“It’s What Players Told Us They Wanted”: Outer Worlds 2 Planets Are Addressing First Game’s Biggest Criticisms

The Outer Worlds 2 is still set to be released this year, and developer Obsidian Entertainment is keen to address a common criticism lobbied against its predecessor. The sci-fi RPG will get special attention alongside this summer's Xbox Games Showcase on June 8, but new information surrounding its open world – or perhaps more accurately, open zone – design has surfaced.

Speaking with IGN, Outer Worlds 2 game director Brandon Adler said, "One of the very first things we were targeting when we started The Outer Worlds 2 was to make these big, expansive areas. It's what players told us they wanted." The first game has multiple planets to explore, but its explorable areas are rather constrained, which many players felt clashed with the idea of exploring a star system. Adler provided more insight on The Outer Worlds 2's level design:

"We made sure of that with big open sightlines and we spent a lot of time and effort on making really cool looking points of interest out in the distance to really draw players and really bring them off the beaten path."
"When we're building these more open spaces, we have a defined path that we want the player to go through. But in true Obsidian game style, we allow players to go everywhere and kind of experience whatever they want."

The Outer Worlds 2 Will Have Bigger Zones Than The First Game

It's Still Not A True Open World

By virtue of its setting across multiple planets and moons, The Outer Worlds 2 can't be a traditional open world with a contiguous map, but it's still going to build on the scope of the first game. A series of open zones appears to be Obsidian's modus operandi when it comes to its modern first-person RPGs, so it may be similar in explorable footprint to the studio's recent fantasy RPG Avowed, which also released earlier this year.

2019's The Outer Worlds was generally celebrated for its writing and setting, but smaller zones, a limited bestiary, and an unimpressive selection of weapons made its scope and repetition key points of criticism. The Outer Worlds 2 was announced all the way back in 2021 before the death of E3, and this early look at its planets and moons shows the result of the studio's last few years of work.

The Outer Worlds 2's New Planets Are Going In The Right Direction

Story Over Size

Most of IGN's preview of new Outer Worlds 2 planets focused on one called Golden Ridge, which exemplifies a strong direction for the game's open zone design. It draws inspiration from both the Wild West and the trench warfare of World War 1, and Adler said of the story surrounding it, "I won't get into what happens at the beginning of Golden Ridge, but there's a big state change in the area when you first get there." He continued, "You’ll see that throughout a lot of our areas as well. We try to do those types of things - let the players see big events that are happening pretty early and get them hooked into the area."

Touting strong narrative hooks combined with smartly sized game worlds is a promising impression of The Outer Worlds 2 heading into its dedicated showcase segment in a couple of months. Bigger isn't necessarily better, especially in spacefaring RPGs, as proven by Starfield's 1,000+ planets, which ultimately leaves the game feeling barren.

It's nice to see developers take player sentiment into account, especially when it comes to a game that has as strong a foundation as The Outer Worlds. Obsidian has been a celebrated RPG developer for decades, and it's promising that the studio acknowledges the shortcomings in its own work. It will be unclear exactly how much better The Outer Worlds 2 is than its predecessor until it's out, but Obsidian's candidness in improving the game's level design should please many prospective players.

Source: IGN