(Note: All footage is from an ongoing Alpha build.)
Since I finally saw Outer World 2 for me, it’s clear that leaning on deeper RPG elements is one of the priorities for developer Obsidian. If the first game is more familiar with the streamlined system and progression for building your character, the sequel is to avoid uniformity and even lay you to play in an unorthodox way. But that’s not completely complicated. Outer World 2 hopes players will become creative, become more specialized in what they specify, and accept the strange choices they have to make.
“We are looking for ways to encourage players to experiment with a variety of traditional or non-traditional builds,” Design Director Matt Singh said in a conversation about how the team has improved their RPG mechanics. When talking to the broader approach, he said, “We really wanted to lean on synergy and see how players’ skills, traits and perks could be injected into interesting builds that play on other systems.” Some of these ideas are our exclusive 11-minute Outer World 2 gameplay, with new gunplay, stealth, gadgets and dialogue on display. However, in this part of our Passthecontroller, due to the exclusive coverage of Outer World 2, we focus on the core of how all these systems were remade and what you can expect from them.
Rethinking the skill system
“By the end of the game you’ll see a lot of all the characters whose personal experiences are minimal with your character,” lead systems designer Kyle Koenig told me when he looked back on the first game and considered changing the sequel. Part of how Obsidians do it is to move away from the skill categories that group statistics into the original and proceed with individual skills that have more dramatic differences between them. “I wanted to focus on making individual leveling up and investing very important. There’s less confusion about when you need to invest in one skill. If you want to be a player with guns and medical equipment, you know which skills you need to care about.
Singh added: “It’s not just traditional stealth-centric builds, combat-centric builds, or audio-focused builds. There’s a lot of fusion in the concepts that you play with other systems and incorporate into the unique range of very broad but unique player profiles,” he hinted at the fact that certain investments in skills appear in other ways, such as observation. This can highlight things within the environment.
On the surface, it might seem like you’d expect from an RPG – if anything, the outside world was an outlier in a way that grouped skills. However, the sequel uses the revised skill system to create a larger distinction and open up more possibilities in character builds, especially as it relates to the improved Perks system.
Experimental perks
Obsidians focus on singularity and appear to provide a unique means of play. “We’ve significantly increased the number of perks over 90. Each one requires different skills to unlock each. As you invest in a skill, you’ll change the way you invest in perks and lead many different paths,” Koenig explained. He cites examples with perks called Run and Guns, for those who prefer to use shotguns, SMGs and rifles that can be fired during sprints or sliding, combining bullet action with tactical time extension (TTD) to become part of his repertoire in the outside world. “The way we saw when designing them was to see all the different modes of gameplay the players have and all the actions they can take and how they can be changed,” he said.
“We have a lot of perks that cater to non-traditional playstyles,” Singh said, giving an example of carving out the build for players who kill every NPC in front of them. You can down that route and lean on perks like Psychopath, then serial killer, and grant bonuses such as permanent health promotion to play like this. “Especially in obsidian games where you allow someone to kill, the game rolls accordingly. And you can still complete the game.
As for more traditional playstyles, Koenig gave insight into character builds that take advantage of aspects of combat elements by utilizing different damage types. “Even if you want to mix them up and match them, you can become a character about being alive and burning between gaining plasma and healing from it.
Singh emphasized that there are other paths to refer to experimental and experimental opportunities to select harmful effects that buff another aspect of your character. He said, “Referring to the mechanisms that allow you to reward yourself by doing harm and putting yourself in, “How can you build a build that will allow you to actually get in there and be incentivized to take damage and be able to do other things effectively? That design philosophy was part of the original, but now it is related to features and flaws, which is what drives Outer World 2.
Positive and negative characteristics
“One of the outer world’s one that was key to fallout was being able to have negative attributes that were positively harmful to the character, but you can get some extra points to spend time elsewhere,” Koenig said. The method that manifested in the original was to use the The Flaws system. This gave me the option to have a lasting effect based on in-game behavior in exchange for additional perk points. However, from what I’ve seen so far, this idea has expanded into two parts in the outside world2.
A system of positive and negative characteristics is essential to its give and take, allowing you to select negative characteristics and select additional positives. For example, you can think of it as great as granting additional skill points to character creation, or giving them brave things that can sprint the target and defeat the target. And if you want something more positive, you need to choose a negative, such as a dam, which locks you out of the points that invest in five skills. These are just a few of the options I was able to see in these early stages.
I’m much deeper in the flaws improved in another article, but I can say that Outer World 2 is getting much more creative in the goofy and smart ways (and sometimes both). I’ve found myself most rejecting flaws in the original game, if not all, if not all. In this sequel, the game itself still monitors your actions and habits, but currently the flaws are constructed in certain positive and negative terms. It’s as if there’s another layer of the characteristic system, but unexpectedly pops up based on how you play. You still need to choose them, but they will become a permanent part of your character.
Lead the player and throw away the repick
Outer World 2 appears to have more moving parts, and another focus from obsidian was to make these aspects easier to digest, whether it’s in-game description or from UI elements. “From the start, from the creation of the characters, we really wanted to put the difference in these skills and what they do at the forefront,” Koenig told me. It’s not just a help text, but also a short video in a menu that shows examples of gameplay impact. What stood out for me was that I was able to mark perks as favorites before unlocking them, in order to organize and plan a particular progression path or build. Mapping them seems equally intuitive, as the menu bats and icons are introduced.
However, Obsidian is clear that they want players to carefully consider these choices, especially since there is no Respec past the introduction sequence. This means that once you invest in a skill, perk, or trait, your character must live with that choice throughout the playthrough. Koenig said, “By removing Respec, we really encourage you to be your experience. It’s part of your experience, something no one else has, and I think it’s really special about RPGS and Respec tending to be reduced.”
As for Singh, he concluded, “philosophically, you really feel that all of your choices should be important. They should be a meaningful change in your gameplay experience. And he concluded, “This is one of the ways you stick to it, stick to it and see how it plays in an interesting and enjoyable way.”
This month’s Passthecontroller First covers more Autourworlds 2. Stay tuned for the new flawed system, breakdown of all the wild and eccentric weapons, and how vast the open areas and levels are with interviews from major developers of Obsidian.
Michael Higham is Passthecontroller’s Tech Reviews Editor, but he’s one of the staff RPG Sichos who regularly talk about Fallout: New Vegas. You can find him @brazyazn.bsky.social.
