TOW III: Roseway

[renegadefolkhero]

Felix: Hey boss, can we get some Rizzos?

Captain: We have Rizzos on the ship.

Roseway is the second "company town" you visit in the Outer Worlds. This one is controlled by Auntie Cleo Pharmaceuticals (It's Better Than Nature!) and they have a corporate rivalry with Spacer's Choice so everyone who is indentured to them has a legal and contractual observation to trash Spacer's Choice products.

Roseway is an optional location, which is interesting considering how tightly designed it is. Everything ties up neatly and you have a lot of maneuverability in terms of roleplaying. The level opens with a mystery--you are following a distress signal to a place where ?????? happened, and the early environmental storytelling is absolutely lit. Whoever came up with the loader turned on its side, repeatedly issuing warning messages, deserves a hearty pat on the back. I like the overall creepiness of the intro.

This level is home to Anton Crane, a scientist who has at least one highly ardent fan on Tumblr. Crane is also a good example of why RPing an asshole in the Outer Worlds is the short play. If you're a dick to Crane, he shuts down pretty early on. If you're even remotely compassionate or inquisitive, his dialogue tree blooms like a beautiful bureaucratic flower and you learn all kinds of interesting things, including the entire toothpaste subplot. Crane's diet-suppressing toothpaste foreshadows Halycon's looming starvation crisis.

• There really aren't many loose ends here, but I spent some time trying to confirm the fate of Maria Volkova, who was stationed at the storage facility and whom Porter refers to by the pet name Mashekna in correspondence. Porter tells her to stay put when all hell breaks loose, but apparently didn't reach her in time. My best guess is she's the scientist corpse in the dorm (which would have been her room, since she was the only person sleeping at the storage facility).
• Roseway is filled with the usual illegible paperwork background clutter, but there is one legible message: distillery instructions written on a chalkboard in Maria's room. The distillery is located in a cave behind the main compound. It's the closest thing to a secret area Roseway seems to have.
• The dev team ended up cutting a companion and SAM was a last-minute replacement. I was pleased to discover some of his reactions at Groundbreaker. He'll TCP hand-shake with Greasy, and he reacts to Welles' wanted poster.
• I got the Robophobia flaw in a previous playthrough, and had the option to scream every time I saw SAM, which I thought was a nice touch.
• If you pick up decorations before recruiting a companion, the decorations show up in their empty room anyway