The Outer Worlds 2 Gave Me What I Wanted And I Hated It

"I was afraid to learn the answer. The odds that it was what I wanted to hear were not in my favor. What I wanted is practically unheard of in Western-style action role-playing games. But there were encouraging signs from the first dozen or so hours of my initial playthrough that this time might be a rare exception. I'd made it through Paradise Island, the game's first open area, without sparing a thought about how much loot I was carrying. I couldn't find the genre-typical "infinite home base storage chest" anywhere on my ship. I scoured the game's inventory menu for tiny numbers I might have missed with a more casual glance. Nothing."

"Cautiously, I typed my question into a search engine. And there it was, the answer I hadn't dared hope for: No, it doesn't. I could steal as much superfluous crap from the various corpses, human and animal alike, I left in my wake as I wanted; I could stuff my pockets with all the wild plants, spare mechanical bits, and errant severed arms I came across and I'd never have to schlep it all the way back to a settlement or my ship to sell or store everything just to clear some space so I could pick up more junk and do it all over again. I could simply hoard it all, every tiny piece of trash and bulky piece of armor, and never have to worry about weight limits. It was exactly what I wanted. And by the time the credits finally rolled, I had come to hate it."

"In early role-playing video games, inventory limits and encumbrance were necessary due to the limited memory and file sizes of cartridges and discs. Annoying but understandable. But many modern action RPGs still have inventory limits even when they aren't a technical necessity."

The Outer Worlds 2 provides no inventory carry capacity limit, permitting players to collect unlimited items without returning to sell or store loot. The ship lacks a typical infinite storage chest and the inventory shows no weight numbers, enabling uninterrupted scavenging across open areas. Initial freedom to hoard gear, junk, and crafting materials feels liberating, but that accumulation eventually undermines decision-making, challenge, and pacing. Historical context notes that early RPG encumbrance arose from technical constraints; many modern RPGs retain limits for realism or balance, and the absence here alters economy and progression dynamics.

Read at Kotaku