The Outer Worlds 2 review for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X

Out of all the games I’ve ever played, The Outer Worlds 2 is certainly one of them.

Which is to say: despite sinking hours into it, and going back to it multiple times, I can’t say I have any strong feelings about the game. It looks nice, it’s got a big world, and it runs just fine…and I’ve been struggling to think of much else to say about it.

Which, in itself, kind of says a lot. It’s a big budget sequel to one of the best games of 2019. It’s by Obsidian Entertainment, the studio behind games like Knights of the Old Republic II, Alpha Protocol, and Fallout: New Vegas. And yet, even with all that money and its pedigree, I can’t say any of it stuck with me.

And I mean that for good or for ill. There’s no way I’d ever describe The Outer Worlds 2 as a bad game – it’s definitely not that. I mean, it does everything you’d expect an open-world RPG to do. It builds on the plot and the backstory from the first game, giving you even more to do. It’s got a huge world, and the planets that make up the game are never lacking in sidequests to pick up and places to explore. And, of course, it looks great – no matter where you are, chances are good it’ll look very impressive.

Yet despite all that, the game still feels kind of hollow. It feels like the world is there entirely because of you. And while that’s true of any game, it feels especially overt in The Outer Worlds 2 – where the best games make you feel like you’ve been dropped into a world that exists independently of your character, in this case you feel like everything is there specifically for you to interact with. The other characters? They watch you constantly, waiting for you to come talk to them. The dialogue? It feels like the whole point of the conversations is for you to exhaust every last dialogue tree option. Even the wildlife that inhabit the worlds seem to be sitting around, waiting for you to come by so they can spring to life.

Again, it’s hard to say that The Outer Worlds 2 is a bad game, or one that doesn’t offer players plenty to do. It’s undeniably a well-made game. But that doesn’t make it particularly compelling. It offers players plenty to do, and I fully understand how anyone could sink a couple of dozen hours into it – but the whole time you’re playing it, don’t be surprised if you feel like you’re going through the motions rather than feeling super inspired by any of it.

Xbox Game Studios provided us with an Outer Worlds 2 PC code for review purposes.