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Upon my initial experience with the original Outer Worlds, I was quickly hooked by its sarcastic, Fallout-inspired brand of humor. This title boasted dynamic dialogues, character diaries, and propaganda materials that illustrated a company-run society that was both bleak and amusing. My main fear approaching the sequel was that this installment – through no fault on its part – could fail to be as funny like the original.

Sure, things weren't perfect. But the world certainly seemed a bit less broken at that time. The Outer Worlds depicted a grim society that didn't feel overly familiar, and yet accomplished to be simultaneously touching and uproarious. I started the follow-up rather certain that this installment couldn't succeed to pull this off again, but I'm happy to announce that I was wrong. The Outer Worlds 2 is equally smile-generating as the release that came earlier, and also introduces original ideas as opposed to merely repeating similar elements similar to a overused corporate jingle.

Changing NPCs

Most of the NPCs gamers met in the first title had been defeated by the deeds of company organizations including Spacer's Choice, and were fully cognizant of how much their lives sucked. The Outer Worlds 2 moves events in a distinct route, featuring characters who are brainwashed (occasionally metaphorically, frequently actually). Numerous NPCs aren't even aware of how deeply disordered their conditions are, or that there might be alternatives to an existence spent under the boot of a massive corporation or limited by the doctrines of an intense faith.

The sequel explores types of business domination that are more subtle than only making the masses poor. Numerous characters have been programmed with the kind of excessively zealous "work ethic" discourse you can discover on online profiles that promise to reveal the path to accomplishment should you purchase an expensive course, or put money into a sketchy crypto scheme. Additionally, the title's corporate propaganda has progressed.

Modern Themes

There are still many unmotivational posters on the walls threatening to dock employee wages who even contemplate taking a day off, but additionally there are allusions to network marketing strategies, such as a new hire handbook that confidently announces, "Strangers are just clients you still need to meet!" As someone who was raised in a direct sales environment, I instantly erupted in amusement upon viewing this mention, because it's a refrain I have often heard repeated exactly by those at the bottom of such schemes.

Thankfully, The Outer Worlds 2 is equally humorous and sarcastic as the initial release.

The Outer Worlds 2 additionally investigates the predicament many of us encounter concerning employment, government, and including buying decisions: Being forced to choose the reduced of several poor choices. When trying to decide whether to support a harmful business or a concerning cult in the game, I discovered I was supporting the known negative: An established business organization that is terrible (but only uses advertising to brainwash its subjects), as opposed to the faith organization, which also sucks, but utilizes a terrible method called "mental refreshment" to keep its adherents in line.

Unreliable Masters

Furthermore, the characters you work for could fail to be trustworthy. Playing as an Earth Directorate agent, your mission involves trying to reestablish order to the Arcadia colony following a hostile corporate takeover, and you rapidly learn that the two the aggressors and the invadees follow separate (but similarly terrible) ideologies. Yet a speedy examination of the transmissions on your vessel's computer demonstrate that this organization isn't exactly the world's most ethical organization too, as evidenced by a reply to an emergency signal that tells the sender it will take "three to five organizational cycles" for an answer to their transmission. (This period is roughly the duration it takes for me to contact a non-robot help desk employee over the phone currently.)

Recognizable Scenarios

Many moments in The Outer Worlds 2 are extremely familiar, but it's a cathartic type of familiarity, and the game manages to balance its grim future world with wit that's genuinely funny while avoiding incongruous. An important idea is the near-instant onset of deterioration that seems to take place after any major corporate acquisition. Workers from each party of this installment's major acquisition experience their living standards decrease as a result, while the CEOs in charge of the hierarchy are, expectedly, collecting money quickly.

Okay, at the very least I know where I stand.

Similar to the initial release, The Outer Worlds 2 is inherently funny, but it also doesn't shy away to turn solemn. At a certain time, while wandering around the title's initial discoverable location, I discovered a body with an audio log nearby. This recording showed that this individual (associated with the brainwashing religious faction) had been killed in an event while attempting to locate and eliminate her significant other. This loved one had apparently defected from their faction, and the now-dead NPC was enraged by her lover's {traitorous