I wonder if anyone at Obsidian, Private Division – or anywhere else this remaster’s sub-title was decided on – was aware of the fact they were setting themselves up to be the butt of the joke this time round. That picking this particular name was too easy a title not to pass up for coverage’s sake. As anyone who’s experienced 2019’s fantastic RPG and invested a sufficient enough time to get accustomed to that game’s lore, world-building and general habits so far as common-day lingo goes will attest to. That being one of the Halcyon system’s most repeated, most tongue-in-cheek but most crucial gags when it comes to the parodying of a corporatist far-future, run amok. “It’s not the best choice…” the cheerily-assured, boardroom-approved motto begins, “…it’s Spacer’s Choice!” That, on its own, is all you need to hear in order to get a good read on the kind of tone Obsidian originally took and succeeded on when The Outer Worlds originally released nearly four years ago on PS4, Xbox One & PC.
But it says something more that even with that game’s criticisms at launch – its rough edges, technical shortcomings and instances where the game seemed to struggle to maintain even a semblance of a stable 30FPS target – it quickly became one of my (and many others') personal favorite releases of the year. A game that would in time receive its due accolades wider afield. A testament to the writing first and foremost, but praise too for its artistic design and quest structure that something as affront as its performance could not put a significant enough dent into to truly ruin the experience. Thus, on paper, the prospect of a remaster – to remedy that which it faltered on on occasion, namely its performance and its visual fidelity – is a no-brainer. A great game made even greater? Sign me up – The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition billed as “much more than just a visual upgrade.” Promises of 4K images, 60FPS, improved this and tweaked that. The usual spiel we’ve come to expect from any sort of remastered game making the jump from generation of consoles to the succeeding next.
But while I’d love to continue that prior admiration for what The Outer Worlds is in 2023 – via what it’s now become in this supposed remastered and improved form – it’s rather puzzling (and met with a few double-takes as of late) to report that I have reservations for how The Outer Worlds running natively on PS5 seems to subtract from the experience rather than add to it. Compared, shockingly of all, to its former PS4 form and how said iteration, by way of backwards-compatibility, may in fact still fair better. How, you might ask? Surely the Spacer’s Choice Edition hasn’t intentionally removed details or aspects of the game on purpose? It must have added at least something, right? Well, yes and no. As these side-by-side comparisons of the game show – left image, the PS5 remastered version; right, its original PS4 version running in backwards compatibility on the same console – what the remaster may offer in increased clarity, resolution and depth, it so equally takes away in artistic and aesthetic consistency.
Sad as it is to say that one of the original game’s biggest pluses, its artistic design, seems to have been hampered in the pursuit of sharper visuals and better fidelity. But even then, the Spacer’s Choice Edition doesn’t even get that right – a lose-lose situation for both camps. Believe me when I say that these images have not been mistakenly swapped; what you see on the left is indeed the game’s native PS5 version and on the right, the original PS4 version running in backwards-compatibility mode. Granted, the latter has been the beneficiary of its own improvements; running on PS5 has improved the original’s frame-rate, as well as targeting [supersampled] resolutions of up to 1440p. And sure, you could argue that the Spacer’s Choice Edition houses a touch more environmental detail at a short-range. An increase in the amount of visual assets on display, as well as texture work do bolster locales. Groundbreaker, the neutrally-aligned trading outpost (as shown above) benefiting most. The remaster featuring more assets and texture work to bolster its interiors.
One of the first opportunities to survey the moon of Monarch and its prime settlement, seconds after you exit your trustee ship, The Unreliable. Met with less visibility, less detail on the distant geography and in some cases, lack of object-cast shadows? As many attempts one made to get both versions to take place at the exact same in-game time of day – denial perhaps that the PS5 version could look drastically different – the truth of the matter is that the PS4 iteration has the supposed “remaster” beat. And this isn’t purely from a visual stand-point here, as much as this piece has catered to showing side-by-side comparisons of how each version looks.
Because it’s arguably the frame-rate that just may well be the crux to which the Spacer’s Choice Edition disappoints. Like most, if not all, releases for current-gen consoles, the remaster offers two performance modes you can shift between. And as a side-note, though minor this inclusion may be to some: it’s appreciated that one can switch between prioritizing resolution and frame-rate without having to jump back to the respective game’s main menu. Even so, that consideration feels relatively pointless when you consider that the remaster’s focus on frame-rate, does anything but. Sure you can technically hit 60FPS in The Outer Worlds' native PS5 version…providing you have your player-character looking up at the sky, staring down at the ground or confined to one of the many interiors. Because frame-rate in this mode is all over the place – barely hitting the desired target before plummeting once more to anywhere from mid-30s to low-50s. The only times the game manages to maintain its desired target for more than second, when the game doesn’t have to render greater draw distances. When surroundings are confined to corridor-like imitations. Again, the frame-rate of The Outer Worlds' original form running in backwards compatibility mode? No problems whatsoever.
Delightful and well-worth the revisit the The Outer Worlds remains four years on – how wonderful it is to be reminded of Obsidian’s knack for great writing and greater world-building – it’s disappointing to report that the remaster for current-gen platforms, via the Spacer’s Choice Edition, feels anything but. A narrow-minded eagerness for more detail at the cost of artistic design, but the start of what feels like a misguided subtraction of the original’s biggest strengths, rather than a genuine step up from what came before. But if that wasn’t bad enough: a supposed mode that advertises itself as prioritizing frame-rate and yet seems to make said factor perform worse? For those who own the original and are lucky to own either a PS5 or Xbox Series console, do yourself a favor: just play it in backwards compatibility mode. “It’s not the Spacer’s Choice…it’s the best choice!”
