When my colleague Marcus Stewart and I visited Obsidian Entertainment last month to check out The Outer Worlds 2 for the current Game Informer cover story, we went in with one goal in mind: to find out if we can pet something, anything, in The Outer Worlds 2 (okay, and maybe to play the game and interview the team and find out why people should be excited about this expansive sequel).
Everyone, I come bearing good news: there are pets in The Outer Worlds 2, and yes, you can pet them.
If you played The Outer Worlds back in 2019, you know Obsidian’s luscious sci-fi world was filled with all kinds of oddities, from weapons to characters to locations to capitalistic tendencies to creatures. Until DLC was released post-launch, though, you couldn’t have a pet in The Outer Worlds, despite all the fun creatures that would’ve been perfect as a pet (looking at you, Raptidon). That’s changed with The Outer Worlds 2, as you can add pets to your galactic interloping family throughout the adventure, with multiple creatures (and even an automechanical) to choose from. Unfortunately, we couldn’t wrestle out what creatures players can expect to befriend in The Outer Worlds 2 from Obsidian, but we did ask the team about this decision.
“We have lots of different types of creatures in the game, ” director Brandon Alder tells us. “We actually had a pretty enormous list that we went through and were like, ‘Alright, which of these different NPCs or creatures do we want to take and convert into pets?'” Adler says players can expect to gain pets as request rewards, by finding them in the wild, or even as creatures available to purchase from vendors.
Don’t expect your pets to run around places like Paradise Island with you, though. Adler says you can only have one active pet at a time and you select which pet you want to be active in your ship. From there, the pet will remain out and about in your ship, and it’s here that you can pet them as much as you’d like. One of these pets can even be a Protectorate Drone, though they are “neutered” and won’t have access to guns or ammunition as they fly around your ship.
“I think people just like having pets and petting them and having them along for the journey,” Alder says. “You can get a whole bunch of them, but can only have one active at a time, and you choose which active pet you want in your ship and they stay on your ship. You can pet them, and no, they can’t die – don’t be cruel. Or be cruel, it’s up to you.”
Game Informer’s cover story for The Outer Worlds 2 is available to read right now if you’re a subscriber (and this issue is shipping to mailboxes as we speak). For more, check out this list of 8 fun facts about The Outer Worlds 2’s first biome, Paradise Island, and then check out this exclusive gameplay segment showcasing Paradise Island.
Are you hopping into The Outer Worlds 2 this month? Let us know in the comments below!
