The Outer Worlds 2 developer Obsidian is a studio built on a long history of rich role-playing, and apparently, the studio’s very keen to reiterate that fact with its spacefaring sequel.

The Outer Worlds (the first one) certainly isn’t a bad RPG, but it is perhaps guilty of watering down important choices with regards to character building and the like. This is where the follow-up hopes to improve, pushing players towards more specialised playstyles that help better define your own personalised adventure.

Speaking to IGN, Obsidian basically says that the whole process of developing your hero (or villain) is going to be much more in-depth than it was previously.

“We really wanted to lean into synergies, looking at how player Skills, Traits, and Perks can all infuse into interesting builds that play off of other systems,” design director Matt Singh explains.

“We would often see characters good at everything, which by the end of the game, minimized your personal experience with your character,” adds lead systems designer Kyle Koenig.

Indeed, this is a potential issue with many modern role-playing titles; developers can often see choice and consequence as a burden on players, rather than a way to keep those same players engaged.

Koenig continues: “We wanted to focus on making each individual level-up and investment really important.”

But it’s not just about picking a clearly-defined lane and sticking to it. Singh gives an example: “There’s more than just a traditional stealth-focused build, combat-focused build, or speech-focused build. There’s a lot of blending of concepts, playing with other systems and incorporating those into a pretty broad, but unique range of different player profiles.”