Obsidian Entertainment, the developer behind hit titles like Fallout: New Vegas, Neverwinter Nights, and Pillars Of Eternity, had some quite strong reveals at the Xbox Games Showcase recently. We got a look at their new fantasy RPG, Avowed, as well as the first downloadable content for their massively popular sci-fi RPG The Outer Worlds.
Titled Peril on Gorgon, this DLC takes players to an abandoned Halycon research site located on the Gorgon asteroid. A well-off hermit named Minnie Ambrose asks you to find out what happened to her mother and the project director, Dr. Olivia Ambrose. Peril brings several new characters and weapons to the game, with the most notable being new science weapons. The best part? It fits right into the base game. There’s no gated off portions or roadblocks, just an open invitation to Gorgon when the player reaches a critical point in the story. You won’t spend all your time on Gorgon either – you’ll have to return to older locations and explore new dungeons. Peril on Gorgon also raises the game’s level cap from 30 to 33, introducing several new perks and flaws, and you’ll need to take advantage of these if you want to survive the new types of enemies Gorgon is home to.
“We began kicking around ideas for what we would do for this content in January of last year,” said art director Matt Hansen to MSN. “And we had some stuff that was pretty cool, but after the reception to the base game, and seeing how much people loved it, we decided that we wanted to make something bigger and more exciting for people.”
The entirety of the Peril on Gorgon DLC will be about 6-8 hours long, a pretty substantial amount of gameplay. Peril will also follow The Outer Worlds in its narrative style, with the story being completely dependent on the player’s actions. One of the more difficult parts of designing a reactive story like this is making it fit in with the base game’s plot.
“We want any DLC to feel reflective of the larger story that the player is already getting into. But, at the same time, we’re not going to rewrite the entire base game campaign to suit this,” said game director Carrie Patel. “…It’s kind of like with any of the other settings that you’re exploring in Halcyon, whether it’s Groundbreaker or Monarch, these are all places with their own specific local stories that then reflect and build on the larger story that you’re getting into as the player.”
Peril on Gorgon launches September 9, 2020, on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Steam for $14.99. You can also buy an expansion pass for $24.99 that includes both Peril and a future The Outer Worlds DLC. There’s no current release date for the DLC on Switch, but it has been guaranteed to arrive at a later date. You can check out The Outer Worlds here.