The Outer Worlds review for Nintendo Switch

Let?s be honest: the real question about The Outer Worlds on Switch isn?t whether the game is good. That, after all, has been answered pretty definitively. Rather, the question is, can it run on the Switch without sacrificing too much?

Short answer: yep.

I mean, there?s some qualifications there. You?re not getting a game that looks as nice as it does on PC or the other consoles. There are also plenty of moments that look pretty rough, and you have to put up with all the usual compromises you might expect — things like pop-in, and textures that look like they?re from a generation or two ago.

But all of those moments are worth it when you consider that they?re a trade-off for getting a game this outstanding — and this enormous — running on the Switch.

Because, as my colleague Dustin noted in his review back in 2019, The Outer Worlds is pretty awesome. Like a lot of Obsidian?s other hits, it sets you free in a pretty sizable open world and gives you free rein to have fun with it. Sure, there?s a story — a space opera about protecting a colony on the edges of space — but it?s up to you how it unfolds, right down to who you want your character to be.

I mean that in more ways than one. There?s a robust character creator that allows you to design your character from the ground up, as you?d expect. But you can also decide whether you want to play the game straight up, lie or charm your way through life, or choose violence and mayhem at every opportunity. There?s lots of opportunities to allow the game to develop how you want it, even as you follow the guideposts left by the developers.

Honestly, The Outer Worlds on the Switch is everything I could?ve hoped for, and then some. It?s a big, expansive game that you can take with you everywhere you go — and it?s good enough that you?re more than likely to want to do just that, too.

Private Division provided us with an Outer Worlds Switch code for review purposes.