The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Review

The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition is an enhanced version of the 2019 base game, developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Private Division, and is out now on Xbox, PlayStation and PC. With enhancements to The Outer Worlds such as a dynamic weather system, overhauled lighting and environments, improved performance and load times, enhanced details on characters, and an increased level cap, I was excited to jump back into Halcyon colony and cause havoc amongst the marauders with my companion.

I originally played the game on PC via the Microsoft Store and this version suffered from occasional crashes at the worse times, so I never actually finished the game. The last couple of days I have been playing the game on Xbox Series X and the visual enhancements are noticeable right from character creation. Then from the first moments you touch down on the planet (poor Hawthorne), the vast open areas have space vistas shining bright and the environment detail is crisp with different types of lush flora and critters bouncing around.

Without tweaking any of the graphics settings on the Xbox Series X, I did experience an occasional drop in framerate in the larger open spaces where we could see in long distances. The draw distances were very good being able to see colonies in the distance but turning around fast saw some slight drops in frames. However thankfully when I was in combat against multiple foes, I had no issues with the game’s performance, just my lack of aim using a controller. I didn’t notice too much of a difference in the AI’s performance though it was always helpful having them fighting with me, enough to keep taking health off enemies if I needed to dash to cover for a quick heal.

Purchasing The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition gives you access to the base game and both expansions, Peril on Gorgon and Murder on Eridanos. If you have never played the game before or only played it on Game Pass, paying AUD89.95 for all of that content is well worth the purchase price (it’s on sale on Steam for AUD71.96, so even better). If you already own the base game and both expansions, the Spacer’s Choice Edition upgrade is available for AUD12.00. If you only own the base game and just one of the DLC however, you will be up for the full AUD89.95 upgrade price. You must own the base game and both DLC to get the cheaper upgrade, so be aware of your personal circumstances when choosing to upgrade.

While I had some slight performance dips on the Xbox Series X, scouring the Steam reviews of the game are saying there are a whole heap of performance issues on the PC version. It’s hard these days to know whether these are just trolls, review bombs or legitimate complaints, so best to try these things for yourself, or wait a little while to see if additional patches are released by the developers. But I can confidently say I was very happy with how the game performed on Xbox Series X.

This review utilised an Xbox Series X key provided by Private Division and The Outer Worlds is well worth a fresh playthrough on Xbox, PlayStation, Steam or Epic Games Store.

#roundtablecoop