The Outer Worlds Nintendo Switch Review

"Fallout, in Space, but Limited"

Campaign

June 5, 2020 at 4:11am
By Jason Stettner

This was one of my favorite games from the last year, and it’s great to be able to revisit it once again. That being said, this iteration of the game isn’t necessarily the best showcase of what this title is. It’s sort of a case of, should this port even exist considering the state of things. Now, this isn’t at all a bad experience.

It just isn’t quite up to the level of the original release on other platforms. In The Outer Worlds you’re awakening as a colonist that was frozen a tad too long. Some wild scientist has awakened you, and given you a task to complete. You’re able to create whatever sort of character you want, and completely adjust your skills upon initial creation.

I jacked up dialogue options, and just went insane with this playthrough in regards to how I smooth talked everyone. That’s the beauty of the game, you can build whatever sort of character you want. You can be someone that focuses on combat, or perhaps stealth and of course like I chose a little bit of a charismatic smooth talker.

Anyways, from the crash you sort of make your own path within the game. This time I mixed things up a bit, and went in an entirely different direction from my previous efforts. I met some different companions, and took on some distinct quests. It’s a game where the main narrative isn’t necessarily too long, and your journey varies based on how much you want to get out there and explore. There are a number of planets within the solar system, with varying quests to go on.

It’s a fairly concise, and to the point sort of experience which I do appreciate. It has a good amount of depth within dialogue choices, and the ways you can tackle various situations throughout. In general, I just want to get it across that this is a story that you could play multiple times if you enjoy it. To see new things, visit additional places and of course make different system changing decisions.

Gameplay

At its core, this is a shooter. It is however, much more than just that. There are so many dynamics at play, and many ways to move within the environments. You can do so alone, or with companions. The companions have their own perk skill trees, equipment options and stories. You also share some elements such as various gear or weapon options.

You have a plethora of skill tree type options to choose from, in order to adjust your character. You can spend points on the various categories, and then also select from some perks. On top of that, funky little optional choices pop up from time to time that you can accept or deny. Those are weird ways to augment things further, which is neat to have.

You get a number of unique abilities, the core for everyone being a time slow mechanic which is fun for lining up those key shots or hits. Now, onto the real different part of the game. That of course being the performance and visual elements for the Nintendo Switch platform.

You can really tell the downgrades and the sacrifices they had to make in order to translate the experience over. With those cuts, the entire core package is still carried over. The quests, the worlds and the enemies you face. All of that has been cut right down to basic, muddy and generally ugly textures. Grass is missing, the ambience of the worlds is gone and the distinct detailed pop that the visuals had are entirely erased.

I will give props that the character models are decent when you get into a zoomed in situation, that’s important since you do have a ton of dialogue to work through within this one. The performance is hit or miss. It has issues, though is stable enough to be generally ok most of the time. This is about what I had expected the game to be like on the platform.

It’s just remarkable that it actually does run at all. It certainly isn’t a shiny release, but it works and allows you to take everything on the go which is nice for those types of players. Another issue, is the loading times. It takes a long time to load into places. It was fairly length on other platforms, but it really drags here and that gets a bit worse as time goes on.

The Conclusion

The Outer Worlds on Nintendo Switch is the entire experience, but at some serious costs to the visual identity and performance of the game. This is still a great game, and it’s fun to play multiple times. There are so many choices to make, and things to do. It’s still a rather confined type of experience, and I appreciate that as too many games are bloated these days. It’s a lovely set of worlds to visit, despite the sparkle having been drained from this.

I sound harsh, but that’s because I’ve seen the game in its prime. Its solid here I suppose, for what the console can do and it’s a miracle port. The fact it runs like it does, that’s interesting. It’s a good time to have, and I still had fun playing it in this situation. It’s really enjoyable, and I had a blast with my setup this time around. I went straight for high dialogue points, and just smooth talked things.

That’s a little different from my more balanced class the previous time I played this. I think there’s a lot of potential with this series, and I can’t wait to see where they take things. I doubt we’ll see a follow-up on the Nintendo Switch, and I suppose it’s just nice that this was even able to be played on that platform in the first place. I still definitely think this is worth it, but just keep in mind that this is a seriously degraded way to play the game.

Read our Destiny 2: Shadowkeep Review
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The Outer Worlds Review on Nintendo Switch
Review Code Provided by Private Division

Rating Overall: 7.0