As to what I thought of the combat in Mass Effect, I found the combat the least engaging in the first one. It gradually improved over the course of the series, but there always were, at least, abilities you could use to keep things interesting. The combat was the best (in my opinion) in #3, which had a cover system, lots of game-changing abilities, good balance and pacing, decent enemy AI, ally tactics, brutally fun melee, and plenty of pretty "lasers" flying everywhere. (Mass Effect 3 as a vanguard was one of the best combat gameplay experiences I've ever had.) Even in the first game of the three, there was enough in the way of tactics to keep things interesting.
In the gameplay video of The Outer Worlds there is nothing of the sort.
You have a weapon, you walk at a normal pace in first person and shoot at enemies that walk towards you (if they do at all). No cover is used by any party. AI seems minimal. Melee seems clunky at best and tacked-on. Walking seems to be default, but it is also possible to walk quickly (note I don't say "run"), but not only does this not need to be used sparingly (as with a sprint meter), it also doesn't seem to be fast enough to offer that much of an advantage over walking. My at-a-glance guess is that it's 1.5x walking speed. But without any penalties, why would you ever want to move more slowly?
Without any dodge/roll/slide/cover systems, damage taken is frequent and unavoidable. You notice the guy constantly huffing something that looks vaguely like an oversized asthma inhaler. This seems to be intentionally included as a major gameplay element, given how frequently it's used. I'm guessing they want you to balance attacking, hiding, and healing. This by itself won't last very long until it turns into a case of "when do I push this button".
There
was mention of a "time dilation" skill, but this is a fairly "flat" combat skill, as all it really does is enable the user to react a little bit faster. The only benefit to combat is another "when do I push this button" sort of benefit. It cannot be used in any clever sort of way, and it will lose its novelty quickly. Time dilation is just time dilation and doesn't really add much to the combat. Like huffing medkit syringes, it's just a question of "when do I use this". Combat becomes a question of "time your button mashes". And that's just not fun for very long either.
Finally, at roughly 12:15 in the video, there's an instance where they tear the camera and all control away from the viewer for 3 seconds to show the character's ally land the final killshot on an enemy robot. It's a strong throwback to the Fallout series in a way that is (in my opinion) rather dated and shows its age. To their credit, they kept it from dragging on for too long, but it merely showcased how mechanical everything looks. In Doom 2016 they do the same thing, but the key differences are that it 1. only lasts half as long, 2. it is triggered specifically by the player wanting to trigger it, and 3. it actually looks pretty awesome. It actually serves a lot of mechanical purposes as well: 1. it moves the player forwards and keeps them from playing in a turtle-and-hide manner. 2. it's a risk-reward mechanic that has the potential of giving more health, but also puts the person at risk of taking damage, 3. it encourages players not to overkill, which introduces a new skill element, 4. it gives the player a very brief pause
in combat to help them get their bearings. The mechanic shown in the video here does none of that: it is purely a pause for show, and not much of a show at that. There is no real reason for it to exist.