Schools and parents regularly take their kids to museums to make education a bit more fun. The Outer Worlds 2, launching on Oct. 29, takes the same approach in a mission I saw as part of a hands-off public demo on the floor at Gamescom. Only on this trip, you can steal everything after touring the exhibits.
The heist takes place at the Tomb of the Matriarch, the final resting place of the founder of the Protectorate, who established her dictatorship on Arcadia through impressive technology. It’s an especially personal mission for Niles, one of the game’s companions, since he’s from the Protectorate. The developer playing the game during the demo took along Tristan and Niles, who can be specced as DPS or tanks, showing off some of the gear they can equip and the benefits of the different builds.
The Outer Worlds 2 keeps the Art Nouveau style used in the first game, which makes powerful factions feel even more haughty, but for the Protectorate they’ve also used the aesthetics of the pre-World War I Prussian monarchy. That’s especially obvious in the uniforms of the guards you’ll need to kill to sneak in. A tactical time dilation gadget slows down time, making it easier to get a headshot from a safe distance.
The first display you see upon entering the tomb is the golden shroud of the first sovereign of the Protectorate. You’ll get to equip this impressive coat by the time you’re done. But first you’ll need to disable the security around it. A scan shows what the place’s security protocols will do if activated, and it looks like we’d be quickly fried by lasers. The scanner is a nice feature for bypassing the normal way of finding out that sort of information: getting killed. There’s a control panel that can be overridden with a hacking score of 9, but since the character only has the skill at 5, they’re prompted to find a manual to bypass it.
That requires exploring the beautiful space. The main room is a shrine where mourners show their devotion by lighting candles in the Matriarch’s honor and bemoaning that even though she died at 90, she could have done more “if only she had a few more years.” Heading into the museum proper shows plenty of Protectorate propaganda presented in retro displays. The Matriarch is depicted as a benevolent goddess figure who introduced new automechanical designs that saved people time and also established peace with the Order of the Ascendent, a religious group that’s an offshoot of the Order of Scientific Inquiry from the first game.
Much of this area is unguarded, giving you plenty of time to learn and explore at your own pace. But head down into a lower section filled with artifacts on display and there’s a hulking Protectorate dragoon. Luckily you can distract it with another skill check to override the programming on one of the automechs maintaining the place. The robot wanders downstairs and starts arguing with the dragoon about whether it could be malfunctioning. It insists that it couldn’t be, because it was designed by the Matriarch. “Your logic is infallible, like the Matriarch,” the dragoon responds.
While this funny vignette about the perils of propaganda plays out, you can sneak past, pick a lock to get into a back room, and find the “Good Subject’s Guide to Electrical Systems” that lets you hack the security system. Going back up and activating those lasers on your own terms instantly disintegrates the mourner and leaves the museum docent whimpering, making them an easy target for another headshot.
The docent was carrying the key to the display to get that sweet coat. While you’re at it, you can also grab a retro-style revolver and a pitchball card – part of a set of collectibles portraying Obsidian Entertainment employees. The whole place is our gift shop.
Not everyone loves museums, and you could probably get through this mission without bothering to learn much about the Protectorate. But I found the setup to be a creative way to offer up plenty of lore for players who are interested. I also appreciated that the options for sneaking around the place went beyond just stealth and shooting, making it feel more like a proper heist. My brief educational field trip made me eager to see more of The Outer Worlds 2 this fall.
The Outer Worlds 2 releases Oct. 29 for PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X.