The Outer Worlds 2 has landed right alongside Obsidian's previous, smaller sci-fi RPG, stoking debate among fans about how much the sequel has actually improved and how the developer's recent games hold up in the shadow cast by the likes of Fallout: New Vegas. On that last point, Daniel Vávra, director of Kingdom Come: Deliverance and fellow 2025 RPG Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, clearly leans toward unfavorably.
Vávra shared his assessment of The Outer Worlds 2 in a recent Twitter post that's added fuel to already fiery discussions of what makes a good RPG. To Vávra, it seems, the secret is in reactivity and innovation, and he's hoping to see more of both from Obsidian.
"Finished. 7/10," he says of The Outer Worlds 2. "But what I find sad is that the company and the people who gave us one of my favorite games ever (Fallout & New Vegas) have been unable, even after 15 years and with all of Microsoft's money and latest technological advances, to come up with a single new game mechanic that could take this proven but ancient formula somewhere new."
(Indulge me in this aside: Microsoft is, perhaps, not the house of innovation in games right now, or historically, nor is it home to revolutionary RPG-crafting technology unless we're talking about an operating system miraculously held together with chicken wire and live crawfish. If anything, Microsoft has repeatedly proven itself hostile to innovative or risky ideas, but I digress.)
"Can any of you think of a single new game mechanic in The Outer Worlds that wasn't already in Deus Ex or the original Fallout games more than 25 years ago?" Vávra continues. "Unfortunately, I can't."
Some people did, in fact, try to think of some, but Vávra wasn't having it. Flaws that give your character downsides? "Fallout had TRAITS which had negative aspects as well. Nothing new," he said.
Presciently, Obsidian VP Marcus Morgan only just acknowledged that "everyone on the internet" keeps asking for Fallout: New Vegas 2, but made it clear that the studio is enjoying the process of creating and iterating on new IP like The Outer Worlds and Avowed.
Echoing descriptions of games like Baldur's Gate 3, and by pure coincidence bigging up the type of RPG that he and the crew at Warhorse Studios like to make, Vávra asks Obsidian, and seemingly all RPG creators, to "Give me a living, simulated world! True non-linearity! Give me something more than loot boxes, maintenance shafts, loading screens and level grinding in a static scripted world."
I don't know how or why loot boxes caught a stray here – not that they don't deserve it, it's just that there aren't any in The Outer Worlds 2 – and there's unavoidable subjectivity baked into this kind of thing, but there is something to be said for how this year's RPGs have stacked up and how The Outer Worlds 2, even with major additions over the first game, delivers a more contained RPG bubble than a sprawling megalith.
In 2019, our The Outer Worlds review returned a 4/5. A few weeks ago, our The Outer Worlds 2 review notched a bit higher at 4.5/5, with Heather praising creative problem-solving, meaningful choices, and excellent writing. In February, our Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 review landed at 4/5 with praise for a "vast, beautifully realised and believable open world" and "open-ended quests." All good games, and all with different approaches to the RPG formula.
Broader critical reception likewise reflects the multitudes within the RPG fandom. Metacritic has The Outer Worlds at 85, a whopping one point above the sequel, while Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is sitting at 88. Without hyperbole, three or four points is actually a pretty decent gap on Metacritic, where averages are downright glacial.
Seemingly heading off claims that this is a function of production budgets, Vávra said, "I would bet that budget for KCD2 was WAY LOWER, than Outer Worlds 2."
He also commented on, and perhaps downplayed, a major distinction between The Outer Worlds 2 and the Kingdom Come games: custom characters. But in Vávra's view, "KCD could easily have player-designed character which would not affect the RPG part at all. Only story would be harder to make."
Vávra's 7/10 assessment isn't a massive outlier for The Outer Worlds 2, but Obsidian's recent, lighter RPGs have also found fans of their own, even as we see demonstrable demand for games like Kingdom Come. I've caught myself longing for New Vegas as well, and I do love a 100-hour monster, but I'd still argue that it's good to have RPGs that won't ask for weeks or months of your time. And like a man who snuck into a baking contest judging panel, I find myself uninterested in the competition and just happy to have two cakes.
