The Outer Worlds became an instant favorite of mine when it first launched in October 2019, so I was very excited to get a chance to spend some time with its upcoming prequel, The Outer Worlds 2, ahead of its Oct. 29 launch. In my eyes, the first game's flaws were twofold: There simply wasn't enough game to go around, which left me craving more, and its visuals — especially when it came to character design — were seriously lacking. I've spent the last four years hoping developer Obsidian Entertainment manages to rectify both issues, and after spending a little over two hours test-flying The Outer Worlds 2's first big quest, I'm feeling pretty relieved.
The first thing you notice when you fire up the game is how darn good it looks, especially compared to its predecessor. Just like in the previous game, The Outer Worlds 2's environments are bright, striking, and clearly crafted with care. But the biggest improvement by far is the characters. Gone are the stiff, janky-looking character models of The Outer Worlds. They've been replaced with companions and other NPCs who look and feel much more alive, and don't repeat the same series of facial animations over and over. Cutscenes are beautifully rendered, but even outside of them, the game's characters don't just look passable — they look good. Their micro-expressions are smooth and lifelike, and the camera no longer jarringly snaps to the head of whoever you're speaking with when you start a conversation with a character. Is it the prettiest game you'll ever play? Probably not. Is it a massive improvement? Absolutely.
The Outer Worlds 2 is an RPG, which means the most important character is you, the player. The character creator is definitely a bit more robust than it was in the last game, with loads of color and style options for details like makeup, piercings, and tattoos. Other features are more limited — for example, there are only two body types to choose from (fit and male or fit and female), but overall, the character creator gets the job done and improves on the one in the previous game. (No word yet on whether you can tweak your looks after leaving character creation, however. I didn't discover a way to do so in my time with the game.)
Once you're done deciding what your character looks like, you'll need to decide who they are, and how they joined the Earth Directorate, an interstellar law-enforcement outfit that is totally here for the good of the people, and absolutely not corrupt in any way. There are six backgrounds to choose from, and they'll influence certain dialogue options and other moments in the game. I went for the Renegade background, deciding that my character was a former criminal who saw joining the Earth Directorate as a great opportunity to switch career tracks without having to worry that her former employers would attempt to hunt her down. Most of the game's backgrounds have a similarly straightforward premise, but I was sorely tempted to select the Roustabout background. The Roustabout is a character who simply got lucky (by managing to accidentally kill a well-known criminal) and has been failing upwards ever since, despite being wholly unqualified for the job. (This backstory reminded me of the player-character in the first game, who accidentally flattened the original captain of The Unreliable.) Choosing this background no doubt leads to some amusing encounters later in the game.
Next up are traits. Players have the option of simply picking a positive trait, or picking two positive traits and a negative trait. I kept things simple and went with a single positive trait (Suave, as I enjoy talking myself out of trouble and getting discounts at vendors), but the game's negative traits are definitely interesting. The Abrasive trait makes it impossible to raise your faction approval level beyond neutral, while the Sickly trait decreases base health and makes you more likely to sustain injuries and crash out from drug use. But the most interesting option by far is the Dumb trait, which permanently locks five of the game's 12 skills. Pairing the Dumb trait with the Roustabout background seems like it could make for a challenging (and very amusing) playthrough.
There's also a robust suite of accessibility options, alongside four standard difficulty settings. Just like the first game, I found myself quickly cranking up the difficulty level not because I was in search of a challenge, but because the game's default difficulty was just a bit too easy.
With my character and my game settings all sorted out, I ventured forth. The Outer Worlds 2 takes place in a colony called Arcadia, meaning the locales and characters you got to know while exploring the Halcyon colony in the previous game are nowhere to be found (as far as I'm aware — it's certainly possible that they make a cameo later on). Frankly, this was one of my biggest concerns going into the sequel. The Outer Worlds wasn't perfect, but I grew extremely attached to its characters, and was a little worried about the sequel leaving them behind. Thankfully, the characters I briefly encountered during The Outer Worlds 2's prologue are just as well-written as those that came before them. Despite only spending a couple of hours with this crew, I found myself quickly becoming protective of (and curious about) them. The prologue didn't allow me to pick which crew members would accompany me on my mission, nor did it let me make use of their abilities, so although I can't speak to their efficacy in combat, I can say that their personalities feel fleshed out and their interactions with each other quickly got me interested in their backstories.
The prologue sees you and your crew of Earth Directorate underlings investigating some strange skip-drive shenanigans taking place at Horizon Point Station, an Arcadian skip-drive manufacturing station orbiting the gas giant Nyx. Arcadia is ruled by a dictatorship called The Protectorate, meaning that instead of proudly kicking the door down, the Earth Directorate must instead infiltrate the station, a plan that some of your crew members find insulting. Thankfully, the Earth Directorate has an agent named Augustine de Vries on the inside, and she's very emotionally invested in the goal at hand, having spent a year planning this infiltration mission.
The prologue only allows for a taste of combat, and as previously mentioned, does not let you activate companion abilities, but it's a fun play nonetheless. The pistol, rifle, and knife I picked up during the mission were each satisfying to use, and the game's movement mechanics — especially sliding while sprinting — are far smoother than they were in the previous game. The stealth system is forgiving, but doesn't make things too easy (especially on higher difficulties), and players have access to throwable distractions that come in handy when you need an enemy to come closer (or back off). Of course, stealth isn't the only option — going in guns blazing is almost always a viable choice, especially if you make good use of your Tactical Time-Dialation Device (TTD), which a crew member assures you has been improved to cause slightly less brain-damage this time around.
Consumable drugs work slightly differently than they did in The Outer Worlds. You've still got access to your Emergency Medical Inhaler to restore HP, but when you pick up a consumable drug, it's used immediately, and each drug pickup adds a bit of progress to your next inhaler charge. This helps keep inventory clutter to a minimum, a feature I'm grateful for as someone who compulsively picks up every bit of loot that isn't bolted to the ground. Even though the game takes place in a new colony, bits and bobs from the first game are still scattered throughout the sequel, and I was thrilled to stumble across a box of my favorite highly processed fictional breakfast food, Purpleberry Crunch, within moments of gaining control of my character.
Based on my time with the game's prologue, it seems like Obsidian has prioritized the right things in The Outer Worlds 2. Graphics have been polished up and the inventory system has been simplified (but not too simplified, thankfully). Players can approach quests in various ways, using the skills they've chosen to hone, and you're almost always allowed to decide if you'd rather shoot, talk, or sneak your way into or out of trouble. What worked well in the original game — namely, its lovable characters, engaging world, and genuinely funny writing — are all present in its sequel. I actually laughed out loud when I stumbled across a message in a computer terminal that warned, "Complex passwords are a security risk — difficult to remember and often written nearby. Security recommends using a simple, easy-to-recall code like '1234' or your supervisor's name!"
While I definitely miss The Unreliable and its crew, The Outer Worlds 2's new characters and locales are easy to fall in love with, and my brief time with the game left me looking forward to its full release later this fall, when I'll finally get a chance to consume more comedically written lore, more space-drugs with questionable side effects, and of course, more bowls of Purpleberry Crunch.
The Outer Worlds 2 releases Oct. 29 for PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X.