Earth Directorate Commander Ash was sent to settle a labor strike issue on behalf of Auntie’s Choice, in an effort to gain favor with the corporate conglomerate. A bit of an outlaw, and someone who excels in shooting, lockpicking, and smooth-talking, I felt like my character was primed to work out a result that was favorable for the workers without too much of an issue.
I was able to enter the closed-off facility and even nab some blackmail on the manager in charge before confronting her directly about the labor strike. I conveyed the workers’ demands, and expected to be able to convince her to see things my way–after all, I invested a decent amount of points in speech.
It quickly became clear that no amount of talking was going to solve this dispute. As far as the manager was concerned, any concessions she might make would prevent the factory from hitting its quota. Someone with engineering or hacking skills may have been able to solve this issue by messing with the equipment in the factory, but my character wasn’t built for that. My character was good at three things, and I’d already exhausted the lockpicking and talking options.
So Commander Ash solved the problem the only other way she knew how: shooting the manager in the face and telling the striking workers to take it from there. What could easily feel like a failure of the game–not offering me a more diplomatic solution using whatever skills I had invested in–instead felt right, given the story I had built for myself.
In prior games in a similar style to The Outer Worlds 2, including the modern Fallout games, Cyberpunk 2077, and the original The Outer Worlds, I always had trouble resonating with the story. I would neglect the role-playing part of the RPG, not out of some refusal to engage with the story on its own terms, but because of the particular way I like to play games. I have a tendency to want to do everything and see everything, without the need to play through multiple times.
