On the Radar with The Outer Worlds 2 – going beyond our verdict with a deep dive on one of 2025's greatest RPGs

The Outer Worlds 2 review: "The Fallout New Vegas creators have crafted a masterful space age RPG that's willing to play game master to my silliest decisions": What's great about this RPG is that it's unafraid to feel gamey while still being incredibly immersive. The freedom to play your way is richly rewarded with additional details and silly interactions.

The Outer Worlds 2 video review: Want to watch us play while we review? You don't need to tell us twice if it means we get to play even more of the game. Constantly teasing new options and choices, this is one RPG where we won't be stopping after a single playthrough.

The Outer Worlds 2's first area is all about nailing Obsidian's "hardcore RPG feel" – which you can trace back to New Vegas, Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines, and the first Fallout: Even an RPG with this much freedom needs to be careful in how it communicates having those options to the player, making The Outer Worlds 2's opening incredibly important to nail, and the dev team knew it.

The Outer Worlds 2 won't let you respec your character, even if you break your build, because the RPG's director "wouldn't let you respec your story" either: When Obsidian respects player choice, it really means it. You might end up a tricky position if you don't think through your decisions, but that's all part of the journey.

My stealth build in The Outer Worlds 2 has me obsessed with a particular gadget, but every single one has "multiple purposes" because Obsidian didn't want them to be "singular use tools": Choosing which gadgets you use and how you use them are themselves a huge part of the role play experience here.

The Outer World 2's Incognito ship is your home base, but it also takes inspiration from the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars and reflects how "the player chooses to play": Every great sci-fi adventure needs a great sci-fi ship and this RPG is no different. A lot of thought has been put into crafting the look and feel of the Incognito.

The Outer Worlds 2 developers have one major combat tip: "Pick a lane and stick with it": Decisions are vital in this RPG, and that includes the choices you make with how to specialize your skills in combat. The saying 'Jack of all trades, master of none' may haunt you if you don't put some thought into what you want to use early.

I love that the Flaw system calls me out on my RPG behavior in The Outer Worlds 2's and then asks me to double-down on it: "Because flaws are optional, we knew we could actually push them a little bit harder": We all have flaws, but the option to take on these silver-lined challenges dares you to go even deeper with how you roleplay. Audibly creaky knees? Too real.

The Outer Worlds 2 is an RPG that's as much about what you can't do as what you can: "Everybody is going to have a different experience, and they may not see everything, and that's okay": The best RPGs make us want to rinse them without missing a thing, but at the same time the great ones leave us with personal journeys that make that impossible. All the more reason to jump into a replay in order to try out those tantalizing options we couldn't manage the first time around.

The Outer Worlds 2 guide: With an RPG this big, there can almost be an overwhelming amount of options. Fun for some, paralyzing for others. We're here to help, whether that's weighing the benefits of a character build in advance, deciding which choices to make, or a number of other questions we have the answers for!