Obsidian's Sequel Doesn't Quite Reach the Stars
Bigger isn't necessarily superior. That's a tired saying, but it's also the best way to describe my thoughts after devoting five dozen hours with The Outer Worlds 2. The creators added more of everything to the sequel to its 2019's sci-fi RPG — more humor, foes, firearms, traits, and locations, all the essentials in games like this. And it functions superbly — for a little while. But the load of all those ambitious ideas leads to instability as the hours wear on.
A Powerful Opening Act
The Outer Worlds 2 makes a strong initial impact. You are part of the Earth Directorate, a do-gooder organization dedicated to curbing unscrupulous regimes and businesses. After some capital-D Drama, you end up in the Arcadia sector, a colony fractured by conflict between Auntie's Selection (the outcome of a union between the first game's two large firms), the Protectorate (groupthink taken to its worst logical conclusion), and the Order of the Ascendant (like the Catholic church, but with calculations instead of Jesus). There are also a bunch of fissures tearing holes in the universe, but currently, you urgently require access a communication hub for critical messaging reasons. The issue is that it's in the heart of a combat area, and you need to figure out how to reach it.
Like its predecessor, Outer Worlds 2 is a FPS adventure with an central plot and dozens of optional missions scattered across different planets or zones (expansive maps with a much to discover, but not fully open).
The initial area and the task of reaching that communication station are impressive. You've got some humorous meetings, of course, like one that involves a farmer who has overindulged sugary treats to their preferred crab. Most guide you to something helpful, though — an surprising alternative route or some additional intelligence that might unlock another way onward.
Memorable Moments and Missed Possibilities
In one memorable sequence, you can find a Guardian defector near the overpass who's about to be killed. No task is associated with it, and the only way to locate it is by searching and paying attention to the ambient dialogue. If you're quick and sufficiently cautious not to let him get slain, you can preserve him (and then save his runaway sweetheart from getting eliminated by monsters in their refuge later), but more connected with the current objective is a power line hidden in the undergrowth nearby. If you track it, you'll locate a concealed access point to the communication hub. There's another entrance to the station's drainage system stashed in a grotto that you might or might not notice depending on when you pursue a specific companion quest. You can locate an easily missable person who's key to saving someone's life down the line. (And there's a stuffed animal who implicitly sways a squad of soldiers to fight with you, if you're nice enough to rescue it from a explosive area.) This opening chapter is dense and engaging, and it feels like it's full of rich storytelling potential that benefits you for your curiosity.
Waning Expectations
Outer Worlds 2 never lives up to those opening anticipations again. The second main area is organized like a map in the first Outer Worlds or Avowed — a large region sprinkled with points of interest and optional missions. They're all story-appropriate to the struggle between Auntie's Selection and the Order of the Ascendant, but they're also vignettes detached from the main story plot-wise and spatially. Don't anticipate any environmental clues guiding you toward fresh decisions like in the opening region.
In spite of forcing you to make some hard calls, what you do in this region's secondary tasks has no impact. Like, it genuinely is irrelevant, to the extent that whether you enable war crimes or guide a band of survivors to their death culminates in nothing but a casual remark or two of dialogue. A game doesn't have to let each mission influence the story in some significant, theatrical manner, but if you're making me choose a side and giving the impression that my choice counts, I don't believe it's unfair to expect something further when it's finished. When the game's earlier revealed that it is capable of more, anything less appears to be a concession. You get more of everything like the team vowed, but at the cost of complexity.
Ambitious Plans and Missing Stakes
The game's intermediate phase tries something similar to the central framework from the opening location, but with noticeably less flair. The idea is a bold one: an linked task that spans two planets and motivates you to request help from different factions if you want a more straightforward journey toward your aim. Beyond the repeat setup being a little tiresome, it's also just missing the drama that this kind of scenario should have. It's a "pact with the devil" moment. There should be tough compromise. Your relationship with any group should matter beyond making them like you by performing extra duties for them. All this is absent, because you can merely power through on your own and complete the mission anyway. The game even takes pains to hand you methods of doing this, pointing out different ways as optional objectives and having companions advise you where to go.
It's a byproduct of a broader issue in Outer Worlds 2: the apprehension of letting you be unhappy with your decisions. It regularly exaggerates in its efforts to make sure not only that there's an alternative path in many situations, but that you realize its presence. Closed chambers nearly always have various access ways indicated, or nothing valuable within if they don't. If you {can't
