It’s no secret that Massive Entertainment’s Star Wars Outlaws has seen some mixed opinions heading into launch. Whether it was how the typical open-world formula that its publisher is infamous for would shake out or the graphics in the gameplay showcased thus far, there were concerns over multiple aspects. One explosion in a gameplay video from IGN garnered massive backlash for how awkward it looked.
Reviews are now in for the open-world sci-fi action-adventure, and while it currently has a 77 Metascore based on 61 critics’ opinions, there are some less-than-enthusiastic reactions to go with the positives. In our own review, we mostly enjoyed the story and open-world design but found the overall movement, enemy AI, stealth, and design decisions to be iffy. Insta-fail sections in 2024? You really shouldn’t have.
However, from the outset, Star Wars Outlaws has always looked beautiful. That initial showing last year generated some skepticism about the overall performance (which we’ll delve into more shortly). Yet, the Snowdrop Engine proves again that it’s simply phenomenal for creating large worlds laden with fidelity and details.
It was also utilized in last year’s Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, not to mention The Division 1 and 2, with all three games positively received for their gorgeous visuals. The engine also delivers absolutely gorgeous character models, atmospheric effects, and lighting, especially when transitioning indoors to outdoors and vice versa.
The worlds all look colorful and vibrant overall, with the 21:9 mode adding to that cinematic flair. Whether you’re out in the wilds and gazing upon mountains in the distance of Toshara or slinking through crowded streets and alleyways at night, there’s a certain charm and attention to detail throughout. The wind is realistic, causing trees to bend and dust particles to travel in their direction. It even ruffles Kay’s hair. All of this looks great while accentuating the realism even further.
The art design is also very strong, recreating extraneous details from the classic films without skipping a beat (and capturing the seedier side of the universe’s locations quite well). Even the pre-rendered cutscenes look sharp in terms of overall fidelity and animation work. Unfortunately, even when playing on PC, there are some places where you can spot lower-resolution textures, such as on certain rocks in the environment.
When testing the PC version, we used an AMD Ryzen 9 5950x, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, 32 GB of RAM, and a solid-state drive. The resolution was set to 3840×2160 with DLSS enabled (upscale set to Biased and Quality). We stuck with the quality preset on High, meaning almost every single graphics option – from Environment Refraction Quality to the quality of Microdetails, Particles, and Scatter Density – was set to High. Most Ray Tracing settings are on Medium, though BVH Quality (which affected the geometry quality), Raytraced Diffuse Reflections (and their resolution), and Raytraced Specular Reflections, were set to High.
For the most part, the performance was pretty good, remaining steady even with multiple light sources and characters in the environments. It’s when you venture out into the open environments of Outlaws’ multifarious planets that fluctuations can be observed. Traversing on the Speeder in Toshara saw the frame rate fluctuating between 50 and 60 frames per second, even with minimal action. Nevertheless, it’s very playable and doesn’t significantly hamper the experience. Ray tracing also looks quite gorgeous, especially when traversing over water bodies and seeing the environment reflected in the same.
It’s the console version where things start to get dicey. We tested out the PS5 version, which includes the special 21:9 cinematic mode alongside other options like Motion Blur Intensity (both camera and per-object), Film Grain, and Chromatic Aberration. Otherwise, you can choose from two graphical modes – Quality and Performance – which are fairly straightforward.
The former can be quite stable throughout, but some stutters are apparent during the more hectic combat sequences, both on and off the Speeder. Performance Mode seemed far more stable and suffered fewer hiccups while offering a higher frame rate. Though there is an obvious trade-off in resolution, if you want the most fluid experience, it really seems like this is the way to go.
However, the PS5 version suffers most when accounting for the overall technical polish. Animations would glitch out often, adding to the woes of traversal and exploration with Kay. There were also a surprising amount of issues with lip-syncing and hit detection. Also, as crisp as draw distances could often feel on the PC version, they would look somewhat muddier on the PS5. That contrast in detail is noticeable in the early hours when Kay is tasked with breaking into a mansion, as she scales a cliffside while the latter is visible in the background with fireworks going off.
If that weren’t enough, audio bugs and the occasional pop-in would occur on PS5, disrupting immersion all the more. Considering how well-versed Massive is with the engine (heck, they created it), this could just be a case of Star Wars Outlaws needing more time in the oven to really hammer out its technical issues on console.
For what it’s worth, we didn’t encounter any game-breaking glitches or crashes, and nothing that hampered progress (at least none in the opening hours). Thankfully, when examining loading times, both platforms perform incredibly well, transitioning to and from cutscenes with next to no delay.
Overall, Star Wars Outlaws is a stunning open-world title, one that captures the franchise’s look and feel to an incredible degree. The special cinematic mode is a welcome addition, adding to the authenticity of being set during the original trilogy. For all the criticism against it, there’s something special about walking through these locations or hopping on a Speeder and watching the plains unfurl before your eyes, especially at different times of the day.
However, the best way to experience it all is on PC, hands down, whether it’s due to the multitude of options available or simply because of its more consistent performance (which could use a bit of tightening up). The PS5 version isn’t outright terrible on a visual level. Quality Mode could use shoring up to handle the frame drops during combat; however, the overall experience could be significantly improved if the pop-in and draw distance issues are addressed. It’s almost everything else that desperately needs more polish to truly deliver on that space scoundrel fantasy.
Regardless of how it performs in terms of sales, Star Wars Outlaws will doubtless receive more updates to improve the experience and address any lingering issues. As it stands, much like last year’s Avatar, it’s an incredible benchmark in current-gen visuals that will cater to franchise enthusiasts with its details. Here’s hoping it aspires to more.