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During my first encounter with the initial Outer Worlds game, I was immediately drawn by its sarcastic, Fallout-inspired type of wit. This release featured dynamic dialogues, individual logs, and advertising displays that portrayed a business-controlled nightmare that was both grim and entertaining. My biggest worry starting the sequel was that this installment – without blame from itself – could fail to be as comedic like the original.

Sure, situations weren't flawless. But the world definitely felt slightly less fractured at that time. This game showed a bleak future that didn't strike too close to home, and still managed to be at once touching and comical. I began the follow-up rather certain that this installment couldn't succeed to pull this off once more, but I'm happy to announce that I was incorrect. This sequel is as smile-generating as the title that came before it, and additionally brings original ideas rather than just recycling the same content comparable to an worn-out business tune.

Evolving Characters

Most of the non-player characters players encountered in the initial release had been beaten down by the actions of company organizations such as Spacer's Choice, and were acutely conscious of the degree that their situation was terrible. This installment progresses matters in an alternative path, presenting individuals who are brainwashed (periodically symbolically, often literally). Many of these NPCs aren't conscious of how profoundly messed up their situations are, or that there may exist choices to a life lived beneath the control of a huge company or limited by the creeds of an intense faith.

This second installment investigates methods of company influence that are more insidious than simply keeping the population impoverished. Many NPCs have been brainwashed into the type of extremely eager "grindset mindset" discourse you might encounter on social media accounts that promise to reveal the key to success should you purchase for an overpriced workshop, or invest in a sketchy crypto scheme. Even the game's corporate propaganda has progressed.

Modern Themes

There are still plenty of unmotivational posters throughout facilities indicating reductions in pay from workers who even consider taking a day off, but additionally there are allusions to network marketing strategies, such as a new hire handbook that proudly declares, "Strangers are just clients you still need to meet!" As an individual who grew up in a multi-level marketing family, I instantly erupted in amusement when encountering this reference, because it's a saying I have regularly listened to stated precisely by people at the base of such schemes.

Luckily, The Outer Worlds 2 is as comedic and irreverent as the initial release.

This sequel furthermore explores the predicament various individuals encounter when it comes to occupation, government, and even consumer choices: Having to pick the lesser of multiple bad options. During efforts to choose whether to back a risky company or a concerning cult throughout the experience, I found myself supporting the familiar evil: A recognized company structure that is awful (though just utilizes propaganda to brainwash its subjects), rather than the faith organization, which is equally bad, but utilizes a terrible method named "cognitive reset" to maintain its followers obedient.

Questionable Employers

Even the people you represent might not be reliable. Playing as an space operative, your mission involves working to return control to this outpost after a hostile corporate takeover, and you will quickly find that the two the invaders and the residents subscribe to separate (yet equally horrific) doctrines. However, a rapid examination of the communications on your spacecraft's system reveal that this agency is hardly the universe's most principled employer either, as evidenced by a reply to a help request that informs the caller it will take "several organizational cycles" for a reply to their message. (This duration is roughly the duration it takes for me to get a hold of a non-robot help desk employee via telephone currently.)

Familiar Situations

Various situations in The Outer Worlds 2 are painfully relatable, but it's a therapeutic type of familiarity, and the game achieves equilibrium between its bleak societal vision with humor that's genuinely funny while avoiding out of place. An important idea is the quick commencement of deterioration that appears to occur following any major corporate acquisition. Employees on both sides of this sequel's big merger experience their living standards decline as a result, while the leaders at the top of the food chain are, naturally, raking in money hand over fist.

Well, at minimum I recognize my position.

Comparable to the first game, The Outer Worlds 2 is inherently funny, but it also doesn't shy away to become dramatic. During a moment, while traveling around the game's first discoverable location, I stumbled across a body with an audio log close by. The audio log disclosed that this NPC (who was aligned with the indoctrinating cult) had been killed in an event during efforts to hunt down and kill her significant other. This loved one had reportedly deserted from their group, and the perished individual was angry about her lover's {traitorous