Obsidian will let players switch between first- and third-person in The Outer Worlds 2, a design choice confirmed during recent developer comments and likely to shape how the RPG feels at launch later this month. The change follows a more Bethesda-style approach to perspective, so players can pick the view they prefer while exploring the new worlds.
Why the shift? The original The Outer Worlds was strictly first-person, but Obsidian reassessed during development and decided a third-person mode would be worth the work. Speaking to Game Informer, director Brandon Adler explained the decision and how the feature came together.
“We didn’t intend to do third-person when we first started the game. We actually didn’t start doing it until, really, maybe about two years ago or so.
About halfway through [development], we were like, ‘I think people are really going to want this,’ so we did an evaluation of how difficult it was going to be to implement it.”
Obsidian enlisted a separate team called Disruptive to build the third-person mode. That kind of addition is deceptively tricky. Character animations must line up with first-person actions, and the camera needs to behave around tight corridors and environmental hazards.
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