The Outer Worlds 2 Manages to Be Funny, Despite Everything
Upon my initial experience with the original Outer Worlds game, I was immediately drawn by its irreverent, Fallout-esque type of wit. This release featured engaging exchanges, personal journals, and promotional posters that portrayed a business-controlled nightmare that was simultaneously bleak and entertaining. My primary concern approaching the sequel was that this installment – not due to of its own – might not be as funny like the original.
Certainly, things weren't perfect. However, life certainly seemed somewhat less damaged back then. This game depicted a grim society that didn't strike overly familiar, and still managed to be simultaneously heartwarming and comical. I commenced the follow-up rather certain that the sequel wouldn't be able to achieve this a second time, but I'm happy to announce that I was wrong. The Outer Worlds 2 is just as smile-generating as the release that came before it, and additionally brings fresh concepts as opposed to just recycling similar elements comparable to an tired company slogan.
Changing NPCs
Most of the non-player characters users found in the initial release had been defeated by the actions of corporate entities including the fictional company, and were painfully aware of how much their lives sucked. This sequel takes things in a different direction, presenting individuals who are indoctrinated (occasionally metaphorically, frequently actually). Many of these characters aren't conscious of how profoundly messed up their circumstances are, or that there could be choices to a life lived under the boot of a huge company or restricted by the beliefs of a demanding cult.
This second installment examines forms of company influence that are more subtle than merely maintaining the population impoverished. Numerous characters have been brainwashed into the kind of extremely eager "work ethic" rhetoric you might encounter on online profiles that claim to disclose the secret of achievement should you purchase for an overpriced workshop, or invest in a questionable digital currency plan. Even the game's company advertising has developed.
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There are still many unmotivational posters throughout facilities warning about deducting employee wages who even consider requesting leave, but there are also mentions of pyramid scheme methods, such as a staff guide that boldly states, "Unknown people are merely customers YOU haven't met yet!" As someone who grew up in a multi-level marketing household, I immediately burst out in amusement when I saw this reference, because it's a phrase I have frequently encountered repeated exactly by those at the bottom of those structures.
Luckily, The Outer Worlds 2 is equally humorous and satirical as the original title.
The Outer Worlds 2 also examines the situation many of us find ourselves in when it comes to occupation, political matters, and even personal purchases: Having to select the smaller of several poor choices. When trying to choose whether to assist a dangerous corporate entity or a problematic faith organization throughout the experience, I realized I became siding with the devil I know: An established business organization that sucks (but only uses advertising to program its members), instead of the cult, which also sucks, but employs a terrible method termed "psychological renewal" to control its members obedient.
Questionable Employers
Even the people you work for may not be trustworthy. In the role of an space operative, your assignment includes working to return control to the Arcadia colony subsequent to a hostile corporate takeover, and you will quickly find that the two the aggressors and the invadees subscribe to distinct (yet equally horrific) doctrines. Yet a speedy inspection of the transmissions on your vessel's computer show that this agency is hardly the universe's most principled authority either, as evidenced by a reply to an emergency signal that informs the caller it will take "several corporate years" for an answer to their message. (This period is approximately the time it takes for many people to reach a human help desk employee through calling these days.)
Relatable Moments
Many moments in this sequel are painfully relatable, but it's a cleansing sort of relatability, and the game succeeds in balancing its grim future world with comedy that's truly humorous yet not seeming incongruous. One major theme is the near-instant onset of decline that happens to unfold after significant business mergers. Employees on both sides of this sequel's significant consolidation see their quality of life decrease therefore, while the executives at the top of the food chain are, of course, raking in money quickly.
Well, at minimum I recognize my position.
Comparable to the initial release, this sequel is inherently funny, but additionally doesn't hesitate to turn solemn. During a moment, while wandering around the game's first explorable world, I stumbled across a corpse with an audio log nearby. This message revealed that this individual (who was aligned with the brainwashing religious faction) had perished in an incident during efforts to hunt down and kill her significant other. This romantic partner had seemingly abandoned from their group, and the deceased character was angry about her significant other's {traitorous
