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More expansive isn't always better. That's a tired saying, however it's the most accurate way to encapsulate my feelings after investing five dozen hours with The Outer Worlds 2. The creators added more of each element to the follow-up to its 2019 futuristic adventure — increased comedy, enemies, arms, attributes, and locations, every important component in such adventures. And it functions superbly — at first. But the weight of all those ambitious ideas makes the game wobble as the time passes.

A Strong Opening Act

The Outer Worlds 2 creates a powerful first impression. You are a member of the Planetary Directorate, a well-intentioned institution committed to curbing corrupt governments and companies. After some capital-D Drama, you find yourself in the Arcadia sector, a settlement fractured by war between Auntie's Option (the product of a combination between the original game's two large firms), the Guardians (collectivism extended to its worst logical conclusion), and the Ascendant Order (reminiscent of the Church, but with mathematics instead of Jesus). There are also a number of tears creating openings in the fabric of reality, but currently, you urgently require access a relay station for pressing contact reasons. The challenge is that it's in the heart of a combat area, and you need to find a way to reach it.

Similar to the first game, Outer Worlds 2 is a first-person role-playing game with an overarching story and dozens of optional missions spread out across multiple locations or areas (large spaces with a lot to uncover, but not open-world).

The opening region and the process of reaching that comms station are remarkable. You've got some humorous meetings, of course, like one that features a rancher who has fed too much sugary cereal to their beloved crustacean. Most guide you to something useful, though — an unforeseen passage or some new bit of intel that might provide an alternate route onward.

Unforgettable Moments and Overlooked Possibilities

In one memorable sequence, you can find a Guardian defector near the overpass who's about to be killed. No mission is linked to it, and the sole method to locate it is by investigating and paying attention to the background conversation. If you're swift and sufficiently cautious not to let him get defeated, you can preserve him (and then protect his defector partner from getting killed by creatures in their hideout later), but more pertinent to the immediate mission is a energy cable concealed in the foliage nearby. If you follow it, you'll find a hidden entrance to the transmission center. There's an alternate entry to the station's drainage system tucked away in a grotto that you might or might not notice based on when you undertake a specific companion quest. You can find an readily overlooked individual who's crucial to preserving a life much later. (And there's a soft toy who subtly persuades a group of troops to join your cause, if you're kind enough to protect it from a minefield.) This opening chapter is rich and thrilling, and it feels like it's overflowing with substantial plot opportunities that benefits you for your exploration.

Diminishing Expectations

Outer Worlds 2 never lives up to those initial expectations again. The second main area is arranged comparable to a map in the original game or Avowed — a large region dotted with key sites and side quests. They're all thematically relevant to the conflict between Auntie's Option and the Order of the Ascendant, but they're also short stories separated from the primary plot narratively and location-wise. Don't expect any environmental clues guiding you toward fresh decisions like in the opening region.

Despite forcing you to make some tough decisions, what you do in this zone's side quests doesn't matter. Like, it really doesn't matter, to the extent that whether you enable war crimes or guide a band of survivors to their end leads to nothing but a throwaway line or two of conversation. A game isn't required to let every quest influence the story in some significant, theatrical manner, but if you're compelling me to select a faction and acting as if my choice is important, I don't believe it's unreasonable to hope for something further when it's finished. When the game's already shown that it can be better, any reduction seems like a concession. You get additional content like the developers pledged, but at the cost of depth.

Bold Ideas and Lacking Tension

The game's intermediate phase tries something similar to the main setup from the first planet, but with distinctly reduced flair. The idea is a bold one: an related objective that spans two planets and encourages you to seek aid from different factions if you want a smoother path toward your objective. Beyond the recurring structure being a little tiresome, it's also just missing the drama that this sort of circumstance should have. It's a "deal with the demon" moment. There should be hard concessions. Your connection with each alliance should be important beyond making them like you by doing new tasks for them. Everything is missing, because you can just blitz through on your own and complete the mission anyway. The game even takes pains to hand you ways of accomplishing this, indicating different ways as secondary goals and having allies tell you where to go.

It's a byproduct of a larger problem in Outer Worlds 2: the anxiety of permitting you to feel dissatisfied with your decisions. It often exaggerates out of its way to ensure not only that there's an alternate route in frequent instances, but that you are aware of it. Closed chambers practically always have various access ways indicated, or nothing valuable within if they don't. If you {can't