🔗 Share this article

During my first experience with the first Outer Worlds game, I was quickly hooked by its irreverent, Fallout-inspired brand of humor. This release featured dynamic dialogues, personal journals, and propaganda materials that depicted a corporate dystopia that was at once dark and entertaining. My main fear heading into the follow-up was that this version – through no fault on its part – could fail to be as funny compared to the first.

Certainly, situations weren't flawless. However, life undoubtedly appeared slightly less fractured at that time. This universe showed a bleak future that didn't feel too close to home, and nonetheless succeeded to be at once touching and hilarious. I started The Outer Worlds 2 feeling quite confident that the sequel wouldn't be able to accomplish this once more, but I'm pleased to state that I was wrong. This follow-up is as smile-generating as the game that preceded it, and also introduces fresh concepts as opposed to just recycling the same content comparable to an overused corporate jingle.

Changing NPCs

Most of the non-player characters players encountered in the original game had been worn out by the actions of business corporations such as Spacer's Choice, and were fully cognizant of the extent to which their situation was terrible. This installment takes things in a different direction, presenting individuals who are indoctrinated (sometimes figuratively, frequently actually). Numerous NPCs aren't conscious of how deeply disordered their circumstances are, or that there could be alternatives to a life lived beneath the control of a massive corporation or restricted by the doctrines of a demanding cult.

This follow-up examines forms of company influence that are more subtle than only making the population impoverished. Various personalities have been programmed with the sort of excessively zealous "hustle mentality" discourse you can discover on digital platforms that claim to disclose the secret of achievement when you buy a costly program, or put money into a sketchy crypto scheme. Additionally, the title's company advertising has developed.

Contemporary Issues

There remain plenty of unmotivational posters on the walls warning about deducting staff compensation who even consider requesting leave, but additionally there are allusions to pyramid scheme tactics, featuring a new hire handbook that proudly declares, "Unknown people are merely clients you haven't met yet!" As an individual who developed within a network marketing family, I instantly erupted laughing when I saw this reference, because it's a refrain I have regularly listened to stated precisely by those at the bottom of those structures.

Fortunately, this follow-up is equally humorous and irreverent as the first game.

This installment furthermore explores the dilemma various individuals encounter regarding employment, politics, and including buying decisions: Having to select the reduced of multiple bad options. When trying to choose whether to back a risky company or a problematic faith organization throughout the experience, I found myself siding with the familiar evil: A familiar business organization that sucks (but only uses promotion to brainwash its subjects), rather than the faith organization, which also sucks, but uses a terrible method named "mental refreshment" to keep its adherents in line.

Unreliable Masters

Furthermore, the characters you serve could fail to be dependable. In the role of an Earth Directorate agent, you're tasked with trying to reestablish order to this settlement following an aggressive business acquisition, and you'll soon discover that the two the attackers and the invadees subscribe to distinct (though equally awful) beliefs. However, a rapid review of the transmissions on your vessel's computer show that the Earth Directorate is hardly the universe's most principled authority as well, as evidenced by a response to a help request that informs the caller it will take "3-5 organizational cycles" for a response to their communication. (That time frame is roughly the duration it takes for me to get a hold of a non-robot support representative through calling currently.)

Familiar Situations

Numerous instances in The Outer Worlds 2 are highly recognizable, but it's a cleansing kind of recognition, and this title succeeds in balancing its depressing dystopian setting with wit that's genuinely funny yet not seeming out of place. A primary concept is the rapid beginning of enshittification that happens to unfold after significant business mergers. Workers from each party of The Outer Worlds 2's major acquisition find their existence decline as a result, while the executives in charge of the structure are, of course, accumulating profits rapidly.

Okay, at the very least I recognize my position.

Similar to the initial release, The Outer Worlds 2 is inherently funny, but additionally doesn't hesitate to become dramatic. At a certain time, while wandering around the title's initial discoverable location, I came upon a body with a recording nearby. This message showed that this character (who was aligned with the programming faith group) had perished in an incident while attempting to hunt down and dispatch her significant other. This partner had reportedly deserted from their faction, and the deceased character was angry about her significant other's {traitorous