Heads up, Spacer! This article is packed with spoilers for the original 2019 adventure, The Outer Worlds. Proceed with caution if you haven’t played it yet!
With the highly anticipated release of The Outer Worlds 2 just around the corner, now’s the perfect moment to revisit the rich, high-concept sci-fi universe crafted by Obsidian. Whether you’re a seasoned veteran looking for a quick memory jog or a newcomer eager to catch up before diving into the sequel, this detailed recap of the first game’s events is for you. As mentioned, expect plenty of spoilers for The Outer Worlds 1. If you prefer to go in fresh, here’s the quick takeaway: unchecked corporate power is really, really bad. That’s honestly a solid foundation for understanding The Outer Worlds 2.
But since you’re here for the full story, let’s dive deep into everything that unfolded in the original The Outer Worlds.
A Twisted Timeline: The Great Divergence
The sprawling saga of The Outer Worlds kicks off in a drastically altered 1901. In this timeline, President William McKinley escapes an assassination attempt, choosing to leave corporations entirely unchecked. This single “non-event” carves a path for humanity to colonize the stars, but not as intrepid explorers. Instead, they become a hyper-capitalist society where basic worker rights are a distant, forgotten dream. Imagine a dystopian Star Trek, where only the ultra-wealthy thrive, and everyone else struggles under the corporate boot. Thank goodness this level of corporate oversight is purely fictional, right?
Centuries later, after a devastating global war, the unified Earth Directorate began issuing licenses to mega-conglomerates for interstellar colonization, leading them to the very edge of explored space—the “Outer Worlds.” While numerous systems like Septerra, Tyrannus, and Draconis are mentioned, our primary focus is the Halcyon system, home to the upcoming sequel’s setting, Arcadia.
While The Outer Worlds 2 isn’t a direct continuation of its predecessor’s plot, it’s wise to be prepared. There’s always a possibility that someone or something from the original game will make an appearance, be that as a side character, easter egg, or even an important event in the story. So, keep reading for a complete rundown of everything that happened before your second journey into the unknown.
The Hope: A Frozen Dream
The Halcyon system’s troubles began even before full colonization. Of two massive colony ships launched from Earth, only one, the Groundbreaker, arrived on schedule. It transformed into a bustling, independent space station, a vital hub for both small businesses and the omnipresent corporate entities. The second ship, the Hope, carrying tens of thousands of Earth’s brightest minds in cryogenic stasis, suffered a critical skip drive malfunction. It limped into Halcyon at agonizingly slow sublight speeds, arriving decades late.
Initially deemed lost, the Hope was eventually discovered by The Board, Halcyon’s tyrannical corporate rulers. Instead of allowing it to complete its journey and revive its invaluable cargo, they secretly tethered it to a remote ice moon, hiding it from public view. The Board lacked the resources or desire to awaken the Hope’s colonists, fearing the public outcry and the disruption these intellectuals might cause. They were content to let the ship and its frozen passengers be forgotten by time.
However, this callous indifference ignited a spark of defiance in one of their own scientists, the brilliant Dr. Phineas Welles. Driven by outrage, he embarked on a clandestine mission, secretly experimenting with the Hope’s colonists to find a way to revive them. He succeeded, but in doing so, became a disgraced outlaw—the most wanted man in the entire system.
The revival process demanded rare and difficult-to-acquire materials. On the run and with limited resources, Phineas decided to use his sole batch of revival serum on just one Hope colonist. In a desperate raid on the derelict starship, he randomly selected an individual, hoping they would become a loyal ally and help him complete his ambitious goal: awaken all Hope colonists, infuse the Halcyon system with intelligent, uncorrupted minds, and liberate the colonies from corporate tyranny. He succeeded in reviving this single individual, but his own ship suffered irreparable damage, rendering it permanently grounded.
That single revived colonist is you, the player. Your skills and character traits, shaped by your choices in the character creator and throughout the game’s narrative, determine your path. Thus begins a grand story of choices and consequences, where the most liberating and least violent outcomes for Halcyon often hinge on your ability to pass challenging speech checks. We’ll assume, for the sake of this recap, that our heroic Stranger was a master of diplomacy, navigating these complexities to achieve the best possible future—because, let’s be honest, detailing every single branching path would take an eternity!
The Unplanned Variable: Your Arrival
Before your character’s dramatic, forty-year-late arrival in the Halcyon system, The Board comfortably maintained its iron grip through shocking inequality, bureaucratic red tape, and expertly manufactured scarcity. Yet, not every worker was a mindless automaton. This becomes vividly clear in Emerald Vale, the first major proving ground for the Stranger’s wit, charm, and political finesse—an introductory chapter that lays the groundwork for the many conflicts to come.
First things first, the Stranger needed transportation and guidance. Dr. Welles had arranged a meeting with Captain Hawthorn, a well-known privateer and a classic Han Solo-esque rogue, on the planet Terra 2. Unfortunately, Hawthorn’s introduction to the Stranger’s drop pod was rather… forceful, resulting in a fatal head injury. This unexpected turn of events led the Stranger to commandeer Hawthorn’s now-captainless ship, the Unreliable—a charmingly chunky vessel reminiscent of the Millennium Falcon, complete with its own sassy onboard AI—and embark on an epic interplanetary journey.
Well, not quite yet. The Unreliable needed a new power regulator before it could fly. While initially frustrating, this search provided the perfect opportunity to recruit two invaluable companions: the brilliant engineer Parvati and the philosophically inclined space-priest Vicar Max. Both immediately boosted the Stranger’s crucial Persuade and Intimidate skills, essential for the intricate negotiations and confrontations lying ahead.
After consulting with Reed Tobson, the unflappable boss of Emerald Vale’s largest corporate town and the Spacer’s Choice Saltuna cannery, it was revealed that two power regulators were available: one in his factory, which he was predictably unwilling to part with, and another at an abandoned Botanical Lab. This lab was now occupied by a group of disillusioned deserters. These individuals, tired of generations of indentured servitude to Spacer’s Choice, had established a new cooperative society, free from corporate tyranny. Unfortunately, their exodus left the Saltuna Cannery severely understaffed. Reed, ever the loyal corporate drone, requested that the Stranger cut power to the Botanical Lab, forcing his workers back and allowing safe access to their power regulator.
This seemed like a straightforward plan, but it came at the cost of supporting a truly odious corporate lackey like Reed, at the expense of people simply yearning for freedom. The tempting alternative was to sabotage Reed and divert power to the Botanical Lab, but this would effectively destroy Edgewater—a safe, walled city, and the home of your companion Parvati. The personal cost was significant.
However, an optimal path emerged: The Stranger decided to power down the Botanical Labs and claim its regulator, initially earning the ire of deserter leader Adelaide. But through clever diplomacy, the Stranger convinced Reed Tobson to step down as Edgewater’s leader. Leveraging Reed’s unwavering company loyalty, the Stranger pointed out his abysmal performance, suggesting that his disappearance would be the best outcome for Spacer’s Choice. While morbid, it truly was the least violent solution. The deserters returned to town, Adelaide took over as administrator, and began making the colony more sustainable by, uh, growing food in corpse-enriched soil. Morality aside, life in Halcyon is cheap, and perfect solutions are rare. This compromise, however, offered the people of Edgewater a chance at a healthier, happier existence without completely abandoning the corporate structure they depended on.
The Bustling Groundbreaker
With a newly installed power regulator and a growing, eager crew, the Stranger charted a course for Groundbreaker Station. This was Halcyon’s premier shopping destination and a veritable hive of scum and villainy, though most of it was of the corporate, white-collar variety. It was here that the Stranger’s influence began to truly expand.
On Groundbreaker, two more unique companions joined the fray: Felix, a street-smart dockworker offering a significant Persuade boost, and Ellie, a cynical, roving doctor whose loyalty extended only as far as her next paycheck, yet she provided a useful boost to the party’s lying skills. Each brought their own perspectives and abilities, further strengthening the crew.
The Stranger’s next objective was to reach the moon of Monarch. This proved challenging, as The Board had declared the planet off-limits, citing an entrenched civil war and a system-wide communications blackout. With no corporate oversight, Monarch was widely considered a lost cause and a perilous zone. However, danger was merely a detour for the Stranger. Undeterred by corporate embargos or the threat of certain death, they demonstrated their resolve by completing a series of tedious tasks in yet another semi-abandoned corporate settlement. This effort eventually secured enough credits to purchase an illicit black market navkey, granting access to Stellar Bay in Monarch’s Cascadia region.
Monarch Mayhem: Clearing the Airwaves
Dr. Phineas Welles desperately needed substantial quantities of Dimethyl Sulfoxide to successfully revive the remaining Hope colonists. He had struck a deal with an information broker on Monarch, securing the assistance of Nyoka, the Unreliable’s final recruitable companion. However, the intel had yet to arrive, its whereabouts unknown. So, Phineas dispatched the Stranger to Monarch to secure this crucial piece of the puzzle.
Upon landing on Monarch, the Stranger connected with Nyoka and journeyed to Devil’s Peak, a formidable horned mountain housing a vital communications station where the Information Broker was sheltering. After some, shall we say, “extensive negotiation” (read: a lot of combat), the Stranger discovered the reason for the comms blackout: the region’s airwaves were choked by constant broadcasts from two warring factions. On one side stood Monarch Stellar Industries (MSI), the corporate remnant clinging to power, and on the other, The Iconoclasts, a group of anarchists fiercely dedicated to liberating the colony from Board control.
This conflict was the Edgewater vs. Deserters situation amplified tenfold, further validating Phineas’s warnings about Halcyon’s impending collapse and The Board’s willingness to let it happen rather than loosen its grip on the workforce. Yet, the Stranger proved surprisingly adept at brokering seemingly impossible deals, persuading opposing factions to put aside their differences and collaborate towards a shared objective. They worked their diplomatic magic on Monarch, first silencing the disruptive broadcasts to allow Phineas’s intel to be sent, and then—just as an impressive encore—skillfully ended the entire civil war through strategic removals and subtle manipulations. It seems even in the chaotic Outer Worlds, a little diplomacy goes a long way.
The Opulence and Horror of Byzantium
While the resolution on Monarch significantly improved the Halcyon system’s stability, the core problem remained: The Board’s chilling indifference to the plight of ordinary citizens living in squalor outside their gleaming capital, Byzantium. This opulent city was precisely where the Stranger’s intel led them, tasked with recovering the critical chemicals being used by The Board for grotesque experiments on human subjects in suspended animation.
The shocking truth was uncovered: The Board’s solution to Halcyon’s failing economy and rampant food shortages was the “Lifetime Employment Program.” This sinister initiative involved placing all of Halcyon’s workers into indefinite suspended animation, to be revived only when absolutely necessary, thus conserving the colony’s dwindling food resources exclusively for Byzantium’s elite. And, of course, their scientists would “totally” figure out the food crisis in the meantime. Absolutely. This grand plan also involved ruthlessly eliminating any remaining colonists on the Hope to free up cryogenic space for these new “worker popsicles.”
Recognizing this as utterly unconscionable, the Stranger bravely infiltrated and shut down The Board’s research, successfully retrieving the Dimethyl Sulfoxide. This was the penultimate piece required to revive the Hope colonists; the final piece, of course, being the magnificent ship itself.
The Final Frontier: Endgame on Tartarus
With the Dimethyl Sulfoxide secured, Phineas directed the Stranger back to the Hope, the very ship where their journey began. The plan was to reactivate its skip drive and bring it to Terra 2, initiating the revival of its colonists—Halcyon’s purported “best and brightest.” Phineas firmly believed these brilliant minds would be the key to resolving the colony’s dire food shortages and systemic conflicts through scientific innovation, advanced technology, and practical solutions.
However, upon retrieving the ship, a grim discovery awaited: Phineas’s clandestine lab had been ransacked, and he himself was imprisoned on Tartarus, Halcyon’s notorious penal colony. The ensuing battle for his freedom brought together an unlikely coalition of allies. Nearly everyone the Stranger had helped throughout their travels—from the MSI and the Iconoclasts united against a common foe, to the loyal crew of the Groundbreaker—converged to assist in this cosmic prison break.
Despite the inevitability of some bloodshed, the Stranger’s established reputation for progressive thinking, pragmatic diplomacy, and a general aversion to unnecessary violence positioned them perfectly to negotiate Phineas’s peaceful release. This pivotal act cemented his vision: the Hope colonists were revived, and their brilliant minds set to work on charting a new course for the struggling colonies.
Ultimately, the Halcyon system was not saved by brute force, but by a delicate balance of negotiation, strategic compromise, and shrewd political maneuvering. Of course, a dash of violence—a necessary pinch of shooting and battering, perhaps even some petty theft and a swindle or two—certainly greased the wheels. But largely, it was diplomacy that triumphed. Through these collective actions, a diverse, ragtag assembly of colonists managed to usher in genuine, lasting systemic change for Halcyon. Afterward, they each went their separate ways, and the legendary ship, the Unreliable, faded into myth.
And what of Earth? At some point, contact was lost, and its fate remains a mystery. Perhaps The Outer Worlds 2 will shed some light on this cosmic enigma—though, as far as we know, the events of the first game might have little bearing on the sequel. Still, it beats replaying it, right?