Tales of the Aggronaut

The challenge with the whole “Developer Appreciation Week” is that I have been doing these posts for quite some time. The folks that would immediately come to mind from my ever present fixation on MMORPGs have already been written about, likely more than once. So instead we are going to mine the well of my memories and start talking about studios that I really like the work of, that are maybe not as flashy as a Blizzard Entertainment or a Bioware. First up today is Obsidian Entertainment, which is going to have a bit of a twisting path considering I am also going to talk a bit about Black Isle the studio that largely became Obsidian.

The Black Isle Years

Interplay was one of those juggernaut studios of my adolescent and teen years. The division I wound up becoming most connected to however was Black Isle Studios. The whole publisher/developer relationship becomes a bit hazy at times but they danced a lovely duet with Bioware for some years during the creation of Baldur’s Gate and the follow on properties. However the two games I am going to write about specifically are as far as I am aware are firmly in the camp of Black Isle Studios. I am largely going to commit the sin of lumping Fallout 1 and 2 together for these purposes given that they are the offerings developed by Black Isle and the only two of the early PC games that I really claim. I have no clue what was going on with Tactics, nor do I really grok the console Brotherhood of Steel game. To say I was enamored with this game and its universe is a bit of an understatement. This came out when I was in college and I am pretty sure I ditched a few classes to play just a little bit more of it. I was on board with pretty much everything about this game, and imprinted extremely hard on it. I spent hours roaming the desert looking for one more secret. Another game that I imprinted extremely hard on was Planescape Torment, which I did not play until way after it had released. One of my good friends burned through PC games extremely quickly, and he used to sell me an entire document box full of games for $50 as he was trying to clear out space. Planescape Torment was in one of these boxes and I played the hell out of it, with it even managing to pull me away from Everquest and Dark Age of Camelot which had become my nightly fare at the time. There was just something about the world building and the characters that hooked me. I was never really a huge fan of the Planescape setting, but after seeing the potential as exposed through Torment… I remember going out on Ebay and buying the old boxed set to read up more on it.

Rise of Obsidian Entertainment

With the bankruptcy of Interplay in 2003, Black Isle as we knew it was dissolved. Effectively two companies branched out from Interplay. The first was Troika Games in 1998 founded by Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky and Jason Anderson. The second was Obsidian Games in 2003 founded by Feargus Urquhart, Chis Avellone, Chris Parker, Darren Monahan and Chris Jones. Obsidian is effectively the continuation of Black Isle under a different name, adopting a similar white on black logo style and another name that more or less means “Black”.

I loved the reboot of the Fallout universe by Bethesda games, though I had always wondered what exactly Van Buren would have ended up looking like. All of the work that has leaked out over the years seems as though it would have taken a vastly different direction, and in truth I think Fallout did well to make the leap to a 3D open world engine. Fallout New Vegas however really is the ultimate version of this, bringing in all of the rich world building and attention to detail from the 2D game into the 3D realm. New Vegas has one of the best openings of a fallout game, and as far as the overarching flow… it is one of the few times I actually care about the main plot. In Fallout 3 I n ever cared about meeting up with my father, and in Fallout 4 I absolutely did not give a flying fuck about getting that toddler back… but in New Vegas I wanted to find the man who shot me. I was invested in the story of the world in a way I have never been in one of the Bethesda outings. It is because of this that I will likely always list New Vegas as my favorite Fallout game.

An Obsidian game that I feel is criminally underrated is Tyranny. It came out in 2016 and represents a slightly different spin on the classic PC RPG. Instead of playing the hero you are effectively playing the enforcer of an evil overlord who has taken over all of the world but the territory you are sent to claim. You are sent there to deliver the Edict of Execution… that either you will resolve the surrender of the territory peacefully within 8 days or everyone in the entire region including yourself will be killed. This is a good primer for what sort of game you are about to be playing. At every step there is choice, and these choices when chained together end up making vastly different play through experiences. Each decision has weight and with it you are effectively carving out your own destiny, in what is otherwise a relatively short game. I think it took me about 16 hours in my first play-through, and in subsequent play-thoughs significantly less. However each time has felt fresh and new which is something few games can really pull off.

Another game that I feel is deeply underrated is Skyforge, an Action MMORPG that Obsidian worked with the Allods team to create. The world is somewhat nonsense, but nonetheless lovingly crafted as you are effectively a God that has risen after the death of your previous incarnation. You use your powers to help the people fight off alien incursions, in what is effectively a Mission and Lobby based MMORPG. I find it deeply enjoyable when you play it with a controller especially, and slightly less so with a mouse and keyboard. From an MMO and RPG aspect it seems extremely simple, and I am guessing that Obsidian was largely involved in setting the world in motion, and occasionally with Story Arcs. Regardless it is a fun game that Obsidian had a hand in so I am mentioning it.

The Microsoft Era

In November of 2018, Obsidian Entertainment was acquired by Microsoft in its recent grab to start locking down studios for exclusives. As such we are entering yet another phase in the life of this constantly morphing studio. So far it seems like Microsoft has been an excellent steward of the companies it has snatched up. Another favorite of my Undead Labs seemingly has had an excellent and productive relationship under the yoke. So I am hoping that Obsidian can get all of the resources it needs to similarly succeed.

The game I am looking forward to that is just around the corner is The Outer Worlds slotted to release on October 25th. Everything I have seen about this game makes it seem like Obsidian is effectively creating a new IP based on a very familiar Fallout style game. My first impressions were… what if Fallout were actually a Firefly-esc Wild West in Outer Space type game. The few gameplay sessions I have watched make me think that it is going to bring the same sort of weighty decision making, each time giving you an option to resolve something peaceably or to just wade in guns blazing… and ultimately have to deal with those circumstances later. I have watched enough to know I will be picking this up, but I am largely avoiding much coverage for fear of seeing too much. I want the experiences I have in this game to be fresh and new and not reminiscent of something I once saw in an E3 demo. Secretly I am hoping that we are going to be getting something that can rival my memories of New Vegas. However if I just get 20-30 hours of enjoyment out of it I will be super happy.