It has been quite a year for Obsidian Entertainment; they have already released Avowed in February and survival action game Grounded 2 in July.
For a studio with around 285 people, which is half the size of a standard AAA studio (around 400-500 people), their output is seriously impressive.
Quantity does not always equal quality, though, and could there be a point where their formula starts to become stale?
While I enjoyed my time with Avowed earlier this year, there is no doubting it was a "typical" Obsidian RPG with an emphasis on companion quests and player choice.
The Outer Worlds 2— the follow-up to 2019's The Outer Worlds — follows the same playbook but is seriously lacking in some of the most crucial elements.
While The Outer Worlds was not the most sprawling open-world game, what it lacked in scale it made up for with heart and eccentric characters you grew to love.
The Outer Worlds 2 certainly offers a bigger world and expanded combat, but it loses the charm and character that made the original special.
Space odyssey
As opposed to being a colonist suspended in stasis, looking to take over new planets, your character works for the Earth Directorate. They are tasked with bringing order to colonies such as Arcadia, where the game is set.
Along with learning that the two biggest corporate entities from the first game, Spacer's Choice and Auntie Cleo, have merged, you learn they have also invaded Arcadia to rid it of a totalitarian regime called the Protectorate.
While they claim it is to "spread freedom and capitalism", it is really to take control over their secret technology that allows ships to travel faster than the speed of light.
It is an intriguing premise and in age of corporate consolidation, Obsidian is right on the money when it comes to its critique of late-stage capitalism.
Much like Halycon, Arcadia is a solar system made up of various planets you can visit, each with a different biome.
There is a much more coherent art design here when it comes to major settlements like Golden Ridge. It has a monastery built into a mountain as well as a large statue protruding out from its rockface.
Each planet is a lot larger than the first game, but this leads to running long distances to get to locations you have not discovered before.
The game could have really used a space buggy of some kind, which would not only make traversal quicker but also more enjoyable.
Despite the more cohesive environments, there are still some glaring issues that stick out. Whether up close or from a distance, there are low-resolution textures to crop up from time to time.
Third-person shooter
Unfortunately, I also had major stutters when the action got hectic, and the game crashed three times on me at the Greater Tranquillity Station.
The game runs well overall on Xbox Series X, running at 60fps and upscaled to 1800p. These were not game-breaking problems, but they certainly detracted from my overall experience.
Moving away from performance and onto the combat, The Outer Worlds 2 certainly delivers an upgrade. Guns and melee weapons are both responsive and have a great sense of impact.
Most of the weapons have a futuristic feel to them, whether it is a rifle that shoots out bolts of electricity, a handgun that fires out rockets, or the 'Big Bang' that blasts enemies with rift energy.
The game is defaulted to a first-person view, but I preferred to play in a third-person view as it not only allowed a wider view of the battlefield, but also my California surfer type character, Chad Hunter.
While base weapons are fun to use, you can also craft mods to include things like explosive rounds.
There are also special abilities you acquire, such as being able to slow down time to target enemies' weak points, or a scanner that allows you to solve puzzles by revealing hidden wires.
I always tended to sell crafting items to fund my ever-growing arsenal, but the choice is up to you. The same goes for the skills you choose for your character; will you focus on stealth and tech? Or will you put points into speech and your gun skills?
Flaws and all
There are also permanent upgrades called perks, which range from unlocking more weapon slots or enhanced healing from food or inhalers.
Flaws return from the first game, which offer a buff and a debuff for your character.
They are often humorous, such as being able to move around faster while crouched, the downside being that your knees crack when you crouch, alerting nearby enemies.
The problem is that some of them can be trivial, while others completely alter the game. I chose one early on that locked me off from a host of skills that I had not put points into, making it an overall unbalanced system.
Beyond these systems, what makes or breaks any Obsidian game are its companions and factions. Whether it is Fallout: New Vegas or The Outer Worlds, their personalities and ideologies a central to making their worlds unique.
Sadly, The Outer Worlds 2 is a notable step down in both these departments. Parvati was the heart and soul of the original game, and no one comes close to filling her shoes.
Vicar Max from the Order of Scientific Inquiry went from being a humble scholar to a killing machine.
The sequel fails to capture the same magic with its companions. Niles, the first one you met, is with you from the first mission and barley evolves even after multiple companion quests.
While fairly consequential information gets revealed during these missions, I just never felt more connected to the characters after doing them.
Inez is another character you met early on. She is a soldier who has been experimented on, leading to disastrous results. It is interesting learning what happened to her and other soldiers, but I never really got a sense of who she is as a character.
Aza is the only companion I really found interesting. She is from a group called the Glorious Dawn, who worship rifts that have started to open up in Arcadia.
Despite her wild beliefs, she takes everything in her stride, and her banter with the robot companions V.A.L.E.R.I.E. is fun to listen to.
The companions do have special abilities that you can use in battle, but they do not have the same cinematic angles when they use them as in the first game. There are also upgrades for your allies, but I never felt they changed how I approached combat.
In terms of the factions, they feel too similar to the original, and any new ones come off as cheap imitations of their real-world counterparts.
The Protectorate that rules over parts of Arcadia is a generic authoritarian regime with red clothes and propaganda posters everywhere.
The Order of the Ascendant, which is a splinter group of the Order of Scientific Inquiry, is even more obsessed with mathematics and the overall 'Grand Plan'.
Both groups are ones we have seen countless times in other games and movies. Auntie's Choice and their ultra-capitalist mindset are actually funny to interact with by comparison.
In one of their faction quests, they were perplexed by the fact that their workers were on strike and had the gall to ask for bathroom breaks and 12-hour workdays instead of 24.
While you have the choice of which faction to side with, seeing as they are not compelling to begin with, it is not much of a choice.
Overall, The Outer Worlds 2 is an enjoyable experience when you are blasting Raptidons to shreds. Sadly, those who go on the journey with you are more like work colleagues than lifelong companions.
