In just over two weeks, Obsidian will release The Outer Worlds 2, the second triple-A RPG of its outstanding year (which also includes the early access launch of Grounded 2) after Avowed.
As we get closer to launch, Game Director Brandon Adler was interviewed by Danny Peña and discussed how this sequel improves upon the 2019 original, such as bigger worlds, greater reactivity, and deeper RPG mechanics. The latter was a particular focus area, as Adler openly said that roleplaying games fans are looking for deeper rpgs.
I would say that the biggest thing for me is that players want deeper RPGs. I think a lot of time there's the thought just being in this industry for so long, being in RPGs for so long, it seems like in many cases we've tried to smooth down the rough edges and streamline things a little bit. And that's fine for some games, but also players just really want to be able to get in there. They want to just be able to get the crunchy number stuff, but also just make all the different types of builds they can. They want all of the RPG options that a lot of times we've been kind of slowly removing or streamlining and slimming down. So I think, again, that the big lesson from the first game to the second is let's give the players those options. Let's give them that stuff to interact with, and I think that they'll be appreciative of that.
The Outer Worlds 2 is the first time I've been a game director on a major project. I've done game direction before on DLCs, in particular for Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire. I was working on those, but this is the first time I've had a larger project to work on. For me, it’s been, again, I think looking back toward old Obsidian games and the style of game we used to do a lot and kind of just, all right, well, how can we bring that back to the forefront, modernize a little bit, but really get back to those sensibilities of a really strong RPG that really focuses on player agency and player choice and the consequences of those things and just making sure that all of our content really leans into that like that. That’s been the thing that’s been a lot of fun for me.
Being a big fan of deep RPGs, I'm really glad about that. The first The Outer Worlds was certainly a bit lacking in this area, and the enormous success of Baldur's Gate 3 demonstrates that Adler is correct about the audience's desires. I didn't quite notice those deeper mechanics in the preview demo, but then again, that was just the game's prologue.
The Outer Worlds 2 is out on October 29 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S|X.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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