On Christmas Day 2025, IGN dropped a video that’s going to make Bethesda fans uncomfortable. Titled “What Starfield 2 Needs to learn from The Outer Worlds 2,” the piece argues that Obsidian Entertainment has essentially perfected the Bethesda RPG formula better than Bethesda itself. And after playing both Starfield and The Outer Worlds 2, it’s hard to argue with their assessment.
The timing is brutal. The Outer Worlds 2 launched in October 2025 to strong reviews, earning an 8.5 from IGN for its sharper writing, better combat, and focused design. Meanwhile, Starfield continues to struggle with its identity nearly two years after launch, weighed down by procedural generation, empty planets, and the nagging feeling that space exploration is fundamentally boring. IGN even quoted Starfield designer Bruce Nesmith admitting as much in a recent podcast, acknowledging that space itself is the problem.
The Core Problem With Space Sims
Here’s the uncomfortable truth IGN highlights in their video. Space is boring. It’s literally called space because it’s mostly empty, impossibly vast stretches of nothing punctuated by rocky planets of interest only to NASA geologists. Games like No Man’s Sky, Starfield, and Elite Dangerous all grapple with this fundamental issue. How do you make exploration interesting when 99% of what you’re exploring is barren wasteland?
Bethesda tried to solve this with Starfield by creating a thousand procedurally generated planets. You can land anywhere, explore everything, and technically never run out of content. The problem is that procedural generation creates endless variations of the same boring experience. Once you’ve scanned your hundredth alien plant and cleared your fiftieth cookie-cutter outpost, the illusion shatters. You realize you’re not exploring a handcrafted universe. You’re watching an algorithm remix the same assets.
The Outer Worlds 2 takes the opposite approach. Instead of a thousand planets, you get four main destinations. Each one is densely packed with handcrafted content, meaningful quests, and memorable characters. The game doesn’t pretend to be infinite. It knows exactly what it is and focuses all its energy on making those four locations as interesting as possible.
Focus Over Scope
IGN’s video hammers home a crucial lesson that Bethesda seems to have forgotten. More isn’t always better. The Outer Worlds 2 proves that a tightly focused experience with meaningful content beats a sprawling galaxy filled with procedurally generated filler. Every location in The Outer Worlds 2 serves a purpose. Every quest connects to the larger narrative or develops your companions. Nothing feels like padding.
Starfield spread itself catastrophically thin. The game has incredible ship building, some genuinely great faction questlines, and that signature Bethesda attention to environmental storytelling. You can still fling a sandwich down a hallway or steal a parsnip, which is the kind of ridiculous detail that makes Bethesda games special. But all of that gets buried under a thousand identical planets and constant loading screens that remind you at every turn that you’re playing a fragmented video game.
The Outer Worlds 2 isn’t innocent of these flaws either. It has loading screens and some repetitive combat encounters. But Obsidian does a much better job of covering them up by keeping you engaged with compelling stories and characters. You don’t notice the seams as much when you’re invested in what’s happening.
Writing That Actually Matters
One area where The Outer Worlds 2 absolutely demolishes Starfield is writing quality. IGN’s review specifically praised the sequel for having a more grounded and interesting story compared to the first game, ditching the “lolz random” humor for more sophisticated satire of corporate dystopia. The dialogue is sharp, the characters are memorable, and the choices you make genuinely impact how the story unfolds.
Starfield’s writing is competent but rarely exceptional. The main quest about mysterious artifacts and ancient alien mysteries feels generic compared to the intimate character-driven narratives Bethesda used to excel at. The faction questlines are better, particularly the Crimson Fleet pirate storyline, but even those can’t match the consistency of what Obsidian delivers.
The Outer Worlds 2 treats every companion as a mouthpiece for different factions and philosophies, immediately making their worldviews crystal clear while helping you understand the balance of power. This is classic Obsidian design borrowed from games like Knights of the Old Republic II and Fallout New Vegas, and it works beautifully. Your party members aren’t just combat assistants. They’re windows into the world’s complex political landscape.
The Flaw System Bethesda Should Steal
Kotaku recently published a piece praising The Outer Worlds 2’s revamped Flaw system as one of the best RPG mechanics in recent memory. The game tracks what your character does and offers opportunities to lean into those behaviors in exchange for perks and disadvantages. If you steal constantly, you might gain the Kleptomaniac flaw, which lets you sell stolen goods for more money but also makes you automatically steal things at inopportune moments.
This creates emergent storytelling that feels personal to your playthrough. Even when these flaws haunted players for the rest of their runs, they loved them because it made their character feel unique. It’s the kind of system that rewards roleplaying and creates memorable moments that vary from player to player.
Bethesda has nothing comparable. Starfield’s trait system offers minor bonuses and disadvantages at character creation, but they barely impact gameplay. There’s no dynamic system that adapts to your playstyle and offers meaningful choices about who your character becomes. The Outer Worlds 2 proves that RPG systems can be both mechanically interesting and narratively compelling, something Bethesda seems to have forgotten.
Combat That Doesn’t Suck
First-person combat in RPGs is notoriously difficult to nail. Bethesda games have always prioritized other aspects over gunplay, resulting in serviceable but unexciting shooting. Starfield improved on previous Bethesda efforts, but it still feels stiff compared to actual shooters. The Outer Worlds 2 isn’t competing with Call of Duty, but IGN specifically praised its snappier gunplay, improved mobility with sliding and double jumping, and weapons that fit the goofy sci-fi setting.
The combat still has quirks like slippery reticles and enemies sometimes hitting you when they shouldn’t. But it’s a huge step up from the average open-world RPG, and it makes the moment-to-moment gameplay more enjoyable. When you’re spending 30-40 hours shooting things, even small improvements to combat feel matter enormously.
Bethesda can’t ignore this anymore. Players expect competent action gameplay even in RPGs. The Outer Worlds 2 proves you can have deep character building and satisfying combat in the same package. There’s no excuse for Fallout 5 or The Elder Scrolls 6 to have clunky, outdated combat when smaller studios are figuring it out.
What Bethesda Actually Does Better
To be fair, Bethesda still excels in areas where Obsidian can’t compete. The environmental storytelling in Bethesda games is unmatched. The way you can piece together what happened in a location just by observing the environment, reading terminal entries, and noticing small details is genuinely special. Starfield’s ship builder is also an incredible standout feature that everyone loves for good reason.
Bethesda games also support modding at a level The Outer Worlds 2 doesn’t approach. The Creation Kit has enabled fan communities to create thousands of hours of additional content for Skyrim and Fallout 4. That longevity matters, even if Starfield’s paid mods controversy has soured some enthusiasm for modding the game.
The micro-level detail in Bethesda games, the ability to interact with mundane objects and create emergent moments, remains something only they do at this scale. You can’t fling sandwiches down hallways or eat at a Denny’s in The Outer Worlds 2. That level of systems-driven chaos is Bethesda’s signature.
The Procedural Generation Problem
IGN’s video specifically calls out procedural generation as a fundamental issue holding space games back. Whether it’s machine learning, large language models, or algorithms generating Lego towns, computers can fill endless blank spaces with increasingly convincing facsimiles of handcrafted content. But they can’t create meaning.
The comparison to Morrowind is apt. That game felt special because everything was handplaced and handcrafted. Every location told a story. Every NPC had a purpose. Contrast that with Starfield’s thousand procedurally generated planets where 990 of them are completely forgettable because they were never designed with intent.
The Outer Worlds 2 chose quality over quantity, and it paid off. Obsidian built four memorable planets instead of a thousand forgettable ones. Each location has personality, unique factions, and meaningful content. You’re not just checking boxes on a list of generated objectives. You’re experiencing carefully crafted stories.
FAQs
Did IGN say Bethesda should copy The Outer Worlds 2?
Yes. IGN released a video on December 25, 2025 titled “What Starfield 2 Needs to learn from The Outer Worlds 2,” arguing that Bethesda should adopt Obsidian’s focused approach to space RPGs with handcrafted content over procedural generation.
Is The Outer Worlds 2 better than Starfield?
Reviews suggest The Outer Worlds 2 has sharper writing, better combat, and more focused design. IGN gave it an 8.5, praising its compelling buildcrafting and engaging story. Starfield has strengths like ship building and environmental storytelling but suffers from procedural generation issues and weaker narrative.
What is the Flaw system in The Outer Worlds 2?
The Flaw system tracks your behavior and offers perks with corresponding disadvantages. For example, stealing frequently might give you the Kleptomaniac flaw, letting you sell stolen goods for more money but also making you steal automatically at bad times. It creates emergent storytelling unique to each playthrough.
Why does IGN think space is boring in games?
Space is literally mostly empty, vast stretches of nothing with barren rocky planets. Games struggle to make exploration interesting when 99% of content is procedurally generated wasteland. Even Starfield designer Bruce Nesmith admitted space itself is inherently boring.
How many planets does The Outer Worlds 2 have?
The Outer Worlds 2 has four main destinations, each densely packed with handcrafted content, quests, and memorable characters. This focused approach contrasts with Starfield’s thousand procedurally generated planets.
Is Starfield 2 confirmed?
No official announcement has been made about Starfield 2. IGN’s video discusses what a hypothetical sequel should learn from The Outer Worlds 2 to improve on the original Starfield’s weaknesses.
Will Bethesda actually change their approach?
Unknown. Bethesda has historically stuck to their design philosophy even when criticized. Whether they adapt lessons from games like The Outer Worlds 2 for future titles like Fallout 5 or The Elder Scrolls 6 remains to be seen.
Can you play The Outer Worlds 2 on Game Pass?
Yes, The Outer Worlds 2 launched day one on Xbox Game Pass in October 2025. It’s available on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC.
The Bottom Line
IGN’s video isn’t just stirring controversy for clicks. They’re articulating something many players felt but couldn’t quite express. The Outer Worlds 2 demonstrates that the Bethesda RPG formula still works when executed with focus and care. Obsidian took the blueprint Bethesda created and refined it, proving that handcrafted content beats procedural generation, that meaningful choices matter more than endless options, and that sharp writing elevates everything.
Bethesda isn’t a bad developer. They’ve created some of the most influential RPGs in gaming history. But they’ve become complacent, relying on scope and scale to compensate for increasingly outdated systems and writing that rarely reaches the heights of their earlier work. Starfield was supposed to be their next evolution, a leap into a new genre that would define the next generation of gaming. Instead, it exposed fundamental problems with their approach.
The Outer Worlds 2 isn’t perfect. It has a weak first act, terrible enemy variety, and quality-of-life issues that should have been fixed. But it gets the important things right. The writing is engaging, the companions are memorable, the RPG systems are compelling, and the whole experience feels focused rather than bloated. You finish it wanting to start a new playthrough with different choices, not exhausted by a checklist of meaningless objectives.
Whether Bethesda will actually learn these lessons remains to be seen. The Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout 5 are years away, and the company has shown remarkable resistance to changing their formula even when it’s clearly not working as well as it used to. But if they’re smart, they’ll watch what Obsidian accomplished with The Outer Worlds 2 and ask themselves some hard questions about what their games are trying to be.
Because right now, Obsidian is doing Bethesda better than Bethesda. And that’s a problem the company can’t afford to ignore forever.