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Upon my initial experience with the first Outer Worlds game, I was quickly hooked by its sarcastic, Fallout-inspired type of wit. This title included lively conversations, individual logs, and advertising displays that depicted a company-run society that was simultaneously grim and amusing. My primary concern heading into the follow-up was that this entry – not due to of its own – could fail to be as funny like the original.

Admittedly, conditions weren't ideal. Yet society definitely felt somewhat less damaged back then. This game depicted a grim society that didn't feel extremely relatable, and still managed to be simultaneously touching and comical. I started The Outer Worlds 2 feeling quite confident that this installment couldn't succeed to accomplish this a second time, but I'm delighted to report that I was wrong. The Outer Worlds 2 is equally chuckle-inducing as the release that preceded it, and furthermore presents fresh concepts rather than just recycling similar elements comparable to an worn-out business tune.

Evolving Characters

The majority of the non-player characters users found in the first title had been defeated by the activities of company organizations like the fictional company, and were painfully aware of the degree that their lives sucked. This installment takes things in a distinct route, including personalities who are indoctrinated (occasionally metaphorically, regularly truly). Many of these characters don't even realize of how profoundly messed up their circumstances are, or that there could be options to a lifetime passed under the boot of a large business or bound by the creeds of a demanding cult.

This second installment investigates methods of company influence that are more subtle than only making the population impoverished. Various personalities have been indoctrinated into the kind of excessively zealous "work ethic" rhetoric you can discover on online profiles that promise to reveal the key to success if you pay a costly program, or participate in a questionable digital currency plan. Even the game's corporate propaganda has developed.

Modern Themes

There continue to be many demotivating signs in various locations threatening to dock pay from workers who dare to consider requesting leave, but there are also references to pyramid scheme strategies, including a new hire handbook that confidently announces, "Unfamiliar individuals are simply patrons you haven't met yet!" Being a person who developed within a direct sales household, I promptly exploded in amusement when encountering this reference, because it's a phrase I have regularly listened to repeated exactly by individuals in lower positions of such schemes.

Thankfully, this sequel is equally humorous and irreverent as the initial release.

The Outer Worlds 2 additionally investigates the dilemma many of us find ourselves in concerning occupation, political matters, and even consumer choices: Needing to choose the lesser of several poor choices. While attempting to decide whether to back a risky company or a concerning cult within the title, I discovered I was aligning with the familiar evil: A familiar business organization that is terrible (but only uses propaganda to brainwash its subjects), as opposed to the faith organization, which is similarly terrible, but uses a terrible method called "mental refreshment" to keep its adherents compliant.

Unreliable Masters

Furthermore, the characters you work for might not be trustworthy. Playing as an Earth Directorate agent, you're tasked with trying to reestablish order to the Arcadia colony following a forceful company buyout, and you rapidly learn that both the aggressors and the invadees subscribe to separate (though equally awful) ideologies. Yet a speedy inspection of the transmissions on your ship's terminal show that this agency isn't precisely the galaxy's most moral organization too, as demonstrated by a reply to an emergency signal that tells the sender it will take "3-5 corporate years" for a reply to their transmission. (That time frame is about how long it takes for many people to contact a real customer service agent through calling these days.)

Familiar Situations

Various situations in The Outer Worlds 2 are extremely familiar, but it's a cleansing sort of relatability, and the game succeeds in balancing its bleak societal vision with comedy that's truly humorous without feeling out of place. A primary concept is the near-instant onset of enshittification that seems to take place in the wake of significant business mergers. Workers from each party of The Outer Worlds 2's major acquisition experience their living standards decline as a result, while the executives in control of the food chain are, naturally, accumulating money quickly.

Okay, at the very least I understand my situation.

Similar to the first game, this sequel is intrinsically comedic, but it also doesn't hesitate to become dramatic. At one point, while wandering around the release's primary explorable world, I came upon a corpse with a recording in the vicinity. This recording showed that this NPC (associated with the brainwashing religious faction) had died in an accident during efforts to hunt down and eliminate her significant other. This romantic partner had seemingly abandoned from their group, and the perished individual was incensed at her lover's {traitorous