The Outer Worlds 2 Fails to Attain the Heights
More expansive isn't always improved. That's a tired saying, but it's also the best way to encapsulate my feelings after devoting five dozen hours with The Outer Worlds 2. The development team added more of each element to the follow-up to its 2019 futuristic adventure — more humor, foes, weapons, traits, and settings, all the essentials in games like this. And it operates excellently — initially. But the load of all those ambitious ideas causes the experience to falter as the hours wear on.
A Strong Initial Impact
The Outer Worlds 2 establishes a solid first impression. You belong to the Earth Directorate, a altruistic institution dedicated to curbing unscrupulous regimes and businesses. After some serious turmoil, you find yourself in the Arcadia system, a colony divided by war between Auntie's Choice (the product of a merger between the first game's two big corporations), the Protectorate (groupthink taken to its worst logical conclusion), and the Order of the Ascendant (like the Catholic church, but with math rather than Jesus). There are also a number of rifts creating openings in the universe, but right now, you really need access a relay station for pressing contact reasons. The problem is that it's in the center of a combat area, and you need to find a way to reach it.
Following the original, Outer Worlds 2 is a first-person RPG with an central plot and many secondary tasks spread out across various worlds or regions (expansive maps with a much to discover, but not fully open).
The first zone and the process of getting to that communication station are impressive. You've got some funny interactions, of course, like one that includes a rancher who has given excessive sugary treats to their beloved crustacean. Most guide you to something beneficial, though — an unexpected new path or some fresh information that might open a different path ahead.
Notable Events and Overlooked Opportunities
In one memorable sequence, you can encounter a Guardian defector near the bridge who's about to be killed. No task is associated with it, and the sole method to discover it is by exploring and hearing the environmental chatter. If you're quick and careful enough not to let him get slain, you can save him (and then protect his defector partner from getting eliminated by beasts in their lair later), but more pertinent to the immediate mission is a power line hidden in the undergrowth 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 grotto that you might or might not observe based on when you follow a specific companion quest. You can encounter an readily overlooked person who's crucial to rescuing a person 20 hours later. (And there's a plush toy who indirectly convinces a squad of soldiers to fight with you, if you're considerate enough to save it from a minefield.) This initial segment is packed and exciting, and it seems like it's brimming with rich storytelling potential that compensates you for your exploration.
Waning Anticipations
Outer Worlds 2 never lives up to those opening anticipations again. The next primary region is organized similar to a location in the original game or Avowed — a big area scattered with points of interest and optional missions. They're all story-appropriate to the conflict between Auntie's Selection and the Ascendant Order, but they're also mini-narratives separated from the central narrative narratively and spatially. Don't expect any world-based indicators guiding you toward alternative options like in the initial area.
Regardless of forcing you to make some tough decisions, what you do in this region's secondary tasks has no impact. Like, it truly has no effect, to the degree that whether you enable war crimes or guide a band of survivors to their end culminates in nothing but a throwaway line or two of dialogue. A game isn't required to let all tasks affect the story in some major, impactful way, but if you're making me choose a faction and pretending like my choice is important, I don't feel it's unfair to hope for something additional when it's concluded. When the game's previously demonstrated that it is capable of more, anything less seems like a trade-off. You get expanded elements like Obsidian promised, but at the cost of substance.
Bold Plans and Absent Stakes
The game's middle section attempts a comparable approach to the main setup from the initial world, but with noticeably less flair. The notion is a courageous one: an related objective that spans two planets and encourages you to request help from various groups if you want a smoother path toward your aim. Beyond the repeat setup being a little tiresome, it's also just missing the drama that this sort of circumstance should have. It's a "deal with the demon" moment. There should be tough compromise. Your connection with any group should matter beyond earning their approval by doing new tasks for them. All of this is missing, because you can simply rush through on your own and clear the objective anyway. The game even takes pains to give you ways of doing this, highlighting different ways as optional objectives and having partners tell you where to go.
It's a byproduct of a broader issue in Outer Worlds 2: the fear of allowing you to regret with your selections. It often goes too far in its efforts to ensure not only that there's an alternate route in most cases, but that you realize its presence. Secured areas practically always have multiple entry methods signposted, or nothing valuable inside if they don't. If you {can't
