The Outer Worlds 2 review: A game that begs to be played

Society is run by farcical corporations that only care about the bottom line – in The Outer Worlds 2, that is.

This satirical science-fiction roleplaying game allows you to create your own character and stumble into a conspiracy of galactic importance, where you're just as likely to chuckle at an unexpected joke as you are to feel your adrenalin pumping in an explosive gunfight.

You'll collect colourful companions for your spaceship as you travel between planets, unravel the plot and pull your hair out over massively important decisions. With all-new characters and locations, newcomers to the series are very much welcome here.

If you did play the first game in the franchise, you might be surprised to jump into a sequel that feels totally unrelated to the first game.

Your brand new character is thrown straight into a high-stakes mission, and it’s not long before you’re unleashed on a planet with almost total freedom to wander about and do whatever you want.

As you explore the manifold wide open areas of the game, which are rendered beautifully (if somewhat overstuffed with violent creatures), you’ll do all sorts of random tasks, from solving murders to resolving workplace disputes and everything in between.

In typical Fallout fashion, it’s not long before you’re given some difficult choices to make and warring factions to choose from. Things can go very badly wrong, and you will be held accountable for decisions that you make along the way. Even something that seems noble, like saving some innocent people, can backfire on you in major ways.

However, in the first few hours of the game, the writing doesn’t do an amazing job of communicating who the different factions are and why exactly they are warring. And, trust me, I was really trying to take in all the dialogue. (As more of a visual learner, reams of text is rarely the way I understand things!)

To start with, I was worried that the overarching space opera story was lacking anything engaging. It felt like the space war was purely there to provide a backdrop and some narrative thrust.

But, around the five hour mark, my understanding of who’s who and why is any of this happening started to come together. As my in-game to-do list grew and my list of places to explore expanded, so too did my emotional bond to the characters and my desire to see where it’s all heading.

By the 12 hour mark, I’d collected all the companions and noted how, in a similar vein to Mass Effect 3, the group had been designed to represent various different sides of the galactic conflict. At this point, I was locked in.

There are some characters in the mix here that have the potential to become huge fan favourites, with cool designs and zany backstories and great acting to make you believe it all.

The developers from Obsidian have once again decided not to include romance with your companions, though, which will be disappointing to some players (including me).

Despite that, character and dialogue are clearly very important to the writers of The Outer Worlds 2. Heck, they’ve even turned the game’s start menu into a dialogue scene!

The gag rate is very high, and for a comedic video game, it stays on the right side of that intangible invisible line and never goes too far into being crass or unfunny. This is a cliche thing to say, but I did genuinely laugh out loud a few times.

To say too much about the plot would spoil the surprises that are coming your way. Suffice it to say, we always wanted to keep playing and see what happened next. This is the kind of game that will make you regret having evening plans to go out and see your friends.

The combat is one of the areas that feels a little bit less enjoyable, and despite the fact that I kept picking up more and more guns, I settled on one type that I liked fairly early and only replaced/upgraded it when absolutely necessary (triple-barrelled shotgun, if you were wondering).

Swapping between weapon types means having the right ammo, and having the right ammo means having the right crafting materials, and that felt like too much busy work after a couple of hours.

By the time you've got out the weapon you want, the enemy has probably run away to hide behind cover somewhere else. To save yourself some stress, it’s easier to pick one weapon type and just stick with that. 60 per cent of the time, it works every time.

Using the menus is a pain, too. With fast-travel points and mission markers often overlapping on the map screen, it’ll take you a few too many of your precious seconds to click on the thing you actually want to interact with.

Finding what you want in the crafting menu or your inventory also feels a little clunky. You might feel a bit bogged down in the admin if you really care about equipping the best gear and the best weapons for every scenario.

Gadgets are more fun, though, and you’ll still be finding new tools to help you through specific scenarios quite far into the game. Some of these are quite imaginative, and it almost starts to feel Metroidvania-esque at points (meaning, the new gadget you just found will help you unlock areas that you couldn’t access before).

The Outer Worlds 2 is a game that begs to be played. Its jovial tone seeps through its every pore, and its quirky characters will literally beckon you towards the next fun idea. And the game will reward you for exploring its nooks and crannies, either with some cool loot or a fun little story beat.

That being said, it’s worth noting that some very important plot moments happen in the blink of an eye and you might not even realise that you’ve made an important choice until after you’ve seen the horrific consequences of it.

The game could do a little more to signpost its big turning points, and its missable content, as it doesn’t hesitate to throw pop-ups at you for other things (the new flaws system, for example, which is a fun little addition).

It’s a very good sign that, even with limited time before the review embargo lifted, I still wanted to chase down side quests and tick off everything that took my fancy (even if it was clearly marked as Optional).

If The Outer Worlds 2 had a combat system that played more to my tastes, menus that were less clunky, it would be verging on RPG perfection.

These worlds are well worth exploring and the characters are well worth getting to know. If you’re into Fallout-style RPGs, this will scratch that itch perfectly. Just be careful along the way that you don’t make any choices you’ll regret!

The Outer Worlds 2 launches in early access on Friday 24th October for players that pre-ordered the Premium Edition.

The game will have its full launch on Wednesday 29th October across Xbox Series X/S, Xbox Game Pass, PC and PS5. We reviewed on Xbox Series X.

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