The Circle is asking some of its young writers to look at games not only as reviews, but as virtual places to travel during when we’re all literally cooped up. Isaiah’s writing style reminds us a little of Jack Kerouac. We hope you enjoy it.

By Isaiah Soto

This is so crazy. During the first few minutes of Outer Worlds, you drop from a space pod and you have to meet a ship captain cause he’s giving you a ship because your not in the greatest condition but anyways you are falling, bouta hit the regular atmosphere and you get this message like it’s a Facetime or something. Finally, you hit the ground and you kill the person that is giving you the ship. Now, you;re trying to find the ship but you kinda get caught up with ship marauders and now you’re hiding in tall grass and this big thing of an alien dog is like two feet away from the tall grass, smelling all around you. It’s tense! And now you have to maneuver through marauders and these big alien dogs but shortly after that you get to a cave and you talk to this space army guy that lost his platoon. He is just dumb and scared, and you have choices of things to say, like lie, or get angry with him. But anyways he gave me a gun and thanks to him, I was killing every marauder and alien dog in sight, and now I’m in this grassland and these army people swarm around. Then, I finally see the ship and so I ask for the lieutenant’s name, and she looks good, and she said her name is Mercer, which is a good name, too, like the street in New York. So now finally I get onto the ship but the security say, “You not my Captain!” and the shutdown sequence begins. But I deal with it quick enough. Then, the security says, “You could use the ship,” but it’s also saying battery insufficient, but you can go to a place where you actually could get a battery – to Edgewater and you will meet somebody named Reed Tobson. And then finally you make in front of the town, which is like steampunk and amazing and you meet an undertaker named Silas. I asked him where could I find a battery and he directs me: Go and find Reed, go into Edgewater. So you go into the elevator and climb upstairs and meet Reed and a friend named Parvati, but they’re having a conversation. He sees you on the side even though you try to be quiet. They’re having a convo about how they don’t have as much money and their workers haven’t been paid in who knows how long, and then Thomas Reed says, “They will get paid soon” and he is like a curious bro, and he has like top hat and now finally has this devilish look. And it really strikes fear into your heart. Despite this, you ask, Can I have the battery, and he says that’s their main power source.  But he tells you to go past the valley and get these strays out and get that powerful battery. He says you will have a reward of your battery and get a salute from Spacer’s Choice. Then you have the opportunity to persuade or intimidate but I pick the choice of question because I really don’t know what Spacer’s Choice is yet. I’m like what the hell does this mean and Thomas, he says, it’s their way of life. I just quit the convo cause it started to become too creepy anyways, and my little companion runs over and asks, ‘Can I come with you?’ And really, to be honest, I just wanted to be on this journey, this crazy trip, alone. But Thomas said, ‘Bring her; she will be a really good help with marauders.” And I said okay, so much for a lone journey. So we go on this far trek, and we make it half way and we get ambushed by, I’d say, over 20 marauders and these alien bulldogs are ready to eat my face off. And Parvati? She is high on the mountain because she ran because saw them from multiple miles away. I suddenly realize you could upgrade your friends and workers. So now I finally found my upgrade point so I used it all on her. I’m on the ground looking at an alien ready to eat my face off. But now upgraded, she snipes all them off, like a female Rambo, but really she is her own kind of hero. We get out of the ambush, and she got me feeling like I was scared, especially because our supplies are low. Now, there’s a cut sequence and people in trees are aiming guns and now people underneath are aiming guns at me and everyone is aiming guns! Parvati is like, We are inna blind spot and somebody says in the shadows of this dark forest: Who are you? How did you guys find us? And I say Thomas Reed has sent me lookin’ for his wife and he wants all of you people to vacate the area now. But I see that’s not gonna happen and now I have two choices: to use force or talk nicely. But I wasn’t afraid to use force, so I take this huge battery, and I say “You have 24 hours to vacate,” and Thomas Reed’s wife starts to cry. Anyway, now I have a chance to take the battery and leave or give it back. But deep down, I think I’m mean, so I just took it. And now I go back to Thomas. I say, These people belong to you, and he says ‘Thank you. I salute you. Spacer’s Choice salutes you.’ But I’m still not sure exactly what Spacer’s Choice is. But I’m going to find out. And it’s not gonna be pretty. That much I know. 

Five Things About My Trip To The Outer Worlds

1. The thing that really blew me away was the artistic features. I would recommend the art because it really looks like real life, even the alien flesh eating dogs.

2. The other thing that blew me away was the storyline that was amazing. I’m going to keep on playing this game but it’s very like a puzzle sometimes. I had to turn on three electrical switches and I just couldn’t figure it out. I kept trying but it wasn’t doing any good. I finally went on YouTube and then I watched theradbrad do his review on the game and he solved the puzzle so quickly. I just felt so dumb.

3. The thing I think is really underrated are the skill points. I like the way the menu looks in general. I was amazed at how you can give Parvati a gun. I saw her using a pistol, and I was getting killed all the time. So I gave her a rifle to use and then I didn’t die. 

4. I really like the vibrant colors. Like as soon as I was in that space pod falling, I saw that new world coming up, and I was looking at the bright plants and the great sky. I would be really bummed out because my mom would tell me to get off the game. But I tell her I only played for two minutes. But she would say, No, you have been playing for two hours. When time flies like that, you know you’re playing a great game.

5. I just seriously liked this game in general. Now I see why this got the big award at the New York Game Awards. I would be running home to take a shower and then go straight to my PS4 to play. But I’m also thinking, how much time do I need to finish this project? But I have so much to do – like basketball and school because we were still going to school when I wrote my first draft. Now, I’m just in the house most of the time.

Isaiah Soto is a writer from the Lower East Side Videogame Critics Circle.