The Outer Worlds 2 is Obsidian attempting to rediscover the role-playing magic that when outlined it as a juggernaut inside the style.
And in lots of methods, this larger, and customarily higher sequel accomplishes its targets. In comparison with The Outer Worlds — and certainly, in comparison with many different fashionable RPGs — the sport gives participant alternative and consequence in abundance, typically to a formidable extent.
Between constructing your individual character, allying with varied factions, and attending to form the views of your occasion members, The Outer Worlds 2 has loads going for it on a mechanical stage. And by the tip of its 50-hour marketing campaign, you will come to understand how key selections start to stack on prime of each other.
Everybody’s going to play this recreation a bit otherwise. Talent checks are rampant all through, locking off dialogue choices or object interactions except you have chosen to spend money on sure specialisations.
After which your character’s morality is layered over that; you actually do not must play the hero, resulting in a great deal of moments the place you a minimum of think about resorting to unfettered violence with the intention to fulfill your goals.
Quests all the time really feel like they’re branching, and conversations are all the time throwing curveballs that’ll tempt you into responses that you’ll have beforehand ignored. What we’re saying is that The Outer Worlds 2 is, at its greatest, a really participating RPG — and as a rule, it’s going to actually make you consider your subsequent transfer.
There’s an issue, nonetheless, and it is one which’s sadly baked into the sequence’ id.
The Outer Worlds’ sci-fi setting is dystopian, however comically so. Reduce off from Earth, colonies are both dominated over by blatantly evil companies or morally questionable, cult-like organisations. On this recreation’s photo voltaic system of Arcadia, there is a battle occurring between two such entities.
Each the hyper-capitalist Auntie’s Selection and the mathematically obsessed The Order have clear flaws by way of beliefs and societal construction — and that ought to make them attention-grabbing to discover from a participant perspective. There are not any objectively good and dangerous decisions right here.
However The Outer Worlds’ world constructing is so heavy on over-the-top parody that the title’s ironic tone can undermine the emotion that it is attempting to convey. This sequel does not essentially wish to be a critical RPG that offers with critical points, nevertheless it’s nonetheless tough to really care concerning the recreation’s factions after they’re all so sardonic.
And this criticism extends to the individuals who inhabit mentioned factions. Exterior of some key figures, we might battle to call any characters who make an enduring impression; so lots of them are simply extensions of their faction’s viewpoint, providing little purpose to care about them as people, or the mess that they often discover themselves in.
Consequently, interacting with the overwhelming majority of characters in The Outer Worlds 2 is only a bit… boring. That is an clever, properly written, and typically genuinely humorous recreation — as you’d count on of Obsidian — however there is a irritating lack of character past the surface-level satire.
Sadly, your occasion members undergo the identical destiny. Taking part in as a completely customisable lead identified merely because the Commander, your prime secret mission goes horribly flawed within the recreation’s prologue, and also you spend the remainder of the journey trying to place issues proper.
As you progress, you may recruit a variety of ragtag allies to your system-saving trigger. And we use the phrase ‘can’ for a purpose; you do not have to recruit anybody, and it is even potential to only fully miss a possible occasion member primarily based in your actions.
Anyway, these allies — or potential companions in crime — are disappointingly hit or miss. Some have pleasant quirks however they’re by no means fairly fleshed out sufficient, whereas others fall into the identical lure as a lot of the recreation’s NPCs. That’s to say, they find yourself being little greater than a one-note mouthpiece for his or her faction’s beliefs.
However to be truthful, occasion member-specific quests do allow you to discover — and in some circumstances alter — the mindset of your companions. Once more, it is the role-playing facets that carry this a part of the sport; you is probably not completely endeared to those characters, however having the ability to have a noticeable impression on their improvement provides welcome spice to every relationship.
Past the seemingly countless movement of dialogue choices, The Outer Worlds 2 is a a lot larger launch than its predecessor. The sport is constructed round a handful of colonised planets, every of them boasting their very own absolutely explorable map.
These environments are smaller than your typical open worlds, however they’re open. You are largely free to select a course and wander, and that is a very good factor when there are many facet quests and hidden secrets and techniques to uncover. Exploration might be one of many sequel’s biggest areas of enchancment; it is good to only get out and about after having sat via god-knows what number of conversations with the locals.
Fight performs a key half on this as properly, with the Commander and firm having to place down all method of extraterrestrial beasties as they trek from place to position. And that is one other core a part of the expertise that is a lot improved, due to snappier gunplay and a far more full melee weapon system.
Specifically, firearms have a satisfying kick to them now, and enemies of all sizes and styles react higher to the incoming injury. It isn’t excellent — there are nonetheless occasions when the motion feels just a little weightless — however usually talking, Obsidian’s finished properly to take issues up a notch. There are even some cool boss fights to sit up for.
There’s lots of variation in the way you’re in a position to method battles as properly. The introduction of ‘Devices’, that are unlocked via sure quests, primarily act as cooldown-based skills. One slows time, one other grants you a injury protect, and there is a nifty gadget that allows you to see foes via partitions.
They do not revolutionise the gameplay loop, however the Devices lend a contact of character to The Outer Worlds’ model of motion. Couple them with a group of wacky weapons — like acid-firing shotguns and a roulette-powered battle hammer — and it is apparent that the sport desires you to have amusing as you trigger wanton destruction.
It is a disgrace, then, that your allies can nonetheless be such an pointless burden. As was the case within the first recreation, occasion member AI will be braindead, both refusing to enter cowl, or persistently performing suicide runs into the guts of enemy territory.
On the traditional problem, your teammates get knocked out quick when you’re not furiously backing them up. The Outer Worlds 2 likes pitting you in opposition to waves of opponents — particularly throughout most important story eventualities — and it will probably get to a degree the place your companions turn out to be a legal responsibility.
It isn’t a game-breaking difficulty due to how competent your Commander is — you can begin cobbling collectively some outrageously efficient builds as soon as you are a handful of hours in — nevertheless it’s completely the sort of factor that you simply’d count on the developer to tweak through post-launch updates.
For essentially the most half, The Outer Worlds 2 appears technically strong, however we did encounter a variety of annoying UI-related bugs, and a few quests broke on us, forcing us to load up an older save. Minor issues within the grand scheme of issues, however they do add up.
As for graphics, you are your normal High quality or Efficiency modes on PS5. The previous’s capped at 30 frames-per-second, which isn’t best in a recreation with this a lot fight, however the latter’s most well-liked 60 frames-per-second comes on the expense of decreased environmental element.
Little issues like grass animations are in the reduction of or eliminated when taking part in on Efficiency, and it may be distracting. Pop-in turns into extra widespread as properly, and so whereas it is the higher graphical possibility, it is not precisely best.
And talking of visuals, The Outer Worlds 2 is certainly higher wanting than the primary recreation, however NPCs nonetheless have that clay-like visage, and the facial animations stay pretty fundamental. There are some good skyboxes to behold right here, and every planet’s received its personal distinctive look, however up shut, it is all a bit last-gen.
