Obsidian's Sequel Doesn't Quite Reach the Stars

More expansive isn't necessarily improved. It's a cliché, yet it's also the truest way to describe my impressions after devoting 50 hours with The Outer Worlds 2. Developer Obsidian added more of everything to the next installment to its 2019's futuristic adventure — additional wit, adversaries, firearms, traits, and places, every important component in titles of this genre. And it works remarkably well — for a little while. But the burden of all those grand concepts leads to instability as the game progresses.

An Impressive First Impression

The Outer Worlds 2 establishes a solid initial impact. You are part of the Earth Directorate, a altruistic institution focused on restraining corrupt governments and businesses. After some serious turmoil, you end up in the Arcadia system, a outpost fractured by conflict between Auntie's Option (the outcome of a union between the previous title's two major companies), the Protectorate (communalism extended to its most extreme outcome), and the Ascendant Order (reminiscent of the Church, but with math in place of Jesus). There are also a bunch of rifts causing breaches in space and time, but at this moment, you absolutely must access a transmission center for urgent communications needs. The challenge is that it's in the heart of a battlefield, and you need to find a way to reach it.

Similar to the first game, Outer Worlds 2 is a FPS adventure with an central plot and many optional missions spread out across multiple locations or zones (large spaces with a lot to uncover, but not fully open).

The opening region and the process of accessing that communication station are spectacular. You've got some funny interactions, of course, like one that features a farmer who has given excessive sugary cereal to their favorite crab. Most guide you to something useful, though — an surprising alternative route or some new bit of intel that might unlock another way onward.

Unforgettable Sequences and Lost Chances

In one memorable sequence, you can encounter a Protectorate deserter near the bridge who's about to be killed. No task is associated with it, and the only way to locate it is by searching and listening to the ambient dialogue. If you're quick and alert enough not to let him get killed, you can save him (and then protect his deserter lover from getting eliminated by beasts in their lair later), but more relevant to the current objective is a electrical conduit obscured in the grass in the vicinity. If you track it, you'll find a hidden entrance to the transmission center. There's a different access point to the station's underground tunnels tucked away in a cave that you may or may not detect based on when you pursue a particular ally mission. You can find an easily missable individual who's crucial to rescuing a person down the line. (And there's a plush toy who subtly persuades a squad of soldiers to fight with you, if you're considerate enough to save it from a danger zone.) This beginning section is packed and exciting, and it seems like it's brimming with substantial plot opportunities that rewards you for your inquisitiveness.

Waning Anticipations

Outer Worlds 2 fails to meet those initial expectations again. The next primary region is structured comparable to a location in the first Outer Worlds or Avowed — a large region dotted with notable locations and side quests. They're all thematically relevant to the clash between Auntie's Choice and the Order of the Ascendant, but they're also short stories isolated from the primary plot plot-wise and spatially. Don't look for any world-based indicators leading you to new choices like in the initial area.

Despite compelling you to choose some tough decisions, what you do in this area's optional missions has no impact. Like, it genuinely is irrelevant, to the degree that whether you allow violations or direct a collection of displaced people to their end culminates in nothing but a passing comment or two of dialogue. A game isn't required to let every quest impact the narrative in some significant, theatrical manner, but if you're compelling me to select a group and pretending like my choice matters, I don't feel it's unfair to anticipate something additional when it's concluded. When the game's earlier revealed that it can be better, anything less feels like a compromise. You get additional content like Obsidian promised, but at the expense of depth.

Ambitious Ideas and Lacking Tension

The game's intermediate phase tries something similar to the main setup from the initial world, but with clearly diminished flair. The notion is a bold one: an linked task that spans multiple worlds and encourages you to seek aid from various groups if you want a more straightforward journey toward your goal. Beyond the repeat setup being a somewhat tedious, it's also absent the suspense that this type of situation should have. It's a "bargain with evil" moment. There should be hard concessions. Your relationship with each alliance should count beyond earning their approval by performing extra duties for them. All of this is absent, because you can simply rush through on your own and achieve the goal anyway. The game even takes pains to hand you ways of achieving this, pointing out alternate routes as additional aims and having partners tell you where to go.

It's a side effect of a broader issue in Outer Worlds 2: the apprehension of letting you be unhappy with your decisions. It regularly goes too far in its efforts to guarantee not only that there's an different way in frequent instances, but that you are aware of it. Closed chambers nearly always have various access ways signposted, or nothing worthwhile within if they don't. If you {can't