Copyright Polygon
Overall, I'm having a great time with The Outer Worlds 2. The sequel improves on its predecessor in a number of ways, from environmental design to player movement mechanics, and has a great sense of humor to boot. Combat, too, has largely improved, with players capable of wielding multiple powerful gadgets as opposed to solely using the game's VATS-esque Tactical Time Dilation Device. But one aspect of combat falls woefully short of the first game: gear. Specifically, gear with special skill perks. After over 50 hours of exploring The Outer Worlds 2's delightfully dystopian capitalist hellscape, I realized that every single helmet and body armor set I'd collected in my travels had something in common: Every single piece of gear improves my performance in combat, but none of them buff non-combat skills like Science, Speech, Sneak, Observation, Leadership, Lockpick, or Medical. This change is a far cry from the first game, which featured loads of unique gear that increased non-combat skills. I understand wanting players to commit to their decisions when it comes to character builds — if you've poured all your skill points into Melee, you shouldn't be able to simply change outfits and miraculously pass a Speech check. But the total absence of non-combat skill buff items in The Outer Worlds 2 feels needlessly restrictive. Yes, The Outer Worlds definitely had some overpowered pieces of gear — I spent most of my time donning A Nice Hat, which provided a major boost to Leadership and Persuasion — but these powerful items were, for the most part, relatively well-hidden, and many of them required another skill or perk (like Lockpicking or Pickpocketing) to obtain in the first place. I can understand toning down the power of unique gear, but Obsidian's choice not to include any skill-buffing gear in the sequel is baffling to me, especially given the context surrounding some of these unique items. Take, for instance, Minister D.B. Milverstreet. When I first encountered him early on in my playthrough, I immediately set my sights on his top hat. It's big. It's gaudy. It has a giant, holographic Auntie's Choice logo on it. It needed to be mine. Milverstreet is a smooth-talking manipulator with big con-man vibes, and given the fact that he urges you to take a non-violent (but still horrific) approach to conflict resolution, it seemed likely his unique top hat would provide some sort of buff to non-combat skills. While I ultimately ended up siding against Milverstreet, I still managed to get my hands on that stylish top hat — a unique item called Limited Production Gentleperson's Oxonian — and was excited to see what kind of boost it would provide to my Speech and/or Leadership skills. Even the item's description alludes to it having an effect on conversation: "Minister Milverstreet's pride and joy. Take his confidence like you took his hat." But upon closer inspection, I discovered the hat only increases the player's critical chance (+5%) and critical damage (+40%). It does have a special Marketing Manager mod, which increases the rate at which companion abilities charge by 10%. This buff scales with your Speech skill, allowing companion abilities to charge up to 30% faster. But it doesn't actually buff your Speech skill. Similarly, I've yet to discover a single armor mod (crafted or purchased) that buffs a specific skill. Gear can increase your base health, decrease the amount of damage you take, or increase the amount of damage you deal — and like Milverstreet's hat, some of these buffs scale based on how many points you've put into a specific skill — but there's no way to boost your skills outright. This wouldn't be so bad if not for another heavily restricted aspect of the game. Unlike the first entry in the series, The Outer Worlds 2 does not allow players to respec. Very early on in the game, you are given one chance to change up your build. After that, there is no option to reallocate skill points. Again, I completely understand wanting players to commit to a build, but I also don't really see what the harm is in letting players respec once they've become more acquainted with the game and decide they want to change things up. In The Outer Worlds, the Unreliable came equipped with a Vocational Competence Respecification Machine, where unsatisfied players could change up their skill and perk point allocation. To prevent players from abusing this mechanic, each use of the machine came at a financial cost to the player. The first use cost 500 bits, and the price doubled each time, disincentivizing overuse. Sadly, the Incognito has no such machine on board, and the game makes it clear that there will be absolutely no do-overs. The inability to respec combined with the lack of skill-buffing gear has made for a somewhat frustrating playthrough. Yes, players should commit to a build, but I think it's far easier to do that when you have enough wiggle room to experiment and figure out what build works best before you commit. I'm normally a big fan of stealth gameplay, so I initially put a few points into the Sneak skill. Several dozen hours later, I've discovered I don't really need to use Sneak as much as I thought I would, which is immensely frustrating, as I cannot get those points back (nor can I supplement them with a special piece of gear). I never felt like The Outer Worlds made it too easy to boost skills and respec, but if that's the problem Obsidian is trying to solve with these restrictions, I think there are less frustrating ways to go about it: Don't make skill buffs as powerful as they were in the first game, and don't allow infinite uses of the Vocational Competence Respecification Machine. The way these restrictions are currently implemented will certainly make players commit to a build, but if they're anything like me, commitment will come at the cost of experimentation. There's no sense in trying out different skills when doing so could mean irreversibly wasting a precious skill point on something.
