The Outer Worlds - Destructoid’s Game of the Year

The Outer Worlds, Obsidian Entertainment’s sci-fi RPG co-directed by Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky, launched back in October of 2019 as a spiritual successor of sorts to Fallout: New Vegas. This formula resonated with a good number of people, and as a result Destructoid named The Outer Worlds as their game of the year. A bit on that:

Speaking of, "playing a role" is a concept a lot of studios have completely abandoned in recent years. Far too often RPGs get bogged down with needless number-crunching and linear plotlines that just lead to rote, soulless achievements. Checkboxes, if you will. The Outer World says "forget all that," and unleashes the floodgates for mechanics like "a dimwitted character that has access to unique dumb dialogue trees." There's no real benefit to this system and a lot of studios would see this as illogical: but Obsidian did it anyway.

It's an actual RPG not unlike the Dungeons & Dragons roots so many Obsidian developers are familiar with. It's also a beacon for open world checklist simulators everywhere, and for that reason and more it was chosen as our 2019 Game of the Year.