When I was playing the first half of the game I couldn't, for the life of me, understand how people hated on this game... Then I got to the second half and everything fell apart. It feels like such a step back from the first game. Which is crazy because the first game was mid at best. I'll just regurgitate my thoughts without much structure below.
The amount of bugs related to quests is staggering. I was locked out of various quests because I had done something out of order or an NPC just simply wouldn't talk to me. OR! They would talk to me too much. For example, every time I landed on Paradise Island, one of my companions would spawn in and yell at me about dropping a ship on the town. Sometimes I would be given the option to lie with a speech check, but sometimes I wouldn't and I would have to reload a save and pray that RNG would give me the choice when I spoke next. Another example, I stormed this big AI driven station by myself and because I did that, the game bugged out and didn't give me the option to ending the war between two of the major factions. It was incredibly frustrating.
Also, Obsidian's style of abrupt ending with no post-game beyond their splash screen crawl is incredibly dated. If you have a high enough speech skill, you can just end the game without a final fight. Which I understand, is sort of a staple of Obsidian Entertainment games, but it felt very cheaply done in this game. Fallout New Vegas had the benefit of being well written enough that it really FELT like you were persuading the final boss. The writing for the end of the game felt kinda abrupt and rushed. The final boss is just suddenly, "Oh I did a bad. I shall sacrifice myself. Sorry."
Another thing, Companions. They felt so boring. There were so many times that I would be talking to them and challenging their world views, only for the game to say "This will be remembered" and the companions carrying on as if they DIDN'T remember. Not being able to romance companions in an RPG this day and age feels a bit sacrilege. I know Obsidian, or more specifically, Josh Sawyer, doesn't like romance options in their games, but it is SUCH a missed opportunity. It takes an entire element of companions and just throws it away. What I'm left with in the Outer worlds 2 are companions who are forgettable and boring with my influence on them being negligible at best.
My biggest gripe with this game, beyond what I have listed already, HAS to be the second half falloff. It was like a switch got flipped and I could feel the vibe totally shift. The world-building, narrative pacing and quest's all declined significantly. Each quest felt the exact same, Go here-do this-comeback. The two worlds they give you before the final "world/quest" are two super bland, repetitive worlds. The narrative and its pacing was so strange. The narrative dropped its charm and urgency, replacing it with a weird disjointed plot that felt like it was all over the place. This drop happened in the second-half. Which sucks because the first-half of the game's narrative and climax point felt so well done. Finally getting revenge on the traitor was paced perfectly. I almost wish the game ended there, instead, I was forced to sit through ten hours of the most disjointed, boring story that felt super rushed.
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TL;DR: The Outer worlds 2 has a plethora of bugs as well as a story that sufferers from a horrible second half consisting of pacing issues and a disjointed plot. The worlds are just a dull and forgettable as your companions. Its a huge step back compared to their first release, which was already a game that is best known for being mid.

Having loved the first game I went into this fully engaged and with an open mind.. But half the time I had to push myself to continue. Took me awhile to admit it because I'm stubborn like that but something just isn't there. Still haven't finished the game and maybe I never will.

I enjoyed my time with this game and would love to see a sequel.

I'm leaving a negative review for two reasons:
1) it is a bit too bloated compared to the 1st - which was refreshing at the time because it was concise, cut all the fat of other huge open RPGs in the genre & focused on the world and story. There's a lot to like here but it does feel like they tried to pack too much in the world.
2) The Devs already, less than a year after release, publicly announced that there won't be a sequel. It's a slap in the face to fans and I can't see how making that sort of statement would drive any further sales of the current game. A long dev cycle due to an unnecessary need for a "bigger" sequel, awful marketing leading to mediocre sales, then suddenly dropping the whole franchise?? Rubbish & really misses the point of what used to make Obsidian games special. Not to mention there's still a huge lingering plot thread that both games end on and don't resolve - it's like ending a TV show on a cliff hanger just for it to get dropped before the next series. Absolutely infuriating and has made me lose a lot of respect for Obsidian. I'll hold off buying any future games. Sort your priorities out guys!