Mayhem seems to be the name of the game when it comes to The Outer Worlds 2. During Xbox Games Showcase, we got to see first-hand how open-ended its approach to missions can be, with its world designed to allow for multiple pathways to achieve your objective. Today at gamescom, we got an even fresher look at some of the shenanigans that can occur in a recent hands-off presentation of Obsidian’s upcoming sci-fi RPG, hosted by Game Director Brandon Adler, with Design Director Matt Singh behind the controls.

Today’s demo was billed as an old-fashioned breaking and entering on the planet of Praetor at the Tomb of the Matriarch, the resting place of the founder of Arcadia and of the Protectorate. Our objective was to locate a secret passage to a high security facility hiding somewhere inside, but first we had to deal with some pesky Protectorate guards stationed outside. Thankfully we had some companions along for the ride: Niles and Tristan.

Niles is an Earth Directorate agent, like our player character, and is an engineer, which makes him pretty good with a wrench. We’re told we can tweak his abilities to function as either a solid tank or heavy ranged damage dealer. Tristan, however, is part of the Protectorate. He judges people and then he decides how he wants to deal with them, potentially executing or imprisoning them. He’s there to give you deeper insight into Protectorate culture and can also function as a solid tank, but more melee focused. For our demo, he was equipped with a large hammer that deals some heavy damage.

As for our character, this build was focused on stealth and firearms with a bit of hacking and engineering on the side (and Observation skills to help uncover secret passages; very convenient). They were also equipped with a Scrutinizer’s Eyepiece for their headwear, designed to scale with Observation skills and modded to increase our number of grenade slots.

On the weapon front, we had a heavy revolver (modified to include a silencer, which is great for stealth), a compact assault rifle with a Reflex Sight mod (increases critical chance), and an antimatter plasma sniper rifle (heavy damage at range). Rounding that out were a handful of plasma grenades. All of this gives great insight into just how customizable our experience can be in The Outer Worlds 2, from party makeup to weapons. It’s all very exciting.

Speaking of our party composition, they seemed uniquely equipped to handle any encounter for our presentation, giving us a preview of how much we can tweak our group of adventurers. It makes me think back to Obsidian’s other recent RPG, Avowed, and how that companion system allowed for a lot of variety in how I wanted my party composition to complement my character. This has been dialed up a bit for The Outer Worlds 2 as it will feature six companions to choose from.

As we approach the tomb, we find some tall grass to duck into, allowing us to survey our approach (the grass can allow us to perform a Stealth Attack). It wasn’t long until the first sniper shot rang out from our side, and our companions jumped into the fray by attacking these guards with plasma grenades hurled at incoming reinforcements. Of note, I liked seeing destructible cover in action once again, as the compact assault rifle tore through some metal barricades, forcing the enemies to retreat to another location. After the chaos of battle died down, it was time to venture inside.

As we enter, we’re immediately drawn to the large display of an exquisite outfit display of something called the Golden Shroud — an important piece for the Protectorate, an item originally worn by the first sovereign. And yes, we can nab it if we can find the “Golden Shroud Display Key” to open the display.

As we continued to navigate through the tomb/museum, we could see through a large glass window at the tombs below in an adjacent room with a docent and a sentinel looking over them. Looting a tomb isn’t necessarily what we came here for, but why not take the opportunity to screw around with its caretakers?

By pulling up a Scanner, we’re able to trace the power output of a panel that controls the tomb’s laser grid security system. If we could manage to hack this panel, we could potentially mess up the docent’s day. But our hacking skill isn’t quite up to the task (yet) – unless we can uncover a “Good Subjects Guide to Electrical Systems” to help hack the panel, we’re told.

Once again, this feeds into the strength of The Outer Worlds 2’s varied and open-ended approach to mission design. Essentially what this means is that almost everything in the world that you’re able to touch, interact with, or see, there’s an intention behind it. There’s usually a tool or something helpful nearby that can help you “try your way” through the game. In this case, it wasn’t long until we really did find a book to assist with the hacking of the panel. In doing so we turned one of the docents into a pile of ash as soon as the laser defense grid suddenly activated.

Moving further through the museum in search of this secret passage, we come across a series of exhibits explaining the history of the Protectorate and the Matriarch, resembling something akin to an art nouveau theme park with animatronic narrators. But what catches our eye is a four-legged robot off to the side known as an automechanical. Searching for a nearby panel, we’re able to use our Engineering ability to disengage the constraints for it to serve as a possible distraction, allowing us to sneak further through the museum. Sure enough, it goes on its way and serves up a great diversion that only Obsidian can deliver… by having it argue with other types of mechanicals guarding the exhibit.

This is yet another great demonstration of how you can be rewarded by exploring all your opportunities that are laid out for you. It really does start to feel like The Outer Worlds 2 is going to give us so many options to mess around with its world — it’s starting to boggle my mind a bit. Taking our previous hands-on time into account, everything we’ve seen and played has had a tremendous amount of open-endedness to it. I’m really looking forward to seeing how far we can push it. If what we’ve seen so far is any indication, we’re going to have a lot of fun following all the breadcrumbs Obsidian has littered about for us to uncover.

And yes, we eventually did find the “Golden Shroud Display Key” on the docent’s body. And while we were there, we decided to loot the tomb and grab the remains of the matriarch – looks like it sells for a high price… but who would buy such a thing? Given the nature of this universe and of its masterful game and quest designers, I’m certain we can find somebody who would buy this off us.

Heading back to the entrance we pick up the Golden Shroud and find that it’s got a unique property on it, where not only do you get a 30% damage resistance that scales with your speech skill, but you can lose half the damage total in bits (currency). Quite the expensive tradeoff by being able to talk your way through Arcadia.

Oh, right. The mission. Well, we did find the secret entrance by investigating the museum further with our observation skill – but that’s when our demo came to an end. An adventure we’ll have to wait for and try another day. Our demo was a perfect example of The Outer Worlds 2’s quest design that sometimes it’s not the destination, but the adventures we had along the way – and in a short span of about 20 minutes, we had plenty to talk about. From storming a museum, electrocuting a docent, hacking an automechanical, checking out an exhibit, and stealing a cool-looking cape. What other adventures are out there for us?

We’ll find out soon once The Outer Worlds 2 launches October 29 for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, PlayStation 5, Battle.net, and Steam — and day one with Game Pass Ultimate. Pre-order The Outer Worlds 2 Premium Edition now to get up to 5 days early access and the Commander Zane’s Anti-Monopolistic Battle Pack.