This starts by having you choose your character’s background — Ex-Convict, Gambler, Lawbringer, Professor, Renegade, or a Roustabout – all crafted to represent the life you had before joining the Earth Directorate (who are at their most basic level, kind of like space marshals). We’re told each of these backgrounds can bring a unique element to the game that can manifest in ways like an expanded conversation tree or a gameplay encounter.

It was hard for me to settle on just one for this demo. I initially liked the idea of rolling with a Lawbringer, someone who was unflinching in their dedication to the Earth Directorate – playing it up as a propaganda-consuming soldier could be fun. I ultimately rolled with an Ex-Convict. I tend to like playing as characters who come from some more of the seedier parts of the galaxy. I also like that my character is set up from the start to be at odds with who they are working for — I’ve accepted a deal with the Earth Directorate to clear my record if I just work for them. How that plays out long term could be exciting and is something I’m hoping to see pay off later in the game.

While your choice of background has an impact on how the game’s world will perceive you, it’s the Traits and Skills that give you a much more tangible effect on how you interact with The Outer Worlds 2. There are a wide variety to pick from that give benefits to your character, like Brawny (knocking down hostiles), Lucky (improved critical chance), Suave (discount with vendors), and many others. But what I found to be incredibly clever was the Negative Trait system that “compliments” your character build.

During character creation, you have the option to pick an additional Positive Trait (instead of just the one) at the cost of inheriting a Negative Trait, like Abrasive (impacts reputation), Dumb (locks certain skills), or Sickly (poor base health and toxicity threshold). It’s a neat counterbalance from trying to min/max the “perfect” character in a typical role-playing game; now we’re being asked (if you choose) to intentionally create a flawed hero from the start.

On top of the Traits there are a wide number of Skills to pick from like Engineering, Hacking, Lockpick, and many others. The logical approach here with all of this is to create a complimentary character based on all the available Traits and Skills (e.g. create a Stealth build that’s good with hacking). But playing it safe isn’t how I like to come to Obsidian games. The character creator doesn’t explicitly spell it out for you, but it seems like all of this is designed so you could effectively create a “busted” character, if you wanted to, one with a mishmash of abilities and still be able to have a great time – as my playthrough demonstrated with my mix of speech and stealth skills, coupled with the Sickly Negative Trait.

Coming back to the mission at hand, once we arrived at Horizon Point Station our task had us finding a way through the security blockade, with a variety of options in how we wanted to go about completing this first objective ready for us from the start. I could loot a nearby guard’s body to get their identification card, impersonating them on the intercom to call off the alarms. Or sneak through an air vent to get past a bunch of security bots – but dang it, I left my thief tools back on the ship. Thankfully Niles, one of the Earth Directorate, was willing to lend me his tools if I wanted to pursue that route. Or… we just go in guns blazing. And all of this is just in the first five minutes of the mission, a mere fraction of what the larger adventure is going to be for The Outer Worlds 2. It’s tantalizing to think how many more of these open-ended approaches are in the final game.

These choices continued heavily throughout this opening act, as Horizon Point Station presented a variety of approaches from stealth, to dialog manipulation, and of course lots of guns fights (if I wished for it to get that far). I even stumbled across a more subversive element in our raiding of the base – I uploaded an Earth Directorate propaganda video that distracted all the guards in the base (one even mentioned that they were worried they violated their oath just by listening to such filth). Yes, it ruined our element of surprise, but it made for a few good stealth kills as I was able to sneak up on unsuspecting guards, transfixed by the video message.

All of this served as a proof point from something I’ve noticed in my previous looks at the game, about the intention of these level designs to allow for so many varied approaches to succeed in your mission. And how you interact with your Companions can also have lasting consequences. One such incident involved a fellow Earth Directorate agent (we can’t spoil it), but it’s going to be cool to see what other unique paths will be created based on some of the choices that I made, and how my background plays into the well-being of those around me.

It’s clear that Obsidian’s imprints are all over this game. From a robust character creator, layers upon layers of dialog options, to a variety of approaches to completing missions, it really feels like this is one of Obsidian’s most ambitious games ever created. Each time we’ve had a better look at what it has in store, the more I want to continue adventuring through its world to just see what happens if I flip this switch, open that door, or turn over that rock — chances are good they’ve already planned for all of that.

The Outer Worlds 2 launches October 29 for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, PlayStation 5, Battle.net, and Steam — and day one with Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. Pre-order The Outer Worlds 2 Premium Edition now to get up to 5 days early access and the Commander Zane’s Anti-Monopolistic Battle Pack.