In a year where Obsidian released a pair of RPGs, its best game was an early access survival romp
It turns out that a small community garden offers more compelling adventures than a magical island or a capitalist nightmare.
(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)
Obsidian has been one of my go-to RPG studios ever since its first game, Knights of the Old Republic 2, came out in 2004. And between 2004 and 2018, it released 12 games, eight of which absolutely belong in every RPG lover's library. We're talking Alpha Protocol, Neverwinter Nights 2, New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity and its sequel, Tyranny, and yes, even South Park: The Stick of Truth.
That's an incredible list of games, and while some of them are looking a bit long in the tooth these days, I can't bring myself to not recommend every single one of them—and that's not just because PCG news writer Josh Wolens would curse me if I badmouthed Alpha Protocol.
(Image credit: Obsidian)
The Outer Worlds and its sequel, along with Avowed, have plenty of defenders. They reviewed well—including here—and have their fans. But they're missing what made Obsidian's previous games so absurdly compelling: the best-in-class writing, the big risks and quests that stick with me years later.
It feels like its acquisition by Microsoft has taught it to be cautious and boring, just like its risk-averse owner. But it's wild that its biggest swings happened at a time when it was flying by the seat of its pants, constantly being burned by publishers. Now it has the full support of an astronomically huge and wealthy publisher, and it's just been playing it safe.
At least when it comes to RPGs.
Its best game this year is another safe bet, a trend-chasing survival game, something I honestly couldn't imagine Obsidian doing outside of Microsoft. But Grounded 2, just like its 2022 predecessor, is a brilliantly creative co-op survival romp that I'd much rather play instead of Obsidian's modern RPGs.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)
Where Avowed and Outer Worlds presents us with stale settings, Grounded works magic with a mundane world that it's recontextualised. In the first game, a garden, and now a small community park. These locations are somehow more magical than a mysterious fantasy island. A messy picnic table becomes a gargantuan mountain that must be cautiously scaled; an overturned ice cream cart becomes a frozen hellscape full of scorpions; a little decapitated robot becomes… well, a very big decapitated robot.
