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When I first experience with the original Outer Worlds, I was quickly hooked by its sarcastic, Fallout-esque type of wit. This title featured dynamic dialogues, individual logs, and advertising displays that portrayed a company-run society that was both grim and entertaining. My biggest worry heading into the follow-up was that this installment – not due to on its part – could fail to be as humorous compared to the first.

Certainly, things weren't perfect. Yet society certainly seemed slightly less fractured in those days. This universe showed a bleak future that didn't strike too close to home, and yet accomplished to be both emotional and comical. I started the sequel rather certain that this installment wouldn't be able to achieve this again, but I'm happy to announce that I was wrong. This sequel is as smile-generating as the game that came earlier, and additionally brings new themes rather than simply reusing similar elements similar to a tired company slogan.

Evolving Characters

Most of the NPCs players encountered in the initial release had been worn out by the deeds of company organizations including the in-game corporation, and were fully cognizant of the degree that their lives sucked. This sequel moves events in an alternative path, presenting individuals who are programmed (periodically symbolically, frequently actually). A lot of these personalities aren't conscious of how profoundly screwed up their circumstances are, or that there could be alternatives to a life lived under the domination of a large business or restricted by the beliefs of an intense faith.

The sequel examines forms of business domination that are more deceptive than merely maintaining the masses poor. Many NPCs have been brainwashed into the type of extremely eager "grindset mindset" discourse you can discover on online profiles that vow to show the path to accomplishment if you pay an expensive course, or invest in a sketchy crypto scheme. Additionally, the title's company advertising has progressed.

Contemporary Issues

There remain numerous discouraging displays in various locations threatening to dock employee wages who dare to consider requesting leave, but additionally there are mentions of pyramid scheme methods, such as a staff guide that confidently announces, "Strangers are just customers YOU still need to meet!" As someone who developed within a network marketing household, I immediately burst out with laughter when encountering this allusion, because it's a refrain I have frequently encountered spoken verbatim by individuals in lower positions of such schemes.

Luckily, this sequel is as comedic and satirical as the initial release.

This installment additionally investigates the situation many of us find ourselves in concerning occupation, politics, and even consumer choices: Needing to pick the lesser of two or three evils. When trying to decide whether to back a dangerous corporate entity or a dangerous religious group within the title, I found myself aligning with the devil I know: A familiar company structure that is awful (though just utilizes promotion to brainwash its subjects), as opposed to the cult, which is equally bad, but utilizes a terrible method termed "cognitive reset" to maintain its followers obedient.

Questionable Employers

Even the people you serve might not be dependable. In the role of an Earth Directorate agent, you're tasked with attempting to restore order to this outpost following an aggressive business acquisition, and you will quickly find that each of the invaders and the defenders follow separate (but similarly terrible) beliefs. Yet a speedy examination of the communications on your ship's terminal reveal that this organization is hardly the universe's most principled employer too, as evidenced by an answer to a distress call that notifies the contact it will take "three to five organizational cycles" for a reply to their message. (This duration is approximately the time it takes for me to reach a non-robot customer service agent through calling these days.)

Familiar Situations

Various situations in The Outer Worlds 2 are highly recognizable, but it's a cathartic kind of recognition, and this release manages to balance its depressing dystopian setting with wit that's truly humorous yet not seeming incongruous. One major theme is the rapid beginning of enshittification that happens to unfold in the wake of any major corporate acquisition. Staff members from all factions of this sequel's big merger see their quality of life worsen therefore, while the executives in charge of the food chain are, of course, accumulating profits quickly.

Well, at minimum I understand my situation.

Just like the first game, this sequel is intrinsically comedic, but it also doesn't shy away to turn solemn. During a moment, while exploring around the title's initial discoverable location, I stumbled across a corpse with an audio log close by. This message revealed that this character (who was aligned with the indoctrinating cult) had perished in an incident during efforts to track down and eliminate her lover. This loved one had apparently defected from their faction, and the perished individual was enraged by her significant other's {traitorous