The Outer Worlds 2

 Having just recently rolled credits on The Outer Worlds 2, I can safely say I found the game... fine. For every bit of praise, I probably have a caveat.

The shooting and traversal mechanics work well enough for a first-person-centric game. There are plenty of opportunities to use the game's skills throughout, but how meaningful they are is questionable. Most objectives usually have multiple solutions, whether its pickpocketing a passcard, hacking a terminal, finding a hidden route, or just blasting everyone at a checkpoint. I generally feel that's good design, but to fall back on a point immediately, the differences don't really feel meaningful 99% of the time. The skills are also tuned in such a way that if you want to be able to pass checks throughout the game, you can really only invest in about three. Even a minor dip in something else can cut you off from a few endgame check (not that it would gate you out of anything particularly important). I can see ups and downs to that approach, but it didn't feel very good most of the time.

There are a bunch of different weapon types. That should be good, but it fell flat for me. While, early on, you may have to swap around and be forced to "experiment" with different types due to running out of ammo with one, but they time you've gathered enough money and resources for that to not be an issue, there stops being a need. Later-game weapons don't inherently do more, so it's easy to get familiar with a gun from the opening hours and use it to the end. On top of that, the weapon mods (such as adding a sight or suppressor) are unique to each individual weapon type. That sight for a triple barrel shotgun will not work for a trench shotgun. And while basic weapons say what they are, unique weapons have a name. Even the detailed item description only says "shotgun." So I had to actually ask online what specific type a certain unique was so I could track down a sight for it. That's unnecessary granularity that, to me, doesn't add anything to make up for the annoyance. I could say the same about the myriad ammo types, but that was less of a functional problem after a point. I just had to remember to stock up now and then.

The game dials back the zaniness of the first one, relying more on the main factions being represented by zealous caricature. You've got your extreme capitalists, extreme authoritarian "communism," extreme religious mathematicians, and a small group of murderous cultists. It may be a problem with modern game factions trying to make there be "no right answer," but I really don't care for any of them. The representation among your companions is a bit more tolerable because you can pull them away from the ideals somewhat. Still my go-to companions were more moderate to begin with and... fine, but not the sorts who will be long-term memorable.

I'd also say the latter third or so of the game I was bouncing back and forth between locations a lot to resolve quests, turn them in, then follow up. That frequent fast travel took me out of things and countered any real satisfaction of exploration I got early on.

The ending resolves some things. It leaves a few threads unresolved. It works, but wasn't greatly satisfying to me. Which is sort of the game in general.