Highlights

  • The Outer Worlds 2 may follow Star Wars Jedi: Survivor's more contained design for planets, focusing on quality over quantity.
  • The game's new star system could lead to more elaborate and unique locations for players to explore.
  • Fans may end up seeing a similar approach to planet and level design in The Outer Worlds 2 as in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.

The Outer Worlds 2 is Obsidian Entertainment's forthcoming second outing in the hyper-corporatized dystopian sci-fi setting it introduced players to in 2019. After the success of the first, the studio officially announced it would be producing a sequel to the futuristic FPS RPG in 2021, and The Outer Worlds 2 is currently in development, with many fans excited and theorizing about how Obsidian will improve and iterate on the original entry's direction and design.

Last year, developer Respawn's Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, the followup to Jedi: Fallen Order (also released in 2019), streamlined many of its Metriodvania world/level designs and elements. The two are generally tighter and narrower in terms of sheer size, with less emphasis on a massive open world, and instead composed of a smaller pool of denser locales that are more closely interlinked. This was also an aspect of The Outer Worlds, and based on what has been shown about it so far, it could very well be the case that The Outer Worlds 2's planets and other locations will strongly resemble Survivor's in this area.

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Why The Outer Worlds 2 Should Look to the Future, Not Dwell on the Past

The Outer Worlds 2 changing scenery with a new star system should allow the game to look towards the future this time around.

The Outer Worlds 2's Planets Could be the Yin to Star Wars Jedi: Survivor's Yang

The Outer Worlds and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor's Planet Counts and Design

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor's suite of planets that Cal Kestis and his allies explored totaled six. Though this seems a small number, Survivor still felt epic, even if it was technically limited to only those few locales that players would become quite familiar with via revisiting multiple times by the conclusion of its tale. Yet, they were all well-designed and felt like a believable part of the world and story, with each having their own history and purpose within the plot as well as feeling distinct and challenging in their own ways when navigating and fighting through them.

The Outer Worlds had slightly more than double that, with thirteen celestial bodies for fans to investigate. Some, though, were noticeably smaller and more barren than others, as The Outer Worlds' narrative focused more on the intricate interplay of political power and daily survival struggles that the populations of its planets were dealing with. The main point is that each was moderately sized and manageable, never feeling overwhelming but neither superfluous, and most importantly fun and engaging to play through even after many hours.

The upcoming Star Wars Outlaws is stated to be fully open world , in contrast to Survivor 's more slimmed down settings.

Why The Outer Worlds 2's Planets May Be Similar to Star Wars Jedi: Survivor's

In both The Outer Worlds and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, certain planets served as major hubs as fans hopped back and forth between them and others tracking down story leads or completing sidequests. They remained again, though, rewarding to return to each time, and in Survivor's case, usually after acquiring an ability that opened up new paths. Players similarly traveled multiple times across The Outer Worlds' Halcyon Colony in their adventures, also often discovering previously inaccessible areas.

Based on the information revealed so far, The Outer Worlds 2 looks to be set in an entirely new star system, which would provide a natural reason for some expansion and diverging from the previous design while keeping the overall moment-to-moment gameplay and feel in line with what players experienced in the first. Even if it slims down to a number closer to Survivor's, this would then allow breathing room for some of them to be more elaborate, perhaps with greater emphasis on larger cities and other interesting settlements.

This Fall, Obsidian will be releasing its fantasy RPG, Avowed, which it has noted will also be more contained in scope. It's fairly reasonable then to assume The Outer Worlds 2 will likely broadly follow this philosophy, and in the process highly resemble Star Wars Jedi: Survivor's vision in terms of planets/locations while continuing to channel and improve the aspects that made the first Outer Worlds' environments enjoyable and unique.