Outer Worlds 2 – What It Gets Right (And Where It Falters)

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We were very impressed with Microsoft’s sequel to the 2019 game, The Outer Worlds. The Outer Worlds 2 successfully expands on the original, delivering a truly immersive and surprisingly complex RPG experience. The game’s charm, humor, and sense of adventure drew us into the world of Arcadia, and we found ourselves captivated by its story and numerous quests, playing late into the night.

The game isn’t perfect, and its shortcomings only become clear after playing for a long time. However, these flaws are minor and often come down to personal preference. Now, let’s take a closer look at what we enjoyed and didn’t enjoy during our time in the world of Arcadia.

Liked: A Sense of Freedom

You might not realize it when you first create your character, and even though there aren’t a ton of customization options, you’re not stuck with one particular way of playing. You can change your character’s path and try something completely different thanks to some features we’ll be looking at shortly.

You have a lot of freedom in how you experience the story, even though the main plot is set. The game makes up for not letting you change your character’s build later by offering a wide range of skills and perks. You might focus on becoming a great shooter, but then decide that relying on guns alone isn’t the best way to enjoy the adventure.

Feel free to change your approach by improving your character’s ability to talk. This opens up new ways to get out of difficult situations, and even creates more choices if you’ve gathered enough information. It all makes the game feel realistic and highlights how much freedom you have to act as you choose.

Liked: The World

We’re passionate about creating immersive worlds, and Arcadia is one of the most open and engaging environments we’ve designed recently, giving you a lot of freedom to shape your character’s journey.

The game rewards exploration; you can find useful items like gear and weapons, currency, and even hidden quests in almost every location. These discoveries naturally unlock hours of new content, making the world feel alive and dynamic.

With so much great content available, exploring everything the world has to offer is incredibly satisfying, especially for those who love to discover every detail. Arcadia encourages complete exploration and rewards you for doing so.

Disliked: Things Get A Tad Overwhelming

We were excited to explore the world of Arcadia, but it quickly became overwhelming. There was so much to do – so many activities, quests, and things to discover – that it actually became a problem. While we initially welcomed all the content, there was simply too much.

Although this isn’t necessarily a problem, the game’s in-game reference guide wasn’t very helpful for tracking quest objectives. Often, figuring things out required careful listening and observation of the environment, which is a good way to keep players engaged, but it could also be confusing.

It would have been helpful to have a system for keeping track of all our goals, especially since we received so many, and so quickly. We understand this is just our opinion, though – some of you might actually enjoy diving into all of Arcadia’s mysteries without a checklist. And that’s perfectly fine with us.

Liked: Your Choices Carry Weight

Building on our previous point about freedom, the game truly immersed us by letting our choices meaningfully impact the world. It made us feel like active participants, not just observers.

As a player, I’ve noticed that the decisions I make with my character really change how things play out. It’s not just about picking dialogue options, but how I develop my character and the relationships I build with different groups and people. Those choices actually affect where I can go and what quests become available, depending on who I’ve befriended or even made enemies with along the way. It makes the world feel so much more reactive and personalized!

Your character’s skills definitely impact how conversations unfold. We found the conversation skill tree and the gambler perk particularly helpful, as they introduced an element of chance. This made conversations more exciting and nerve-wracking, because a wrong decision could easily lead to trouble.

We always appreciate RPGs where your character truly feels like they matter and affect the world around them.

Disliked: The Companions Could Have Been Better

We really enjoyed the characters who joined us on this adventure. They were much more developed than in the first game, and their personal stories were compelling enough that we wanted to see them through to the end and understand what happened to them.

Despite their importance to the story, the characters felt surprisingly unremarkable. They lacked the vibrancy and memorability of everything else in the game, where every detail constantly demands your focus. It’s disappointing that the people who should have been central to our adventure felt like they intentionally stayed in the background.

Liked: The Skills and Perks

We’re really getting into what made this RPG so enjoyable. Its Skill and Perks system was a huge improvement over the usual way of leveling up – simply adding experience points to stats that might slightly change your character’s abilities.

The game offered a good range of Skills from the start, and the Perks felt well-considered, adding depth to our character and noticeably impacting how we tackled different challenges. What really stood out was the Flaw system – it was unusual and engaging to be able to choose a weakness in exchange for a benefit, creating interesting trade-offs.

It offers incredible build diversity, potentially encouraging multiple playthroughs with unique experiences based on your decisions.

Liked: The Gear and Loot

The gear we discovered throughout the game added another level of depth and enhanced the already impressive character customization options. Each item felt unique and worth experimenting with, and the fact that gear from specific brands offered special bonuses really fit the game’s focus on powerful corporations and their schemes.

This also applies to the weapons – every gun and gadget felt satisfying and effective during gameplay.

Liked: Combat

The game’s combat was a significant improvement over the last one, and it made shooting through difficult situations genuinely fun. Even on the Normal difficulty setting, you’ll need to carefully plan your character’s development and use every advantage to succeed, which adds to the game’s overall quality.

Working together felt natural and enjoyable, making this experience even more appealing.

Liked: An RPG Through and Through

We loved the feeling of freedom the game offered, both through its story and its open world. Having many different ways to approach challenges and seeing varied results made us feel truly involved in the experience.

The way the game tracked our reputation was key – we genuinely wanted to make a good impression on the characters we met. This created a compelling world where we were constantly looking for ways to increase our influence, carefully managing relationships and losing track of time in the process.

That’s always brilliant in any game, and an absolute delight in an RPG.

Liked: The Serious Tone

The game takes a decidedly serious approach, making the story feel more impactful. We found ourselves really focused on making the right decisions, carefully thinking through the consequences because we didn’t want to face unwanted results later on. This careful balance is handled well, and it ultimately makes the game more powerful thanks to its commitment to a more serious tone.

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2025-10-29 19:16