MeinMMO editor Nikolas Hernes had a lot of fun with a big sci-fi role-playing game at gamescom 2025, even though he didn’t play it like a role-playing game.
What game is it? The Outer Worlds 2 is perhaps the most interesting upcoming game for Fallout fans and will be released in just a few months. The role-playing game from Obsidian Entertainment features, like its predecessor, a satirical sci-fi world full of corrupt and powerful companies and quirky characters. Recently, the game’s companions were showcased during the Opening Night Live.
In the preview at gamescom, I was able to create a character and play the beginning of the game. Even though I didn’t play the predecessor, I had a lot of fun, although I feel like I played The Outer Worlds 2 completely wrong.
Right from the beginning, the backstory becomes relevant
How did the beginning go? First, we were able to create a character in the preview. It was not only about appearance but also about various attributes and a backstory that affected dialogues and the possibilities in the game world.
Character created, and off I go to a space station, where my next mission is explained to me. Even the first dialogues were enjoyable. They weren’t fantastically written, but the silliness and strong personalities made me laugh.
I also found it pretty cool that my background was a constant theme. I chose the backstory as gambler
, and whenever a character disliked what I said, they reduced me to that. It fit the world and made me feel a bit more alive
as a character.
I focused my remaining attributes on shooting. Yes, that doesn’t really fit with a role-playing game with various systems and approaches, but that’s exactly what I enjoyed a lot.
Shooting felt really good
How was the gameplay? In the preview, one faced several types of enemies in a space station. There were robots, drones, and also human foes. I played the game directly as I would play a Borderlands game: fully confrontational.
After a failed stealth attempt, I pulled out my starting gun and faced the enemies in ranged combat. I slid and jumped from cover to cover, creating a pleasant flow. The pace and movement of my character felt good, and I found aiming down sights enjoyable.
The weapons we got to test in the preview were also a lot of fun. They didn’t feel as fluid
and fast as in a CoD game, but a bit heavier, which I quite like. This gives the weapons some character.
Furthermore, I also enjoyed the sound design quite a bit. The weapons and grenades sound crisp, and together with the hit feedback, this helped create a pleasant flow in the combat.
As shown to me by the gameplay trailer on YouTube, I can look forward to a lot of quirky weapons with elements and other gimmicks in the game. The inner Borderlands and shooter fan in me is quite convinced from the preview, although one thing does bother me a bit.
The story presentation didn’t convince me
What is the problem with the story? I generally like the funny and satirical dialogues that tend to go over the top, but unfortunately, I couldn’t get much out of the presentation.
As you know from Bethesda titles, dialogues often proceed quite generically. You approach a character, it zooms in slightly, and with a static camera, you listen to the character. This is somewhat better in The Outer Worlds 2 compared to Fallout (the characters have more dynamic poses), but I still didn’t find it really good.
The static camera is a disadvantage for the dialogues, which makes them often seem a bit stiff. As a result, the world lost some flair in the preview, especially when trying to click through all dialogue options.
Fortunately, you don’t have to do that, which is why I mainly focused on combat.
I didn’t play The Outer Worlds 2 in the preview like a role-playing game, but it suited my playstyle quite well. In the first area, I could already discover some ways to interact with the world without directly blowing everything up.
These included conversations I messed up, alternative paths, and chests that I could have opened with different attributes. The conversations with the characters also had some options and possibilities that piqued my interest.
Thus, the preview already seemed full of elements where one can go wild as a roleplayer. But honestly: I will probably also play it as a shooter at release and am already very much looking forward to ignoring the many role-playing elements like a gunslinger. One thing that cannot be ignored is the extraordinary mechanic in Pragmata: A new sci-fi shooter for the PS5 could turn out really well, even if one mechanism will divide players
