It appears that Kingdom Come: Deliverance II director Daniel Vávra believes we're in a bit of a rut when it comes to open-world RPGs. While there's still a level of enjoyability to the games (he did rate The Outer Worlds 2 7/10 after all), Vávra finds that they're lacking innovation.
"What I find sad is that the company and the people who gave us one of my favorite games ever (Fallout & New Vegas) have been unable, even after 15 years and with all of Microsoft's money and latest technological advances, to come up with a single new game mechanic that could take this proven but ancient formula somewhere new," Vávra wrote on Twitter/X. "Can any of you think of a single new game mechanic in The Outer Worlds that wasn't already in Deus Ex or the original Fallout games more than 25 years ago? Unfortunately, I can't. Give me a living, simulated world! True non-linearity!"
<social>https://x.com/DanielVavra/status/1985848222707765440</social>
Fans were quick to point out under Vávra's tweet that it's likely that most of the original team working at Obsidian when it released games like Fallout: New Vegas have likely moved on. However, it seems the director's criticism stems more from a feeling that the genre has apparently plateaued without anything really new arriving in decades. The worlds get more open, there are better visuals, but largely the impact a player can have on their own story feels lacklustre. This is why games that have tried more non-linear approaches like Kingdom Come: Deliverance II and Baldur's Gate III have seen widespread praise in recent years.