The Outer Worlds 2 only added this highly requested feature because of Avowed

If you were to ask me whether I'm a first-person or third-person kinda guy when it comes to open-world RPGs, I'd reply that The Road to El Dorado answered it on my behalf 25 years ago: "Both is good." Yes, the immersion of the hero's perspective is a core tenet of the experience, but I equally appreciate the extra awareness I'm granted during combat with the camera sat at my back. It's been a topic of debate for time immemorial, but I'd always advocate that giving the player the choice between the two where possible is the best way to go about it. While The Outer Worlds took the traditional first-person approach, The Outer Worlds 2 has expanded its options, offering a third-person toggle. Obsidian's decision to dangle both carrots mimics what it did with Avowed earlier this year, and as game director Brandon Adler and creative director Leonard Boyarsky tell Jamie at Gamescom, The Outer Worlds 2 team wouldn't have added the option if their hand wasn't forced internally.

There are few studios in the triple-A space that work to their constraints as well as Obsidian. It plays almost exclusively to its strengths, remaining steadfast in its execution of robust RPGs that nearly always feature strong character writing and competent combat, without overconvoluting things with needless chaff. Though I've yet to see it return to the lofty heights of the Fallout New Vegas era, The Outer Worlds' megacorp-focused take on sci-fi satire made it one of the best space games of the past decade.

The Outer Worlds 2 is, in many ways, a continuation of Obsidian's rigidness and dedication to its vision of what a role-playing game should be. This is best evidenced by the vast amount of "time and effort" being pumped into fully fleshing out the character arcs of The Outer World 2's companions. Additionally, TOW2 won't let you respec, pushing you deeper into your crafted character as you can't simply reallocate your way out of the decisions you make.

The initial decision by the The Outer Worlds 2's team to stick solely to the classic first-person view could be considered an extension of that more hardcore ideology. However, as Adler and Boyarsky explain, the exclusion of third-person from the original game, and its preliminary omission from the upcoming sequel, was a result of resource limitations. Fortunately, Avowed's third-person camera got the team thinking laterally to find a compromise.

"For me, the biggest thing I think we got from them [the Avowed team] is the fact they incorporated third-person" Boyarsky begins. "We weren't planning on it. We knew people wanted it in the first game - we couldn't do it. It was an extra thing we were going to add [to TOW2], but we were like, 'okay, we're going to make the tough choice to still not have that.' But once they did it, we were like, 'oh, we could learn from what they did.' They almost forced us to, because if they have it, we can't ship a game without it. I think that's a good thing; it helps with accessibility for people who don't like playing first-person games because they get motion sickness. And people love being able to jump out and look at their character once they've dressed them up certain ways."

When queried how long the feature had been in the works for, Adler says they decided to incorporate it fairly late in development - only a year and a half ago, in fact. "Like Leonard was saying, we weren't really planning on it for a long time, but it something we had wanted to incorporate. People that are not game developers may not know this: it's very expensive to do. It's not a cheap thing to just throw on. It's not as simple as 'just throw a camera behind the player, and that's good to go.' We knew that, and we were like, 'okay, to be able to afford this, what are we gonna have to give up on?' Luckily, we were able to work something out, so we didn't have to give up much to be able to do that."

Thankfully, I'll now be able to get the full 360-degree view of my beloved Moon Man helmet. Adler teases that there'll be "multiple" Moon Man helmets in The Outer Worlds 2, so I'll be keen to style them all when The Outer Worlds 2 release date arrives.

Before that, though you'll need to make sure your rig is good to go with our The Outer Worlds 2 system requirements guide. If you're after a top-tier solo adventure to embark on in the meantime, our best single-player games guide has you covered.

Are you a first-person purist or a new-wave third-person enjoyer when it comes to RPGs? Come and have your say in our community Discord server.

Additional reporting by Jamie Hore at Gamescom.