In case you didn't already know, you'll be able to play The Outer Worlds 2 in first and third-person, depending on your preference.
It's a design choice straight from Bethesda's open world RPG formula, letting you shift perspective whenever you like. It's always nice to have options, innit?
But why did developer Obsidian decide to implement a whole third-person mode for its sequel? The Outer Worlds, the first game, was first-person only — so something must have changed.
Speaking to Game Informer, director Brandon Adler provides some insight:
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"We didn't intend to do third-person when we first started the game. We actually didn't start doing it until, really, maybe about two years ago or so.
About halfway through [development], we were like, 'I think people are really going to want this,' so we did an evaluation of how difficult it was going to be to implement it."
Indeed, this comes across as the kind of thoughtful addition that sequels often introduce. Based on everything we've seen of it, The Outer Worlds 2 is very much a 'bigger and better' type of follow-up, attempting to build and expand upon what its predecessor got right, instead of reinventing the property.
And with that in mind, Obsidian actually called in help from a separate team called Disruptive, which went on to create the game's third-person mode.
That's probably a lot harder than people realise, by the way. All of your character's animations will have to line up with what's already possible when playing in first-person, and you'd need to ensure that the camera isn't unwieldy depending on the surrounding environment.
It's the kind of thing that would need some serious testing before it's ready to go.
Still, Obsidian's managed to do it. Here's hoping that both modes of play are worth trying out when The Outer Worlds 2 launches later this month.
Would you play The Outer Worlds 2 in third-person? Or would you stick to first-person? Zoom that camera out in the comments section below.
Would you rather play The Outer Worlds 2 in first or third-person? (421 votes)
- First for me
- Third all the way