“One of many very first issues we have been focusing on after we began The Outer Worlds 2 was to make these huge, expansive areas. It is what gamers advised us they needed,” sport director Brandon Adler advised me when speaking about how the group at Obsidian constructed the open areas for this sequel. However greater doesn’t all the time imply higher, they usually appeared conscious of that when creating the extra expansive zones throughout the completely different planets and moons you’ll go to in The Outer Worlds 2. There seems to be a concentrate on rewarding exploration, creating dense environments, and designing areas that pull you in particular instructions to research factors of curiosity off within the distance. So, whereas it’s structurally much like the unique the place you go to distinct open areas by means of the principle quest, there’s a larger sense of scale this time round.
I used to be capable of see a few of these concepts in motion with a gameplay tour of Golden Ridge, a brand new open area on the planet-moon Dorado that you just’ll go to early on in The Outer Worlds 2. It’s an arid, desert-like area with trench strains from a battle that broke out prior to now, mining services run by a faction known as The Protectorate, and a ton of hostile wildlife mutated from the polluted setting. Artwork director Daniel Alpert spoke about sustaining the primary sport’s ornamental artwork nouveau and retrofuturistic inspirations, however going with one thing a bit extra harsh for Golden Ridge. “We have been capable of pull from areas of the late outdated West to World Struggle 1 and imbue the areas with little touches – you’ll discover a trench warfare line, and for those who go just a little additional right into a city, you will nonetheless discover that frontier colony vibe,” he stated when engaged on Golden Ridge.
Adler spoke to how the artwork path feeds into the tales they’re making an attempt to inform, particularly on this planet: “Earlier than we get into any space, we have now deep conversations in regards to the general story, the factions and what they’re doing, and what’s essential to them. Asking issues like, why was anyone in Golden Ridge?” He gave examples of collaborating with the artwork group to have a form of synergy between aesthetics and the sport’s function, saying “We’ll say like, we would like the ditch strains right here, possibly for gameplay causes, however discuss why it is sensible story-wise.”
As any good RPG does, these sorts of tales are woven into the areas themselves, and Adler teased a few of that, saying “I will not get into what occurs originally of Golden Ridge, however there is a huge state change within the space once you first get there. It’s going to blow individuals away and make them actually need to examine what’s occurring.” That’s stated to be indicative of the remainder of the sport, as he continued telling me, “You’ll see that all through a variety of our areas as effectively. We attempt to do these sorts of issues – let the gamers see huge occasions which are occurring fairly early and get them hooked into the world.”
With that basis, the group needed to pack the area with attention-grabbing issues alongside the best way with the principle quest. “We made positive of that with huge open sightlines and we spent a variety of effort and time on making actually cool wanting factors of curiosity out within the distance to actually draw gamers and actually convey them off the crushed path,” Adler stated. He referenced filling these areas with facet quests, supporting characters, and smaller tales to unravel, much like the primary sport. There appears to be a concerted effort in rewarding gamers with collectibles (like a brand new assortment of tossball playing cards) and equipment, even for exploring components of the area that don’t actually have a selected story or quest function. It’s an essential piece to this model of RPG, in fact, and one thing they have been aware of when it got here to bettering issues from the primary sport, ensuring all components of the event group have been concerned in making that occur.
I additionally received to see the Zyranium Lab, which is an inside stage on Golden Ridge, and it was spectacular not only for its scale, however the methods wherein I can see gameplay prospects for a way I method these sorts of video games. In the same vein because the unique gameplay demo I noticed of the N-Ray Facility, I received the impression that ranges like these are extra intricately designed and drawing from immersive sims like Deus Ex and Dishonored. They’re bigger and have a number of paths ahead that look deliberate for a variety of playstyles whereas nonetheless sustaining a concentrate on pulling the participant in particular instructions. “Once we’re constructing these extra open areas, we have now an outlined path that we would like the participant to undergo. However in true Obsidian sport model, we enable gamers to go in all places and type of expertise no matter they need,” Adler stated on the subject of designing ranges throughout the open areas.
Golden Ridge was the one open area I used to be capable of see, so I requested about what we will anticipate from the remainder of the sport’s worlds. Alpert advised me, “We deliberately design every of our worlds to really feel completely different from one another. It is a distinctive panorama each time you land on a brand new moon or new space. So it should not be like, you go someplace new and it is just a little bit extra of the identical. These different areas are fully completely different from the final moonscape you simply got here from, and the subsequent one you are going to be visiting is totally completely different as effectively.” Whereas that will appear par for the course in a spacefaring journey like The Outer Worlds, the aware effort to deal with the constraints of the primary sport and be extra intentional about how its worlds are constructed makes me hopeful that the The Outer Worlds 2 could be an evolution of how Obsidian designs its video games and worlds.
So, from what I’ve seen so far, The Outer Worlds 2 seems to be promising on a number of fronts. The reworked RPG components appear like they’ve been made to be extra distinct relating to the role-playing expertise, and the small snippets of gameplay present higher lodging for particular playstyles. And looking on the open zone of Golden Ridge gave not only a higher sense of scale, however a pure sense of exploration with larger density and purposeful factors of curiosity alongside the best way. Quickly, we’ll be diving deeper into fight design and the evolution of the Flaws system as a part of IGN First unique protection on The Outer Worlds 2, which additionally features a dialog with authentic Fallout developer and inventive director Leonard Boyarsky on how the primary sport was about establishing a brand new basis for Obsidian and this sequel being the idealized model of that preliminary imaginative and prescient.