The studio behind The Outer Worlds 2, Obsidian Entertainment, was quite inspired for the upcoming RPG from one of its own older titles – Fallout: New Vegas. In an interview with GamesRadar, creative director Brandon Adler also spoke about how, if fans are “tired” of hearing the studio cite Fallout: New Vegas as an inspiration, they can also look forward to how influential the Deus Ex games were on The Outer Worlds 2 as well.
“We looked at all kinds of things,” he said. “I know people are probably tired of me saying this, but Fallout: New Vegas was a big inspiration for us.” Along with New Vegas, however, Adler also said that “the newer Deus Ex games” were also inspirational, referring to 2011’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution and 2016’s Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.
Adler has been revealing quite a few details about The Outer Worlds 2 over the last month. In a recent interview, he revealed that the upcoming RPG will not allow players to respec their builds. While he noted that there are games that provide that option and it’s not the “wrong” choice by any means, it is simply the wrong choice for The Outer Worlds 2.
“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,” said Adler.
“Look, if we’re going to do The Outer Worlds 2, I want to make sure that the role-playing is really strong,” he continued. “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.”
Adler also spoke about how the RPG mechanics of The Outer Worlds 2 will reinforce players’ choices by giving them consequences and a generally reactive world and story. He noted that this comes down to respecting the player’s time, and in exchange, getting the respect of players for the choices they might have to make.
“We want to respect people’s time, and for me, in a role-playing game, this is respecting somebody’s time,” Adler explained. “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. That’s respecting your time.”
“So you know your question was, was, how do you cater to that? And I would say 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. 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.”
The Outer Worlds 2 is coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on October 29.