he Outer Worlds’ second DLC expansion has finally arrived and, as if space wasn’t mysterious enough, you’re going to be solving a literal mystery. Now obviously, since it is a murder mystery, I won’t be going into any specifics on the story. Instead, I’ll be going into the new world, the enemies and the overall structure of this DLC.
To begin, you’re tasked with travelling to Eridanos, one of the two gas giants in the Halcyon Colony. The actual habitable space is atop a number of large, connected landmasses suspended in the atmosphere by a series of thrusters underneath. It’s here that you’re made aware of the murder of the colony’s most famous star Ruth Bellamy, better known as Halcyon Helen. You’ll then have to start questioning folks, looking for clues and following leads, standard detective stuff. To aid you on this particular endeavour, you get a snazzy new tool called the Discrepancy Amplifier. This gadget essentially helps you make sense of the clues you find to properly make use of them. It’ll beep upon detecting a clue in the area and also features a clever little A.I voice to guide you in an exceptionally dry fashion. That’s about as far as I’ll go with that just simply because the DLC really hinges on keeping you guessing as the tale develops.
The entire Eridanos compound is owned by a corporation known as Rizzo’s, a beverage company. The complex houses many factions of production such as an orchard, a distillery as well as testing facilities. The main hub of it all is the Grand Colonial Hotel, housing guests that wish to tour Rizzo’s many establishments. While the world can feel rather static at times, there’s no questioning the attention to detail in its beauty. Orange cloud cover can be seen stretching across the never ending sky and every landmass can be viewed from one another thanks to the distance between them. It all comes together to create vastly unique look, far different from any other planet in the game.
The new characters you’re able to chat to are just as lively and unique as you’d expect in The Outer Worlds and you can talk to each as much or as little as you want to. The added wrinkle this time around is that you’ll need to listen a little more carefully in order to move forward in your case.
The combat is more or less the same as what we’ve seen in the main game and the Peril on Gorgon DLC with the exception of a few special weapons that really only offer slight variations of other damage types. The enemies are also rather similar. You’ll see very subtly different types of creatures such as Canids, Raptidons and Mantisaurs while needing to deal with a number of frenzied marauder-type enemies during your adventure.
This expansion doesn’t really add anything more on the gameplay side of things nor does it boast any new music tracks or enemy variety but that was never the focus. The real meat of this DLC is in its story. Comparing this to the previous DLC, there’s quite a contrast. Peril on Gorgon introduced a fair amount of new mechanics like Adrena-Time and variations in the Marauders and Canids but was rather light on the story. Murder on Eridanos is the opposite. It doesn’t introduce anything new but has a far more dynamic story and quest structure than its predecessor. The act of trying to solve a mystery by interrogating characters adds a whole new layer the overall experience that this game brings. The voice work that’s been done in the game remains as fantastic as ever and helps to seamlessly immerse the player in the game. The location of Eridanos is unlike anything we’ve see in the game and it stands as one of the more interesting spots even just from a lore standpoint.
The Outer Worlds: Murder on Eridanos is a worthy, lengthy expansion to an already rich and thoughtful ecosystem of treacherous planets and unpredictable people. It’s an adventure worth exploring and a mystery worth solving.
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