The Outer Worlds 2 hands-on preview — Back to the future

If there were a game that fits the Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money motif, it’s The Outer Worlds 2. I mean that in the most respectful way possible, with this being a sequel that should exist, not a shameless money grab. The Outer Worlds 2 has leaned into that corporate shill kind of marketing as well, not giving a crap about perception. What matters is the substance behind Obsidian’s creation, and while the hour long demo I got to play didn’t show much of that, it did show the systems in play are exactly what I want to see.

Obsidian often makes games that speak directly to me. I love a good action-RPG, but especially ones that have great dialogue and systems that blend together. The original Outer Worlds did much of what I wanted, with a more bite-sized RPG experience that did plenty right and didn’t outstay its welcome. From what we’ve heard, that’s exactly what The Outer Worlds 2 is doing, sticking to its guns in being digestible.

Starting my preview build, I was treated to a phenomenal cutscene. If you’ve watched the Outer Worlds episode from Prime Video’s Secret Level, you’ll know what I mean when I say it’s on that kind of level. The Outer Worlds was no slouch in the visuals department, but pre-rendered cutscenes could add even more sizzle to a game that already has the steak covered.

This preview begins with you as an Earth Protectorate agent, and seemingly a pretty legendary one. You’ll go through and customize your character, as one always will in an RPG. Obsidian has a good amount of options to choose from, although body type doesn’t allow you to shift the character’s build. 

Where the meat and potatoes of the RPG experience really comes in is through picking your background, traits, and skills. These will support your dialogue choices and open up new ways to complete your tasks. That’s a bit of a simplification, but rest assured the choices you make here shape your game experience. For example, I picked ex-convict as my background on my initial playthrough, with a gun and lockpicking skill. Not only did the agent on a space Zoom call yell at me about my background, but I also could use the gun skill in a dialogue option when discussing who one of the companions would prefer by their side in a fight. Also, when getting through the first section with enemy mechs, another companion mentioned picking the lock of a vent to get through and offered me a pick for doing so, which didn’t occur in my other two runs.

Playing through this demo only took about forty-five minutes, and although it was a bit shallow due to its tutorial nature, it sets the stage for your character’s entrance. There’s a planet out there called Arcadia, a defiant group on said planet known as The Protectorate, and they’re shipping skip drives for hyperspace travel that for some reason are causing dangerous rift anomalies. Your job is to drop into one of their laboratories, rendezvous with a senior agent on the scene named De Vries, and “liberate” an unsealed skip core. The entire premise seems very Helldivers 2, and I’m all about this kind of narrative angle. The best thing about it is Obsidian knows how to craft the surrounding themes – nothing is black and white in their games.

You’ll immediately see these gray areas in the opening interactions with the crew, all of whom have their own position which corresponds to the dialogue you have available. Abara is all about helping people, Pascal thinks you need to be tough but not blindly follow protocol, and Sandoval is quite pro-Earth Protectorate, assuming everyone is stupid and needs to be governed. These themes creep into every line you choose, and they’ll remember some of your choices, denoted by a pop-up. There will be spots where what you say comes into play later, so it’s good to be on your toes when choosing your responses. 

The Outer Worlds 2 hasn’t lost any of the original’s charm in this switch of perspective, with some silly moments coupled with serious interactions. Again, my demo was short, so there’s only so much to draw on, but the world-building and narrative are on the right track. Something tells me Obsidian is actively hiding their best missions and characters on the far side of the moon, so to speak.

Gameplay may be the most intriguing shift in The Outer Worlds 2, mainly in that it’s almost got a bit of Dishonored-style immersive-sim going on. Where the first game certainly allowed you to make plenty of choices, the section I played did that more with the mechanics than I remember in The Outer Worlds. In one area where I was trying to get to the laboratory to find the skip drive, I was met with an obstacle: a raised bridge. Three different options appeared in three separate runs – going through the pump station by using a lock pick, opening the same pump station with a keycard, or talking the guy at the bridge controls into dropping it. That last option may have more to it as well, considering I could have picked the lock and most likely killed him and lowered the bridge myself rather than threatening him into lowering it to allow mechs to come and kill me. Foolish guard, my firepower took those robots out easily.

I know the above may not sound like much in the grand scheme of things, but there truly are a lot of avenues in how you can approach your situations. Stealth is here and with more tools to make it viable, like actual sneak attacks and throwable distraction nodes. Once, when I came to a companion’s aid, I could use a medical skill to help him… if I had grabbed that during my initial choices at character creation. There was even a chalkboard inside one of the labs that had some sort of scientific jargon on it that I could read, but only with the Professor background. When we move into the full game, I get the feeling there’s going to be so much worth investing in skill-wise that it’s going to require multiple playthroughs just to see what happens.

Dual companions are another interesting idea, although I, again, didn’t get much of them in action. Above when I mentioned the companion offering a lockpick, the other had another idea for a workaround in shutting down the mechs, which helps with presenting the player with all these optional playstyles we just talked about. There was even another option brought up by one of them in my other run, which is pretty cool to see; every playthrough can be completely different from another.

The other portion of this demo that changed up the cadence was separating from the companions in doing in-mission tasks. You’re offered two choices as soon as you’re past those initial mechs: sneak into Security Ops to disable the mechs, or hit Central Dispatch to kill the communications relay. Both of these will lead you to the same conclusion once your task is finished, but they are completely different quests that you’ll handle in their own manner. Knowing your build will make one easier, or harder if you don’t have the right skills at the ready.

Gunplay feels smoother, especially with the pistol you start with. While I needed to adjust the aim assist a tad as it was a bit sticky to the chest of my enemies, shooting felt really good. With how the original seemed to lean into melee, I get the feeling you’ll use a lot more ranged weapons this time around. Here’s hoping for some really wild ideas like Obsidian is known for in that department.

While not as smooth, the third-person mode is a good addition to The Outer Worlds 2. For those who prefer that perspective, Obsidian has built two variants, one closer behind the shoulder and the other further back. My only qualms come when you interact with things or come out of a cutscene; you’re forced into first-person, which is a little jarring. Besides that, the character model’s movement and aiming are on point, so here’s hoping the former can be patched up.

I can’t leave this preview without talking about the visuals and soundtrack, both areas that the team has knocked out of the park. Although the demo doesn’t directly show how vibrant The Outer Worlds 2 can be, its depiction of a cold metal space station is spot on. Besides this, the character models stand out, not as great as they did in Avowed, but I’m sure they will be in the retail build. The orchestral soundtrack that sits in the background always hits the right notes, and the swelling theme at the end of my demo hammered home the excellence crafted by the composer.

Even though this demo isn’t the best representation of what The Outer Worlds 2 will offer as a more open-world and effervescent product, seeing the depths of the gameplay has me excited to experience it. The things I didn’t see don’t bother me – Obsidian has always delivered stellar world-building and narrative elements. What’s here, intricate dialogue and a plethora of ways to play even a small tutorial level, give me optimism that The Outer Worlds 2 will be a worthy follow up.

The Outer Worlds 2 launches on October 29th, 2025. You can pre-order it now for PC, Xbox Series consoles, and PlayStation 5. It will also be available Day One on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

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