The Outer Worlds 2 director “loves” complex RPG systems, which means if “you just want to blow stuff up, you never have to worry about stealth”
The director of The Outer Worlds 2 is a self-confessed RPG systems sicko, which means that you can dive extremely deep into the game’s systems, but you won’t be forced to invest in stuff you don’t like.
In an interview with GamesRadar+, creative director Brandon Adler says that his background in system design and the fact that he’s “been in RPGs forever” comes together to make sure he loves “complex systems.” That’s a pretty good place to be for a creative director on an RPG, because “you’re going to have crazy complex systems.”
That complexity is something Adler says Obsidian “tried to push forward” out of The Outer Worlds 1. But doing so required a balance, and the team had to ensure “they’re not complex to start.” To avoid pushing more casual players away, you “don’t even have to interact” with those systems early on. The systems “are complex if the player wants to dig into those and get deeper – we give that depth to the player,” Adler explains.
For instance, “if you love stealth, you can really dig into that.” That focus on sneaking is so significant that The Outer Worlds 2 team is going room-by-room to make sure you can stealth all the time if you want to. But what if you’re not a sneak? Well, “if you’re a combat person, you just want to blow stuff up, you never have to worry about stealth.”
Adler says that’s part and parcel of the Obsidian philosophy – “we like to give players lots of different ways to tackle content, but to do that I think you need to make sure that it’s simple early and gets complex.” That, however, results in the potentially-controversial decision to ban respeccing from The Outer Worlds 2. Adler is a real believer in the role-playing bit of the term RPG, which means he wants to make sure “you’re building your character and really doubling down” on what makes them unique to you.
How Obsidian became Xbox’s most prolific studio: “There’s not a lot of studios at Microsoft that have an entire external developer making the whole game for them.”
