The Outer Worlds 2 was a slow burn for me, and it was a midgame encounter that finally cemented it in my mind as not just a good RPG, but a really excellent one.

The first half of the game crescendos with a pair of classic Obsidian conversation boss fights, and I had a big, dumb smile on my face as I contemplated long, scrolling lists of dialogue options⁠—some available to me, some greyed-out—gated by different skills, background traits, quest choices, and even an out-of-the-way optional conversation I’d had over 10 hours previously.

Since I had a ton of points in speech and had gone for nonviolent resolutions whenever possible, I was able to pull off a satisfying “everybody lives!” conclusion to this midgame climax. Comparing notes with PCG guides writer Sean Martin, who adopted a more trigger-happy playstyle, he was locked into a less happy path where somebody had to die, with the choice potentially locking him out of at least one ending and turning a companion hostile. This nexus of consequences and options stemming from my prior choices and the type of character I made is pure RPG to me, and exactly what I look for in an Obsidian game.

I liked but didn’t love the first Outer Worlds⁠—it felt like a compromise RPG for genre newcomers, one which was fun enough and went down smooth, but didn’t leave a strong impression. The Outer Worlds 2 is a more ambitious, complex, and surprising game, while still being easy to grasp as far as big RPGs go.

It doesn’t have the standard-setting sense of scale, simulation, or reactivity that’s wowed me in recent RPGs like Baldur’s Gate 3, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, or Disco Elysium, but The Outer Worlds 2 is a great action-RPG whose skill system, writing, quests, and level design seriously impressed me as a longtime CRPG head who likes his games crusty, impenetrable, and unfair.