The Outer Worlds 2 follows up on 2019’s popular space-going title The Outer Worlds. This new entry offers gamers yet another dystopian outer-space domain to level up in as they grab loot, solve problems and RPG-grind their way through a 30- to 40-hour storyline.
The game is set in an alternate future where megacorporations not only control everything on Earth but have reached their tentacles out to conquer the stars. Gamers play as a member of the Earth Directorate, a space cop-like body tasked with delegating between Earth and its galactic colonies.
Sent to the Arcadian system to investigate dangerous anomalies that are creating space-time rifts, your stalwart guy or gal is quickly double-crossed and almost killed. And you soon find yourself in the midst of a brewing conflict between three powerful factions: a totalitarian government (The Protectorate), a greedy megacorporation (Auntie’s Choice) and a religious order seeking prophecy from mathematical equations (The Order of the Ascendent).
It’s up to you to work in and around those three groups, determine who’s pulling whose strings, gather your team of supporters, and outfox or kill whatever or whoever stands in your way.
In the midst of play, gamers are given the opportunity to apply slowly earned skill points to 12 different skills (including gun handling, melee combat, stealth abilities, speech proficiencies, lockpicking finesse, science expertise, and the like). And your choices have a big impact on how you’ll make it past obstacles and conundrums set in your way.
For example, this gamecan easily be played as a straight shooter title and nothing else. Or, certain skill choices may allow you to talk your way out of a climactic boss battle instead. And a stealth ability offers you access to hidden pathways—by which you might slip past a shootout unseen.
The Outer Worlds 2 is a single-player game that sends players off on missions with two NPC companions. But it does not allow multiplayer or co-op play. And after any initial download, the game does not require an internet connection.
The Outer Worlds 2 is an action-focused RPG that gives you the opportunity to be upright and heroic in your play. (Though players can also choose less positive approaches and actions.)
This is one of the most vibrantly colorful games that the Obsidian game makers have created. And it’s stitched together with retro-style graphics, quirky characters and quippy humor.
Parents of younger players should note, however, that for all of its winking color, The Outer Worlds 2 is very much an M-rated title.
Players have the option to lean into gun-blasting destruction. (And some level of deadliness—be it human, mechanical or alien creature—will show up no matter what you choose.) Blood splashes thanks to a wide variety of knives, pistols, rifles, grenades and plasma weapons. We see explosions, large blood-spatter effects, dismembered limbs, decapitation and corpses lying in pools of gore. One weapon can literally obliterate foes into a splash of goop.
The game language can get quite messy, too. At first, the dialogue feels rather space western-like with uses of “law” and “void d–n” used in place of cruder fare. But later on, f- and s-words and other profanities join the running verbiage.
The Outer Worlds 2 doesn’t shy away from light commentary about government, capitalism or religion, either. And all three are sneered at repeatedly in the story.
The Outer Worlds 2 hopes to pick up and continue to entertain its audiences with its popular predecessor’s quirky, retro color. And the game does have some fun in its mix. But this M-rated RPG won’t hesitate from splashing around its nasty and messy side, too.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
