Earlier today, Microsoft announced that Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds 2 would be featured in a Direct-style presentation immediately following the Xbox Summer Showcase slated for June 8. However, fans of the game were also treated to a surprise: IGN published the first gameplay video, and more coverage can be expected throughout April as part of IGN First.
The footage sees the player character infiltrating an N-Ray facility with the help of a slightly crazed cultist companion. According to IGN, the game features a full-fledged stealth system. Enemies can detect bodies and alert fellow guards, though players obviously have ways to prevent that from happening, including a skill that can disintegrate bodies as soon as they drop.
There are also more effective melee weapons and abilities to perform silent takedowns. Moreover, Obsidian introduced an easy way for players to gauge how much they’re going to take out of the enemy’s health with a stealth attack, so that they can assess whether a one-hit kill is even possible in the first place.
New gadgets are being used to spruce up the gameplay variety. In this mission, the N-Ray Scanner allows the player character to spot otherwise invisible cultists. Gunplay also seems improved in The Outer Worlds 2 compared to the first installment, with the developers claiming to have taken inspiration from Bungie’s Destiny in that regard.
Movement was also fine-tuned to allow for greater agility, not to mention the addition of a sprint-slide move while aiming down sights. The Bullet-Time-like Tactical Time Dilation returns, and in the footage, we can see the main character tossing a grenade, activating Tactical Time Dilation, and shooting the grenade to have it explode on multiple enemies.
IGN also said that Obsidian mentioned having Fallout: New Vegas as the main inspiration for this sequel. The footage does hint at some of that when, all of a sudden, the player takes down a non-hostile character that had actually provided them with help (and could have been saved if provided with a trauma kit). It looks like there will be a lot of choices and consequences.
The Outer Worlds 2 is scheduled to launch later this year on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S|X.