The Outer Worlds 2’s Ending: The Definitive Review

When the vow breaks, the cradle will fall

I do enjoy taking a massive hiatus at Christmas, as it gives me lots of time to formulate incredibly quixotic and fatally-flawed arguments against videogames that I actually thoroughly enjoyed. The Outer Worlds 2 is the perfect candidate for this somewhat nonserious pursuit, seeing as it ran with one of the greatest fat middles I’ve seen for quite some years, only to bungle itself into a surprisingly tiresome ending mission. Surprisingly so because I was absolutely expecting a bungled and tiresome final mission, but the one I got somehow turned out to be even more bungled and tiresome than I imagined. This was coming off the back of the ending stages of Avowed, which I complained were less epic and more conservative than the game’s trajectory had lead me to anticipate, and as such perhaps I’d foolishly let myself believe the big guns were being held in reserve for the AAA aspirant The Outer Worlds 2. Not so, it seems. There’s another piece to be written about how Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2 form an extremely pleasing Obsidi-game template that absolutely works and seems reasonably achievable for mid-range budgets, but it did surprise me that where Avowed fell short, The Outer Worlds 2 capitalised, only for the Sci-Fi sequel to stumble at the end where Avowed climaxed with a big old ruck. For Avowed, it was a return to beginnings for a final chance to really flex everything you’d learned and acquired which felt very much in keeping with the story’s momentum, even if its much-signposted forbidden zone left me a little unimpressed. The Outer Worlds 2, however, opted for a kind of compartmentalised multivariate narrative approach which ended up with the fate of the game and its local universe being decided in a room by talking to a man. Your options for conversation are decided by skills acquired and knowledge found, which made the chat as clunky and artificial as Deus Ex’s ending choices, only less free thanks to The Outer Worlds 2’s commitment to permanence and consequence.

It was a real disappointment, and perhaps the reason why The Outer Worlds 2 was being bashed as a 7/10 no-mark in a year dominated by swaggering AAA excesses facing off against rabidly-adored indie darlings. I have to say, the game’s biggest fault is that main story resolution, which is made all the worse by how beautifully The Outer Worlds 2 unfolds in its fat middle.¹ As you’re exploring densely-packed landscapes for all they contain and ushered around ultra-cool secret labs and underground facilities, all stacked with fabulous opportunities to go stealth/hack/engineer bonkers, the game’s post-opening bulk is absolutely wonderful. I lapped up every second, thrilled that the game had stepped well beyond the confines of its debut. The last two planetary maps feel just as rich in content as the first two, which is an admirable achievement given the obvious curtailing that’s gone on with two of the game’s factions. It seems that an immovable release date forced some very strong decisions, but given what was probably a devil’s bargain, I’m happier that we got playable content at a density that kept me extremely happy, rather than lots of lore exposition and special missions for two unfulfilled groups. The lore we do get is pretty fun, if sometimes mystifyingly ‘meh’ in terms of impact. In a swerve/shocker seemingly snaffled from Skyrim, it’s possible to meet some very high-up high-ups indeed and the circumstances surrounding that would logically seem geopolitically catastrophic, yet it’s all saved for a passing comment as a desperate last-gasp (at least for my build) in that final, climactic chit-chat.

That conversation is where all of your choices lead, and it’s one that’s fundamentally affected by your skill allotments. You can read plenty of guides to where you should dump your points for maximal outcomes for whichever faction you want to triumph (or otherwise), but this compromises the fun in play. My monster-loading of stealth had next to no bearing at all on the final chat, but gave me hours of hooting at the alarmingly huge stealth damage bonus I was accruing. Other skills I scattered around to acquire particular perks that, once again, were great during play. But for the narrative, they were an absolute waste. One of my skills, Engineering, was levelled enough to let me do shit to help me out in missions, but not enough to sway big conversations in the late game. I can’t say I cared that much, as the point share between Engineering, Hacking and Lockpick set up a great build alongside Stealth, especially by the time you’re romping through the final two planets. I suppose this is the greatest of all hidden dualities in The Outer Worlds 2’s joyous celebration of the 50/50 choice; go for the ludological, experiential joy or save for the narratological, resolutory freedom and satisfaction. Freedom of choice in play, or freedom of choice in ending. Regular readers should know how fanatical I am about one side of that coin, but I still feel that being dumped to main menu like it’s 2010 wasn’t the actual ending I’d hoped for, especially when lacking a NG+ in a game that’s purposely built for multiple, multiple runs. This feels a bit cheap, a bit lacking in thought or perhaps a bit cruel in the sense that as with Avowed, NG+ is being deliberately withheld for commercial purposes or something. It doesn’t feel very Obsidian, dare I say it. But then, of all the games Obsidian has produced, none stands in the shadow of New Vegas quite like this one. And for my money, mistaking the conversational wanglings and factional jostles of New Vegas for the true value of the game is a crime. It criminally ignores just how much fun there was to find in the Mojave of the neo-Fallouts. That’s my enduring memory of it, at least - exploring and finding a constant stream of brilliance and fascination alongside all that beautiful acquisition. In a sense, the factional politics was a mere skeleton upon which I found my treasures, moreso than the vital arc that brought the game to some satisfying conclusion. As I wrote well over 10 years ago for Edge Online and Eurogamer, my New Vegas ending was one I chose - stasis. I left the Hoover Dam in perpetual anticipation of the final battle, for I found a far more rewarding ending as a lone wanderer for justice, cleansing the wasteland of Legion goons and violent criminals. It’s a bit of a shame that The Outer Worlds 2 just doesn’t support such a thing.

There’s no Boone in Outer Worlds 2, but unlike a vocal population of Redditors, I had no problem with the companions in this game. I found the two I ran with most to be much more fun than my favourite duo from the original. And it was even better that I stumbled across one of them in pure exploration. That kind of managed serendipity was a real joy in the Outer Worlds 2 journey, as I felt as if I’d casually bumped into companions through organic play. The deft weaving of that through the worlds you explore felt like an area where Obsidian was stepping beyond its New Vegas shackles. Although the maps just weren’t big enough to capture quite the same sense of exploring a true expansive world. Where Avowed succeeds with smaller maps by deploying a subtle guiding hand and actively shaping available content, The Outer Worlds 2 feels like it has only just enough to satiate, despite its more persuasive argument to get out there and explore. Once again, there’s a sense of clipped ambition, of forced compromise. I’d probably argue in favour of reducing those four planets into one that blended between two of them as regions, with much more terrain and much more to find, and only offering new planets as DLC episodes. There’s something of the Starfield or Borderlands 3 in its offering of planets with little point in treating them as separate worlds. It’s more of a faffy annoyance to move between them, and I never had a sense of hopping through some fantastic alien system.

As I dwell on the idea of how The Outer Worlds 2 unfolds, I’m reminded of a gracefully elegant unfolding of the game’s dramatic conceit: the rifts. Initially presenting as odd hazards, the main story succeeds in opening up the concept as you work your way through key missions, to the point where they become sources of joy² rather than the weirdly irrelevant anomalies they initially appeared to be. This is perhaps the key strength of the main story here. Much as S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2’s story set you on a glorious tour of the zone, The Outer Worlds 2 takes you on a journey of discovery and mastery with the rifts, a suitably Star-Trekkian dose of chewy Sci-Fi that I genuinely enjoyed. But as with the trek across the Zone, this wasn’t demanded by a main story, nor could it only work if it was part of one. In fact, there’s a tantalising notion that if the rift stuff had actually been hidden as a secret questline, it would have been all the more exciting to pursue, especially in the way it chimes so neatly with your similarly unfolding familiarity with one of the key factions AND one of the lesser sideshow ones. There is a lovely sweep in the way the rift stuff dovetails into the climax, but once the apogee is reached you’re kind of stranded there, with nowhere to go but a fucking conversation. And it was here that the fundamental duality broke down to a singular choice. There was no option to abandon the whole thing and whizz off to a safe haven, you simply had to see the conversation through. Thankfully, the game was respectful enough to inform me of the points of no return. I know when a game is truly great when I reach such a point and refuse to go further until I’ve rinsed everything that came before. I’m not stepping over that threshold until I’ve hoovered every map, and that’s exactly what I did with The Outer Worlds 2, - because I fucking loved it. With nothing left along the non-committal path I’d taken between the factions, I had no choices left. And in a game that seemed to celebrate the very idea of choice and consequence, all I had left was the consequences of my actions. While there is a peculiar symmetry and a not undelightful poetry to that conclusion, did it really have to be arguing with a man in a room, yet again? I guess war isn’t the only thing that never changes.

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1. Let’s just say the middle of the game is really fat and really juicy. Lots to chew through, so much fun to be had!

2. Not to mention, a set of armour that’s absolute grimdark comedic brilliance