The Outer Worlds 2 (2025)

(Minor disclaimer, I played the game in late 2025, when many of the game's bugs had already been ironed out.)

The Outer Worlds 2 is a great entry among the variety of FPS RPGs ("Bethesda-like" games) that sees you chasing down a sci-fi apocalyptic event, involving one of your own Earth Directorate agents mysteriously betraying you and your team. Though Outer Worlds 2 doesn't quite have any single specific feature that it does better than any other series, I found most systems in the game to generally be good.

The game is essentially structured into three acts that see you traveling across a handful of planets and space stations to investigate the mystery of the rifts, cryptic portals that appear to destroy everything they touch. One thing I appreciated about OU2's structure is how it paced the game - many other games in the genre often have the problem of ignoring the main quest to do a billion side quests or faction quests instead (ex. Skyrim). In OU2, companions' quests are generally distributed across each act, and the information covered in each main quest and side quest helped drive the plot forward.

Though many on the internet describe the characters and factions as stereotypes, I actually found the game's writing to be pretty good. Sure, many of the characters - particularly the absurdly capitalistic Auntie's Choice employees - are somewhat exaggerated in nature. But, I often found that if you accepted the premises of the characters, there was much more depth to them than they found, especially given how most of the characters experience an arc of either doubting their faction's direction or choosing to align with it.

Niles, the Earth Directorate companion you start with, can be made to question the Directorate's motives, or stay aligned with them. Inez can either condemn the unethical animal-human grafting experiments that Auntie's Choice conducted, or she can attempt to revive the program and redirect it into doing good for the world. Tristan, a high level Arbiter of the antagonistic Protectorate faction, can either be guided in violent judgements, or be softened into questioning what justice really is, especially when he's forced to confront fellow members of his own faction.

Besides this, The Outer Worlds has strong attention to detail. Information acquired by exploring the world can frequently be used in conversations to convince people to see your side. Many of the game's major bosses can actually be talked down instead of gunned down, aided by your skill checks and your access to the right information. Companions will frequently offer interesting interjections, or react to other companions if they have something relevant to say.

On the character building side, OU2 has just the right amount of build choices that will lead to differentiated playthroughs, though perhaps not fundamentally different ones. Certain traits and backgrounds unlock a variety of different opportunities in game, whether it's hacking consoles to reprogram defense turrets, or being lucky enough to randomly succeed at tasks. Besides this, the game interesting flaw system that preys on your gameplay habits. Though they're not required, many of the games flaws can offer you some neat perks. Stealing frequently forces you to compulsively steal, but gives increased resale prices on stolen goods. Reloading frequently gives you bonus damage as long as you don't allow the magazine to get completely empty. I enjoyed how it often felt like the game was really paying attention to every action I was taking.

With all of that said, the gameplay leaves something to be desired. The gunplay is fairly basic, the gadget system is not particularly exciting, companion abilities and even their direct damage isn't that important in combat, and I didn't really find much complexity in combat elsewhere. The stealth is fairly basic as well.

OU2 has a fascinating artstyle to it. I really loved the embracing of retrofuturism - devices use CRT displays and cartridges, steampunk machinery is found everywhere, and suits are often bulky or colorful rather than sleek and minimalistic. I really grew to appreciate how the game's visuals set it apart from many other contemporary space settings in games and other media.

Overall I did enjoy my time with The Outer Worlds 2, and I'd generally recommend it to anyone that enjoyed games like Fallout or Skyrim. There's a lot of fun to be had by those that want to roleplay the different approaches to saving Arcadia from the rifts, and I think the game is generally worth a shot.

On the surface, this game seems perfect.

An expanded scope. A PC game that runs well with very few bugs. The gun play is great. But they got something wrong, I couldn't shake this feeling the entire time.

One conversation late in the game gave me the answer. You are attempting to convince a cult scientist to defect, he says "I can't remember the last time I had a conversation this good... Well... Ever..."

And there you have it: no character in this world is a good conversationalist. Unlike in Cyberpunk or the Witcher, you never meet a character with gravitas, a character that charms you, no character ever makes you angry, no character is cute, everyone is in the "safety zone". There is never a compelling back story.

Unlike other games which realistically interpret corporate dystopia, this characterizes everything, so all is a joke. It's very close to Borderlands in humor as a consequence. I enjoyed the first game more because it felt more grounded and real despite failing in the comparison in almost every other metric.

Gender, sex and romance:

You are allowed to write a woman interested in men. You can write a man who enjoys attractive men. The lack of sexual anything in this game is a little strange. It was an odd experience when a woman dressed in bondage gear did not acknowledge the context, her attractiveness and just... talked normally. Romance is what makes the world go round, so the absence for your character or anyone else in the world makes the experience feel... Unreal. No kids as well.

Issue 2: the gameplay system.

Not combat, not exploration, not crafting or modding. But how it all fits together: it doesn't.

They took out carry limit, they took out gun levels, they took out armour pieces. Everything is simplified. The consequences: nothing matters.

Because there is no carry limit or weapon specialisation, the game is designed around picking up EVERYTHING and using all guns and ammo types equally. As a role playing game this is a major failing. In fallout games I love the pistol, so that is what I use and specialise in. This game punishes you for that specialisation with rock paper scissors enemy weakness system. Building your character is unengaging.

Companions:

The companions in this game are.. there. Their quests feeling like game dev box checking.

Quest design:

Every single quest felt very similar. You have played this game before: go there, kill that. Go there, collect that. The main quest design is quite good still, taking you to interesting locals and areas and what convinced me to keep playing throughout the game was how beautiful each new environment was. But the game steals major moments from other similar games, so some big moments fall a little flat (yes that moment if you got it).

Abuse of Issac Asimov's ideas:

The interpretation of psycho-history is an embassing insult to the nuance of a work that sees humanity as flawed but fundamentally based in a co-operative spirit. The game Devs here have just given up on humans on nearly every level.

Earlier this year, Avowed was a refreshing take on Skyrim-likes. Melee combat was active & fun. The content was condensed and meaningful, and didn't require tedious backtracking for the sake of backtracking. It felt like you could effectively "finish" a section of the map, and move on to new content. And you basically had Garrus as a squadmate.

Obsidian's "Fallout-lite" franchise, The Outer Worlds 2, takes those changes... and completely un-does all of them.

Melee combat is sluggish & clunky like Bethesda games of old.

Missions have you fast-travelling back & forth between planet after planet after planet to do inane fetch quests. And while every mission is a handcrafted experience (there are no time-disrespecting Radiant quests here), the writing behind those missions is just meh. The constant Microsoft/Obsidian corporation-vetted "anti-corporation humor" falls completely flat. The entire game just feels soulless.

Obsidian's faction-based systems are in full play here. But unless you go full-evil, it feels completely frivolous. I could do literally every positive thing available for a given faction, and by the end of my 40-50 hour playthrough, I only barely broke out of "Neutral" status with that faction, and into the first of three ticks of positive influence.

Also, no Garrus.

And, ever since the first "update" for the game in November 2025, the map was broken. Quest labels weren't visible for most of the month that I played this game. This made finding and travelling between missions a huge PITA -- which was only slightly alleviated by the ability to "Hide Inactive Quests" on the map.

Outer Worlds games are very interesting to me but not for reasons you might think. When I am playing it, I'm having a blast. Even though the story, characters and overall writing kinda makes me want to shoot myself sometimes (I skimmed through most dialogue so fast I even got a perk for it), I still enjoy picking the dialogue options that pissed people off the most. The moment-to-moment gameplay and roleplay options are great and immersive. Roleplaying as a dumb psychopath with itchy trigger finger is a lot of fun. Combat is better this time around too, melee is a bit janky but shooting feels really good with decent amount of variety in weapon types.

But the thing with this game is that once I completed it, my brain is probably gonna flush everything out. Some fun memories might be spared but for everything else? Straight down the drain.

Oh well, at least it's better than Avowed. That game bored me to death I uninstalled it right after finishing the prologue. Maybe if I had not played that after KCD2 I could've gotten some enjoyment out of it.

I was just looking at my wishlist and noticed the price. Microsoft increased the cost of their games by 33% in only a couple of years:

€60

• for Forza 5 (2021)
• The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition (2023)

€70

• Forza Motorsport (2023)
• Avowed (2025)

€80

• MS Flight Simulator (2024)
• The Outer Worlds 2 (2025)

That's only the basegame too. The premium edition of Avowed is €90. For TOW2 it's €100. Wow. Kinda ironic too that they used a game with a strong anti-corporate theme to push for a new price point.