Much has happened in the world since Fallout: New Vegas came out. Trump has been president twice, two wars fought in Ukraine, an economic recession, and a global pandemic.
And Obsidian, too, has kept busy all these years, putting out all sorts of games, great and otherwise, largely RPGs. But at no point did the company launch a game as good as The Outer Worlds 2, especially when it comes to the quality of the writing.
Enamored as I am, allow me to regale you how the game has completely taken over my life.
Here’s our full review.
Even in Arcadia
The Outer Worlds 2 places you in the shoes of an Earth Directorate Commander, tasked with infiltrating a base held by the dictatorial Protectorate. You are to retrieve a skip drive, a rare and powerful technology, from the Protectorate. One thing follows another and you’re suspended in space, later pursuing those involved in the incident and stopping a looming calamity.
I won’t reveal a lot about the story itself, since this game puts so much emphasis on narratives, which are certainly its strongest point.
What I will say, however, is that the world of Arcadia is absolutely awesome. Split between three factions—the Order, the Protectorate, and Auntie’s Choice (this last being a new form of Spacer’s Choice and its Moon Man)—Arcadia is a war-torn system, with each corner of its vast expanse caught in a power struggle between the trio.
Auntie wants more money, as corporatists are wont to; the Protectorate is crumbling and wishes to uphold its stranglehold on the colony; the Order and its mathematically-bound Grand Plan have their own vision for the place.
Every faction has its own aims and goals, which they’ll stop at nothing to fulfill (unless, of course, you end up bridging the gaps between them and… steer things to a desirable outcome).
The sole flaw of this setting is it sort of forsakes the narrative uniformity of space, maintaining little commonalities between the various levels. Of course, each stage, and particular sections within the zones, is constructed in the image of its respective owner, but I couldn’t help but feel transposed from one world to another. Which, I guess, is true to some extent.
There are a multitude of open zones to explore in Arcadia, with several moons, space stations, space ships, and so on. Every zone is filled with content, side quests, and interesting narrative threads to follow, which I wholeheartedly recommend you do. This game truly shines in its dialogues and stories, great and small, making the world of Arcadia feel eerily realistic.
The zones also aren’t all too big, with space between each subregion being relatively short, cutting down on open-world emptiness we’ve come to expect from most games of the type.
But loading screens are present, and quite a lot, but thanks to modern tech you shouldn’t feel any issues or lose much time waiting for stages to load (these loading screens are, by the way, not like Bethesda’s, as individual structures and buildings can be accessed without them, unless they’re a massive level on their own).
Choices, consequences
The world of Arcadia, and of The Outer Worlds 2, is predicated upon your decision-making skills. Whatever you do in this place will reflect, sooner or later, on either yourself or the broader world. This game is one of the most reactive I have ever played, with even your companions seamlessly integrating themselves into conversations when it’s relevant, giving a lot of flavor and variety between each player’s experience.
Speaking of companions, they’re quite similar to what Obsidian did in Avowed, so if you’ve played that game all should be familiar to you. They have their own quests, stories, and narratives that are woven into your own character’s arc, and you can decide to take up some shady friendships, quid-pro-quo relationships, or just form deep bonds.
The sole number of choices, some of which have significant consequences, allows for near-infinite replayability. Each character background opens up a new narrative and role-playing option, with innumerable dialogue choices tailored specifically to your person. You can, to a significant degree, immerse yourself in the character you’ve created, with their feeling like a proper part of a virtual reality, rather than as an observer.
I’ve noted this in my preview already, but having the chance to see how things unfold in the actual game apart from the intro cements the idea.
What’s more, The Outer Worlds 2 goes a step beyond what most RPGs do. Instead of just providing you with extra stats and levels that give flat or percentage-based increases to whatever part of your character, you’re rewarded with so-called Flaws, which are a unique set of perks akin to, well, the perks of New Vegas. If you do certain actions a lot, the Earth Directorate gives you a Flaw, which you can accept or reject; Flaws grant one bonus positive effect, but place a detrimental effect on you as well.
For example, if you eat a lot of food all the time, you can become gluttonous, able to heal more from food, but moving slowly in combat. Or, say, by crouching everywhere all the time, you can get quicker crouching speed, but your knees crack and alert nearby enemies. It’s a fun and outright hilarious system, though the fact that you can reject flaws does end up kind of helping you to skip the “bad” ones.
Even so, it’s a detailed, reactive, responsive, and rewarding perk system that I haven’t seen since New Vegas, which lends itself to role-playing to an immense degree.
Additionally, all regular perks and stat upgrades you go for unlock an ocean of role-playing and gameplay options as any part of this game, and I mean any, can be tackled in multiple ways. All this depends on your RP and choice of stats, with the game significantly advising you to lean into a certain playstyle for your current character.
Furthermore, the game almost lets you talk your way out of every situation, which is something modern RPGs simply do not get. Yes we’ve had a few that dabbled with the idea, Baldur’s Gate 3 being the best recent example, but The Outer Worlds 2 firmly stands as a close second.
It encourages storytelling and your building a true-to-life person and following their exploits. If at some point you want another, alternate story, make a new character and do it all again, but differently.
This is also a good moment to reflect on the combat, which in many ways is reminiscent of Cyberpunk 2077. There are tons of guns in the game, each manufactured by a certain brand, with the shooting feeling weighted, grounded, and having that “oomph” I’m always emphasizing in these reviews.
Depending on your playstyle, the gunplay may be more complex and dynamic, or it can be a complete afterthought; you can be a massive tank in melee, a sneaky ninja, a gunblazing maniac. You choose, it’s your story, after all.
The companions also help out in battles, though I did notice them go down more than I would’ve liked, as the enemies far outscale them and their upgrades. Still, their stories are good enough and they can and will provide some cannon fodder while you do the actual grunt work.
Enemies can be a bit bullet spongy sometimes. Their damage also sometimes feels overtuned and too high, but since this is a numbers issue I’m confident it’ll be ironed out by its full launch. The build I played was fine, and there’s even a story mode that essentially disables enemy damage, allowing you to skip past combat almost entirely, if that’s your purview.
Overall, the game is heavy on choices, decisions, and options, of which you’ll have countless in just about every situation.
Unreal Engine used correctly
The Outer Worlds 2 is, hands down, the prettiest game I have played in 2025. The Unreal Engine 5 gets criticized all the time. I should know, I always do it. But in this case, and I hope in many cases to follow, UE5 is used to its absolute maximum potential, allowing for breathtaking scenes, set-pieces, and locations that would otherwise be impossible to make.
I cannot begin to describe the feeling of awe I constantly experienced from one location to the next. No matter if it were a massive monastery and temple built within and on top a mountain, a colossal array and factory, a big, wide, open field, the game always maintained a level of impeccable beauty, making it difficult to look away.
And it doesn’t even come in exchange for much performance, either. On a power-limited Acer laptop (4060, 7735HS) I used the High preset with no upscaling, maintaining 30 to 45 fps constantly. This is by no means great, but I attribute most of the failings to my laptop itself, rather than the game. In truth, with desktop equivalents of this hardware, and even just better laptops, the game should run fine and up to 60 fps at medium-high without upscaling, which is more than I could ask for given how it looks.
The art direction in general is just off the charts. Obsidian outdid itself in more ways than one, taking inspiration from the steampunk genre and elevating it to a higher degree. The colors, the assets, the sheer artistry involved in creating every nook and cranny of this game, from loading screens and icons to the biggest locations, is out of this world, and I have to commend the team for what they’ve done here.
I don’t recall the last time I’ve pressed F12 as many times, to be completely frank, and I do hope the devs introduce a photo mode eventually, as this game is ripe with screenshot opportunities.
So, as things stand, The Outer Worlds 2 is Obsidian’s best game since Fallout: New Vegas, offering infinite replayability, tough moral dilemmas, interesting stories, and a chance to truly become your character and traverse the stars. Or, well, moons, but that’s close enough.
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