The Outer Worlds 2: A large, fun, Obsidian galaxy romp

The Fallout TV series airing right now, giving audiences one of the best games in the series, New Vegas was the brainchild of Obsidian which had a strikingly good year in 2025. Two of its games — Avowed, a Skyrim-like fantasy action role-playing game and the much awaited The Outer Worlds 2 — bracketed the year.

While The Outer Worlds 2 has got a lot more game than the first, the sequel is a concentrated mix of cheeky dark humour around a spacefaring future run by corporations.

You play an Earth Directorate commander, tasked with keeping peace between the colonies or outer worlds. The Earth Directorate is a cross between Star Trek’s United Federation of Planets and the aggressively democratic Helldivers, and you are on a mission to get to the bottom of a few mysterious tears in space that have started to appear. Except, you inadvertently end up causing one through no fault of your own and are cryofrozen. You float in space till you are rescued by what is left of your old team 10 years later.

Now it is up to you to restore balance to Arcadia with your crew aboard your ship Incognito. Somewhere in 1951, Theodore Roosevelt never became president of the United States, and as a result the corporations kept growing. After a massive war in the 21st century, the corporations discovered faster-than-light travel, and started spreading capitalism one planet after another. These planets are ruled by mega corporations that seek to mine and plunder every ounce of profit, at a galactic scale.

Outer Worlds 2’s take on world building is excellent, opening the doors for classic Fallout style retro futuristic pulp science fiction aesthetic paired with excellent quasi-corporate writing. The Outer Worlds was a unique and fun experience but also short, and while the sequel is a bit larger in scope, it is no Starfield, but a focused narrative RPG that cuts off all the bloat.

The result is an excellent story with memorable side characters, but the standout is how crazy the game world is. Reading every bit of text on every terminal, little snippets and notes and little touches to make the world feel alive is worth every minute. For example, the beginning of the game sends you upstairs to turn on a generator. The robot sentries power on, and the one right next to you starts spewing paper warning tickets instead of shooting at you. This is one small instance of carefully peppered tidbits and if you treat The Outer Worlds 2 as a normal action game, you are liable to miss a lot. 

That said, The Outer Worlds 2 is a capable first person shooter at its core, with a unique variant of Fallout’s perk system, which adds flaws into the equation. Crouch long enough and you get a flaw, Bad Knees, which lets you crouch faster, but you make a noise. Some increase damage, some give you buffs for every debuff and some help in conversations. For instance, the flaw Foot-in-Mouth Syndrome, randomly selects a dialogue option for you, but it awards you 15% experience.

This way, any playstyle becomes interesting — whether you prefer being combat-only, playing as an introverted covert arts agent who sneaks and hacks, or as a diplomatic silver-tongued rogue, talking your way out of every situation. Obsidian has different ways for you to deal with situations, with the right companions to suit your playstyle. 

One thing is for certain, Obsidian does know how to not keep you lonely during your adventures with a history of excellent companion creations on their part. The first game had it, Avowed has incredible companions and The Outer Worlds 2 just ups the ante from Niles, a cheerful cyborg who doubles as a portable workbench to Aza, a hyper chaotic zealot who worships the rifts, and many more.

To deepen things, they are also affected by your choices, so if they do not like what you have done, they could end up leaving the team. 

Outer Worlds 2 looks incredible, from beautiful levels whether you are planet-side in the alien wilderness or exploring settlements or outposts. The influences run deep with profound detail infused in all the factions’ habitats, people and areas. While you may not get the true open world that everyone expects from a space RPG, what you do get is a complex network of choices with causes and effects that spread out like cracks on ice from the moment you start the game, plunging you deeper into a narrative of your own making.

The sound design is especially noteworthy, with superb voice acting. If you are a fan of the first game or looking for a chunky space RPG to sink your teeth into, look no further than The Outer Worlds 2, transposing some of the best learnings from Fallout into a space adventure that will have you replaying the game to see multiple outcomes.