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Upon my initial encounter with the initial Outer Worlds title, I was immediately drawn by its sarcastic, Fallout-inspired brand of humor. The game included lively conversations, personal journals, and advertising displays that depicted a company-run society that was both dark and entertaining. My primary concern heading into The Outer Worlds 2 was that this installment – without blame on its part – could fail to be as comedic as its predecessor.

Admittedly, things weren't perfect. Yet society undoubtedly appeared slightly less fractured at that time. The Outer Worlds showed a bleak future that didn't strike overly familiar, and still managed to be at once heartwarming and comical. I started The Outer Worlds 2 pretty sure that the sequel couldn't succeed to achieve this once more, but I'm pleased to state that I was wrong. This follow-up is just as smile-generating as the title that came earlier, and additionally brings original ideas as opposed to simply reusing identical material similar to a overused corporate jingle.

Evolving Characters

The majority of the NPCs users found in the initial release had been beaten down by the deeds of company organizations like the fictional company, and were fully cognizant of the extent to which their lives sucked. This sequel takes things in an alternative path, including personalities who are programmed (sometimes figuratively, often literally). A lot of these characters don't even realize of how profoundly disordered their conditions are, or that there might be choices to a life lived under the boot of a massive corporation or restricted by the beliefs of a demanding cult.

This follow-up investigates methods of corporate control that are more deceptive than simply keeping the masses poor. Various personalities have been brainwashed into the sort of overly enthusiastic "grindset mindset" rhetoric you can discover on social media accounts that vow to show the key to success if you pay for an overpriced workshop, or participate in a sketchy crypto scheme. Furthermore, the release's company advertising has progressed.

Current Topics

There remain many discouraging displays on the walls indicating reductions in employee wages who so much as contemplate taking a day off, but additionally there are allusions to network marketing tactics, featuring a staff guide that proudly declares, "Unknown people are merely patrons you have yet to encounter!" Being a person who was raised in a direct sales family, I immediately burst out in amusement when encountering this mention, because it's a refrain I have often heard stated precisely by those at the bottom of these systems.

Thankfully, The Outer Worlds 2 is just as funny and sarcastic as the original title.

This sequel additionally investigates the situation various individuals experience when it comes to work, politics, and even consumer choices: Being forced to select the smaller of several poor choices. While attempting to choose whether to support a dangerous corporate entity or a dangerous religious group throughout the experience, I realized I became siding with the devil I know: A familiar business organization that is terrible (yet merely employs promotion to indoctrinate its followers), rather than the faith organization, which also sucks, but uses an awful technique called "cognitive reset" to keep its adherents in line.

Questionable Employers

Even the people you represent could fail to be trustworthy. As an Earth Directorate agent, you're tasked with trying to reestablish stability to this settlement subsequent to an aggressive business acquisition, and you'll soon discover that both the aggressors and the invadees subscribe to differing (yet equally horrific) ideologies. Yet a speedy review of the transmissions on your vessel's computer reveal that the Earth Directorate isn't precisely the galaxy's most moral organization as well, as shown by an answer to a help request that notifies the contact it will take "3-5 corporate years" for a response to their message. (That time frame is about how long it takes for numerous individuals to get a hold of a human support representative via telephone nowadays.)

Recognizable Scenarios

Numerous instances in The Outer Worlds 2 are extremely familiar, but it's a cathartic type of familiarity, and the game manages to balance its depressing dystopian setting with wit that's authentically amusing yet not seeming out of place. A primary concept is the near-instant onset of enshittification that happens to unfold after any major corporate acquisition. Staff members from all factions of this installment's big merger find their existence decline as a result, while the leaders in control of the structure are, expectedly, collecting money hand over fist.

Okay, at the very least I recognize my position.

Comparable to the original title, The Outer Worlds 2 is naturally humorous, but furthermore doesn't shy away to get serious. At one point, while exploring around the title's initial accessible planet, I discovered a deceased individual with a recording close by. The audio log revealed that this character (who was aligned with the indoctrinating cult) had been killed in an event while trying to locate and dispatch her romantic partner. This loved one had seemingly abandoned from their faction, and the perished individual was enraged by her partner's {traitorous