Outer Worlds 2, II

The Celtics are off this week for the All-Star break along with the rest of the NBA and the Bruins are off for the Winter Olympics along with the rest of the NHL. The CFB and Georgia Bulldog's seasons have ended and it's curtains for the Patriots and the NFL until next autumn. Red Sox pitchers and catchers have already reported, but Boston's first Grapefruit League spring training game is still a full week away. And the Boston University hockey teams only play on weekends, at least most of the time.  

So, friendly reminder during this sports interbellum that video games are e-sports. This is as good a time as any to report that I finished a second playthrough of The Outer Worlds 2, a first-person sci-fi RPG by Obsidian Entertainment. 

My first playthrough took me 83 hours to complete, but even though I did more exploration and found several new quests that I missed during my first run, I completed the second playthrough in 75 hours. I spent less time trying to figure out some puzzles and problems that vexed me my first time through, and as I had a firmer understanding of the combat mechanisms, fewer times dying and having to repeat things all over again. I played this second time on "Normal" difficulty the whole way through, although I had to switch over to "Story" mode a couple of times on my first playthrough during some of the more challenging boss fights.

According to Steam, I completed 18 of 48 possible achievements the first time, and on this second run I picked up only two more - SA Quarterlies Quantified (found all volumes of Science Adventures Quarterly on Paradise Island) and Everything Must Go (earned 50,000 bits by selling items to vendors). A total of 20 out of 48 achievements is low (41.7%), but many of the unearned achievements are based on  multiple playthroughs or are rewards for negative behavior (e.g., "all companions are killed"). I didn't lose a single companion on either playthrough, except for the death-cult fanatic Ava, who insisted on joining a suicide mission at the very end of the game. 

The first time through, I played as a male Renegade and my primary trait was Brilliant. This time, I was a female Professor and my primary trait was Brawny. I was impressed by how different those changes made the game. That's the point of an RPG for sure, but in many games you'd need a redlined script comparison to find the differences.  Add to this the consequence of some in-game decisions (i.e., spare or kill an antagonist, side with one character or another, etc.) and the second playthrough not only didn't feel repetitive, it was downright revelatory. 

But not fresh enough to warrant a third playthrough, at least not immediately. Eventually, as Groucho once supposedly said, you have to take the cigar out of your mouth. Time to move on. I've downloaded a new game (new to me at least, although it is a fairly recent), Assassin's Creed Shadows. We'll see how that goes.