The Outer Worlds 2 centers on heightened satire aimed at corporations and totalitarian governments within a retro-future space setting. Opening sequences combine character creation with archetypal asides that establish tone and personality. One archetype, the Roustabout, is portrayed as unskilled yet elevated to command in the Earth Directorate, blending incompetence with authority. The opening mission sends players to investigate spacetime anomalies and coordinate with an inside agent in the Protectorate, a totalitarian colony government at odds with a megacorp. Worldbuilding includes a silly propaganda show and scenes showing Protectorate operations. Directorate forces act as an overbearing police-for-hire focused on protecting megacorp profits.
The Outer Worlds was widely seen as a decent stab at mapping Obsidian's first-person RPG style onto a new retro-future sci-fi setting, but what really set it apart was its satirical sense of humor. Unlike similar series like Elder Scrolls or Fallout, the spacefaring setting gave it new avenues to mock corporations and governments. For The Outer Worlds 2, Obsidian is doubling down on those qualities with a premise that's more immediately satirical and opens more options to poke at the edges of its systems.
I played roughly an hour of The Outer Worlds at Gamescom, which looked to represent the opening of the game, from character creation and a late title card. Right away the humor shone through, as each archetypal selection had its own funny aside that helped illustrate what made it unique. I chose the Roustabout, described as a person with no skills who essentially fell ass-backwards into their role as a commander in the Earth Directorate.
The opening mission has you dispatched to investigate spacetime anomalies and coordinate with an agent on the inside of the Protectorate, a totalitarian colony government that's at conflict with a megacorp. Already you have the ingredients for rich worldbuilding, which is first illustrated with a silly propaganda show for the Directorate and continues with seeing firsthand the way the Protectorate runs its government.
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