Between the larger scale, which is “much bigger and deeper” than the original, Obsidian Entertainment’s The Outer Worlds 2 is shaping up to be a vastly improved sequel. That extends to combat as well, with game director Brandon Adler detailing the improvements made to encounters.
“Early on, we kind of knew what players had said that they wanted us to improve,” he told GamesRadar. “Combat in general was one of those things that came back, and that can mean a lot of different things. It could be like, hey, our encounter compositions could be more varied, things like that. And we did do that. We actually rebuilt our encounter systems. We made, overall, that portion of the combat feel really good.”
However, Obsidian also improved the gunplay, working alongside Halo Studios to achieve this. “It needs to feel good to just take actions in the world. We, luckily, were able to work with 343, or Halo Studios, now. They sent us some feedback on our gunplay and what we could improve, and different types of settings we could be using. And so we tweaked all of that stuff.”
Design director Matthew Singh even took Bungie’s Destiny as a “guiding light” as the team spent “a lot of time early on” to obtain the same feel, which extends to the movement. “Our design director, Matthew Singh, had the task of working with the system designers to put together this system. He really likes Destiny, so he took that as a guiding light, and we spent a lot of time early on really refining and trying to get that feel,” said Adler.
“It was also important, not just the actual shooting mechanics, but movement. We tried to make the movement feel really good. Lots of sliding, parkouring. We just wanted movement around the world to have less friction. I think all of those things combined made a really great experience, which, when you add it to the thing that’s already a good RPG, it’s just the cherry on top, in my opinion.”
So while fans can expect more in-depth role-playing, whether you’re rocking with companions or going solo and killing everyone, it also promises better gameplay in general. You can see some of that in action here.
The Outer Worlds 2 launches on October 29th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC (alongside Game Pass on consoles and PC). Other inspirations for the sequel include Fallout: New Vegas, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Head here for more details.
