Outer Worlds 2 Struggles to Achieve the Stars

More expansive isn't necessarily better. It's a cliché, but it's also the best way to encapsulate my feelings after devoting many hours with The Outer Worlds 2. Developer Obsidian added more of all aspects to the next installment to its 2019 sci-fi RPG — increased comedy, adversaries, weapons, traits, and locations, all the essentials in games like this. And it works remarkably well — initially. But the weight of all those daring plans makes the game wobble as the hours wear on.

A Powerful Opening Act

The Outer Worlds 2 makes a strong opening statement. You belong to the Terran Directorate, a altruistic institution focused on curbing unscrupulous regimes and companies. After some capital-D Drama, you end up in the Arcadia region, a colony splintered by hostilities between Auntie's Option (the outcome of a merger between the previous title's two major companies), the Guardians (groupthink extended to its most extreme outcome), and the Ascendant Order (like the Catholic church, but with mathematics rather than Jesus). There are also a bunch of fissures tearing holes in the universe, but currently, you really need get to a relay station for critical messaging purposes. The issue is that it's in the heart of a combat area, and you need to find a way to get there.

Similar to the first game, Outer Worlds 2 is a first-person RPG with an central plot and many side quests scattered across various worlds or regions (expansive maps with a plenty to explore, but not sandbox).

The first zone and the process of getting to that comms station are remarkable. You've got some humorous meetings, of course, like one that includes a farmer who has overindulged sugary treats to their beloved crustacean. Most guide you to something useful, though — an surprising alternative route or some new bit of intel that might unlock another way ahead.

Unforgettable Sequences and Missed Possibilities

In one unforgettable event, you can come across a Protectorate deserter near the viaduct who's about to be eliminated. No task is associated with it, and the exclusive means to discover it is by exploring and hearing the environmental chatter. If you're swift and careful enough not to let him get slain, you can preserve him (and then protect his runaway sweetheart from getting killed by creatures in their lair later), but more connected with the current objective is a electrical conduit obscured in the foliage nearby. If you track it, you'll locate a concealed access point to the communication hub. There's an alternate entry to the station's underground tunnels hidden away in a cave that you could or could not detect contingent on when you follow a certain partner task. You can encounter an readily overlooked individual who's key to preserving a life much later. (And there's a soft toy who implicitly sways a group of troops to fight with you, if you're nice enough to protect it from a danger zone.) This beginning section is rich and thrilling, and it seems like it's overflowing with deep narrative possibilities that compensates you for your curiosity.

Diminishing Hopes

Outer Worlds 2 fails to meet those early hopes again. The second main area is arranged like a map in the initial title or Avowed — a big area sprinkled with notable locations and secondary tasks. They're all narratively connected to the clash between Auntie's Selection and the Ascendant Brotherhood, but they're also mini-narratives isolated from the central narrative narratively and location-wise. Don't anticipate any world-based indicators guiding you toward alternative options like in the first zone.

Despite pushing you toward some difficult choices, what you do in this zone's side quests is inconsequential. Like, it genuinely is irrelevant, to the point where whether you permit atrocities or guide a band of survivors to their demise culminates in merely a throwaway line or two of conversation. A game isn't required to let all tasks influence the story in some big, dramatic fashion, but if you're making me choose a group and pretending like my selection is important, I don't think it's unreasonable to hope for something further when it's over. When the game's earlier revealed that it is capable of more, any diminishment appears to be a trade-off. You get expanded elements like Obsidian promised, but at the expense of complexity.

Ambitious Concepts and Missing Tension

The game's intermediate phase attempts a comparable approach to the primary structure from the initial world, but with noticeably less flair. The idea is a bold one: an interconnected mission that covers several locations and urges you to solicit support from assorted alliances if you want a more straightforward journey toward your aim. In addition to the repeated framework being a somewhat tedious, it's also lacking the tension that this type of situation should have. It's a "bargain with evil" moment. There should be difficult trade-offs. Your connection with either faction should be important beyond earning their approval by doing new tasks for them. Everything is lacking, because you can merely power through on your own and complete the mission anyway. The game even takes pains to hand you ways of achieving this, pointing out different ways as optional objectives and having allies advise you where to go.

It's a byproduct of a broader issue in Outer Worlds 2: the apprehension of allowing you to regret with your selections. It often overcompensates in its efforts to ensure not only that there's an alternative path in many situations, but that you know it exists. Locked rooms almost always have various access ways marked, or nothing worthwhile internally if they don't. If you {can't