The Outer Worlds 2's faction writing falls short of Fallout: New Vegas, and how it handles the powerful is key

Warning: Spoilers for Fallout: New Vegas and The Outer Worlds 2 prevarication ahead.

Fallout: New Vegas has been an elephant successful the country erstwhile it comes to my acquisition playing The Outer Worlds 2. Game manager Brandon Adler and originative manager Leonard Boyarsky person respectively called it a "natural comparison" and a "touchstone" successful their latest game’s development.

"It had a batch of the elements that we knew we wanted to propulsion forward: the deeper RPG, the much omnipresent factions and however they acceptable into the world, the benignant of unfastened communicative that we wanted to tell, and adjacent conscionable the exploration of the satellite itself," Adler told GamesRadar backmost successful August. "We adjacent person a clump of radical astatine the workplace that person already worked connected [New Vegas]. It conscionable truly matched the values that we were trying to deed connected this adjacent game."

As I wrote successful my review, I don’t deliberation New Vegas is the perfect examination for The Outer Worlds 2. It belongs much successful the realm of Avowed, not lone sharing structural similarities with the phantasy RPG, but feeling similar it’s astatine its champion erstwhile it’s treading connected the lighter broadside thematically, and focusing connected conscionable being plain fun. New Vegas, connected the different hand, manages to nail that lighter broadside portion besides delivering a much superior and philosophical extent to its world, which has helped support myself and others talking astir it a decennary and alteration down the line.

Drawing upon the post-apocalyptic America acceptable up by Interplay’s classical Fallouts, which Boyarsky and chap Outer Worlds 2 collaborator Tim Cain were cardinal figures successful creating, New Vegas presents a gritty conflict to determine the aboriginal absorption of a fractured federation gradually recovering from atomic devastation. The slate has been wiped cleanable by the aged world’s fiery demise. A caller section of past brings caller factions headed by individuals keen to drawback the instrumentality of humanity, arsenic they claw to resistance the satellite retired of a chaotic authorities of quality wherever simply surviving from time to time is the lone extremity astir radical have.

The NCR, Caesar's Legion, and New Vegas itself are each headed by 1 oregon a postulation of highly-motivated ideologues, with the subordinate susceptible of becoming a faction person successful crook if you instrumentality the Independent route. The ideas they each correspond - a instrumentality to the ways of pre-war America; a extremist and totalitarian rejection of that projected instrumentality to a presumption quo which saw humanity thrust itself to adjacent annihilation; an autocratic rebuild astatine the hands of a staunch capitalist, who considers himself “a technological and economical visionary” - are the pillars the main narrative’s built on. New Vegas’ cardinal extremity is to person you prosecute with each of these visions, earlier letting you determine which of them you privation to manus the wasteland’s shot to. Or, effort to travel up with a caller doctrine which balances the destiny of countless radical connected your ain shoulders.

Image credit: Bethesda Softworks

The Outer Worlds 2, connected the different hand, bases itself astir the player’s quest arsenic a chosen 1 to prevention the world, by stopping immoderate subject things doing a subject thing. Main quest-wise, its warfare - betwixt incumbent collectivist dictatorship The Protectorate, invading corporatists Auntie’s Choice, and determinist scholars The Order of the Ascendant - is simply a substance you mostly prosecute with lone successful truthful overmuch arsenic it affects your quality to halt those subject things. In enactment with that, these factions and their enactment often don’t consciousness arsenic progressive arsenic participants successful shaping the game’s satellite arsenic those successful a deeper faction-heavy RPG would.

As for however the The Outer Worlds 2 got determination - amid a propulsion to support the archetypal game’s silliness, portion driving into much hard communicative territory - I deliberation a caller interrogation Boyarsky and Adler person fixed to The Verge offers immoderate important insight. In it, Boyarsky says helium and Cain "have ever made games that are astir what happens erstwhile radical get power", but that their extremity alongside Adler wasn’t to person The Outer Worlds 2 consciousness similar it was responding to the authorities of the satellite astatine a circumstantial infinitesimal successful time.

Interviewer Joshua Rivera past asks Boyarsky whether helium reckons there’s a "meaner undercurrent" to the sequel's satire, and whether this could lend itself to a harder-hitting introspection of however the overbearing stewardship of corporations mightiness provender the emergence of fascism.

"We don’t speech astir the fascist facet of it, but we each extremity up successful situations wherever we don’t person control," Boyarsky responded. "Even radical successful power, whether it’s the existent satellite oregon these games, I deliberation radical successful powerfulness are arsenic overmuch victims of the strategy arsenic anybody else. They deliberation they’re successful power of these things, but nary 1 idiosyncratic tin really wield arsenic overmuch powerfulness arsenic radical want. Because you’re grown up successful the system, you respond based connected however you were raised successful the system, your beliefs that person travel up done being told what’s close and incorrect by your parents oregon nine successful general. So we each find ourselves successful situations wherever it’s conscionable like: I person nary thought however I got here. I conjecture I gotta marque the champion of it."

Image credit: Microsoft

Boyarsky’s presumption absolves those tasked with making decisions which person far-reaching consequences beyond themselves of having to instrumentality work for those calls. We’re each surely influenced by our circumstances, but to solely constituent your digit astatine the vague and faceless ‘system’ feels reductive, and alternatively cynical.

Privilege besides plays into however inescapable the wider circumstances you’re blaming are, arsenic those surviving connected the breadline are much apt to find scenarios that are not of their making with nary information net, lacking the means to extricate themselves. As such, your ire's champion aimed astatine circumstantial radical who person much capableness to marque change. Fuck Elon Musk, Jamie Dimon, and Nigel Farage, alternatively than conscionable fuck capitalism. The strategy isn’t immoderate invulnerable and inevitable happening which runs of its ain accord. It’s radical who uphold and beforehand its principles, those who nett disconnected of it oregon usage it arsenic justification to stomp connected others.

In The Outer Worlds 2’s case, it’s firm bigwig Auntie mounting successful question a hostile takeover of chap corp Spacer’s Choice. Then invading Arcadia - the assemblage of abstraction the game’s acceptable successful - successful an effort to involvement retired a fiefdom which mightiness assistance prevention her occupation if contact’s ever re-established with Earth. It’s The Protectorate’s Sovereign and Consul overseeing lobotomy-esque ‘mental refreshment’ of immoderate citizens deemed to enactment extracurricular of approved norms, past ignoring the needs of their populace to prosecute successful a misguided mid-conflict powerfulness conflict the subordinate is fixed nary bureau in. It’s the Order of the Ascendant’s presiding bishop Ruth Basar being truthful heavy successful the sums and however they mightiness magically lick each the world's problems that she fails to forestall a sect of her bid going rogue, and readying to transportation retired a clump of murders successful work of their equations.

Image credit: Obsidian / Rock Paper Shotgun

The almighty aren’t victims. They mightiness not beryllium omnipotent, but they are complicit successful immoderate good, bad, oregon indifferent things are wrong their sphere of influence. However, The Outer Worlds 2 isn't acrophobic with earnestly holding these figures accountable for their actions, and the satellite they’ve created for the regular people of Arcadia. Outside of allowing you to weapon everyone down, it doesn’t connection the subordinate overmuch successful the mode of ways to power these factions, oregon propulsion their doctrines successful antithetic directions.

Instead, things reflector Boyarsky’s presumption that nary 1 really wields overmuch powerfulness implicit their destiny oregon the destiny of the satellite astir them. The result’s a crippled which views the satellite done a cynical smirk, with struggles portrayed successful mostly applicable presumption erstwhile you scratch their aboveground and ideologies treated much similar axenic buzzwords. They’re conscionable the things radical accidental to warrant their self-focused muddling through.

It’s an mentation of however societies enactment that leans into nihilism, alternatively than entertaining immoderate idealism, and leads The Outer Worlds 2 disconnected connected a precise antithetic way successful presumption of RPG constitution than New Vegas.