I’ve just completed Outer Worlds 2‘s first planet now with an ‘Easily Distracted’ build (Science, Engineering, Observation, Hacking, Explosives) and so far the game has been a perfectly decent open-world RPG.
Tonally and visually it’s quite similar to its predecessor while mechanically, at least as far as character-building goes, it seems a bit more limited. Without the Flaw mentioned above a character is essentially forced to focus on only two-three skills, which means there will be some content you can’t see on a single playthrough.
In my case there were quite a number of locked boxes and several doors that I simply could not open (no Lockpick) along with a few quests/tasks that could not be completed either in beneficial ways (no Speech skill) or at all (no Medicine or Leadership skill). However, there were many things that I could only access with Hack, Engineering, Explosives, or Observation while the highest check I saw (not including the 11 Lockpick on your ship that can be bypassed) was for 5 Medicine (bypassable with a Trauma Kit) and 5 Explosives on a door that had a key for it lying around. Most checks on this planet were for 2-3 with a handful of 4’s.
I’m hoping the checks don’t exponentially ramp up next planet so I can stay ahead of them by over-leveling through excessive exploration (hit level 10 just before entering the Relay), or else I may have to restart with a conventional 3-skill build.
Positives so far:
– Very similar to the first game in tone and appearance.
– Multiple ways to approach most things.
– Lots of character building options.
– Ammunition is plentiful.
– Nice mix of tracked and untracked quests.
– Loot hidden everywhere.
– Ditched the equipment durability system.
Negatives so far:
– Very similar to the first game in tone and appearance.
– The map is bad at showing where you can explore.
– Restrictive skill choices and no respec option.
– Enemies seem to have an abnormally large amount of health.
– More than a few massive empty spaces.
– Ditched the ability to dodge.
