“If we had started this series in 2020, 2019, or any time in between there, I’m not sure that I would have had the intestinal fortitude to push through on these kinds of topics,” Boyarsky tells Polygon.
One such topic involves an early-game questline where you meet a band of refugees displaced by conflict between the Auntie’s Choice corporation and the Order of the Ascendant, a religious group that worships science. Auntie’s Choice will only help the homeless people willing to sell themselves to the company, since nobody deserves a free lunch. The Order, meanwhile, thinks that providing only their basic needs and teaching them how to elevate themselves will suffice, never mind the rampant sickness in the refugee camp, or the lack of future prospects and living space.
It’s not hard to see the parallels to contemporary issues and the political philosophies that gave birth to them in this instance and many others throughout the game. Heck, a government that regularly brainwashes its citizens to ensure their continued loyalty is a major story beat. Boyarsky says these similarities to real life aren’t intentional, but they are inevitable.
“When you’re dealing with any kind of story that is based on trying to reflect how humanity actually is and really think about people’s motivations and what happens when certain types of people get power, we’re going to we’re going to be really close to things that are happening at any time,” Boyarsky says.
People in power exploiting others is a recurring theme for Obsidian, stretching back to when Boyarsky and Outer Worlds consultant Tim Cain were part of Interplay and Black Isle, the studios behind the first two Fallout games. After Black Isle shut down, Boyarsky, Cain, and another Interplay colleague formed Troika, where those themes persisted in Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura and Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines. Bloodlines is about power struggles between individuals and groups, and Boyarsky says that even Arcanum‘s “fantasy racism” was built on an imbalance of power brought about by who was excluded from access to technology and magic. Then there’s Obsidian’s Avowed, which was released in February and whose central conflict involves an imperialist nation exploiting its “backwards” colonies.
Telling these kinds of stories is just what Boyarsky and his team do, and will continue to do. But he says Obsidian might have “gone a little bit lighter, found a little bit less of a rabbit hole to go down” with The Outer Worlds and its sequel if they had started the series after 2016.
Granted, even if Obsidian did try writing a less timely and topical story, there’s a strong chance it would be just as relevant anyway. Boyarsky says the team has an uncanny knack for being timely without trying, and what they think is a ridiculous, impossible outcome ends up being closer to the truth than they ever intended.
“When we were making the first [Outer Worlds], we were barely staying ahead of the news,” Boyarsky says. “We had a [sub-story] where agricultural crops seemed fine, but had no nutritional value. One of the writers found this news story that was happening literally in real time, about scientists finding certain places on earth where the nutritional content of food was starting to go down.”
“I’m just like, goddammit, we need to make a game all about rainbows and unicorns and everything’s happy, and maybe the world will catch up to that.”
