Speedrunning got its start with smaller 8-bit and 16-bit games, with players moving simple sprites across the screen as quickly as possible. But, as games have gotten more complicated, speedrunning has turned into as much art as science. Now the race is on to crack Obsidian Entertainment’s The Outer Worlds right open. The fastest run we’ve seen so far clocks in at just over 30 minutes.
For a first-person role-playing game in the style of Fallout: New Vegas, that’s pretty incredible. (Incidentally, New Vegas has been beaten in under 13 minutes.) We’ve embedded video of runner Jabo’s sprint through The Outer Worlds above.
In the final minutes especially, Jabo makes excellent use of the game’s stun mechanics to cripple a major boss robot. The encounter begins at 34:47 with a headshot, and then a steady stream of punishing hits to the power source. It’s all accomplished with The Vermin, which is a pretty standard revolver, and some relatively low-level perks to boot.
Speedruns of RPGs are a particularly fascinating genre. If this piques your interest, check out this 35-minute run of The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind from Awesome Games Done Quick in 2016. Since then the top time has been whittled down to just over three minutes. I can’t wait to see what happens to The Outer Worlds speedrunning scene once folks get their heads around the science weapon set.
