The Outer Worlds was widely seen as a decent stab at mapping Obsidian’s first-person RPG style onto a new retro-future sci-fi setting, but what really set it apart was its satirical sense of humor. Unlike similar series like Elder Scrolls or Fallout, the spacefaring setting gave it new avenues to mock corporations and governments. For The Outer Worlds 2, Obsidian is doubling down on those qualities with a premise that’s more immediately satirical and opens more options to poke at the edges of its systems.
I played roughly an hour of The Outer Worlds at Gamescom, which looked to represent the opening of the game, from character creation and a late title card. Right away the humor shone through, as each archetypal selection had its own funny aside that helped illustrate what made it unique. I chose the Roustabout, described as a person with no skills who essentially fell ass-backwards into their role as a commander in the Earth Directorate. So you have power and influence in an elite covert organization, but you also don’t really deserve it. Picture Mass Effect’s Shepard mixed with Futurama’s Zapp Brannigan.
The opening mission has you dispatched to investigate spacetime anomalies and coordinate with an agent on the inside of the Protectorate, a totalitarian colony government that’s at conflict with a megacorp. Already you have the ingredients for rich worldbuilding, which is first illustrated with a silly propaganda show for the Directorate and continues with seeing firsthand the way the Protectorate runs its government. Protectorate workers are often portrayed as true-believer zealots in the project, though they occasionally make asides that suggest they’re more afraid of reprisals than they are genuinely all-in. But you’re no heroes, either, as the Directorate is an overbearing police-force-for-hire that seems mainly concerned with protecting megacorp profits. The stakes of the story felt immediately understandable, which is a nice change since the first game took a while to gain its momentum.
While I’m curious to see all of the class types in the final game, I’m glad I chose the Roustabout and will probably stick with that for the full campaign. A trigger-happy space cop who has no idea what they’re doing just feels right for this world, and leads to consistently funny dialogue options. At one point I was confronted with a Protectorate zealot who asked why I chose violence, and I blew my cover with my response: Look man, I’m just improvising here, I’m as clueless about all this as you are. It didn’t resolve the situation, but it did make me laugh. Plus, without spoiling how this opening sequence ends, roleplaying as an overwhelmed, overconfident idiot actually makes a lot of sense for where the plot ultimately goes.
This was the opening sequence, so I didn’t get a very substantial feel for how to approach missions in different ways, but I had a few options available to me. I could sneak my way through, talk my way out of situations, go in guns blazing, or, in my case, all three in that order. When I did have to resort to using my weapons, the gunplay felt improved over the first game. I had a trusty sidearm pistol that was very precise, along with a more powerful rifle that came in handy for some ranged encounters. About halfway through, I also found a knife that let me sneak up on guards and take them out silently.
One element of the first Outer Worlds that I loved, but didn’t get to experience much in this Outer Worlds 2 build, is Flaws. Those tend to appear after you’ve shown certain play patterns over hours of gameplay, so I didn’t have time to develop any, but they’re a great avenue for tweaking the game mechanics, evaluating trade-offs, and creating organic humor. I wish I had gotten to play more with them in this demo, but that’s something to experience in the final game.
I did hit one progression bug that required a quick reload; I needed a prompt to appear to open a door, and while I got the dialogue leading up to it, the prompt never appeared. That doesn’t necessarily speak to the end quality, as there’s plenty of time for bug fixes and I may have just been unlucky, but it was familiar enough for this style of game that it felt noteworthy.
Familiarity is a feeling that permeated throughout The Outer Worlds 2. This is very much more of the same, but it feels better. The story is more immediate and urgent, the weaponry feels great, and the humor is polished and sharp. I rather liked the first Outer Worlds, and everything about this looks just as inviting. I’m looking forward to bumbling my way through another zany space adventure.
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