More than a year ago, I wrote the review of The Outer Worlds, tested on my powerful Xbox One X. Today, I went back to the gorgeous world of the futuristic Halycon-system to see how well it performs on the Nintendo Switch. That’s right, this is another one of those ‘impossible’ Switch ports and after some testing, it’s another reason to celebrate.
The Outer Worlds?
If you’re unfamiliar with the game, I would recommend reading my original review first. As the game is still the same on Nintendo Switch, you’ll get the same adventure like the one found on the higher-end consoles/PCs, so my conclusion about the game itself still stands:
As far as the story and freedom go, The Outer Worlds really shines as bright as possible but what about the actual gameplay? Well, it’s rather deep, perhaps a bit too deep for some. Judging on the screenshots you could easily mistake this game for another first-person shooter, the reality is that it’s so much more than that. You’ll have to upgrade your characters and skills, always questioning what kind of skill matches your style most and what skill isn’t important for your character. The game really asks a lot of preparation and thinking before you can jump into the action. Also, note that you’ll need the help of partners in combat so you’ll need to keep a close eye out for some helpful support too. In the beginning, it’s really a lot to take in and you’ll spend a lot of your time in menus during the first hours, but once you understand all mechanics, you’re in for an incredibly fun game.
The Outer Worlds combines fun first-person action with the depth that’s expected in RPGs. Combat is extremely satisfying and just fun but it’s thanks to the setting that it even gets better. Exploring new planets with new lifeforms and new dangers is the true beating heart of the game and this exploration really is nicely done. It’s a bit of a shame there aren’t as many planets as hoped and some of those are rather small but then again, it’s an impressive achievement for a smaller studio.
The Outer Worlds ended up to be so much more than Fallout in space, it’s really an entirely new game filled with intriguing narratives, fun combat, and deep RPG elements. It’s not perfect but once you immerse yourself in this dystopian world set in the stars, you’ll forgive these small frustrations in no time. It’s definitely one of the better games currently on the market and worth trying out for sure!
The Switch version
As the content you’ll get is the same as the original, the main question for this version is of course: how well does it perform? Well, surprisingly good! Games as the Witcher 3 and the recently released 2K games already made a powerful statement when it comes to Switch. The hardware is capable of a lot more than we would initially anticipate. The Outer Worlds can easily be added to that ever-growing list of impressive Unreal games, running on the hybrid console. Since the Switch is a hybrid console and playable in handheld mode, I started my adventures with this version in said mode, seeing how well it would perform, I wasn’t disappointed. In handheld mode, it ran at a stable framerate, as far as I could tell and although the graphics get downgraded to 720p instead of the full-HD ones in docked mode, I didn’t have a lot of trouble to see what was going on. Just like big open-world games such as The Witcher 3 for example, there will be some environment blur, making it a bit harder to see what’s going on in the background. It’s something I had to adapt to, coming from the most powerful version on my Xbox One X, but after a while, I totally forgot about the downscaling and just had a lot of fun in handheld mode. What I like most about the handheld version is the fact that Private Division really changed everything to allow a better experience while playing, giving the gamers the freedom of choice they deserve.
A good example of this is the size of the text. When I started my adventure I could barely read what was on the screen, almost instantly concluding this was one of those poorly optimized Switch ports, until I discovered the options menu. Here, I could easily adjust the text size, making in a far better experience and the fun didn’t stop there. In the Options menu, you can change a lot of things that will make it a bit easier for you, from auto-aiming to gyro controls for aiming or everything else, it’s all here. This Switch version isn’t just a lazy attempt to cash some extra sales, it’s truly fully optimized for the system and I loved every second of it, even in the ‘lesser’ handheld mode.
If you play the game in docked, things get even better. In docked mode this runs at true-HD graphics, supporting 1080p and a stable framerate once again. In docked mode, I liked playing with the gyro-sensor turned on for aiming, which reminded me of the good old Wii days. It’s a game that simply works in both modes on Nintendo Switch as a lot of development time clearly went in the optimization of this Switch version, something a lot of other companies could learn from. The only thing that did bother me was the loading of the levels, which could easily take over a minute in some cases.
Conclusion:
The Outer Worlds on Nintendo Switch is another great port and thanks to its many options, you can really play the way you want, giving you a lot of freedom and choice. It’s not the best looking version and the loading times are a bit longer but it’s a small price to pay for an epic adventure of this scale. This still is the same game we loved so much last year and the ability to take it with us everywhere we go is just unbelievable. If you missed out on the original, this version certainly is a great new opportunity to discover humanity’s last frontier.
