Preview: The Outer Worlds 2 Doubles Down on RPG Gameplay to Great Effect

We recently managed to play through the opening hour of The Outer Worlds 2, where we got a feel for gameplay, a peep at the far glitzier graphics, and tested out the foundations of its RPG leanings. We walked away not entirely won over, but certainly intrigued to play more.

Our play time with the game was on the Xbox Series X (thanks, Microsoft) so we’re still holding out to see how things like PS5 performance and DualSense implementation shape up. However, from what we did play, The Outer Worlds 2 feels like a bigger budget version of the first game – which is almost exactly what it is.

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For starters, the game features far more impressive graphics, with our first mission taking place on a space base with a moon-like planet in the distance and asteroids dotted across the horizon. With bright colours and strong art direction in both external and internal spaces, it's easy to get lost in its high-sci-fi setting.

Character models have also received noted improvements. Face models are nicely detailed, and while not the most impressive facial animation, it’s still a damn sight better than something like Starfield, or even the first game. It's nice to see that Obsidian is keeping up this quality after its other RPG release, Avowed, on Xbox earlier this year.

One of the things we came away most impressed by, though, was the gameplay. In the first game, we think you can feel its lower budget, with fairly simplistic and slow-paced gameplay – especially when it comes to shootouts. However, with the sequel, the feel is leagues better, with smooth and tight gun controls, and even snappier traversal.

Whether we were running, sliding, shooting, or stabbing, The Outer Worlds 2 feels like a AAA experience. We really only tried out a pistol, rifle, and knife during this demo, so it’s hard to say how things will pan out with its more out-there sci-fi weaponry — but there was a nice heft to the armaments, and combat felt like a playful, engaging experience.

But people are really playing an Obsidian game for the RPG aspects, and thankfully, The Outer Worlds 2 gets off to a promising start. We spent plenty of time reading through the various character backgrounds and starting skills to craft up our character, ranging from mechanical mastery to the gift of the gab.

Even in just the short amount of time that we played, we saw doors that we couldn't unlock, conversation statements that couldn’t be made, and devices that couldn’t be hacked – all because of the skill we had picked. A section that could have seen us fight through a collective of mech security, instead was bypassed by manipulating a security guard based on dialogue choices.

While we never got to see the impact of our actions, the “this will be remembered” warning popped up with every other statement. How it evolves when you actually get stuck into the game is yet to be seen, but it's reassuring that from the word go, your choices seemingly matter.

Of course, we're very keen to get stuck in with a PS5 build of the game, but the Series X version, which will undoubtedly be similar to Sony's version, was solid in terms of performance. There was a Quality mode option with 30 frames-per-second, and a Performance mode locking frames at 60. We played in Performance mode, with no noticeable drops, and as we mentioned, the visuals looked fantastic.

So while we don’t feel like we really got into the meat of The Outer Worlds 2, our short demo essentially confirmed the big points we were hoping for. This is a bigger budget sequel to a game that was already pretty great. Its gameplay is massively improved, its graphics are gorgeous, and its RPG features are very much at the heart of its experience. Put all that together and you’ve got the potential for another RPG classic from Obsidian.

But what do you think? Does a bigger budget Outer Worlds game appeal to you? Will you be picking it up when it launches on PS5 on the 29th October? Let us know down in the comments below.