I can't believe I'm saying this, but there's a good chance that The Outer Worlds 2 is going to be the best shooter of 2025.. And in a year where Xbox has already delivered Doom: The Dark Ages, and has Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 on the near horizon, I really didn't expect to be walking away from my time exploring the lawless frontier of Arcadia obsessing over the feel of a shotgun.
That surprise you're picking up on isn't because I think developer Obsidian Entertainment isn't capable of greatness – the studio is, after all, undoubtedly responsible for some of the best RPGs of the last 20 years. Role-playing games, not shooters – there are sharp degrees of expertise required to succeed in either landscape. But the studio has clearly set itself exceptionally lofty targets here, with big ambitions fuelling what could be its most definitive title to date.
A True Evolution
The Outer Worlds 2 is a substantial evolution over its predecessor, designed to be more reactive and intricate in all that it does. Obsidian has drawn from the legacy of Fallout: New Vegas to help inform The Outer Worlds 2's complexity. There are more varied flaws and traits, and over 90 perks – even from a brief time poking through the menus, it's clear that there's a dizzying variance to character creation and expansion. Stealth has been carefully overhauled, and there's a dynamism to speech that demonstrates growth over similar systems seen in Obsidian's Avowed and Bethesda's Starfield.
Which is all to say that The Outer Worlds 2 is really shaping up to be a pretty exceptional RPG…but let's get back to that shotgun. The one adorned in shards of ice. The one which blasts enemies back with this shatteringly concussive force. I haven't stopped thinking about the reload animation, as individual shells are slotted into place before the barrel is cocked back into position with a satisfying snap. It speaks volumes that, while exploring a sprawling environment full of branching paths, locked doors, and ventilation systems, I feel so inclined to charge into enemy encounters with this thing in my hands. This isn't how I'd traditionally play a video game like The Outer Worlds 2, but I can't help myself.
"The Outer Worlds 2 is a substantial evolution over its predecessor, designed to be more reactive and intricate in all that it does"
For a studio like Obsidian, with decades of experience and expertise in the RPG genre, I was keen to understand how it is delivering gunplay that could legitimately outshine dedicated shooters. Brandon Adler, game director of The Outer Worlds 2, was only too happy to answer: "Even before The Outer Worlds shipped, that was one of the things we knew we wanted to improve when it became time to target a sequel."
Adler tells me that this process included the design team completing a "full breakdown of Destiny" for inspiration, and a masterclass with another key team from the Xbox Game Studios network. "Another big aspect was talking to the Halo folks. We asked them: 'What do you guys do? How can we improve this, and what are we doing wrong?' They gave us this huge list of stuff and said that we should target these types of things, add this to our weapons configurations. So we did all of that."
He also points to the decision to bring in dedicated combat and weapons designers into development early, and the impact increased resources can have on a production – the original game was published by Private Division, rather than Xbox Game Studios. You can feel this flood of expertise in the way the guns handle; the personality inherent in every reload, the unique recoil patterns attached to every weapon class, and the sharp snap into ADS.
Which is all to say that The Outer Worlds 2 is shaping up to be a compelling prospect, regardless of whether you're coming to it for the most in-depth RPGs of the year or have typically leaned towards more traditional shooters in the past. There was always going to be this need for The Outer Worlds 2 to prove itself on a larger stage than the 2019 original.
It's the first title out of Xbox Game Studios to be priced at $80, and another would-be Xbox exclusive that's set to land on PS5 from day one. It's difficult to know whether Obsidian is truly ready for the scrutiny that's about to follow. But what I do know is that after three runs through a small slice of The Outer Worlds 2, I'm absolutely desperate to carve my own path through Arcadia.
The Outer Worlds 2 will release on October 29, 2025 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X.
