Thoughts after playing through The Outer Worlds 2 twice

I was really excited for this game and replayed The Outer Worlds 1 in anticipation for it, even though I knew that the games take place in two different colonies. 

The first thing of note is the main menu. It's hilarious and expertly provides the Outer Worlds feel immediately upon starting the game. A feel which, in my opinion, is very much absent from the rest of the game. 

I had heard it said that the devs had taken people's criticism of the extreme absurdism of the original game under consideration and opted to tone it down significantly for the next game. To me, that absurdism is what made Outer Worlds unique and I really miss it in Outer Worlds 2. 

Instead, Outer Worlds 2 is a simulator in three ways of oppression: totalitarian dictatorship, extreme corporatism, or conforming theocracy. That last one seems the least oppressive of the three, but scratch the surface and you find that people die if they don't adhere to the dogma or listen to the Seers. 

Exactly how oppressive the corporatists are starts out small. You come across a couple fishermen on Paradise Island who've been "liberated" by the corporatists and gush about how excited they are to be getting paid for their work, and actually be allowed days of paid vacation. It takes a darker turn on Praetor where, in a Faction quest, you're asked to break a workers' strike. Their demands are 18 hour shifts instead of 20 and unlimited bathroom breaks (asking for the bathrooms to be unlocked at all times). I assume this is supposed to be a hint to their previous level of absurdism, but all it really is is a callback to the early days of industrialisation, before workers' rights were a concept. This isn't absurdism, it's a history lesson. 

Aside from my complaints about the lack of the Outer Worlds vibe, I really did enjoy the game. To the point where I played through it twice, 100%ing both times, the second playthrough immediately after the first. 

In my first playthrough I messed up my build quite a lot. I was so focused on making sure I could get in everywhere and interact with everything that I didn't focus on any one skill and ended up being pretty unskilled in everything, and by the time I got to Praetor I was severely lacking in everything. So in my second playthrough I decided to focus on Speech and Hack as main skills and Observation and Lockpick as secondary skills. It got the job done, but I hate leaving things as they are. I really wished I could've maxed out Engineering as well, or maybe Medical. Having max level at 30 and no way to respec was a bit limiting. The community seems to agree judging by the mods over at Nexus. Next time I play I'll probably download something. 

In the first game I really liked most of the companions (especially Max and Felix). In this game I ended up absolutely loving Tristan and Marisol and they ended up being my default squad, unless I was doing a companion quest. I liked Aza too. Inez never grew on me. Niles is the forgettable one I drop as soon as someone more interesting comes along. Honestly, he and VAL only ever stayed as my squad for their companion quests and before I had anyone else, being the first two companions available. Tristan's reactions to most things are amazing. He tries so hard to be this proper, stern Arbiter, but what he really is is an excitable guy discovering the pleasures of an unrestrained life. And teaching Marisol to be less murderous is a joy to me.

One thing I miss from the first game is returning to the ship and finding the companions interacting with one another. They don't do that anymore. They just stick to their assigned spots waiting for you to talk to them while "looking busy". They do talk to one another when part of a squad together, so it's not like their respective loyalties stop them from socialising. They just don't on the ship. 

This post came out a lot more negative than I envisioned. I did like the game. I had a lot of fun with it. I know back when Avowed released some people said that it felt like Outer Worlds but fantasy. I didn't see that. Avowed and The Outer Worlds 1 are entirely separate in my book. But The Outer Worlds 2 does feel like Avowed but in space. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, since I loved Avowed to bits, but it doesn't feel like Outer Worlds. 

I loved the game, I promise xD