The Outer Worlds 2 Doesn't Quite Achieve the Summit
Larger doesn't necessarily mean superior. It's an old adage, yet it's also the best way to describe my feelings after devoting five dozen hours with The Outer Worlds 2. Developer Obsidian added more of everything to the next installment to its 2019's science fiction role-playing game — increased comedy, foes, weapons, attributes, and settings, everything that matters in titles of this genre. And it works remarkably well — for a little while. But the weight of all those ambitious ideas leads to instability as the hours wear on.
A Powerful Opening Act
The Outer Worlds 2 makes a strong opening statement. You are a member of the Planetary Directorate, a altruistic organization focused on restraining unscrupulous regimes and businesses. After some capital-D Drama, you find yourself in the Arcadia region, a outpost fractured by conflict between Auntie's Selection (the result of a merger between the first game's two large firms), the Defenders (groupthink taken to its worst logical conclusion), and the Order of the Ascendant (similar to the Catholic faith, but with math instead of Jesus). There are also a bunch of fissures tearing holes in space and time, but currently, you really need access a transmission center for critical messaging needs. The problem is that it's in the middle of a battlefield, and you need to find a way to get there.
Following the original, Outer Worlds 2 is a first-person role-playing game with an overarching story and numerous side quests scattered across different planets or zones (expansive maps with a plenty to explore, but not open-world).
The first zone and the journey of getting to that communication station are remarkable. You've got some goofy encounters, of course, like one that involves a agriculturalist who has given excessive sugary cereal to their preferred crab. Most guide you to something useful, though — an surprising alternative route or some fresh information that might provide an alternate route forward.
Notable Sequences and Lost Opportunities
In one notable incident, you can come across a Defender runaway near the overpass who's about to be killed. No quest is associated with it, and the sole method to find it is by investigating and hearing the background conversation. If you're quick and sufficiently cautious not to let him get slain, you can save him (and then protect his defector partner from getting eliminated by monsters in their refuge later), but more pertinent to the current objective is a power line obscured in the foliage close by. If you follow it, you'll locate a concealed access point to the relay station. There's another entrance to the station's drainage system hidden away in a cavern that you may or may not observe based on when you undertake a certain partner task. You can encounter an easily missable person who's essential to preserving a life down the line. (And there's a stuffed animal who indirectly convinces a squad of soldiers to support you, if you're considerate enough to rescue it from a danger zone.) This beginning section is packed and thrilling, and it seems like it's full of deep narrative possibilities that benefits you for your curiosity.
Fading Anticipations
Outer Worlds 2 doesn't fulfill those opening anticipations again. The next primary region is organized comparable to a location in the original game or Avowed — a large region dotted with points of interest and optional missions. They're all thematically relevant to the conflict between Auntie's Selection and the Ascendant Order, but they're also mini-narratives separated from the central narrative plot-wise and geographically. Don't expect any contextual hints guiding you toward fresh decisions like in the first zone.
Despite compelling you to choose some hard calls, what you do in this area's optional missions has no impact. Like, it truly has no effect, to the point where whether you allow violations or lead a group of refugees to their demise results in nothing but a throwaway line or two of speech. A game doesn't need to let all tasks impact the plot in some significant, theatrical manner, but if you're compelling me to select a side and giving the impression that my choice matters, I don't believe it's irrational to expect something more when it's concluded. When the game's earlier revealed that it can be better, anything less appears to be a concession. You get more of everything like the developers pledged, but at the price of substance.
Bold Plans and Lacking Stakes
The game's second act attempts a comparable approach to the primary structure from the first planet, but with noticeably less flair. The idea is a daring one: an linked task that covers multiple worlds and urges you to seek aid from assorted alliances if you want a more straightforward journey toward your objective. Aside from the recurring structure being a little tiresome, it's also absent the tension that this kind of scenario should have. It's a "deal with the demon" moment. There should be difficult trade-offs. Your association with each alliance should matter beyond gaining their favor by doing new tasks for them. All this is absent, because you can merely power through on your own and clear the objective anyway. The game even goes out of its way to give you means of accomplishing this, pointing out different ways as additional aims and having allies inform you where to go.
It's a byproduct of a broader issue in Outer Worlds 2: the apprehension of permitting you to feel dissatisfied with your selections. It regularly overcompensates out of its way to guarantee not only that there's an alternate route in most cases, but that you know it exists. Secured areas almost always have multiple entry methods indicated, or nothing valuable inside if they don't. If you {can't
