Obsidian Entertainment, renowned for their expertise in roleplaying games, began 2025 by releasing the fantasy action RPG Avowed, and they are set to close the year with the highly anticipated sequel to their 2019 sci-fi first-person shooter with RPG elements, The Outer Worlds. After an extensive playthrough of The Outer Worlds 2, it is clear that Obsidian has significantly refined nearly every facet of the original game, delivering one of the standout RPG experiences of the year.
The Outer Worlds 2 builds upon the RPG foundations that Obsidian first perfected with Fallout: New Vegas back in 2010. The game offers players a versatile approach to progression, allowing for a variety of playstyles ranging from dialogue and stealth to all-out combat. Most notably, the developers have succeeded in making the blend of action shooter and RPG mechanics feel cohesive and genuinely immersive—a marked improvement over the first installment.
Set in a distant future, The Outer Worlds 2 casts players as an agent of the Earth Directorate, an organization that manages relations between Earth and its space colonies. What begins as a routine mission quickly spirals into a tale of betrayal, setting the player on a quest to uncover the mastermind behind the plot that upended their life. This personal story unfolds against the backdrop of an intergalactic conflict within the colony where the game is set: a power struggle between the Protectorate, a totalitarian regime equipped with faster-than-light travel, and Auntie’s Choice, a megacorporation formed from the merger of Auntie Cleo and Spacer’s Choice, two corporations from the first game. The sharp satire of consumerism—the hallmark of the series—remains as biting as ever.
Much like its predecessor, The Outer Worlds 2 is rich with text and dialogue, creating a deeply layered universe rife with political intrigue and social commentary. However, the game’s occasionally heavy-handed humor can sometimes undercut the dramatic tone. While the satire does not ruin the experience, a slight reduction in the frequency of jokes—perhaps by as little as five percent—would help maintain immersion in the serious sci-fi narrative, rather than constantly reminding players of the game’s tongue-in-cheek nature.
The game’s narrative flexibility is one of its strongest suits. Players are free to shape the story based on their choices: Will you challenge the oppressive space capitalism system? Will you play the noble hero, always striving to do what’s right? Or will you adopt a more mercenary approach, doing whatever it takes for profit? The path is yours to carve.
At the core of The Outer Worlds 2 is an intricate character creation system. After customizing your character’s appearance, you select a background, traits, flaws, skills, and perks—each decision influencing how the game progresses. Background options occasionally unlock unique dialogue paths, while traits and flaws exert a more tangible impact on gameplay. For example, one chosen trait called “lucky” occasionally presented me with unconventional dialogue options—like forcing open a broken door in an unexpected way—that would succeed thanks to the trait’s effect.
Flaws, a returning element from the first game, have been expanded to be more dynamic and interesting. They now come with both positive and negative repercussions, and unlike traits, which are chosen only at the beginning, flaws can be picked up throughout your journey to add complexity to your character. For instance, I selected a flaw called Foot-in-Mouth Syndrome early on, which granted a 15% experience boost but also caused dialogue choices to be randomly selected if I hesitated for more than three seconds, adding unpredictability and levity to conversations.
Skills are entirely beneficial and drastically alter gameplay. They include familiar categories from shooter RPGs—hacking, lock picking, melee combat, firearms, and engineering. Players begin by specializing in two skills, and as they level up, they earn points to invest as they see fit. While it may seem tempting to spread points across many skills, doing so can lead to missed opportunities. Higher-level challenges require advanced skills, whether unlocking doors, hacking systems, or cracking safes. Specializing in key areas opens up unique solutions to obstacles, while spreading yourself thin often leaves you with fewer options.
In my experience, investing heavily in speech skills allowed me to bypass an entire boss fight through diplomatic dialogue. Later, focusing on engineering enabled me to repair broken items, but when I was faced with another boss, my speech skill was insufficient to avoid combat. This design elegantly emphasizes