I'm the kind of player that almost always puts all my points into intelligence, perception, and dialog-based skills when I play RPGs. Because of that, I didn't notice that you can go in the absolute opposite direction with amazing results.
A friend of mine alerted me to the "dumb" dialog options, which show up after you build your character. You don't just not put points in Intelligence. You have to take them away, So instead of getting dialog options that pertain to your Intelligence or Perception, you get stuff like this.
Interestingly, I found that you get more "dumb" options when you talk to more intelligent characters. For instance, Vicar Max is arguably the smartest of your companions (or at least, he has the most verbose vocabulary), so I got more opportunities to be an idiot with him. He also responds in a way that makes you feel terrible, which is completely in character for him. I haven't been able to test this out with other characters yet, but that seems to be the pattern.
Not to drive this comparison into the ground, but players might remember something similar from a previous Obsidian joint, Fallout: New Vegas. In that game, you could be offered dialog options that play on your lack of skill in a certain area. This created some comedic moments as you not only failed a skill check, but blew it in front of an important NPC. You can check out some great ones over on this Reddit thread. While this applied to a lot of skills in New Vegas, the "dumb" option seems to at least work with related skills like Persuade.
One of the best parts of playing The Outer Worlds has been talking with other players to see how they're playing it. As I previously stated, I went all-in on intelligence and dialog skills with little in combat, but others have done the opposite. I also know people who are doing all-violence playthroughs or going strictly anti-capitalist. There's a lot of variety here that'll be interesting to explore.
Are you doing anything interesting with your playthrough? Sound off in the comments below.
Play it straight or play it dumb
The Outer Worlds is a new RPG from Obsidian that encourages you to play however you want. You can be smart, dumb, violent, or passive. This paves the way for multiple playthroughs.
