It's no secret that The Outer Worlds 2 stands apart from the RPG genre with its unique story and systems – features that game director Brandon Adler says Obsidian Entertainment wouldn't give up to cater to all flavors of players rather than a niche, because "sometimes you have to pick a lane."
Speaking to RPG Site in a recent interview, Adler, whose background includes genre gems like Fallout: New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity, explains what makes The Outer Worlds 2 different than other games more modern players might be familiar with. Between its New Vegas-inspired perk system that lets players "build out really crazy combinations of stuff and get these fun gameplay effects going" and no respec ability, there's a lot.
That's right – Obsidian, the company that now proudly stands as Xbox's most prolific studio, won't "allow" fans to respec in The Outer Worlds 2, even if many "love respec" overall. "I personally want the player to understand their choices are permanent – they matter – and then they think more about their choices." With respec enabled, lots of players don't do so (and I, admittedly, tend to be one of them while playing RPGs).
"There's a lot of times where you'll see games where they allow infinite respec, and at that point I'm not really role-playing a character, because I'm jumping between – well my guy is a really great assassin that snipes from long range, and then oh, y'know, now I'm going to be a speech person, then respec again, and it's like… for me, it's not wrong that people like to play like that," describes Adler. Not wrong, but not right for The Outer Worlds 2.
"Look, if we're going to do The Outer Worlds 2, I want to make sure that the role-playing is really strong," admits the lead. "I want to make sure that you're building your character and really doubling down – making sure that role-playing comes through the whole experience." If that means that the pool of potential players is smaller, Adler says that's all right. Catering to literally everybody just is "not as important" as making the game developers want.
"It's probably not a popular thing for me to say," states the director. "But, like, that's just not as important. That doesn't come into the calculus of the cool, fun game I want to make." The lead says developers "want to respect people's time, and for me in a role-playing game, this is respecting somebody's time." In an RPG like The Outer Worlds 2, it's all about the decisions a player makes and how much they matter throughout the game.
"Saying your choices matter, so take that seriously – and we're going to respect that by making sure that we give you cool reactivity for those choices that you're making," explains Adler, "that's respecting your time." It may not be for everyone, but it'll certainly be for someone. "You've got to be clear with people early on what the experience they're getting is. If that's not for them, that's understandable."
The director concludes by reaffirming his points: "We hope that we can convince you that it is – but I'm also not going to make a game for literally everybody because then I feel it waters down the experience a lot. I mean, yeah – we want to make a game that people want to continue playing for a long time, obviously. But I'll tell you, not every game is for every single person. Sometimes you have to pick a lane." That you do.
Want to know more about one of the most exciting new games yet? Check out our The Outer Worlds 2 preview to read our thoughts on the RPG sequel.
