The Outer Worlds 2 Review - Just As Good The Second Time Around
By Steve Watts on October 23, 2025 at 6:00AM PDT
The Outer Worlds 2 imbues Obsidian's spacefaring RPG series with its own identity, letting you bumble your way through corporate and cultish intrigue in space. Building on the sturdy foundation of its predecessor, this confident and expansive sequel suggests a bright future for The Outer Worlds as an ongoing series.
In Outer Worlds 2, you play as "the Commander," an Earth Directorate agent tasked with repairing the Arcadia region, which is being ripped apart by factional war, corporate takeovers, and rifts cutting off colonies from communications with Earth. Your first mission goes terribly wrong, but you're soon on a quest to find those responsible and investigate the increasingly dire rift problem.
You create your Commander choosing a background like a disgraced gambler or an ex-convict, giving you a sense of role-playing opportunities in a messy improvisational drama or tragicomedy. Specializing in Guns and Speech skills allows you to be a charismatic, trigger-happy dumbass, but as the journey unfolds, things start to change, and you must think about where you draw the line.
Most of your time is spent venturing to strange worlds, taking on quests, fighting alien beasts, hostile automatons, and opposing human armies. Human enemies are primarily the Protectorate, authoritarian rulers of Arcadia. The Outer Worlds 2 is combat-focused, with some opportunities to talk or engineer your way out of situations.
One of the greatest strengths of Outer Worlds 2 is its flexible combat options. There's a wealth of guns on offer that feel great, each one satisfying and responsive. A flexible mods system lets you further customize your playstyle with favorite guns. Gadgetry, including Tactical Time Dilation, an Acidic Dematerializer, and an N-Ray Scanner, offers more gadgets to aid in combat or exploration.
To build out your character, you're granted two skill points per level, but there are too many avenues to specialize in all of them. A Perk point every two levels helps shape your character even further with special effects that stack on top of each other.
The return of the Flaws system is a highlight, offering unexpected trade-offs that help augment your play. Working in conjunction with skills and perks is enhanced by companions, each having their own mini-questline, allowing for more customization and role-playing opportunities.
Story Satire
The story is heavy with satire, not subtle, but some aspects deliver a righteous critique of our current moment. The game portrays two factions: Auntie's Choice, fanatical devotion to unchecked capitalism, and the Order of the Ascendant, devoted to knowledge and science, though misguided in their pursuit.
Visuals and Gameplay
The visuals in The Outer Worlds 2 are generally not stunning but offer an impressive scope to some environments. However, there is no fast way to travel, leading to frustrating waypointing issues, especially when exploring enclosed buildings with winding corridors and multiple floors.
Loading times can be long for larger areas on certain platforms, adding to the pace-breaking nature of computers delivering chunks of information and story details.