Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds threw players into the far-reaches of an alternate universe where US President William McKinley was never assassinated at the Pan-American Exposition in 1901, Theodore Roosevelt never became president or implemented anti-trust laws, and unregulated corporations embarked on space-faring colonial expeditions to spread a form of indentured capitalism across the cosmos. With a premise as striking as that, it’s not surprising that the different endings of the game have radically different implications for the future of the galaxy.
If Obsidian wants to create The Outer Worlds 2, a prequel may be the best way to return fans to the setting without creating plot holes or the storytellers having to make canonical decisions about the ending of the first game.
There are two main endings to The Outer Worlds, as well as a secret ending which, in typical Obsidian Entertainment fashion, can only be unlocked by a character with very few points in Intelligence or another flaw like “Permanent Concussion.” There are also different variations on all 3 of these endings, but these are just additions to the epilogue which explain what happened to each companion character and faction based on quest decisions made in the game.
The two main endings to The Outer Worlds are decided during the mission “Keep Secret But Not Forgotten.” The good ending is unlocked if the player sides with Phineas Welles, the scientist who unfroze them and rescued them from The Hope at the start of the game. As long as the player doesn’t turn Phineas in to the Board and tells Ada to take the Hope to Terra 2 they will get the good ending where Halcyon is spared a famine and the best and brightest still frozen on the Hope are revived.
The bad ending is unlocked by turning Phineas in, siding with Sophia Akande and the Board and sending The Hope to Tartarus. The colonies collapse and the Board’s employment scheme is disastrous for the people in Halcyon. The secret “Crash and Burn” ending can only be unlocked if the player has low enough intelligence to attempt to pilot the Hope themself, which will cause them crash directly into the sun.
If there was a sequel to The Outer Worlds which didn’t take the fate of The Hope and the power of the Board into account, the biggest decision in the last game would feel like it had been swept under the rug. If the game went with one canonical decision, such as helping Phineas, it would also risk undermining the player’s ability to make meaningful choices. This would affect the first game retroactively as well as its sequel, with fans less likely to believe that their choices matter as they play through the new game.
Fortunately The Outer Worlds is set in 2355, which means there’s plenty of periods in the alternate timeline to explore before the events of the first game. With a galaxy as expansive as The Outer Worlds‘, the game could even be set far away from Halcyon while still involving the Board and its familiar hyper-capitalist system of control and early-1900s aesthetic style. The biggest challenge for Obsidian will be telling a story where player choices have important consequences without affecting the premise of the first game.
The Outer Worlds is available now for PC, PlayStation 4, Switch, and Xbox One.
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