reasons. Phineas Welles, a sort of dissident mad-scientist adventurer, locates it and wakes up one person on board: your character.