🔗 Share this article

Upon my initial 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 promotional posters that illustrated a business-controlled nightmare that was simultaneously dark and humorous. My biggest worry heading into The Outer Worlds 2 was that this version – without blame from itself – could fail to be as humorous as its predecessor.

Sure, things weren't perfect. However, life definitely felt a bit less broken at that time. The Outer Worlds showed a bleak future that didn't hit too close to home, and still managed to be both heartwarming and hilarious. I began the follow-up rather certain that this release couldn't succeed to accomplish this once more, but I'm happy to report that I was mistaken. This sequel is just as chuckle-inducing as the release that came earlier, and additionally brings fresh concepts instead of just recycling the same content comparable to an tired company slogan.

Developing Personalities

Most of the NPCs users found in the first title had been beaten down by the activities of business corporations including Spacer's Choice, and were fully cognizant of how much their situation was terrible. This installment progresses matters in a different direction, featuring characters who are indoctrinated (periodically symbolically, frequently actually). A lot of these NPCs don't even realize of how profoundly messed up their conditions are, or that there may exist alternatives to a lifetime passed under the boot of a massive corporation or restricted by the beliefs of a demanding cult.

This follow-up examines forms of business domination that are more insidious than merely maintaining the masses poor. Many NPCs have been brainwashed into the kind of excessively zealous "grindset mindset" rhetoric you can discover on social media accounts that promise to reveal the secret of achievement should you purchase an expensive course, or invest in a dubious blockchain project. Furthermore, the release's corporate propaganda has evolved.

Current Topics

There continue to be many unmotivational posters throughout facilities indicating reductions in pay from workers who so much as think about requesting leave, but furthermore exist allusions to network marketing strategies, including a staff guide that confidently announces, "Unfamiliar individuals are simply clients you have yet to encounter!" Being a person who developed within a direct sales family, I promptly exploded in amusement when I saw this reference, because it's a phrase I have frequently encountered spoken verbatim by people at the base of these systems.

Fortunately, The Outer Worlds 2 is as comedic and sarcastic as the original title.

This installment additionally investigates the dilemma various individuals experience when it comes to occupation, government, and even personal purchases: Needing to choose the reduced of two or three evils. While attempting to choose whether to assist a risky company or a dangerous religious group in the game, I found myself siding with the devil I know: A recognized business organization that sucks (though just utilizes advertising to program its members), instead of the religious group, which is equally bad, but utilizes a terrible method named "cognitive reset" to control its members obedient.

Doubtful Authorities

Additionally, the individuals you represent may not be reliable. In the role of an Earth Directorate agent, your assignment includes attempting to restore control to this settlement subsequent to a hostile corporate takeover, and you'll soon discover that both the aggressors and the residents subscribe to distinct (though equally awful) doctrines. Yet a speedy review of the messages on your ship's terminal demonstrate that the Earth Directorate is hardly the universe's most principled employer too, as evidenced by a response to an emergency signal that informs the caller it will take "several business years" for an answer to their transmission. (This period is about how long it takes for numerous individuals to reach a human support representative via telephone currently.)

Relatable Moments

Numerous instances in this installment are highly recognizable, but it's a cleansing type of familiarity, and this title achieves equilibrium between its grim future world with humor that's genuinely funny without feeling out of place. An important idea is the near-instant onset of deterioration that seems to take place following any major corporate acquisition. Staff members from all factions of The Outer Worlds 2's significant consolidation see their quality of life decline consequently, while the executives in charge of the structure are, of course, collecting money rapidly.

Well, at minimum I recognize my position.

Similar to the first game, The Outer Worlds 2 is intrinsically comedic, but furthermore doesn't hesitate to get serious. At a certain time, while traveling around the game's first explorable world, I stumbled across a corpse with an audio log nearby. This recording showed that this NPC (connected to the indoctrinating cult) had died in an accident while trying to locate and kill her romantic partner. This romantic partner had apparently defected from their organization, and the deceased character was incensed at her partner's {traitorous