Despite receiving a generally positive reception, The Outer Worlds didn’t have the kind of Earth-shattering impact on the RPG landscape that fans of Obsidian’s Fallout: New Vegas were hoping it would.
However, previews for The Outer Worlds 2 suggest that it’s going to be a larger and self-assured sequel, embracing in-depth RPG systems that some might feel were lacking from the first game.
The director has chalked this up to the success of Baldur’s Gate 3, and says that the success of that game has made it more feasible to market a new game around “crunchy”, mechanics-heavy RPG systems.
The Rebirth of the CRPG
While The Outer Worlds 2 isn’t exactly a CRPG, it’s looking to follow in the footsteps of the genre by offering different solutions to a quest or problem depending on how they’ve designed their character.
To fans of Fallout: New Vegas, this will sound familiar (a CRPG in the clothing of a first-person RPG), and it even follows as an expansion of what the first Outer Worlds game tried.
However, with a much bigger budget from Microsoft alongside a greater level of marketability of these systems, Obsidian feel more confident embracing their RPG roots.
Leonard Boyarsky, creative director, said: “In the first game, one of our tag lines was ‘an RPG with RPG elements’ because, for a very long time and even when we were pitching the original Outer Worlds to different publishers, you’d think that was a no-brainer, right?
” Obsidian making a new RPG – it’s like, come on! You know people would be interested in that. And as they’re making all these games with ‘RPG Elements’ and way more role-playing, there was still a kind of trepidation.
“Now, with things like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Outer Worlds having come out, I think people are a lot more open to it again. It feels like we had to prove ourselves all over again, to a certain degree.”
The Outer Worlds 2 Previews
The previews and glimpses of The Outer World 2 gameplay have evoked positive reactions, with many feeling as though the game successfully retains the atmosphere and tone of the first game, while expanding it for a more satisfying and in-depth RPG experience.
That being said, there are others who feel as though it perhaps isn’t different enough from the first game, meaning that if you didn’t find anything to love in the original, the appeal of a sequel may be lost.
The Best Crunchy RPGs
While it’s easy to point to the success of Baldur’s Gate 3 as being the catalyst for a renewed interest in more meaty RPG systems, that might overlook other successes like Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, which featured a strong commitment to immersion and systems-driven design.
Even something like Elden Ring, while not a traditional, “crunchy” RPG by any stretch of the imagination, did prove a hit with a huge audience – and that was a game that was all about putting player build customisation in the hands of the players, and not holding their hand as they explored a vast world in whatever way they preferred.
