New Vegas inspirations all over this one.
By Ameer Ammar
The Outer Worlds 2 is an interesting game, this is Obsidian’s second massive RPG this year following right after Avowed and going into it I was quite skeptical. The first Outer Worlds was an interesting experience, it had strong world-building but the gameplay left a ton to be desired and overall the whole game seemed like it just didn’t have the budget to realize its full vision, Avowed was a game I straight up did not like and thought it was a huge step back from all previous Obsidian RPGs.
Now with Outer Worlds 2, I am glad to say this feels nothing like Avowed but rather a direct evolution of everything the first game did with New Vegas inspirations from the basis, it feels far more refined especially in the gameplay department. TOW2’s gunplay is a HUGE improvement here, it feels genuinely great to play this time and reminds me a lot of the newer Borderlands. All the RPG systems from the first game are back, you can kill *anyone* with quests and NPCs reacting to your actions. NPCs do actually wander around and seem to have daily schedules from what I can tell unlike Avowed’s static inhabitants as well.
Systems like crime, crafting, breaking into homes etc are all in here, making TOW2 feel far more like an RPG than Avowed did, I especially adore the addition of radio stations here that play classic music which makes TOW2 feel like a spiritual successor to Fallout now.
Writing is what’s most important to me in Obsidian RPGs, there is a ton of dialogue here with each conversation stretching into like 4-6 different conversation trees, and so far I would say it hasn’t blown me away. After a truly strong prologue I’ve been finding the first act here to be a bit mundane, TOW2 is a revenge tale in the same vein as New Vegas, its still not the main point of the story but it is there in the background at all times.
There is a lot less humor than there was in the first game but the side quests are extensive affairs, a lot less fetch quests and more actual journeys with choices and consequences, it also helps that you get some great rewards from them now like double jumps are a reward for an early side quest as an example.
I am curious to see where this story will go from this point on and how much my choices will impact the story, This story feels completely disconnected from the first game, meaning you can hop into TOW2 without knowledge of the first one.
The game is running perfectly well on my PS5 Pro, 60FPS without any noticeable drops and looks quite sharp, the graphics are fine, nothing special and I still wish the world had more colors that popped, they use a ton of browns and dark reds here and I’ve found this art-style since the first game to be quite unappealing to me.
Overall I am enjoying TOW2, It’s not a mind blowing experience but its a definite improvement over TOW1 and especially Avowed, I am about ~10 hours in and feel I haven’t even scratched the surface of everything present in this game.
Special thanks to Obsidian for providing a review code