The Outer Worlds 2

Pretty underwhelming. Only beat the game because I went over refund window and with having beaten it, I really don't have much to say. The trend of studios trimming down RPG elements to less than their skeleton is my main gripe, almost plays more like a bioshock game imo.

Super fun game. Went Gun build and kinda just killed everything. WHICH I enjoyed very much:)))))

it's not bad. it's just mid. i think i got it for 40 ish bucks on sale, which was slightly too expensive for me. 20 bucks would be the perfect price, 30 would be fair, but 60?! 70?!! 80?!!! hell no. granted, i haven't finished this game yet. however i did finish the outer worlds 1 so i think i know what to expect, and the 20 hours i have on records is still enough to make some judgements. i dislike the open area design. the first game was more linear. it felt shorter, more concise, which made it tolerable. this game feels bloated yet empty at the same time. it's all directionless padding. combat is shallow, it's all healthbars and damage numbers with little meaningful expression. bad gameplay would have been fine if the RPG side of it was good. for example, skyrim has really bad combat systems, but it's tolerable because you have a lot of different options and ways to build your character (especially with mods). there are a lot of combat systems to express yourself with, so the shallow combat ends up feeling rather flavorful. now, in outer worlds 2 there may look like you have a decent amount of options, but you really do not. RPG systems and skill building that LOOK like they would integrate with the game, or LOOK like they have a lot to invest in, are actually really shallow and superficial. wanna try fast swinging 1-handed blades to quickly apply DoT effects, getting elemental weapon mods and investing skill points into science and medicine to maximize poison or frost damage? doesn't really work. between skills, perks and mods it LOOKS like you can make defined playstyles out of this, but you really can't. i don't know how else to explain it. it's all fake. invest all you want, you spam mouse 1 while holding a hammer or you spam mouse 1 while holding a rifle. that's the full extent of what you can do. none of the RPG systems change that at all. no amount of leveling will change that. try and invest into stealth? you still end up as a warrior wielding a big hammer somehow. i can't explain how it doesn't work. it just doesn't. it's the floaty and shallow skyrim combat, without any of the added options. no magic, no shouts, no alchemy, no enchantments. okay but how about outside of combat you may ask? disco elysium, planescape torment and other CRPGs which have zero combat, are still amazing RPGs. so clearly a good RPG isn't defined by how well leveling impacts combat. so how is it in outer worlds 2? it's okay. you frequently get the option to "use" one of your skills in dialogue to get +10 xp. what to do with a high medicine or science stat? well that's easy! you talk to an NPC who's ranting about something delusional or weird and you either get a medicine or science check to say something like "i think you have a concussion" or "ghosts aren't real, you probably saw something else" and get rewarded with +10 xp. or there will be a locked room and there will be 3 ways to enter, one entrance that uses the hack skill, one that uses brawny trait/engineering skill and one that uses lockpick. your skills just determine how you enter a room, or you mention it in dialogue to get slightly more XP or extra money. [b] you get a lot of chances to use your skills and traits, but it doesn't meaningfully matter and none of your uses and interesting. [/b] the roleplay opportunity for the medicine skill in fallout new vegas is actually interesting, in that there are multiple opportunities to perform surgery on people throughout that game (which you will otherwise fail horribly). in outer worlds 2, you get some dialogue options with NPC doctors, which result in them giving you some money, which isn't as interesting. moreover, medicine has an actual place within the world of new vegas, since that's a game where you take a lot of damage and healing is both slow and dependant on items with actual scarcity, making the medicine skill needed outside of combat; moreover the limb and rad system make it so medicine is actually quite valuable in combat too. there's an economic benefit to the medicine skill and it helps you survive in the wastes. in conclusion, the medicine skill has actual interesting uses outside of dialogue and impacts gameplay meaningfully. being a doctor helps you in many ways. not by a crazy amount, but enough to define your character. however in outer worlds 2, medicine is just for extra rewards in dialogue pretty much. get some extra XP or money. sure you can spam your inhaler in combat a bit more often, but it doesn't really have an impact because companions have free healing powers, you have infinite carrying capacity so you never run out of food or charges and the map is covered in full-heal stations (including the infinite use one that's on your ship). despite giving you many skill checks, the medicine skill isn't meaningful or impactful. lastly, it's also a bit directionless, i mean it gives dmg bonus against animals for some reason, has perks that improve acid effects (which is for robots and armored enemies afaik?) so the use for it isn't well defined. making it bad in a genre that's about defining who you are. a lot of skills have that issue. writing and story is basic. i'd say that "comedy" and "dystopian satire" is for tone and worldbuilding not, they're not literary genres. the game isn't actually funny or politically interesting. i don't think it's supposed to be. the story is that of a generic sci-fi adventure. the humor is just for making things lighthearted and quippy, nothing is actually serious. the dystopia and satire is just for theming, dictating who your enemies are and how things look. it's aesthetic. superficial. this time it's not criticism (although i'm personally a little disappointed by it) as it's clearly supposed to be generic and simple. it's not trying to be deep. it just wants a functional plot for a video game, a reason to shoot stuff. as such it doesn't fail, seeing as how it accomplishes what it means to do. it's not to my taste but others will prefer it. TLDR: game is not bad but it's lacking in any kind of depth. can't recommend it because of the high price.

I have just shy of 150 hours in the game, so obviously, I'm a fan. I really enjoyed the story, carries a lot of the same irreverence as the first game, and it's a big galaxy! Until about a month and some ago. The Obsidion team/Xbox Game Studios made a change with a patch, and now the game has been unplayable for a couple months. Can't finish a cutscene without the game locking up. Have made system, graphics card changes, no joy. This is really disappointing. And considering as of today, Xbox studios laid off another 4800 people, I don't exect this to get better. Damn shame. I had really enjoyed the game, to this point. Hope they un-funk them selves.

Гораздо хуже первой части. Вроде играешь, но вообще не затягивает, не хочется возвращаться в нее. Первую часть перепроходил несколько раз.

What a letdown vs the first game; this is basically a woke DEI liberal dogma game.

I got to the mission right before the end and realized I just didn't care. The writing is almost insultingly juvenile. Which do you like more? Super-fascists that will torture you to make you behave? Super-capitalists that will murder and eat their mom for 3 bits and half of a promotion? Or the genius techno-seers that use math to see the future and want to use their planet sized super computer to make the universe better? It's like they didn't even try giving you real options outside of "good, bad, and worst". I also just don't enjoy the combat at all. The armor and weapons are just boring, and every combat feels the same. I'd much rather have 80gb of hard drive back than finish this game... and I really liked the first game.

The game works when it does, but the problem is the wireless radio (who's ever heard of anything else? Wired radio?? (HA hahaha) NO, seriously though, if I'm going to enjoy this game, I'd like to see it work as intended. Why do I have to give system level authorization to run this game? I don't use an admin account on my computer for every day use, so I would suggest you steer away from that manipulation. Why do you need to have system level authorization to re-install an already installed game and re-generate the shaders every single time? I'd like to see the code optomized FOR the player, not against them? Until you keep me from having to give you permission to install this game every time, you're getting a "B", as in I suggest you do better. *UPDATE* I've decided that the game could have used some re-playability by making perks carry over after a full playthrough, but such a reward wasn't used, and it used to be something common to a lot of games wanting to have players come back and try the harder levels with more starting stats than default. Overall, No, This game gets an "F" for failing to try to make itself stand above the rest instead of being just another average entry into a list of games that will disappear once the developer decides to pull the plug on the game servers. If this game becomes playable offline with perks kept upon replay, well then we might have something fun. As it is, it looks like you're being ripened up for a new version of Fallout or it's remake / remaster. Good for a run through once, and maybe more if you like to hear different dialogues as you go through the missions differently, but actually becoming a superagent? Forget it. It's what I wanted to do, but now I know it's pointless I've lost interest; it's just a linear game that falls short of Ratchet and Clank's A Rift Apart; you get to keep your skills after you win, to make further playthroughs more of an adventure; This game didn't even try to throw that in as a nice feature to keep people playing over and over again. Pitty. Thumbs down, too average to brag about, and not worth the full price without some loyalty appreciation.

Seriously, this game trips so many of my nonsense detectors that I spend an hour to think of any redeeming quality that I can't find any. The first region is decent, but the more time I spend in the other areas the more I want this game to end. Start with the general design. Both the corporation and the evil authoritarian regime are more of a caricature of one, which makes the story telling more of a nonsensical literature. The world space in this game feels less like an open world (or worlds), but more like a amusement park with different theme stitched together. The first map is better at this, but each of the subsequent ones have locations that serve a purpose on their own but disconnected to the rest of the map. Also, to get from point A to point B you need to chew through waves upon waves of local bloodthirsty wildlife. The music control is weird. It seems to play parallel tracks depending on your distance to locations and hostiles. But this is constantly changing, so the music is presented as highly inconsistent. There is also the radio stations. The presentation, and the music style, feel like Disneyland PA broadcast, which makes sense for the corporate radio, but for the other factions? Weird sound effect everywhere. There is a persistent hissing noise that play randomly while walking. The dialog is too pretentious. Everyone feels the need to use big words to illustrate trivial subjects. It works for folks from one faction but for all of them? Voice-over is not bad but could use better talents. There is also robotic tentacles. Because this is a post-Covid-19 sci-fi so it must have robotic tentacles. It is severely overpriced. If the base price represents base game + DLC it would be more fair.

An ultimately boring game. To understand what is going on you have to read so many terminals, the enemies all have bloated health pools, the dialogue is clunky and irritating, the level progression is slow so character builds take ages to get their identity. I could go on but I think you get the point.