Reactions to The Outer Worlds 2 have been pretty mixed here aboard the good ship PC Gamer. Ted Litchfield was pretty hot on the game in his Outer Worlds 2 review, scoring it 83% and calling it "A great RPG that surpasses its predecessor." Others? Less hot, like our Fraser Brown, who found the game's attempts at satire toothless and disappointing. We contain multitudes around here.
I think Daniel Vávra, director on Kingdom Come: Deliverance 1 and 2, hews closer to Fraser's position. In a post on X, Vávra said he'd finished Obsidian's latest and gave it a sober "7/10" (that's 70% in god's own review system). But he's disappointed: "What I find sad," wrote Vávra, "is that the company and the people who gave us one of my favorite games ever (Fallout and New Vegas) have been unable, even after 15 years and with all of Microsoft's money and latest technological advances, to come up with a single new game mechanic that could take this proven but ancient formula somewhere new."
To illustrate his point, Vávra asks "Can any of you think of a single new game mechanic in The Outer Worlds that wasn't already in Deus Ex or the original Fallout games more than 25 years ago?" Vávra sure can't, and in place of The Outer Worlds 2's relatively static hubs, he says "Give me a living, simulated world! True non-linearity!" In other words, give him something like, uh, Kingdom Come: Deliverance. "Give me something more than loot boxes, maintenance shafts, loading screens and level grinding in a static scripted world."
Alright, look, first things first: The Outer Worlds 2 doesn't have loot boxes, and I think Vávra might have deviated a little from critiquing the game to yelling at the games industry more broadly in that final line. Nevertheless, I don't necessarily disagree. I love a good, systems-driven RPG (heck, I gave Vávra's last game 90% in our Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 review) and I adore older Obsidian games.
Finished. 7/10. But what I find sad is that the company and the people who gave us one of my favorite games ever (Fallout & New Vegas) have been unable, even after 15 years and with all of Microsoft's money and latest technological advances, to come up with a single new game… pic.twitter.com/DqhNxqy0DrNovember 4, 2025
Do I think Obsidian needs to pivot hard into imsim-flavoured RPG gameplay? Well, I'd love to see it, but no, I don't think it's necessary. Two of my favourite games from Obsidian—and of all time—are Pillars of Eternity 2 and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, both of which are relatively restricted in terms of what you can do compared to something systems-heavy like Kingdom Come.
I don't know that I share Vávra's prescription, but I can't help but resonate with his diagnosis—I miss that Obsidian ambition, and without it I'm not sure the studio's games will ever again rise to their old heights in my estimations.
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