The Outer Worlds 2 Direct: Everything Announced

Obsidian Entertainment debuted its peculiar The Outer Worlds 2 Direct today, revealing a planet-sized presumption afloat of gameplay with caller details astir its 2025 sequel.

The 30-minute showcase gave players a tongue-in-cheek look astatine however Obsidian is gathering connected the instauration laid by its archetypal 2019 abstraction escapade RPG with tweaks to existing mechanics arsenic good arsenic wholly caller gameplay features. It was besides each hosted by comedian and Sonic the Hedgehog movie dependable histrion Ben Schwartz, who helped support The Outer Worlds 2 Direct going with plentifulness of skits successful betwixt the nitty-gritty details.

From wacky caller Flaws and planets to a caller position connected subordinate choice, we’ve collected each of the highlights from today’s The Outer Worlds 2 Direct and shared them below. Also, arsenic announced astatine the 2025 Xbox Games Showcase, The Outer Worlds 2 present has a merchandise day of October 29, 2025. You tin work up connected everything announced astatine that amusement here.

Exploring Space arsenic an Earth Directorate Agent

Players are dropped into The Outer Worlds 2 arsenic an Earth Directorate Agent. Obsidian describes these do-gooders arsenic “space cowboys oregon abstraction entity marshals” oregon “good guys that spell successful to places and hole everything that’s wrong.” How you physique retired your quality and acquisition from here, though, is up to you.

Filling retired your character’s communicative means choosing things similar a Background and Traits, with the second mounting the instauration for however you attack gameplay passim the story. You tin beryllium Brilliant, Heroic, Innovative, Lucky – oregon Dumb, if that’s your thing.

There are besides skills, which person been refined this clip around, and perks, which are heavy inspired by the strategy utilized successful Fallout: New Vegas. One illustration of a perk shown during the Direct is Assassin, an quality that grants a question bonus aft a stealth kill.

More Guns, More Choice

The Outer Worlds 2 is astir expanding the beingness Obsidian created successful 2019, and that means introducing immense improvements to the gameplay crossed the board. There are much guns with much unsocial animations to beryllium recovered here, with galore of them shown disconnected during the Direct.

It’s each precise Borderlands, arsenic immoderate weapons transportation unsocial traits. Rookie’s Reward is simply a large illustration of what’s successful store, arsenic this firearm dilatory levels up with the subordinate arsenic it's utilized done the game, celebrating each caller level with a confetti and fireworks show. There’s besides the Pop-Up Gun, which distracts enemies with pop-up ads projected by a pesky drone. Another item is simply a music-infused sword that rewards players who smack enemies to the bushed of a song.

Much of this creativity was carried implicit into the caller throwable tools. Grenades, for example, tin trigger a elemental explosion, oregon players tin usage subject grenades that suspend foes with zero-gravity technology.

As for movement, Obsidian says it’s revamped its attack to exploration, too. That means much state to run, jump, slide, and parkour astir Arcadia arsenic they find invaluable loot. You’ll besides beryllium capable to instrumentality vantage of some first- and third-person perspectives aft the enactment was absent from the archetypal game.

Flaws Are Back and Better (and Worse) Than Ever

One beloved elements from the archetypal The Outer Worlds were Flaws, a diagnostic that gave players the enactment to instrumentality connected antagonistic attributes successful speech for different perks. We got to spot 4 Flaws arsenic portion of today’s presentation: Bad Knees, Kleptomaniac, Sungazer, and Overprepared.

Bad Knees gives players, well, atrocious knees, allowing them to determination quicker successful speech for joints that popular (and alert enemies) erstwhile leaving the crouching position. Kleptomaniac grants higher selling values for stolen items portion occasionally forcing players to nick immoderate items against their will, portion Sungazer causes imperishable imaginativeness harm successful speech for a daytime healing passive and accrued limb spread. Overprepared is simply a Flaw for the benignant of subordinate who is ever cautiously reloading, granting them accrued mag sizes with a punishment if a clip ever organically runs retired of ammo.

Factions and Companions

To nary one’s surprise, The Outer Worlds 2 is populated by an service of cardinal factions and individuals to assistance and halt your journey. The Protectorate, for example, is described arsenic an authoritarian radical successful the isolated colony of Arcadia.

“Their dictatorship is thematically based astir the question of however overmuch state radical volition springiness up for information and luxury,” Obsidian describes. “For Protectorate subjects, unfortunately, that reply is ‘everything.’”

There’s besides the Order of the Ascendant, an offshoot of the Order of Scientific Inquiry from the archetypal Outer Worlds that besides has past ties to The Protectorate. These large factions and much person been made to person adjacent ties to the communicative and themes of The Outer Worlds 2, but they’ve besides been made to beryllium adjacent much absurd arsenic Obsidian aimed to grow the humor. Additionally, players tin expect to perceive to a Fallout: New Vegas-inspired vigor system, which features stations from each large faction, with each carrying astir 20 archetypal songs.

Factions person been fleshed retired and improved for The Outer Worlds 2, and Obsidian says companions, of which determination are six, person received the aforesaid treatment. Niles, an Earth Directorate cause whose communicative tin beryllium shaped by the player’s action, is the archetypal companion you’ll meet. Today’s Direct besides showcased the “somewhat cute” automech drone, who helps Niles, named Val, arsenic good arsenic the deadly assassin and mathematician Marisol, the cultlist Aza, a combat medic who survived experimentation named Inez, and Tristan, a heavy armored Protectorate arbiter.

The Bridge

Obsidian wants players to cognize that they’ve got options erstwhile it comes to however they take to acquisition The Outer Worlds 2, and the champion illustration of subordinate prime is an aboriginal ngo called The Bridge. It’s each astir uncovering ways to little a bridge, with players capable to instrumentality much straightforward options similar convincing The Protectorate to little the span themselves, sneaking to the power room, and going successful guns blazing.

Obsidian takes the options a measurement further, though, giving players the prime to usage a shield that protects against poison state to get astir unsafe areas oregon leap boots that connection much traversal options. You tin adjacent sacrifice a companion successful bid to summation span clearance. This is the benignant of state the squad says players tin expect from The Outer Worlds 2.

As today’s Direct came to a close, Obsidian shared its thoughts connected the sequel, saying, “The Outer Worlds 2 is truly the biggest crippled we’ve ever made.” As we determination person to its recently announced merchandise date, it’s casual to spot why. For much connected The Outer Worlds 2, you tin work up connected its October merchandise day announcement. You tin besides cheque retired much accusation connected its price, which is confirmed to beryllium $80, arsenic good arsenic our speech with Obsidian's Marcus Morgan astatine IGN Live.

Michael Cripe is simply a freelance contributor with IGN. He's champion known for his enactment astatine sites similar The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be definite to springiness him a travel connected Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).