The Outer Worlds 2 Review – Fallout New Vegas in Space?

Obsidian Entertainment is one of the most beloved RPG studios in the industry. They’re also a studio known for developing sequels to games that other studios made. Fallout: New Vegas and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 are standout examples of how Obsidian Entertainment can build on the foundations set by the already solid first game. 

The Outer Worlds 2 is a different case, where the studio developed the original game themselves and can now continue developing the gameplay formula without relying on another studio’s work. While the first The Outer Worlds was a great game, the studio’s fans are in consensus that it wasn’t ambitious or distinct enough to stand on its own two feet. And ironically, people still mistake it for The Outer Wilds, an indie game developed by Mobius Digital. 

Six years after the original game came out, The Outer Worlds 2 is here to prove that Obsidian Entertainment can not only create great sequels to other studios’ games, but also to their own. With plenty of feedback and lessons learned from the first The Outer Worlds, how does the sequel stack up? Is it as great an accomplishment as Fallout: New Vegas, or is it a derivative game with little to show for its years in development?

TL;DR

The Outer Worlds 2 is everything that fans were hoping to get from the first game, and then some. It features a branching story with meaningful consequences and an RPG system that makes you choose your path carefully. Paired with great writing and quest design, it successfully evolves the series formula and offers 40-50 hours of solid entertainment.

Story – Revenge in the Face of Impending Doom

The studio made the smart choice of setting The Outer Worlds 2 in a different star system than the first game. This ensures that any ending you got in the first game actually happened and that every player’s journey mattered. 

It’s a great compromise, as it allows the studio to create a brand-new world for you to explore, while still hinting at the events that happened in another solar system. Arcadia is a solar system similar to Halcyon in terms of its corporate structure. 

Just like before, major corporations are fighting for control and profit, and you’ll help one of them, some of them, or none of them. It’s up to you how you shape your journey through The Outer Worlds 2, and as you seek out an old enemy who betrayed you. 

Just like Fallout: New Vegas, the core of this game’s story revolves around revenge, but without giving anything away, it evolves beyond that and into something much more exciting and creative from a lore perspective. This is a story with high stakes and long-lasting consequences, and your role in Arcadia’s future will forever change the course of history for the entire solar system.

Specializing Your Character for Replayability

One of the biggest criticisms of the first game was that its RPG elements were too surface-level. While it allowed you to assign skill points and gain perks and flaws, it mattered less the further you got into the game. The Outer Worlds 2 aims to rectify this by making sure you specialize in a set number of skills and stick with them. If you want to be a ‘jack of all trades’, The Outer Worlds 2 will punish you for it. 

You’ll have a difficult time making progress with side quests that require you to specialize in specific skills, such as Engineering or Speech, without dedicating a lot of points to those skills. Similarly, the perk system gives you a single perk every two levels, and these abilities are much more creative and change the way you play the game. 

Finally, flaws have also been reworked from the first game, with The Outer Worlds 2 now completely changing your approach to combat, exploration, or stealth depending on your flaws. The higher emphasis on specialization means you’ll have more reasons to replay the game and build new characters to see different outcomes, side quests, and focus on specific companions.

Gameplay – Exploring the Outer Worlds

At its core, The Outer Worlds 2 is a first-person or third-person RPG. You can play the game from either perspective, as Obsidian Entertainment did a great job with implementing third-person controls this time around. 

You’ll explore Arcadia and its many planets with two companions, both of which you’ll choose every time you leave your ship. Companions have been streamlined in some aspects and expanded in others. You’ll have less control over their skills and equipment compared to the first game, but more freedom to get to know them and interact with them. 

It’s a conscious trade-off from Obsidian Entertainment, as many players realized that companions need a lot of micromanagement in the first game. Instead, The Outer Worlds 2 wants you to have fun with them instead of managing their inventories or perks. Similarly, map exploration has been reworked, and it now feels more rewarding to travel around and discover new locations. 

Maps are bigger and more diverse compared to the first game, with more NPCs and quest givers than before. There are also special collectibles scattered around the planets that you can turn in for unique rewards. Exploring in The Outer Worlds 2 doesn’t feel like a chore, and it’s the game’s biggest accomplishment as an RPG.

Bigger Emphasis on RPG Elements

The first The Outer Worlds was very generous with the amount of skill points and perks it gave you. Some would say it was a bit too generous, with even the game’s Hard mode being very manageable early on. The Outer Worlds 2 aims to rectify this by leaning more heavily toward RPG elements. 

You’ll receive far fewer skill points this time around, and you’ll have to spend them wisely. While you can set a few skills as your ‘core competencies’, the rest you will have to develop patiently, point by point. This means you’ll often come across situations where you’re not prepared for skill checks, whether through dialogue or item interactions. 

Using a centrifuge to develop a new chemical is impossible if your Science skill is 3 instead of 5, for example. The same applies to combat, which feels much better compared to the first game. Every weapon type has a dedicated skill you’ll have to invest in to get better at using it. Otherwise, you’ll do lower damage and have to resort to other means to win in a fight. 

The addition of throwable items expands combat in The Outer Worlds 2, ensuring that investing points into Explosives makes more sense. Paired with upgradeable companion abilities, the game gives you all the tools you need to create the perfect party suited to your playstyle.

Visuals – Arcadia is Brimming with Life

The Outer Worlds 2 is built on the Unreal Engine 5. While the engine is notorious for instability, Obsidian Entertainment did an outstanding job of utilizing it properly. The Outer Worlds features stylized graphics that aren’t 100% realistic but still lean into realism in terms of facial expressions and human anatomy. 

However, their environments are alien, both in terms of flora and fauna. The second game continues that tradition and offers a blend of real and unreal, creating an atmospheric world that players will enjoy exploring. 

And best of all, the game runs smoothly and without issues on the Xbox Series X, where we had the pleasure of reviewing it. We primarily tested the game on the Performance Mode, but testing the other modes yielded great results, with each working as advertised. Here’s a breakdown of The Outer Worlds 2 visual modes:

• Xbox Series X
  • Xbox Series X: Quality Mode
    • 30 fps / Dynamic resolution (top end 1600p, low end 1440p, upscales to 4K)
  • Xbox Series X: Balanced Mode
    • 40 fps / Dynamic resolution (top end 1440p, low end 1280p, upscales to 4K)
  • Xbox Series X: Performance Mode
    • 60 fps / Dynamic resolution (top end 1280p, low end 848p, upscales to 1800p)
• Xbox Series S
  • Xbox Series S: Quality Mode
    • 30 fps / Dynamic resolution (top end 1080p, low end 720p, upscales to 1440p)
  • Xbox Series S: Balanced Mode
    • 40 fps / Dynamic resolution (top end 900p, low end 720p, upscales to 1440p)
  • Xbox Series S: Performance Mode
    • Not Supported

Beyond the visual quality, the game also runs well from a technical perspective. Loading times are short, and we experienced virtually no bugs or crashes during our testing period. Launching a technically polished game built on the Unreal Engine 5 in 2025 is something of a small miracle, but the team at Obsidian Entertainment truly delivered.

Audio – Evoking the Vibes of Modern Fallout

In terms of sound design, The Outer Worlds 2 features stellar voice acting for each of its characters. Whether a corporate spokesperson, a space marine, or a town shopkeeper, each character has a distinct flavor. 

They have unique accents, backgrounds, speech quirks, and feel distinct from one another. This is an area that Obsidian Entertainment struggled with in the past, but with The Outer Worlds 2 being a big-budget AAA game, the difference really shows. 

The same can be said about the game’s soundtrack, which was pretty basic in the first game. Here, Obsidian Entertainment truly wanted to give players the same feeling of wonder and exploration similar to Fallout: New Vegas by introducing radio stations. They act as a way to discover new quests, stay in touch with the latest news, and listen to music. 

That last part is crucial, as it was a charming way for modern Fallout games to immerse players in their worlds. The Outer Worlds 2 does an outstanding job of pulling you into its worlds, pun intended, by simply letting you tune into its sounds and music wherever you go.

Conclusion – Should You Play The Outer Worlds 2?

The Outer Worlds 2 is a bigger and bolder game than its predecessor. Where the first game felt like an awkward experiment, the second game fully shines in every aspect. Everything that was hinted at in the first game is now more developed and enjoyable. It’s indicative of where the studio is headed with their design philosophy, and we can’t wait to see what’s in store for the inevitable sequel to Avowed sometime in the future.

Obsidian Entertainment did an outstanding job in expanding the series’ lore and gameplay without sacrificing anything along the way. Of course, this is still The Outer Worlds, full of corporate and consumerist humour which may or may not be your cup of tea. 

But beyond that, it’s a fun, expansive game with plenty of replayability and an atmospheric world for you to explore. At the end of the day, what more could you ask for from an RPG? The game is also set to expand with DLC content just like the first title, giving players even more reasons to discover everything Arcadia has to offer. The Outer Worlds 2 is now available on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5.

Huge thanks to Obsidian Entertainment and Xbox Game Studios for sponsoring our review!