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More expansive isn't always improved. It's an old adage, however it's the best way to describe my impressions after spending many hours with The Outer Worlds 2. Developer Obsidian added more of all aspects to the follow-up to its 2019 science fiction role-playing game — additional wit, enemies, arms, characteristics, and places, everything that matters in such adventures. And it works remarkably well — for a little while. But the weight of all those ambitious ideas makes the game wobble as the hours wear on.

A Powerful Initial Impact

The Outer Worlds 2 creates a powerful opening statement. You belong to the Earth Directorate, a altruistic agency committed to restraining dishonest administrations and companies. After some major drama, you wind up in the Arcadia system, a settlement divided by hostilities between Auntie's Selection (the product of a combination between the first game's two large firms), the Defenders (communalism pushed to its most extreme outcome), and the Ascendant Brotherhood (similar to the Catholic faith, but with math rather than Jesus). There are also a number of tears causing breaches in the fabric of reality, but currently, you really need access a communication hub for critical messaging reasons. The issue is that it's in the heart of a combat area, and you need to determine how to get there.

Following the original, Outer Worlds 2 is a FPS adventure with an overarching story and numerous optional missions distributed across multiple locations or areas (big areas with a plenty to explore, but not fully open).

The initial area and the journey of reaching that comms station are remarkable. You've got some funny interactions, of course, like one that features a rancher who has fed too much sweet grains to their beloved crustacean. Most guide you to something helpful, though — an surprising alternative route or some new bit of intel that might provide an alternate route forward.

Unforgettable Events and Missed Chances

In one notable incident, you can encounter a Defender runaway near the viaduct who's about to be killed. No quest is tied to it, and the exclusive means to discover it is by searching and hearing the ambient dialogue. If you're fast and alert enough not to let him get defeated, you can rescue him (and then rescue his defector partner from getting slain by monsters in their hideout later), but more connected with the current objective is a electrical conduit hidden in the grass close by. If you trace it, you'll discover a concealed access point to the communication hub. There's an alternate entry to the station's sewers hidden away in a grotto that you might or might not observe contingent on when you follow a particular ally mission. You can locate an simple to miss character who's key to saving someone's life down the line. (And there's a plush toy who implicitly sways a team of fighters to support you, if you're kind enough to save it from a danger zone.) This initial segment is packed and exciting, and it seems like it's full of rich storytelling potential that rewards you for your curiosity.

Fading Expectations

Outer Worlds 2 doesn't fulfill those initial expectations again. The second main area is structured like a location in the original game or Avowed — a expansive territory dotted with points of interest and secondary tasks. They're all story-appropriate to the struggle between Auntie's Choice and the Ascendant Order, but they're also vignettes isolated from the central narrative plot-wise and spatially. Don't look for any contextual hints directing you to alternative options like in the first zone.

Regardless of compelling you to choose some hard calls, what you do in this region's secondary tasks has no impact. Like, it really doesn't matter, to the degree that whether you enable war crimes or guide a band of survivors to their demise results in only a casual remark or two of speech. A game doesn't have to let all tasks impact the story in some significant, theatrical manner, but if you're making me choose a faction and giving the impression that my choice counts, I don't think it's irrational to anticipate something additional when it's finished. When the game's earlier revealed that it can be better, any diminishment feels like a concession. You get more of everything like the team vowed, but at the price of substance.

Daring Plans and Missing Drama

The game's middle section attempts a comparable approach to the primary structure from the first planet, but with distinctly reduced style. The notion is a courageous one: an related objective that covers several locations and encourages you to solicit support from various groups if you want a smoother path toward your objective. Aside from the repeat setup being a somewhat tedious, it's also just missing the suspense that this type of situation should have. It's a "bargain with evil" moment. There should be difficult trade-offs. Your association with either faction should be important beyond gaining their favor by completing additional missions for them. All this is missing, because you can merely power through on your own and clear the objective anyway. The game even makes an effort to provide you ways of accomplishing this, pointing out different ways as secondary goals and having partners inform you where to go.

It's a consequence of a wider concern in Outer Worlds 2: the fear of allowing you to regret with your choices. It regularly overcompensates in its attempts to ensure not only that there's an alternative path in many situations, but that you know it exists. Closed chambers practically always have various access ways signposted, or nothing valuable internally if they fail to. If you {can't