Got it the Friday it came out, had it finished by the end of the weekend. Did a second supernova play with some other choices.
Normal was cake, but hard added a lot more of a tactical approach to combat and basic survival. I didn't feel as OP as the normal playthru.
That said, on the harder difficulty it was over 40 hours. Normal was around 30 (but I did complete every sidequest and character story).
It's interesting how people the The Outer Worlds threads are cheering that it's a short game (20-30 hours) and that RPGs and games in general today just take too long, but people in the Death Stranding thread (possibly some of the same ones) are cheering that they have spent 30 hours walking around and are "just getting started". Just goes to show gamers are fickle and no one game will be a good fit for everyone.
It was a solid experience, but it's not 'Fallout in space' like it was marketed. There's no "open world" (and to be fair, the devs backed off on that claim the closer they got to release). It's a hub-world where you follow the tram tracks, but there's no incentive at all to go off-roading. No hidden locations you wouldn't otherwise find just by doing the missions. None of that sense of exploration that Fallout has. To me that's what Fallout was all about.
It's a solid shooter, fun for what it is. Played more like Borderlands or Bioshock than Fallout or Mass Effect. Sure you have the VATS ripoff and leveling from New Vegas and some decent dialogue options a la ME, but even then I didn't feel like they made much of a difference. Do I bully somebody? Smooth-talk them? Or just lie? Does it matter? The result is the same either way. There were a few big game-changers, but most of it was superficial.
The stories weren't balanced; some where deep and thoughtful, the others just felt like rushed afterthoughts. Some good that made me want to find out what happened, others just felt like busywork.
Would I recommend? Certainly. It was a fun experience. Worth $60? If that's your kind of game, sure. If you're uncertain, I'd say wait til you find it on sale.