Outer Worlds 2 Preview
Obsidian’s 2019 action RPG The Outer Worlds landed somewhere between cult favorite and wide popular success. In other words, it appealed to a broad range of gamers, but had hardcore RPG cred, too. The first game had substantial RPG systems and a story driven by player choice, coupled with a visually arresting art design and engaging combat. The Outer Worlds also had a snarky sense of ironic humor that had more than a little social satire blended in. The Outer Worlds 2 is only a couple of months away from release, and I had the chance to preview the game’s tutorial mission and toy with its mechanics. It felt familiar, in the best way possible.
More Outer Worlds
In the fiction of The Outer Worlds, 20th-century American history took a radically different path, leading to the dominance of mega-corporations influencing all aspects of life and culture. Eventually, space travel, warp drives, and planetary colonization made the corporations even more powerful and wealthy. The first game had a dense plot, with the player-character called the Stranger awakened from cryo-sleep on a distant planet named Halcyon. The story revolved around the player fighting the forces of the corporation on the new world.
Influenced by games like Fallout and BioShock — some of which the developers had worked on —Â and a host of other popular media, The Outer Worlds was notable for its world-building, quirky NPCs, and robust character creation and class choice. From what I’ve played so far, all of those elements remain entirely intact in The Outer Worlds 2.
There’s a lot that I can’t reveal about the narrative, even in the first hour or so. You play as the Commander from the Earth Directorate, sent to a planet called Arcadia. The planet is being torn asunder by mysterious and destructive rifts. They may or may not be related to Skip Drive technology. And they’re definitely not related to the three-way faction war that’s also tearing Arcadia apart.
Snark Park
From the menu screens to the NPCs, The Outer Worlds 2 keeps the humor coming. Mostly the focus is on smart irony, snark, and satire, just as it was in the original game. The villains are scenery-chewing and melodramatic. The dystopian world as a parable/warning for our own time is nothing new, of course. But just like in the first game, the writing is snappy and the dialogue choices suggest both obvious and less certain outcomes. Without giving anything away, even playing the demo a couple of times, with different characters and choices, changed some of the smaller story beats.
It has been a while since I played the original, so I went back to an old saved game to refresh my memory. Graphically, The Outer Worlds 2 looks more detailed, sharper, and — at least in the small segment I played — has a lightly toned-down palette. The sets are pretty static and only interactable in specific places. The UI and combat feel similar but more refined. The time dilation device makes a return, of course.
One major difference is that The Outer Worlds 2 can be played in third-person mode, and at a choice of distances. It works well enough, but the game still feels built for first-person. The voice acting is excellent, and the overall audio and music are effective.
Countdown to October
Everything about the demo seemed pretty encouraging, and suggests that The Outer Worlds 2 should please fans of the original game. Of course, it’s impossible to know how the narrative, characters, or combat develop throughout the experience. I’m also curious to see if the sequel both improves on and pushes away from the first Outer Worlds. The demo suggests that The Outer Worlds 2 is more refinement than reimagining. Not a bad thing, at all.
***PC code provided by the publisher for preview***
