The creation of open world space-faring games is typically pretty ambitious, usually due to their size. Starfield seems to be taking on this challenge, but it will inevitably leave out some things fans would have loved to see. Thankfully, The Outer Worlds 2 has the opportunity to pick up exactly whereever Starfield leaves off.
According to what has been seen so far, Starfield will likely not include any form of intelligent alien life. But in The Outer Worlds 2, players will be exploring an entirely new star system. This means players may have the chance to find a new race of intelligent alien life forms.
How Outer Worlds 2 Stands to Benefit
Alien life is abundant throughout The Outer Worlds universe. While Terra-2 is a terraformed planet, therefore not fully confirming the alien nature of the fauna found there, Monarch is a hostile, inhospitable planet full of fierce alien life. Starfield will likely include just as much alien life, as seen by the trailers. But in Starfield, despite being able to explore thousands of planets, the player seemingly can't find an alien civilization with comparable intelligence to humans. But with The Outer Worlds only ever having explored a handful of planets, it is possible that The Outer Worlds 2's new star system may contain intelligent alien life forms.
This would be great for The Outer Worlds 2 in terms of setting it apart from Starfield, which will be focusing on other themes. It would allow for the player to interact with a whole race and culture that would be entirely different from the one they would typically interact with. That, plus the fact that few players would scoff at the opportunity to play alongside an alien companion in The Outer Worlds 2. The potential that alien lifeforms present to the game is nearly limitless, allowing Obsidian Entertainment to take the game places that Starfield wouldn't be able to.
It could even fit into the themes of the overall franchise, that being of a universe ruled by corporations in the far future. For example, one of the many large corporations could find and initiate contact with one of these alien races with the goal of exploiting them for either their labor or resources. It could then be up to the player to assist in either freeing or further entrapping them, allowing the player to fully interact with the future of the species as a whole. This would be the perfect way to further emphasize the satirical nature of The Outer Worlds franchise, giving it more depth as well as making it more relatable to the real world.
This would also provide Obsidian Entertainment the opportunity to stretch this concept over to The Outer Worlds 2's customization options. Rather than only being allowed to choose from human designs, alien designs could give more variety to the creation of a character. These out-of-this-world physical traits would allow players to create more unique characters, while also providing more options for players to choose from, which has rarely ever been a bad thing. These traits could even go as far as to change the way the NPCs interact with the player, with perhaps some being kind to the player and others being more xenophobic.
Though fans only have a vague idea of the launch date for The Outer Worlds 2, this has yet to mitigate the speculation about what the game might include. With any luck, perhaps players could see the introduction of a whole new intelligent alien species to interact with.
The Outer Worlds 2 is currently in development.