The Outer Worlds - No Essential NPCs

Alt Char reports that The Outer Worlds will not have plot essential NPCs, meaning that you can kill anyone.

For example, killing the scientist that is shown to free the player in The Outer Worlds announcement trailer will likely lead players down another path where they can side with a different faction and proceed to complete the game. Killing their characters would mean players need to progress the story somewhere else, creating the need for a large number of different endings.

[...]