The Outer Worlds Remaster Got Wrecked in Steam Reviews
The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition was controversial even before its release, and after its debut many fans said it was better to return to the original version of the game.
The Outer Worlds won the hearts of many a gamer in 2019, and now it has received an improved edition. So it would seem that fans should celebrate the refreshment of their favorite game. Nothing could be further from the truth, because The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition has been heavily criticized by gamers, including on Steam.
We wrote about the cold reception of this remaster as early as at launch, but at the time it was the original that took the hit, after Steam users review bombed it. Nevertheless, 52% of positive reviews over the past 30 days is still a good result compared to what the newly released The Outer Worlds faced.
Refreshed The Outer Worlds is not drowning in praise from players.Source: own / Steam.
True, Spacer's Choice Edition has so far been rated by twice as many users as the original in the last 30 days. Nevertheless, a mere 20% of positive reviews emphatically testifies to the gloomy mood of fans.
Interestingly, the unfavorable reviews do not focus on the need to pay extra for an upgrade for the original The Outer Worlds. The reason why the original got bombed, was in fact the decision to include in this release various fixes, including those related to optimization, for which owners of the original must pay extra $10 (with this "special" price applying only if they already have both the base game and the sotory DLCs).
Ironically, complaints from purchasers of The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition focus on the game's poor optimization. The new version seems to run much worse than the original, even on the most powerful PCs:
"It runs much worse than the original version. "Improved" design is not worth the huge performance drops and animation stutters that weren't there before. Aside from the higher character level cap, it [release The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition - ed. note] is worth anyone's time. Unless this version of the game is significantly improved soon, it's not worth the price increase.
Just buy the original cheaper; The Outer Worlds is great," wrote Tyler McVicker.
Similar opinions prevail on The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition's produtc card on Steam. At 4K resolution, even the GeForce RTX 4090 only enables the game to run at 30 frames per second. Weaker GPUs have trouble maintaining stable 60 fps at lower resolutions, despite the fact that in the original they usually reached above 200 frames.
Similar complaints can be found in the social media. These threads confirm that optimization problems also affect consoles. There are also rare comments about new bugs, but most of them are vague.
Some Internet users claim it's the "courtesy" of studio Virtuous, which was commissioned by publisher Private Division to prepare the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S console port. The same team was responsible for the PC release of Horizon: Zero Dawn, which also turned out to be poorly optimized on release.
