The Outer Worlds Originally Had Non-Combat Flaws You Could Acquire

In an effort to be more transparent about The Outer Worlds' development, Obsidian Entertainment revealed that the action-RPG also had non-combat flaws in conjunction with the ones already found in the game.

In a conversation with Gamasutra, developers Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky talked about the flaws that didn't make it into The Outer Worlds. The two discussed that they wanted players to acquire non-combat flaws as well to provide greater depth to the game's experience.

"One of the flaws we wanted [in the game] was to be impulsive," Cain said. "When dialogue options come up there would be a little timer. When it ticked down to five seconds one of the response options disappears, just greyed out. Then another one after another five seconds until there was only one option left."

The Outer Worlds' flaw mechanic is a permanent attribute system wherein you accept a flaw in exchange for a perk point. These flaws come with negative effects, such as stat and weapon efficiency decreases.

Cain explained that he intended players to pick their dialogue choices quickly, lest the game's systems chose for you. However, he also didn't want players to feel rushed to read the text. This, coupled with AI demands and the individual flaw system, led to the dialogue flaw system getting chopped.

Being impulsive wasn't the only non-combat flaw you could have earned while playing The Outer Worlds. Obsidian outlined a few other flaws, including "pathological liar," "hotheaded" or "short-tempered," and more.

The Outer Worlds received generally favorable reviews when it launched on October 25 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The action-RPG is expected to arrive on Nintendo Switch sometime early this year. The text on the console-handheld hybrid should be a little larger thanks to a November update.