Copyright futurefive
Developer Obsidian Entertainment is no stranger when it comes to the RPG genre. The studio has made a ton of RPGs over the years, including Fallout: New Vegas, Avowed, Knights of the Old Republic II, and many more. One of the studio's more popular games in recent times was the 2019 release of The Outer Worlds. The game was heavily inspired by Bethesda's Fallout series, but this time, players could visit many different planets. Six years later, The Outer Worlds 2 is here for PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PS5. For gamers playing on PS5, The Outer Worlds 2 is available to purchase as a full game retailing for $109.00 NZD. For people out there who own an Xbox or PC, they can alternatively play the game via Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass instead. Before you begin playing the game, you are tasked with creating your own character. You are free to choose their appearance, stats, and clothing at the start of the game. That being said, the main character is mute, so only supporting characters have voice acting. In terms of its story, the game is set in the Arcadia star system, and this region allows for faster-than-light travel. Your character is tasked to investigate some mysterious rifts that are appearing all over the galaxy. They have the power to wipe out Arcadia and everyone who lives in it. In the middle of all this is a faction war between three main groups. The main factions include The Protectorate, Auntie's Choice, and The Order of the Ascendant. You have the choice to choose which faction to help, as well as the companions you want to recruit in your mission to stop the rifts. Player choice is important because it can affect the type of companions or missions that will become available to you later on in the game. Not to mention, you can kill some faction members and align with someone else if you choose to favour another group. I remember being affected a lot by a bad choice I made early on in the game. I recruited a helpful soldier named Inez, and she aided me a lot during the first few missions. However, I accidentally lost her trust when I did not guide a crashing spaceship out of safety. The spaceship ended up crashing into her hometown, killing lots of people. I didn't know how to redirect the spaceship because I didn't have time to find out what to do. As a result of this, Inez immediately left me, and I never saw her ever again! Thankfully, there are a total of six companions in the entire game, so you can recruit others if one of them loses your trust. However, only two companions can be active in your party at one time, so anyone else has to just stay back in your spaceship. While the companions can be really helpful during combat in this game, the sad part is that you cannot romance any of them like you can in Mass Effect or Fallout video games. It's not a game breaking omission, but it does make the game slightly boring without it. Another thing that affects gameplay is the choice you can make about your character's stats and skills. When you level up in this game, there are multiple skills that you can level up. These skills include Guns, Melee, Lockpick, Engineering, Hack, Speech, and much more. Choosing the right skills to upgrade directly affects some of the missions you can do. For example, I needed to upgrade my character's Speech skills to talk their way out of violence. Without that skill, I would have had to fight my way through multiple enemies instead. The only problem I have with this type of mission structure is that some quests might become locked until you can level up. I remember I wasn't able to complete a mission because I wasn't able to fix an elevator. My Engineering skill had to be upgraded to number four to fix the elevator, but I spent my points on increasing Melee instead. As a result of this, I wasn't able to finish that mission because I wasn't able to fix the elevator. Due to this, I had to just fight my way through a barricade because the pacifist route wasn't available. The mission design as a whole is frustrating in this game because nothing is straightforward. You will always meet a locked door or miss an important item that you need to find in order to progress. I recall literally walking in circles for several minutes in one level just to get an important item to operate a lift! Thankfully, the combat is much better here than in Fallout video games. Your character has access to a ton of weapons like rifles, pistols, death-rays, and more. My favourite weapon in the entire game, though, is the 'Deluxe Moon Man Staff'. It's basically a staff that is useful during melee combat. You also have access to some gadgets that aid during combat too. One is called the 'Tactical Time Dilation Gadget', and this slows down time. Another favourite of mine is the 'N-Ray Scanner', and this helps you spot enemies, mines, and electrical wires. Sadly, stealth plays a part in this game, but it's kind of rubbish. The problem with stealth is that not every enemy is killable. If an enemy has too much health or is a high level, you cannot kill them stealthily. The stealth kill animation is rubbish too, so I mainly just bonked them on the head with my staff. Graphically, The Outer Worlds 2 has very diverse locations because you get to visit many different planets. The planets and maps are not too large, although sometimes the waypoints to your destination can be a little confusing at times. The only sad part about exploration is that it's not immersive like in Star Wars Outlaws and No Man's Sky. You cannot fly your ship up into space manually, and the game has no space battles either. The game relies on loading screens much like Starfield. Sadly, I did not enjoy The Outer Worlds 2 as much as I'd like to. I found the mission design to be frustrating, and the game isn't immersive like some of its peers. However, other people may like its snappy combat and the decision-based gameplay. Verdict: 7.0/10
