It’s no secret that Large Leisure’s Star Wars Outlaws has seen some blended opinions heading into launch. Whether or not it was how the standard open-world components that its writer is notorious for would shake out or the graphics within the gameplay showcased up to now, there have been issues over a number of points. One explosion in a gameplay video from IGN garnered large backlash for the way awkward it appeared.
Critiques are actually in for the open-world sci-fi action-adventure, and whereas it at the moment has a 77 Metascore primarily based on 61 critics’ opinions, there are some less-than-enthusiastic reactions to go along with the positives. In our personal overview, we principally loved the story and open-world design however discovered the general motion, enemy AI, stealth, and design choices to be iffy. Insta-fail sections in 2024? You actually shouldn’t have.
Nonetheless, from the outset, Star Wars Outlaws has all the time appeared lovely. That preliminary displaying final yr generated some skepticism in regards to the general efficiency (which we’ll delve into extra shortly). But, the Snowdrop Engine proves once more that it’s merely phenomenal for creating massive worlds laden with constancy and particulars.
It was additionally utilized in final yr’s Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, to not point out The Division 1 and 2, with all three video games positively obtained for his or her attractive visuals. The engine additionally delivers completely attractive character fashions, atmospheric results, and lighting, particularly when transitioning indoors to outdoor and vice versa.
The worlds all look colourful and vibrant general, with the 21:9 mode including to that cinematic aptitude. Whether or not you’re out within the wilds and gazing upon mountains within the distance of Toshara or slinking by crowded streets and alleyways at evening, there’s a sure allure and a spotlight to element all through. The wind is lifelike, inflicting timber to bend and dirt particles to journey of their course. It even ruffles Kay’s hair. All of this seems nice whereas accentuating the realism even additional.
The artwork design can be very sturdy, recreating extraneous particulars from the basic movies with out skipping a beat (and capturing the seedier aspect of the universe’s places fairly properly). Even the pre-rendered cutscenes look sharp by way of general constancy and animation work. Sadly, even when enjoying on PC, there are some locations the place you possibly can spot lower-resolution textures, resembling on sure rocks within the surroundings.
When testing the PC model, we used an AMD Ryzen 9 5950x, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, 32 GB of RAM, and a solid-state drive. The decision was set to 3840×2160 with DLSS enabled (upscale set to Biased and High quality). We caught with the standard preset on Excessive, which means nearly each single graphics choice – from Atmosphere Refraction High quality to the standard of Microdetails, Particles, and Scatter Density – was set to Excessive. Most Ray Tracing settings are on Medium, although BVH High quality (which affected the geometry high quality), Raytraced Diffuse Reflections (and their decision), and Raytraced Specular Reflections, had been set to Excessive.
For essentially the most half, the efficiency was fairly good, remaining regular even with a number of gentle sources and characters within the environments. It’s if you enterprise out into the open environments of Outlaws’ multifarious planets that fluctuations could be noticed. Traversing on the Speeder in Toshara noticed the body charge fluctuating between 50 and 60 frames per second, even with minimal motion. Nonetheless, it’s very playable and doesn’t considerably hamper the expertise. Ray tracing additionally seems fairly attractive, particularly when traversing over water our bodies and seeing the surroundings mirrored in the identical.
It’s the console model the place issues begin to get dicey. We examined out the PS5 model, which incorporates the particular 21:9 cinematic mode alongside different choices like Movement Blur Depth (each digital camera and per-object), Movie Grain, and Chromatic Aberration. In any other case, you possibly can select from two graphical modes – High quality and Efficiency – that are pretty easy.
The previous could be fairly secure all through, however some stutters are obvious through the extra hectic fight sequences, each on and off the Speeder. Efficiency Mode appeared much more secure and suffered fewer hiccups whereas providing a better body charge. Although there may be an apparent trade-off in decision, if you’d like essentially the most fluid expertise, it actually looks like that is the way in which to go.
Nonetheless, the PS5 model suffers most when accounting for the general technical polish. Animations would glitch out typically, including to the woes of traversal and exploration with Kay. There have been additionally a stunning quantity of points with lip-syncing and hit detection. Additionally, as crisp as draw distances might typically really feel on the PC model, they’d look considerably muddier on the PS5. That distinction intimately is noticeable within the early hours when Kay is tasked with breaking right into a mansion, as she scales a cliffside whereas the latter is seen within the background with fireworks going off.
If that weren’t sufficient, audio bugs and the occasional pop-in would happen on PS5, disrupting immersion all of the extra. Contemplating how well-versed Large is with the engine (heck, they created it), this might simply be a case of Star Wars Outlaws needing extra time within the oven to actually hammer out its technical points on console.
For what it’s price, we didn’t encounter any game-breaking glitches or crashes, and nothing that hampered progress (at the very least none within the opening hours). Fortunately, when analyzing loading instances, each platforms carry out extremely properly, transitioning to and from cutscenes with subsequent to no delay.
General, Star Wars Outlaws is a surprising open-world title, one which captures the franchise’s appear and feel to an unbelievable diploma. The particular cinematic mode is a welcome addition, including to the authenticity of being set through the authentic trilogy. For all of the criticism in opposition to it, there’s one thing particular about strolling by these places or hopping on a Speeder and watching the plains unfurl earlier than your eyes, particularly at completely different instances of the day.
Nonetheless, one of the best ways to expertise all of it is on PC, palms down, whether or not it’s as a result of multitude of choices accessible or just due to its extra constant efficiency (which might use a little bit of tightening up). The PS5 model isn’t outright horrible on a visible stage. High quality Mode might use shoring as much as deal with the body drops throughout fight; nevertheless, the general expertise may very well be considerably improved if the pop-in and draw distance points are addressed. It’s nearly the whole lot else that desperately wants extra polish to actually ship on that area scoundrel fantasy.
No matter the way it performs by way of gross sales, Star Wars Outlaws will probably obtain extra updates to enhance the expertise and tackle any lingering points. Because it stands, very similar to final yr’s Avatar, it’s an unbelievable benchmark in current-gen visuals that may cater to franchise lovers with its particulars. Right here’s hoping it aspires to extra.
