Obsidian Entertainment’s The Outer Worlds 2 is one of my first forays into an extremely immersive, first-person shooter RPG. Although the experience personally feels a bit divisive for me, I deeply respect the game’s potential and fully acknowledge its appeal.
For those who love this game genre, I definitely see how much they’ll adore The Outer Worlds 2 and how it’s quite possible to get completely hooked on it. BTW! This review is mostly story-spoiler-free, so I cannot offer a deeper take on the plot. I hope you understand, so let’s get to it! 🙂
The Outer Worlds 2 – Story
It’s hard to describe the story of The Outer Worlds 2 without going into some major spoilers.
You start as an Earth Directorate squad commander, tasked to head to the Arcadia colony and investigate the rifts popping up across the system and the warring between the colony’s factions caused by said rifts.
When you’ve set off on your mission, it sets the course of your entire adventure. And I can’t say any more than that.
Why? Because the story runs on a choose-your-own-adventure, decision-making system. Your choices as the main character will affect many things in the game. This includes NPC reactions, main plot and side quest outcomes, and more.
So even if I want to give you a deeper take on the plot, I can’t, because your experience will be vastly different from mine, depending on the choices you’ve made in-game and how you’ve set up your character.
BUT ANYWAY, on a side note, it’s nice to know that I didn’t need to have played the first Outer Worlds game to start playing The Outer Worlds 2. Having a deeper knowledge of the factions and lore is great for understanding most of the setting and environments, especially if that’s something you appreciate in a game.
Otherwise, it’s still possible to enjoy the story and gameplay even if you’re a complete newbie to the franchise like me. I didn’t feel too alienated by all the jargon and lore thrown at me, LOL!
Gameplay & Features
The Outer Worlds 2 has given me the worst decision paralysis I’ve ever had in my gaming life. Let me get that out there.
It feels a lot like Baldur’s Gate 3, in a “how open-world and how every decision you make affects everything else” kind of way, and through a first-person, looter-shooter perspective.
You can set up your character in any way you want, with skills and perks giving you advantages and disadvantages throughout the gameplay. These can affect your situation in whatever way possible, so the sense of “oh, I’ll make a different decision when I make a new game” is always there. Yes, replayability, right?
You can also play the game however you want. Charge head-on with guns blazing? Sneak your way through an enemy-riddled territory to get to your objective? Ignore the main plot and do side quests for hours? Explore every nook and cranny of the planet you’re on? Go into an establishment and loot them for all they’re worth? You can do all of that, and then some.
Even the weapon and armor system is customizable, to an extent. You can choose between ranged and melee weapons, craft or buy your own ammo, add mods to implement different effects, and even produce throwables with debuffs to aid in battle.
Participating in the companion system is also up to you. You can choose to keep your current ones, recruit new ones, or end your current arrangements. How you interact will affect companion feelings and perspectives. Even how your companions grow into their own skills is your decision.
But all of these choices will have their own repercussions, positive or not. This can be tangibly seen in The Outer Worlds 2’s Flaw system, which pops up now and then.
The game will notice your habits and tendencies, and will sometimes suggest a Flaw that will impact your gameplay. For example, choosing to hang back while companions take the heat of the battle will give you a Flaw that lowers your own attack damage but heightens the damage you deal to enemies already hit by your companions.
And these kinds of consequences will be felt throughout the game. Choosing a skill or perk can lock you out of certain dialogues, answers to conversations will sway outcomes, and outrageously stealing everything in sight can put a bounty on your head and make factions react to you negatively.
In essence, The Outer Worlds 2 places you at the center of its universe. Whether that’s great or not is, again, ultimately up to you.
The Outer Worlds 2 – Visuals & Audio
I’ve been playing the game on PC (with a 4060 Ti GPU) on high settings, and I haven’t experienced any major bugs or glitches so far.
I can’t comment much on the quality of the background music, because it’s kinda impossible to deeply listen to audio tracks while you’re busy fighting off a bunch of enemies, LOL.
However, I did notice that the audio seems to pair well with whatever action you’re in. Fast-paced fights have more exciting beats, while sneaking around seems to quiet the BGM, allowing you to feel the tension of trying not to get caught.
I personally liked that you could have a radio on to listen to white noise while you’re out exploring or completing side quests.
The visuals of the game are semi-realistic, with expressive 3D characters that make you feel like you’re truly part of the game. Environments can be vibrant and bright in the sunlight or dark and dingy at night time.
Realistic visuals are usually not my cup of tea since I prefer JRPGs. But I understand that the immersion truly comes into play with how visceral the game can get. Think explosive effects blasting body parts here and there!
The Outer Worlds 2 is as immersive as immersive can get, and the comedic touch added to the characters, conversations, and situations gives it a good and holistic sci-fi fantasy experience.
Experience & Impressions
At the start of this review, I said that The Outer Worlds 2 experience is divisive for me, and I’ll explain that here. I’m not a looter-shooter, first-person gamer girlie. It really isn’t my preferred game genre.
BUT! I thought that The Outer Worlds 2 would be a good start to expanding my gaming horizons, and I wanted to try it to see how I would like it.
Personally, it’s still not something I would look forward to sitting down and spending upwards of three hours on after a hard day’s work. The first-person perspective gives me motion sickness (even if I’ve tweaked the settings) and like I said above, the gameplay gives me horrible decision paralysis!
There are times I feel horrible after making a decision that turned out to be terrible, and sometimes, sometimes, I feel happy acting like a megalomaniac. The emotions are terrifying.
BUT (again)! I completely get the appeal! I understand that these are for the girlies (and guys) out there who LOVE this kind of game. I definitely see the potential and the deep appeal for those who absolutely adore this kind of immersive RPG.
The visuals are good-looking, the gameplay and features are interesting and thought out, and the plot gives you enough juice to keep playing to find out what’s going on. And I mentioned replayability, right?
The Outer Worlds 2 is overall a good, well-made game. I’m giving it an 8/10, deducting some because the main core elements (decision-making and first-person perspective) are just not for me.
The Outer Worlds 2 releases October 29 for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, PlayStation 5, Battle.net, and Steam, and Day One with Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. You can get early access from October 24 and the Commander Zane’s Anti-Monopolistic Battle Pack with pre-orders of the Premium Edition. Thank you to Microsoft for giving me a code for this review. Learn more here.
Read more OMGluie Game Reviews!
Connect with OMGluie via:
Instagram Twitch Facebook Twitter YouTube