Outer Worlds Review 2

Role-playing game experts Obsidian Entertainment are kicking off 2025 with the release of their own fantasy RPG I confessThey are set to close out the year with a sequel to the 2019 first-person sci-fi film with RPG elements. Outer worlds. After playing through Outer Worlds 2it’s clear that the developers have drawn on almost every aspect of the original game, making it one of the best RPGs released this year.

Outer Worlds 2 It refines the Obsidian RPG formula first refined with Fallout: New Vegas in 2010, giving players a range of ways to progress, from talking and sneaking to fighting their way through obstacles. Fortunately, what the team has improved most on is making the FPS feel like a real game.

In The Outer Worlds 2, players take on the role of an agent of the Earth Directorate, an organization that works with Earth and its various space colonies, in the distant future. What seemed like a routine mission ends in an incredible betrayal, and it’s up to you to track down the person behind the conspiracy that destroyed your life. If that’s not interesting enough, you’ll also encounter an intergalactic conflict within the space colony where the game takes place – between the Sanctuary, a totalitarian faction traveling faster than the speed of light, and a massive corporation called Auntie’s Choice, born from the merger of Auntie Cleo and Spacer’s Choice from the first game. Clearly, the satire of consumerism continues.

Just like in the first game, The Outer Worlds 2 has a lot of text and dialogue to shape its story, building a world rich with politics and class struggle. But this epic tone is often undermined by cynicism. While it doesn’t ruin the experience, repeating jokes even by 5% will make it easier to stay immersed in the serious sci-fi world I want to play in, rather than one filled with a lot of tension-inducing banter.

As you would expect with this type of setting, Obsidian leaves it up to you how the story will unfold. Are you going to stick with the man and try to overthrow space capitalism? Will you be the brave hero who always does the right thing? Or maybe a bad guy who is willing to do anything for money? This decision is entirely yours.

Completely new to you

The core of The Outer Worlds 2 is character creation. After choosing your appearance, you’ll decide on your background, attributes, flaws, skills, and perks – choices that directly shape how the game unfolds.

Your character’s background sometimes opens up unique dialogue options, while traits and flaws have a greater impact on gameplay. For example, one of the themes I chose was “Lucky,” and every now and then I would come across a broken door with an additional option to “try something random,” and sure enough, thanks to this theme, it worked.

Disadvantages are a returning theme, but they’re more interesting this time around because they come with both positive and negative effects. Unlike traits, which you only choose at the beginning of the game, flaws appear throughout play as a way to complicate your character and spice up gameplay. One of the debuffs I picked up early on was Foot-in-Mouth Syndrome, which grants a 15% increase in experience points. What I didn’t realize was that if I took longer than three seconds to make a dialogue choice, the bug would choose a random one for me, which definitely spiced things up.

The skills are all positive and really change the way the game is played. They’re the standard skills like hacking, lockpicking, melee, weapons, and engineering that you’ll find in RPG shooters like Fallout. You start by choosing two skills to specialize in, and as you level up, you earn two points to invest wherever you want. It may seem smart to post these points, but doing so actually prevents you from getting valuable rewards. As the game progresses, challenges require higher skill levels, whether you’re trying to open doors, hack terminals, or open safes.

In my case, I wanted the benefits of speaking in and out of difficult situations, so I boosted my speaking skill, which actually allowed me to skip an entire boss fight. Later, I noticed that engineering helped repair broken items, so I invested more points there. This backfired with the next president. My speaking skill wasn’t high enough to choose the more diplomatic option, which meant I ended up fighting even though I was about to talk to him. The Outer Worlds 2 shows that specializing in a few basic skills pays off, while trying to master everything leaves you with fewer unique ways to get out of sticky situations.

Along with skills and perks. These are passive boosts available at every two experience levels and depend on how many points you have in your skills. With only one point in weapons, for example, you can open an additional weapon slot. Raise that to 20 points, and your critical attacks will deal 100% more damage, with 20% of it being transferred to nearby enemies. It’s another example of how developers are encouraged to build unique characters, adding depth and replayability as each gameplay experience can look completely different depending on which skills you focus on.

Distant worlds, more intense combat excitement

During my time with the previous Outer Worlds, there was something I felt during combat. It was clear that gunplay and stealth were not the focal points for the developers, as enemies rarely used any tactics and weapons had no weight to them, making them feel like they were shooting foam Nerf darts instead of heavy bullets or laser bolts. But Outer Worlds 2 is a completely different story.

Combat flows smoothly, with a wide variety of weapons that use different types of ammunition and include melee options. Weapons range from quick-firing pistols and powerful sniper rifles to futuristic equipment like the Auto-Hacker 5000, a rapid-fire weapon that can even splat a robot’s wires to make it fight for you. Firefights can be conducted tactically, through cover and patient shooting, or chaotically, by charging flaming weapons. There are lots of ways to build a character that fits your play style.

Alongside you are six companions that you encounter throughout the game, another distinct feature from the first Outer Wilds game. They join your crew after completing certain tasks for them. Once they’re part of your crew, you can learn more about their backgrounds and take on special loyalty missions to unlock additional abilities.

This time, the companions seem to have a much greater influence on the flow of the story. Facing a boss with a specific companion may help you intimidate them into retreat, thanks to that character’s reputation. But if you leave behind a comrade who has been vocal about wanting to confront that boss, expect him to be angry. Some choices can prompt your companions to leave your crew, or turn on you entirely if you don’t say the right things to keep them around. Just don’t expect to have a romantic relationship with anyone; This is still not an option.

All this variety is what makes The Outer Worlds 2 so complex and fun. How you create your character, the companions you choose, and how much exploration and skills you invest in them can lead to many different paths. I have no doubt that although I have only found two or three ways to address most problems, there are probably many others that I have not noticed. This is what makes this game so compelling; You know the opportunities are there, even if you can’t see them yet. Locked dialogue options often remind you that you’re missing the right skill points, item, or information, and are the developers’ way of encouraging exploration and outside-the-box thinking.

Am I a joke to you?

If I had to name one weakness of The Outer Worlds 2, it would be the humor. Obsidian has the same writing tone as the original, where 90% of the dialogue feels serious and dramatic, and then you have the silly 10%, often leaning into capitalist satire. You might be reading someone’s emails or chatting with an NPC when a random joke suddenly comes up.

For example, one of the defects I chose at the beginning of the game was the Scraper. When talking to other characters, an aggressive dialogue option along the lines of “Do as I say or I’ll kill you” will sometimes open up. The problem is that these exaggerated responses are usually ignored by the NPCs, who just respond with something like “Well, that’s rude” before continuing as if nothing happened. When being a jerk or weirdo doesn’t influence an NPC’s opinions or elicit a real reaction, it breaks the immersion.

Valerie, the robotic companion and one of the first members of your crew, is a walking – or rather floating – example of this. You’ll throw out random robotic phrases that state the obvious, like reminding you that if you stay on a ship that’s about to explode, you have a 99.99% chance of expiring. The same goes for some of the characters you meet who act dazzling just because they’re dazzling.

Not every bit of humor was consistent for me. In one case, you’re almost literally faced with a shopping cart problem, and if you choose the “bad” option, your boss who set it up will be really confused, insisting that there’s something wrong with you for not wasting time doing the right thing. Moments like this work. But when a game is constantly filled with silly talk, as Obsidian does here, it gets stale. I know that this is an extension of the sarcastic and humorous style of the Fallout series, and that The Outer Worlds is itself a satire targeting capitalism and corporate power. But it doesn’t always feel that way while playing. I want to get lost in the space politics and drama, but the random jokes always remind me that it’s a satire, and it blows away the tension with weak punches.

If Obsidian had gone for a more serious tone with The Outer Worlds 2 – something closer to the Mass Effect series – I could easily see it becoming one of the best sci-fi RPGs since BioWare’s classic space opera. The presentation here is great: the worlds are lush and colorful, and while you can’t explore an entire planet, each location feels distinct. The towns, ships, and interiors all have their own style, so you’ll never feel like you’re walking through copy-and-paste environments (something that can’t be said for Starfield, Bethesda’s take on the sci-fi RPG). The score adds cinematic weight, the voice acting is excellent, and every big moment feels like it’s building toward something epic. But then, before any big boss fight, you’re given a dialogue option that’s just a passing joke, a reminder that the game can’t resist a return to satire well.

The Outer Worlds 2 is one of my favorite RPGs released this year, and it’s damn near great. It has practically everything I wanted in a game (enough for me to consider it better than Mass Effect), but Obsidian misses the mark with its tone. Who knows, maybe the company will find out with the third game in the series.

The Outer World 2 will be released on October 29 for $70 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series It will be available to Xbox Game Pass On the first day.