Earlier this week, Obsidian Entertainment released The Outer Worlds 2, the sequel to 2019’s The Outer Worlds, a first person shooter RPG which had many references to Greek mythology. And the sequel continues that trend of references to Greek mythology in the game. The game is set in the Arcadia star system, and right from the start you see the influence of Greek mythology on the game. According to Greek mythology, Arcadia of Peloponnesus was the domain of Pan, a virgin wilderness home to the god of the forest and his court of dryads, nymphs and other spirits of nature. Let’s take a look at the rest of the links to Greek mythology in the game.

The obvious links to Greek mythology in The Outer Worlds 2: names, places, and classical signposts

One of the clearest, most literal ways The Outer Worlds franchise borrows from Greek myth is by name. Even in the first game, the Halcyon system featured locales and background names that echo classical myth (for example Olympus, Eridanos, Hephaestus, Typhon appear frequently in maps, locked-planet lists, and lore). Community wikis and reporting that document the original game’s planetary names and the locked/hidden world references point this out explicitly. For example, the planets/locations Olympus, Hephaestus, Typhon, and Eridanos are present as place-names in the Halcyon system and the game’s ancillary materials.

The sequel, The Outer Worlds 2, continues in the same universe and deliberately expands the setting and the cast, which preserves (and amplifies) opportunities for classical reference: marginal place-names, quest titles, architectural motifs and corporate brands can all be keyed to mythic figures. Obsidian and coverage around the sequel focus on an expanded world, more companions, and a satirical corporate architecture — the same “naming-as-easter-egg” strategy gives writers room to layer mythic resonance under sci-fi veneer.

Why that matters: classical names are cheap but potent signifiers. “Olympus” instantly evokes a set of images — a mountain of gods, a distant throne, rule-from-above — and game writers exploit that associative shorthand. Where the original game used Olympus to name a gas giant (and even an orbital pharmaceutical station, OOPS — Olympus Orbital Pharmaceutical Station), the sequel can reuse the same scaffold to comment on power-as-divinity, drugs-as-mystical-nectar, and inaccessible elites.

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Corporate Olympus — gods in suits

One of The Outer Worlds’s strongest narrative moves is turning megacorporations into the de facto gods of its cosmology. The world of Halcyon is dominated by corporate brands and their private ideologies. The sequel doubles down on that satire: industry, law, and governance are not separate from the culture’s “gods”; they are the gods. Reporting on Outer Worlds 2 emphasizes Obsidian’s satirical aim and the sequel’s engagement with “corporate satire” — corporate actors in the role previously reserved for monarchs, priests, or deities. That is a direct way to read Greek pantheons into the game: the companies are Olympus, the boardrooms their summits, and their policy memos the oracles.

Mythic parallels:

• The Olympian court: Mount Olympus houses gods who are aloof and powerful; corporations in Outer Worlds house executives and executives-in-absentia whose decisions rain down on the populace.
• The pantheon of brands: Just as Zeus, Hera, Athena, etc. each wield specific domains, different corporations specialize (pharmaceuticals, terraforming, security, mining), each shaping social life in different (and sometimes cruel) ways.

This is not purely metaphorical. Specific in-game locations reinforce the mapping: the Olympus Orbital Pharmaceutical Station (OOPS) literally locates the pharmaceutical industry in the clouds — an explicit echo of the unreachable, cloud-wreathed home of classical gods.

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Hubris, Prometheus, and technology’s stolen fire

Greek myth stories about hubris — human arrogance that invites divine punishment — are a natural fit for Outer Worlds’s central critique. The franchise’s alternate-history premise (industrial trusts never got broken; corporations colonize and exploit space) is essentially a long parable of hubris: the idea that business will be both absolute ruler and absolute elevator of human progress. The sequel’s expansion of weapons, tech, and corporate interventions extends that moral: technological progress divorced from ethical frameworks becomes a form of Promethean theft and blindness.

• Prometheus: in myth, Prometheus stole fire to empower humans and was punished by the gods. In Outer Worlds the “fire” is biotech, terraforming tech, and corporate tech monopolies. Corporations hoard or weaponize knowledge; individuals and fringe communities steal or misuse it. The Promethean dilemma — is technological progress always emancipation, or can it become a new chain? — is threaded through the series. Coverage of the sequel stresses more weapons and more grapples with power (game mechanics and story both), which reads naturally through the Prometheus lens.
• Hubris-driven catastrophes: many quests across the franchise reveal human experiments gone wrong (rogue terraforming, dangerous pharmaceuticals, engineered ecosystems) — the narrative consequences of assuming control over natural orders — classic hubris.

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Underworlds, quests of descent, and Odyssean journeys

Greek myth is full of journeys into the underworld and voyages of return (Orpheus, Odysseus, Heracles). RPGs are structurally aligned with those stories: players leave home, descend into dangerous unknowns, recover a prize or a truth, and return (changed). Outer Worlds 2 continues that arc with both literal and figurative forms of descent:

• Literal underworlds: the game’s moons, orbital stations, and “locked” planets suggest strata — levels — to be visited. In the original Outer Worlds, certain locations (e.g., Gorgon, Monarch’s ruins, orbital stations) functioned as “underworld” sites where forbidden truths and monstrous results of corporate experimentation lay waiting. The sequel’s expanded map and its quest design are reported to include more varied environments and deeper, more ambitious narratives of exploration.
• Orpheus/Persephone motifs: quests where the player must retrieve something (data, a person, a lost ship) from behind corporate gates have the familial/underworld feel of Orpheus’s descent to restore what was lost. The “bribes, bargains, and impossible choices” tone of many quests also maps onto Persephone’s duality — a world divided between surface and underworld, where rules change.
• Odyssean exploration: the player’s journey between stations, moons and corporations echoes Odysseus’s voyage home: episodes of trickery, temptation, monstrous set-pieces, and political bargaining make the journey episodic and morally complex. Reviews and previews of Outer Worlds 2 highlight the breadth of locales and companion-driven narrative beats that make these epic arcs work.

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Monsters, names, and the ancient bestiary in The Outer Worlds 2

Game designers love giving enemy-types and set pieces names pulled from mythology: Typhon (a monstrous storm giant in Greek myth) is an obvious choice for threatening phenomena or planets with catastrophic storms; Hephaestus (god of smiths) is a natural tag for industrial or manufactories; Eridanos (a mythic river) is a good fit for dangerous rivers, toxic residues, or cosmic flows. Community documentation and speculation in fan spaces explicitly link these names to the in-game features and to possible DLC locations. The recurrence of those names across the franchise is an explicit signal that the developers are working with a classical lexicon.

Example: the Typhon label appears in Halcyon maps and forum threads discussing potential locked/dlc planets; Hephaestus is invoked where industrial or smithing themes appear in worldbuilding. These are not accidental echoes. They’re active, repeated choices that shape player expectation before any mechanics kick in.

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Characters as modern demigods — companions, leadership and tragedy

RPG companions are modern analogues to mythic helpers and tragic figures. Companion lists for Outer Worlds 2 show a varied cast (names like Niles, Valerie, Inez, Tristan, Marisol, Aza have been reported in coverage) with strong personalities, backstories and quests that often mirror mythic functions: the sagely mentor, the wronged lover, the vengeful warrior, the trickster. PC Gamer’s reporting on the sequel’s companions frames them as central narrative devices that invite personal quests and moral decisions, just as mythic epics turn on relationships with gods and demi-gods.

How that maps to myth:

• A companion with technical skills can echo Hephaestus/Prometheus imagery (the smith who crafts the gifts and the stolen fire).
• A morally ambiguous companion who bargains with corporate powers can echo Hermes (messenger, trickster) or Odysseus (cleverness and duplicity).
• Characters who suffer due to corporate experiments evoke tragic figures who paid for knowledge or defied gods.

These archetypal resonances are a storytelling shortcut — they let the game quickly leverage the emotional freight of myth while telling a contemporary, satirical story.

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Ritual, cults, and the oracle effect

Greek culture is full of oracles, cult worship, and ritualized exchanges between mortals and gods. Outer Worlds trades in modern rituals: commercials, compliance pledges, corporate onboarding, and consumer-focused “worship” of brands. The game’s in-world advertising, mandatory corporate loyalty, and newsfeeds function as ersatz oracles — they shape what people believe, limit imagination, and obscure the truth. The sequel’s reported focus on corporate satire expands those motifs: the corporations do not just shape markets; they shape metaphysics. Coverage of Obsidian’s intent and press materials shows the sequel leaning into corporate metaphors.

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What Outer Worlds 2 does differently (or augments)

From previews and reports, Outer Worlds 2 promises more scale, more companions, and a sharper satirical edge. That both preserves classical references and makes them more meaningful: an expanded world amplifies the Olympus metaphor (more corporations, more altars), and larger companion casts deepen the demigod/demi-human dynamic. Reviewers and previewers notice the sequel’s ambition: if the first game used mythic names as colorful detail, the sequel looks positioned to integrate those references into larger narratives about divine/human power, ethical limits to technology, and the cyclical nature of hubris.

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Where interpretation meets evidence — a short methodological note

A lot of the “Greek myth” reading is direct: place-names, station names, and explicit design choices (e.g., Olympus = orbital pharmaceutical station) are factual and documented. Other parts are interpretive: mapping Prometheus to biotech or corporate executives to Olympian gods is an analytical move rather than a developer quote. I’ve flagged the major factual claims and cited them above (Obsidian’s coverage, PC Gamer companion lists, GameRant community analyses, and Fextralife/Fandom wiki entries). When I draw larger thematic parallels (Prometheus, hubris, Persephone/Orpheus arcs), I do that as literarily grounded inference: the motifs are common, and the game’s world invites those readings. See the cited sources for the concrete anchors; take the broader mythic mapping as critical framing intended to illuminate how the game’s satire and worldbuilding resonate with ancient narratives.

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Final takeaways — why Greek myth helps us read Outer Worlds 2

1. Classical names give the world narrative weight. A planet called Olympus or a station called OOPS is shorthand for unreachable authority and ruled-from-above technocrats.
2. Mythic templates supply moral questions. Prometheus and hubris provide a ready-made language for exploring technological power and corporate irresponsibility.
3. Companions and quests echo mythic roles. The player’s crew replays demigod/heroic relationships that help dramatize choice, loyalty, and tragedy.
4. Satire meets epic scale. Outer Worlds 2 aims to be both a biting satire of corporate capitalism and an expansive RPG; Greek myths give it archetypal depth to make that satire feel timeless rather than topical.

For more visit the official Steam page of the game.