The Outer Worlds 2 Struggles to Attain the Summit
More expansive isn't always improved. That's a tired saying, however it's the best way to describe my feelings after spending many hours with The Outer Worlds 2. Developer Obsidian added more of everything to the next installment to its 2019 futuristic adventure — additional wit, adversaries, weapons, attributes, and places, everything that matters in titles of this genre. And it operates excellently — initially. But the load of all those grand concepts causes the experience to falter as the time passes.
A Powerful Opening Act
The Outer Worlds 2 makes a strong opening statement. You belong to the Earth Directorate, a well-intentioned organization committed to restraining corrupt governments and businesses. After some serious turmoil, you end up in the Arcadia region, a colony fractured by war between Auntie's Selection (the product of a merger between the original game's two large firms), the Protectorate (groupthink taken to its most extreme outcome), and the Ascendant Order (reminiscent of the Church, but with calculations rather than Jesus). There are also a number of fissures creating openings in space and time, but currently, you really need get to a transmission center for critical messaging purposes. The issue is that it's in the heart of a combat area, and you need to figure out how to arrive.
Like its predecessor, Outer Worlds 2 is a first-person role-playing game with an overarching story and dozens of secondary tasks spread out across multiple locations or zones (expansive maps with a lot to uncover, but not sandbox).
The initial area and the journey of getting to that communication station are impressive. You've got some funny interactions, of course, like one that involves a rancher who has overindulged sugary treats to their favorite crab. Most lead you to something helpful, though — an unexpected new path or some new bit of intel that might open a different path forward.
Unforgettable Moments and Lost Possibilities
In one notable incident, you can come across a Defender runaway near the overpass who's about to be eliminated. No task is linked to it, and the only way to discover it is by investigating and paying attention to the environmental chatter. If you're quick and alert enough not to let him get killed, you can rescue him (and then rescue his defector partner from getting eliminated by beasts in their lair later), but more relevant to the immediate mission is a power line hidden in the grass close by. If you follow it, you'll locate a concealed access point to the communication hub. There's an alternate entry to the station's underground tunnels tucked away in a grotto that you could or could not observe depending on when you undertake a specific companion quest. You can find an easily missable person who's crucial to rescuing a person 20 hours later. (And there's a soft toy who implicitly sways a squad of soldiers to support you, if you're considerate enough to save it from a danger zone.) This initial segment is packed and exciting, and it feels like it's overflowing with rich storytelling potential that compensates you for your inquisitiveness.
Waning Hopes
Outer Worlds 2 never lives up to those opening anticipations again. The second main area is structured like a map in the first Outer Worlds or Avowed — a expansive territory dotted with points of interest and secondary tasks. They're all thematically relevant to the conflict between Auntie's Selection and the Order of the Ascendant, but they're also mini-narratives isolated from the primary plot plot-wise and location-wise. Don't look for any world-based indicators leading you to fresh decisions like in the initial area.
Regardless of forcing you to make some tough decisions, what you do in this area's optional missions has no impact. Like, it genuinely is irrelevant, to the extent that whether you enable war crimes or lead a group of refugees to their end results in only a throwaway line or two of speech. A game doesn't have to let all tasks impact the narrative in some major, impactful way, but if you're forcing me to decide a faction and acting as if my selection is important, I don't think it's irrational to anticipate something further when it's over. When the game's previously demonstrated that it is capable of more, any diminishment seems like a trade-off. You get more of everything like the developers pledged, but at the expense of substance.
Bold Concepts and Lacking Stakes
The game's middle section endeavors an alike method to the primary structure from the initial world, but with distinctly reduced flair. The concept is a courageous one: an linked task that extends across several locations and urges you to request help from various groups if you want a more straightforward journey toward your goal. Beyond the repeat setup being a little tiresome, it's also lacking the suspense that this type of situation should have. It's a "bargain with evil" moment. There should be tough compromise. Your association with either faction should matter beyond making them like you by completing additional missions for them. All this is missing, because you can simply rush through on your own and clear the objective anyway. The game even takes pains to hand you ways of doing this, indicating different ways as optional objectives and having allies tell you where to go.
It's a byproduct of a larger problem in Outer Worlds 2: the fear of permitting you to feel dissatisfied with your selections. It often goes too far out of its way to ensure not only that there's an different way in frequent instances, but that you realize its presence. Closed chambers practically always have various access ways signposted, or nothing valuable internally if they do not. If you {can't
