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More expansive doesn't necessarily mean better. It's a cliché, yet it's also the most accurate way to describe my thoughts after investing 50 hours with The Outer Worlds 2. Developer Obsidian included additional all aspects to the next installment to its 2019 sci-fi RPG — more humor, adversaries, firearms, attributes, and places, all the essentials in games like this. And it functions superbly — initially. But the burden of all those daring plans makes the game wobble as the hours wear on.

An Impressive Opening Act

The Outer Worlds 2 creates a powerful first impression. You belong to the Earth Directorate, a do-gooder agency focused on controlling dishonest administrations and companies. After some major drama, you wind up in the Arcadia sector, a colony splintered by war between Auntie's Selection (the outcome of a combination between the original game's two major companies), the Protectorate (collectivism pushed to its most dire end), and the Ascendant Order (reminiscent of the Church, but with calculations in place of Jesus). There are also a bunch of fissures creating openings in space and time, but at this moment, you urgently require get to a communication hub for pressing contact reasons. The issue is that it's in the center of a battlefield, and you need to find a way to arrive.

Following the original, Outer Worlds 2 is a FPS adventure with an central plot and numerous side quests spread out across various worlds or areas (expansive maps with a lot to uncover, but not fully open).

The initial area and the journey of getting to that communication station are impressive. You've got some funny interactions, of course, like one that involves a rancher who has overindulged sweet grains to their favorite crab. Most lead you to something helpful, though — an unforeseen passage or some fresh information that might unlock another way forward.

Notable Moments and Lost Possibilities

In one notable incident, you can come across a Protectorate deserter near the viaduct who's about to be eliminated. No task is tied to it, and the exclusive means to discover it is by investigating and paying attention to the ambient dialogue. If you're fast and careful enough not to let him get defeated, you can rescue him (and then protect his runaway sweetheart from getting slain by beasts in their lair later), but more relevant to the task at hand is a electrical conduit obscured in the grass nearby. If you track it, you'll discover a concealed access point to the relay station. There's another entrance to the station's sewers tucked away in a cavern that you could or could not notice contingent on when you undertake a specific companion quest. You can locate an easily missable character who's crucial to saving someone's life down the line. (And there's a plush toy who indirectly convinces a squad of soldiers to support you, if you're nice enough to rescue it from a danger zone.) This opening chapter is packed and engaging, and it feels like it's full of substantial plot opportunities that benefits you for your inquisitiveness.

Fading Hopes

Outer Worlds 2 fails to meet those early hopes again. The following key zone is arranged like a map in the initial title or Avowed — a expansive territory dotted with notable locations and side quests. They're all thematically relevant to the struggle between Auntie's Selection and the Ascendant Brotherhood, but they're also mini-narratives separated from the central narrative narratively and geographically. Don't expect any world-based indicators leading you to alternative options like in the opening region.

In spite of compelling you to choose some hard calls, what you do in this area's optional missions is inconsequential. Like, it truly has no effect, to the degree that whether you allow violations or guide a band of survivors to their end leads to merely a throwaway line or two of conversation. A game doesn't need to let each mission influence the narrative in some major, impactful way, but if you're making me choose a group and giving the impression that my decision is important, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect something more when it's over. When the game's already shown that it has greater potential, any reduction appears to be a compromise. You get additional content like Obsidian promised, but at the price of substance.

Bold Plans and Missing Stakes

The game's intermediate phase attempts a comparable approach to the main setup from the initial world, but with distinctly reduced panache. The concept is a courageous one: an interconnected mission that spans several locations and urges you to solicit support from different factions if you want a smoother path toward your goal. In addition to the repeat setup being a somewhat tedious, it's also lacking the tension that this type of situation should have. It's a "pact with the devil" moment. There should be hard concessions. Your association with each alliance should count beyond gaining their favor by performing extra duties for them. All this is lacking, because you can simply rush through on your own and clear the objective anyway. The game even takes pains to provide you means of achieving this, highlighting different ways as optional objectives and having partners advise you where to go.

It's a side effect of a wider concern in Outer Worlds 2: the anxiety of allowing you to regret with your decisions. It regularly exaggerates in its attempts to make sure not only that there's an alternate route in frequent instances, but that you are aware of it. Secured areas nearly always have multiple entry methods signposted, or nothing worthwhile inside if they do not. If you {can't