Xbox Studio Obsidian Explains Tweaks & Improvements To Gameplay In The Outer Worlds 2

As part of IGN’s ongoing coverage of The Outer Worlds 2 this month, Xbox studio Obsidian has been speaking to the outlet about its FPS gameplay mechanics in the upcoming sequel – and how the team has worked to tweak & improve those mechanics since the first Outer Worlds title.

Studio members Rob Donovan and Kyle Koenig opened up their chat by saying that the team quickly identified what they wanted to polish, improve and modernise from the first game – in turn “adding a lot to the combat experience” for The Outer Worlds 2.

“We’ve added a lot to the combat experience in The Outer Worlds 2. That was something that we identified that we could really polish up and improve on, modernise a little bit and add some really interesting features that we’ve been having a lot of fun with over the course of development.”

The devs then namedropped the likes of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Destiny in terms of inspiration for improvements to the core gunplay – which can’t be a bad thing given that those games are basically at the top of the console FPS tree mechanically. Despite using those games as reference points, Obsidian is keen to stress that this is very much an RPG still – and weapons/combat mechanics will still change and evolve as you build out your character in typical RPG fashion.

This is all detailed and shown off in the video we’ve placed at the top of the article, including plenty of Outer Worlds 2 gameplay mixed in for good measure. At present, this is Xbox’s big game for Fall 2025 – with Microsoft even dedicating a huge slot at its Xbox Summer Showcase this year to talk about the upcoming Obsidian RPG.