Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds 2 promises to be twice as big as the first game, but beyond new quests, companions, weapons, and locations, it’s also rethinking many of its role-playing systems. In a new feature by IGN First, lead systems designer Kyle Koenig revealed a revamp of Skills. Instead of separate categories based on each stat, they’re individually differentiated.
This change arose due to how the first game homogenized builds. “We would often see characters good at everything, which by the end of the game, minimized your personal experience with your character,” said Koenig.
Skills now feel more drastically different but significant in their own right. “We wanted to focus on making each individual level-up and investment really important. There’s less confusion about when I should invest in one Skill or the other. If I want to be a player that’s all about guns and using medical devices, I know which Skills I really need to care about. By having them separated and not in groupings, it lets characters be more specialized.”
This change also helps create more build variety beyond “a traditional stealth-focused build, combat-focused build, or speech-focused build. There’s a lot of blending of concepts, playing with other systems and incorporating those into a pretty broad but unique range of different player profiles.”
Skill Specialization is still available, like Engineering, which provides one percent damage resistance and the ability to +1 difficulty and lower mechanical systems. On the other hand, Hack allows for unlocking +1 difficulty and lower terminals while dealing ten percent more damage to Automechanicals. As you level up, their bonuses also become stronger.
The Outer Worlds 2 launches this year for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. Check out the latest gameplay and stay tuned for its Direct on June 8th following the Xbox Games Showcase.
