The Outer Worlds 2 was announced at E3 2021 in the series' satirical style, with Obsidian parodying early game announcement trailers and keeping specific details about the next game close to its chest. There has, however, been one major detail about the upcoming game that has been confirmed.

The Outer Worlds 2 will not take place in the Halcyon star system, the setting of the first game. While very little has been revealed about where the next game will actually be set, this detail points to one significant advantage that The Outer Worlds has over the Fallout franchise that may give Obsidian's newer series the long-term edge over Bethesda's long-running franchise.

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The Restrictions Of Fallout's Settings

fallout 5 settings

Although Fallout's Great War reshaped its version of America, the series still relies on finding real-world locations to act as the foundation for each game's setting. As Bethesda Design Director Emil Pagliarulo said of the series in the documentary The History of Bethesda Game Studios, "the first thing for us is to figure out 'where the hell is this game set?'"

Fallout's fictionalized America is one of the series greatest strengths, allowing players to explore locations they may find familiar and opening up the door for unique roleplaying opportunities not found in series with entirely fictional settings like The Elder Scrolls. Not only does Fallout's reliance on real-world locations have its drawbacks, however, but those drawbacks risk becoming increasingly pronounced as the series gets older.

The Fallout franchise has to keep finding exciting new locations with their own brand of Americana that fits with the series' major themes. So far the games have been set in California, Washington DC, Nevada, Boston, West Virginia, and surrounding areas, which still leaves the developers plenty of options for future games.

There are other problems that come with a reliance on real-world settings, however. RPG sequels often face the challenge of reflecting the player's impact on the world in previous games in the series. There's no mention in Fallout 4, for example, whether Mr. House, Caesar's Legion, the NCR, or the Courier themself took control of New Vegas after the Second Battle of Hoover Dam.

Although entries like Fallout 76 have avoided this problem by being set long before most of the other Fallout games, the more locations Bethesda lets the player have a major impact on, the harder it becomes to sustain the illusion that players have any impact on Fallout's world at all. This may seem counterintuitive, but as more Fallout games release the fates of major locations in the US become increasingly difficult to address without establishing the canonical choices the player characters made in previous games. Making some choices canon would be a hard sell in a series that touts freedom and player choice as one of its greatest assets.

This problem isn't just limited to Fallout. Many fans of Bethesda will be wondering how the studio will address the outcome of Skyrim's Civil War in The Elder Scrolls 6 without establishing a canonical choice or being suspiciously evasive about a major province's leadership. While The Elder Scrolls can eventually choose to leave Tamriel if needs be, Fallout has no such luxury. The series is so tied up in '50s and '60s American aesthetics that it couldn't leave the US without sacrificing a major part of its style.

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The Freedom Of The Outer Worlds' Settings

the outer worlds 2 cinematic trailer e3 protagonist obsidian

Very little is known about The Outer Worlds 2, but the series' setting is practically immune to the problem faced by Fallout, and is already confirmed to be taking advantage of that fact. The Outer Worlds 2's official Twitter account described the upcoming game as having a "new star system. New crew. Same Outer Worlds."

The Outer Worlds 2 is completely free of Fallout's setting restrictions, but is still able to take advantage of the same degree of stylistic consistency through its own brand of alternate history. Fallout couldn't leave America behind without sacrificing its style, but The Outer Worlds 2 can take players anywhere in the universe. More accurately, Obsidian has the freedom to completely invent the settings of each game - Halcyon isn't even a real star system.

The expansion of humanity across the stars in The Outer Worlds also allows a sequel to have stakes as high as the original without ever having to address the decisions made by the player in the first game. By taking place in a new star system, The Outer Worlds 2 can leave the fate of Halcyon at the end of The Outer Worlds 1 totally open-ended without seeming evasive. Each new story can take place in its own cluster of isolated planets that draw on the series' aesthetics and lore but are totally independent in terms of story and stakes.

While Fallout players can never have too much of an impact on the game's setting without it causing problems for Bethesda down the line, The Outer Worlds can let its players have a huge impact on each game's setting. If players side with the Board in The Outer Worlds 1 it's suggested that the entire colony collapses thanks to careless exploitation of its resources. Making room for this possible player choice only prevents future games from taking place in Halcyon, which was unlikely to be the plan anyway in a universe with so much potential for new settings. In contrast, it would be extremely difficult for a Fallout game to raise the stakes to the extent that the player could destroy the entire setting without having to establish that option as non-canon when the next game rolls around.

Every new game in The Outer Worlds series is an opportunity for the developers to build a new setting from the ground-up, fitting it to the exact story they want to tell while keeping it self-contained enough that the player's choices can have a massive influence on the setting's fate. Without many more specific details about The Outer Worlds 2, fans have no idea if Obsidian will fully take advantage of the edge its series has over Fallout. However, with Fallout suffering from the slow saturation of its setting with each new game, The Outer Worlds could be a great position to eventually become the successor series many fans hoped it would be when the first game released.

The Outer Worlds 2 is in development for PC and Xbox Series X/S.