It typically takes a sequel to unlock an thought’s full potential. Simply take a look at Murderer’s Creed 2, Mass Impact 2, or Batman: Arkham Metropolis – video games which erased the imperfections of their predecessors and elevated tough diamonds to all-time-classic standing. Based mostly on a brand new demo I performed at gamescom 2025, I’m betting The Outer Worlds 2 is about to hitch that membership. Obsidian’s first journey throughout its satirical galaxy again in 2019 had lots going for it, however typically felt constricted in scope or fell flat in its supply. These are flaws {that a} second try (plus a pleasant chunk of change from Microsoft’s pockets) may rectify, and evidently’s precisely what has occurred, if The Outer Worlds 2’s hour-long prologue is something to go by. Its gleaming polish, branching pathways, and wealthy role-playing alternatives recommend that is the sport I’d hoped the unique Outer Worlds had been.
The prologue demo – and thus The Outer Worlds 2 itself – opens on a beautiful CGI cinematic that introduces the Earth Directorate, a process drive that hops across the galaxy taking over corrupt companies, corrupt governments, and the ultra-corrupt alliances of companies and governments. Extra importantly, it’s your employer, and your job in all that is to research the manufacturing of Skip Drives – engines that allow interstellar journey, however rip harmful holes within the material of house with every FTL soar. On this first mission, you’re dispatched to the Arcadian System to infiltrate a lab and work out the Directorate’s subsequent steps in bringing the corporate behind these hazardous machines to justice.
Inside minutes of touchdown on the lab’s dock, the prologue provides up a mess of methods to deal with its first drawback. Unlocking the bulkhead doorways to the lab prompts the world’s defences, and now it is advisable get previous a small military of fight robots and automated turrets. You can, of course, shoot your manner by them, or drop right into a crouch and sneak previous them, weaving by their sightlines. However these are simply your base, vanilla selections. The Outer Worlds 2 additionally offers a way more fascinating set of alternatives because of its RPG foundations.
As an illustration, the safety sales space during which this escapade begins is the ultimate resting place of Cadet Robin Mowry, and rifling by his pockets will reward you along with his personnel ID. When the defenses are triggered, you’ll be able to cellphone one other cadet working elsewhere within the station, impersonate Mowry, and ask for the defences to be shut down. Your new “colleague” will comply… however provided that you’ll be able to navigate a dialog about “psychological refreshment.” You see, Mowry lately underwent a chemical lobotomy as punishment for a piece misdemeanor, and so that you’ll must carry out your verbal coercion with out coming throughout as ungrateful to your life-correcting remedy. A response enabled through the use of Speech, one of 12 core abilities you’ll be able to construct your character round, is the ultimate key to unlocking a protected path to the lab.
Not good with phrases? Effectively, perhaps you’ve constructed a personality who is aware of the way to breach safety software program. There’s a service duct that leads out of the safety sales space and in direction of the mechanic’s management bay, inside of which you should use the Hack ability to disable the world’s defences. And so, in a single goal alone, I used to be capable of establish 4 totally different approaches. It is a prologue, of course, and so they’re all simply achieved, nevertheless it seems like a press release of intent: every problem could have a number of strategies of strategy, with distinctive pathways catering for a range of specialised character builds. If Obsidian has been capable of ship on this throughout the complete size and breadth of the marketing campaign, then that’s one thing to be very enthusiastic about.
The strategy to alternative differed all through the demo. Whereas that first space was about demonstrating the a number of strategies of fixing a single drawback, later I used to be introduced with fairly actually a branching pathway, with every route resulting in an space designed to cater to a particular play model. Heading left to Safety Ops would take me to a map constructed round stealth and silent kills, whereas turning proper and progressing by Central Dispatch led to a showcase for battle and gunplay. I initially opted for the previous and quickly discovered myself in an workplace advanced clearly constructed on the foundational tenets of Deus Ex. Air flow ducts supplied alternate pathways that led to useful vantage factors, whereas a knife and throwable distraction units discovered hidden behind ground panels allowed me to sneakily dispatch the world’s workers.
Safety Ops’ most important pathway is designed to cater to easy stealth mechanics, however poking round revealed additional alternatives that have been far more attractive than a fundamental backstab. In a single workplace, I used to be ready to make use of my Hack ability to acquire a key card for the Pump Room, a locked constructing that supplied an alternate path to my last goal within the Skip Drive lab. Constructed into the partitions of that space was one other set of ducts, which not solely allowed me to bypass a guard patrol but additionally led to a set of switches that enabled the constructing’s computerized turrets, which fortunately poked holes in my enemies following a single button press. The RPG is inherently a reasonably good style for rewarding nosy gamers prepared to look past the apparent selections, however The Outer Worlds 2 already feels richer than many of its contemporaries, particularly this early in its marketing campaign.
In fact, the unique Outer Worlds was by no means underneath scrutiny for a scarcity of role-playing alternatives. It did, nonetheless, obtain honest criticism for its comfortable and mushy taking pictures. Selecting Central Dispatch on a second playthrough of the prologue was a possibility to see simply how far Obsidian has improved its once-damp weapons, and the excellent news is that the 2 on provide on this demo – a pistol and rifle pairing with early 1900s detailing – really feel implausible. The pistol is snappy, with a light-weight kick and a satisfying reload, whereas the repeating rifle packs a a lot larger punch on the value of an extended, lever-action cycle between pictures. That latter side helps cement The Outer Worlds 2’s vintage-futuristic aesthetic, however extra importantly calls for use of the Tactical Time Dilation System, which slows time to a crawl so you’ll be able to extra simply rating headshots. Again in 2019, this function admittedly felt like a knock-off of Fallout’s VATS, however with the improved gunfeel of this sequel, TTDD now comes throughout extra like a real bullet time system.
In comparison with the stealthy, opportunity-filled Safety Ops pathway, Central Dispatch was far more restricted with what it needed to provide. A dialog with the cadet I had fooled with my impersonation of his colleague at first of the demo turned bitter, and he set a squadron of heavy Dragoon robots on me. This did push the fight depth a bit of additional, however didn’t come coupled with any creative approaches that I may establish. Nonetheless, the heavier harm the robots inflicted pressured me to repeatedly use the Medical Inhaler – a well being package that builds a toxicity meter with each huff. Max out that gauge and you’re pressured to attend a length till you should use it once more. It’s a enjoyable riff on Fallout’s drug habit system, however one which works as a battle constraint moderately than a stat affect. It calls for you suppose tactically about whenever you ingest these HP-restoring chemical compounds, and whereas I think about it may trigger a number of irritating deaths within the fiercest battles, I believe it’s on the very least an fascinating thought value experimenting with.
I’m all the time going to take the sneakier or extra inventive choice with regards to RPGs, and I’ll admit I had much more enjoyable in Safety Ops than Central Dispatch. However I’ll say that these brief shootouts satisfied me that I’ll really take pleasure in it when the weapons are drawn, one thing I can’t say concerning the unique sport’s underwhelming fight. Like its fantasy sibling Avowed, a lot of its newfound punch is all the way down to visible polish, and the identical stage of element will be felt throughout the complete prologue. There are bespoke animations for nearly each ability – lockpicking sees your character’s hand align a set of pins on a Magazine-Decide, hacking sees you organize the dials on a Bypass Shunt probe earlier than jamming it into a pc terminal, and making use of the Engineering ability to a upkeep panel sees you rub your fingers in anticipation earlier than twisting and tightening an association of steampunk valves. It feels costly, however extra importantly it connects and anchors you into this fantastical world.
If it’s not clear by now, I’m actually into what Obsidian is doing with The Outer Worlds 2. The prologue options so many cool alternatives, notably with regards to non-combat or combat-adjacent approaches, and I hope that they’re all being served up on this opening hour as one thing of an institution of the foundations – “This is how you should use your character, and related alternatives await.”
Whereas I appreciated Obsidian’s prior try at this universe, I by no means completely fell for it, however what the studio has achieved right here on this prologue is precisely what I’d hoped for the primary time round. And that’s precisely why I’m prepared to guess that The Outer Worlds 2 will probably be one of these sequels. The ones that lastly take an thought all the best way to greatness. Hopefully, I’ll go that “prediction” test with a essential success.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s Government Editor of Options.