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As the trailer focusing on The Outer Worlds 2 companions boldly proclaims, it is of the game’s close allies that you’ll keep the most memories of after all is said and done. It’s no wonder, as in Obsidian Entertainment’s new sci-fi RPG, these NPCs are going to be accompanying you and guiding you throughout your journey.
The trailer also tells you, very firmly, that “no, you can’t sleep with them”. This was a refreshingly blunt announcement, highlighting just how commonly accepted it is that in an RPG of any considerable size, you will be given the option to try and date your companions. The Outer Worlds 2 is keeping it platonic, however, and that’s a choice that’s probably for the best.
- The Outer Worlds 2 bucks gaming trends by eschewing romancing your companions.
- While romance draws players in, it can also break immersion.
- Romance can lead to intensely vulnerable moments for characters, and it has to fit the tone.
- Games shouldn’t just tack on romance; otherwise, they risk problematic dissonance in their narratives.
- By keeping it platonic, The Outer Worlds 2 can focus on its strengths.
Romance can bring immersion, but at what cost?
It makes sense in-game that characters would grow together under the pressure cooker of your average high-stakes plot, and so the early sparks of budding interest quickly flick into life. In Baldur’s Gate 3, you’re not even out of the first act by the time your companions have decided they want a piece of you, with the more complicated side of the romance coming out later.
In other games, like Mass Effect, it’s only after a considerable amount of chasing that romance can start to bud. Flirting aside, in the first Mass Effect, there’s an escalation to a crescendo right before the final mission. This was so popular amongst players that the number of romance options would quickly escalate in the sequels.
However, we must acknowledge that there’s nothing natural about these developments. As much as these try to make characters feel real, romance in these cases boils down to picking the right things in dialogue to get your desired outcome. It’s reductive as hell. In Baldur’s Gate 3, you might even compromise the way you play your character to better appeal to your chosen lover, which reveals the artifice of it all. The gamification of romance can feel awkward if it’s not done right, and The Outer Worlds 2’s irreverent tone runs the risk of making any initiation feel like a parody.
Into the deep end
Romance allows games to make critical connections that give depth to their world and characters. In Cyberpunk 2077, your romance with Judy is wrapped up in the tragic narrative of the game and her own personal relationship with Night City. You comfort and grow together, and even explore parts of her past trauma that feel truly vulnerable when they’re shared.
In Dragon Age Inquisition, resident hot mage Dorian Pavus is gay. This isn’t just a limiting factor on romance; it’s a character choice that gets expanded upon in his personal side plot. Dorian was the subject of an attempted magical conversion therapy, highlighting the dark side of the world and further building out his magocratic homeland. His romance and his preferences are more than just window dressing.
While these opportunities are all well and good, the advantages of the character interactions fall away if the game can’t muster the time or the writing to give romance its chance to breathe. Both these examples hold heavy topics with a steady hand, but in a comedic game like The Outer Worlds 2, writers would be forced to walk a fine line. While not impossible, it would require a significant amount of work, which may be better spent elsewhere.
Risk and reward
While open-world games often include romance to round out the go-anywhere-do-anything experience, this doesn’t always work. The Witcher 3 has some excellently written romance, but looking at the state of the first game shows how far we’ve come.
The first Witcher gave the option of ‘romancing’ over twenty different characters, giving out risque collectible romance cards, literally commodifying and objectifying your romantic pursuits. It was icky, to say the least.
Fallout 4 included romance in a hollow, by-the-numbers way, allowing you to romance most of your companions to one degree or another. Due to lackluster writing and an overly basic conversation system that’s not up to snuff, the experience felt hollow and, at times, uncanny. If there’s not a good reason to include romances, then why should The Outer Worlds 2 worry about them? No one is going to be happy with a fade to black and a tongue-in-cheek perk. If you’re going to do romance, it’s best to do it right.
The Outer Worlds 2 exists on its own terms
The Outer Worlds 2 isn’t a dating game. Just like its predecessor, it isn’t set up to be a one-hundred-hour RPG to let the characters marinate enough to make them believable partners. Romance just isn’t on the game’s list of priorities, and that’s good when it wants to focus more on a galaxy with a wild political setup.
It’s almost taken as given that dating your allies is on the table, but if you can’t do it right, you shouldn’t be doing it at all. The Outer Worlds 2 seems to understand this. Other RPGs could do with looking and learning from Obsidian’s example here, being brave and unashamedly distinct rather than beholden to cookie-cutter ideas of by-the-numbers romance.
FAQs
No, in The Outer Worlds, Parvati is not romanceable by the player. However, you can help set her up on a date in one of her side quests.
Obsidian Entertainment has made it clear that there won’t be any Outer Worlds 2 romance.
The best companion in The Outer Worlds is Parvati, who has both excellent fighting skills and a charming, adorable demeanour.
Yes, as The Outer Worlds 2 release date is October 29.
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