Since they released The Outer Worlds 2 around this time last year, the world has rather turned upside down for Obsidian. The studio lost a chunk of staff to Microsoft’s mass layoffs and have pivoted to making a new Fallout game as a smaller group shoved underneath Bethesda in Xbox’s corporate structure.
Given all that, The Outer Worlds 2’s two-part story expansion is likely arriving in vastly different circumstances than those the studio might’ve imagined when they began sketching out DLC plans. Part one of the expansion, dubbed Side Effects Guaranteed, is set to release early next month.
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‘Oof, that looks a lot like it’s been given what could turn out to be a death spot parked right in the aftermath of GTA 6’s initial launch on consoles’ is what I thought when I first saw that Side Effects Guaranteed’s launch date is December 2nd. That said, Obsidian have also made clear that a second DLC in the two-part narrative expansion to the sci-fi RPG is set to follow in spring 2027. So if this does turn out to be the end of the series, with a third Outer Worlds game currently looking very unlikely following the substantial upheaval I mentioned in the intro, at least it won’t risk being totally obscured by a Rockstar crime game-shaped eclipse.
As for what this first dose of extra Outer Worlds 2 has in store for December, Obsidian summed it up as follows:
A distress signal beckons you and your crew of the Incognito to a derelict ship, where you discover the ship’s crew in suspended animation to keep themselves alive, as they’ve been infected with something that causes explosive cell death. The hunt for a cure leads to Elysium Valley, a brand-new region on Eden.
As you pursue the cure and set course for Elysium, an area home to former subjects of base game authoritarian collectivist faction the Protectorate, you’ll be faced with the choice of whether to side with Gordon Hazen or Algernon Lankester. Both are agents of black market smuggling organisation Sub Rosa, with one sounding like the goody-two-shoes diplomatic type and the other wanting to “exploit the subjects for his own personal gain”. Sounds more Saturday morning cartoon than serious RPG story with serious choices, but that’s always tended to be how The Outer Worlds leans.
Rounding out the expansion are new enemies, gear, flaws which give your character build a funky twist, and a bumping up of the level cap from from 30 to 36. Fittingly given I’m writing this on Skyrim’s 15th birthday, one of the new flaws is named ‘Must Have Been the Wind’ after the meme of enemies in the likes of Bethesda and Obsidian’s games returning to chill mode after being shot in the face with an arrow or facing some other obvious sign they’re under attack. To encourage folks to dive back in, The Outer Worlds 2 is getting options to respec your character’s skills and edit how many skill points are dished out per level up via an update alongside Side Effects Guaranteed.
As much as I’m resigned to the series’ likely fate as Obsidian return to Fallout and won’t pretend The Outer Worlds 2 was great rather than good, I’m still hopeful it can go out with a bang in these two expansions, if indeed this is the studio’s last trip to space for the foreseeable future. It’s worth noting that if you bought The Outer Worlds 2’s premium edition, these expansions are included as part of it and so will come to you an no extra cost.
