The companions in The Outer Worlds 2 recently took center stage in a new trailer that dropped during Gamescom Opening Night Live 2025. After showcasing each intrepid adventurer that's going to join us in the Arcadia star system, a narrator cheekily confirmed as a closing aside that, "no, you can't sleep with them". While sleeping with a character is by no means the be all and end all of romance in games, on a surface level, you could take this to mean that we won't be able to woo our party members – especially in light of the fact that you couldn't in the first Outer Worlds.
But after asking Obsidian game director Brandon Adler about the studio's approach to romance, and whether or not it will at all factor into the sequel at Gamescom 2025, I'm starting to really like the picture the studio is painting for companion relationships. It even sounds as if it could be taking a leaf out of Avowed's book, and in my heart of hearts, I really hope it does.
Getting to know you
"In my mind, it can't be something that's pre planned like a checkbox. It's got to be something that works for the characters we're writing"
Brandon Adler, game director
As touched upon in the Xbox Games Showcase deep-dive back in June, every companion will be tied to a specific faction and each person will have their own outlooks on everything you do or say. Just like the followers in Avowed, they'll react to your actions, but they can also be influenced by you to take a certain path, or give in to a particular personality trait (like a propensity for violence in the case of cultist companion, Aza). So, with all this reactivity in place, Alder explains that it became a question of whether or not romance could naturally factor into the companion equation.
"Everything in game dev is give and take. And it's not that romances are inherently bad or anything like that. It has nothing to do with that," Adler says, "But if you write romances, that's going to take away from other reactive elements of the companions, right? Like there's other things – I won't get too deep into this because I want people to find this when they're playing – that requires a lot of additional work on the companion side, even things like companions leaving the party, or how they react to things."
Pointing to Aza as an example of the "time and effort" it takes to help her "deal with stuff", Adler adds that "we can only do so much kind of work in the companion space" in an RPG like The Outer Worlds 2, which is already setting out to make everything bigger and better than the 2019 adventure. But it's what Adler said next that makes me think the alternative to sleeping with the companions, as the trailer jests, is going to be far better and much more meaningful anyway.
"Honestly, it [romance] didn't match my overall vision for what I wanted for the companions," Adler continues. "I wanted a group of people who you were close with but it wasn't necessarily that we had to have romance. Now, if it naturally kind of came up as a thing, sure, maybe we could talk about that, but it wasn't like a goal from the very beginning – like 'Yes, we're absolutely going to have romance for every character. This is how the system is going to work. Say three nice things to them, and then they'll want to romance.' It has to be deeper than that, and has to, in some ways, be organic when you're writing these things."
"I won't get into what the relationships are overall," Adler adds, "but it truly does need to be something that's organic. And in my mind, it can't be something that's pre planned like a checkbox. It's got to be something that works for the characters we're writing."
Blossoming bonds
I've always been a bit of a hopeless romantic, and as much as I love to see romance in games, I appreciate that's not the easiest thing to do in a way that feels natural. Over the years, it's often gamified in the same two ways: either by saying the right things in dialogue to earn enough approval, or by giving the right gifts to increase affection ratings (the former of which Adler highlights).
I think that's why I really appreciated Avowed's approach. Over the course of the game as you venture through the Living Lands, you have the chance to get to know your companions better at camp. The time you put in learning more about them and engaging in conversation is entirely up to you – you don't have to speak to them much at all if you're not inclined to. But after speaking with Kai as often as I could and even helping him with a personal request, I already felt close to him as a friend towards the end of the RPG. Then, when the chance came up in conversation to confess that my character had romantic feelings for him, it felt so natural because of the connection I'd actively formed.
I completely get what Adler's saying about not including romance for the sake of it or as a "checkbox" feature, and only working it in if it feels right for a respective companion. But now it begs the question: could it have felt right for one of the companions? Could romance still be possible? Sure, it may not be for every companion that will join us, but if it made sense for one or a few of them? Well, then maybe we could see something develop in that direction not unlike the way it worked with Kai.
Even if we can't engage in anything romantic ourselves, it's also not entirely outside of the realms of possibility that someone could find love outside of our character, too. I adored the way the first Outer Worlds allowed us to help our companion Parvarti find love. As you discover, she developed feelings for an engineer called Junlei Tennyson, whose character you meet during a questline. By acting as cupid for the pair, and encouraging Parvati as she grappled with her fears, I felt like a true friend and confidant, and it was incredibly rewarding to know I'd played a part in helping them establish a relationship.
When we brought this up with Adler and asked whether or not we could see similar scenarios play out, he was tight lipped, saying "you'll have to play the game and see". But hey, that's not a no, so maybe it could happen. Regardless of whether or not we see any kind of romance in The Outer Worlds 2, I'm still very optimistic that Obsidian will make me come to care about the companions. With Adler's platonic "group of people who you [are]close with" at my side, I can't wait to see how my journey unfolds.
For more, be sure to check out our The Outer Worlds 2 hands-on big preview.
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