Stellar Blade (PC) Review – Stylish Action, Quality Port

Stellar Blade PC Review
Although I try to be hardware agnostic, I began my gaming life on PC and if given a choice, it’s probably my go-to platform when it’s available. That said, PC gaming has its share of frustrations, like chasing the latest tech or wrestling with whatever issues the latest iteration of Windows or video drivers have introduced. And let’s be honest, console ports to PC have a spotty history. Some are fantastic, others are lazy. Happily, Shift Up’s PC release of their 2024 Stellar Blade easily lands in the former territory. As a port, it’s damn near flawless.

All About Eve
As most gamers probably know, Stellar Blade is an action RPG that takes place in a post-apocalyptic future. Humanity has been nearly obliterated by an alien force called the Naytiba, with most of the remaining survivors huddled in a city called Xion. You play as Eve, part of a force sent to Earth to reclaim it from the Naytiba.

As video game narratives go, Stellar Blade’s is neither particularly original or strikingly bad, landing squarely in the middle of the territory known as serviceable. However, It does an adequate job of moving the action forward. It never gets too bogged down with arcane lore or a massive cast of NPCs. The game’s gratuitously hyper-sexualized female character designs have been endlessly debated. It’s likely that anyone coming to this game probably knows what to expect. Stellar Blade is rated M for a reason.

Just like its narrative beats, the game’s dialogue and voice acting are absolutely adequate, if rarely emotionally compelling. The soundtrack clocks in at over 10 hours of music. With that many tracks, you’d expect variety, and you’d be right. The music ranges from vocals, orchestral and solo piano to synth-heavy beats.

Soulslike-like
Given the curvy appearance of its leading lady, many people initially wrote Stellar Blade off as skin deep. However, where the game really excels is in combat. It does have Soulslike elements — light and heavy attacks and a strong emphasis on dodges and parries — but it’s less indebted to FromSoft than other titles in the genre. Eve is especially mobile and acrobatic and the various combos and skill-tree upgrades give the player a huge amount of flexibility. After a slowish start, Stellar Blade’s action really starts clicking. The game’s levels feature a lot of verticality, semi-open world exploration and even some simple environmental puzzles. As our original console review stated, “its combat system is both deep and multilayered, ensuring that every encounter is an exhilarating experience.”

None of that has changed in the PC version. In fact, what was already good is now even better. The PC version includes all updates and added content, including New Game+, seasonal hunts and whatever balance changes that were made since launch.

Best of all, Shift Up has given PC players an immense number of ways to shape their game play experience. These include thorough options for graphics, audio, controls, accessibility and difficulty. Though naturally a high-end system will provide the best experience, Stellar Blade on PC runs on the humblest of rigs. Got an old Nvidia GeForce 1060 and an Intel Core i5? Stellar Blade runs at 60fps at 1080p. With a Ryzen 9 and GeForce 4080, I ran the game in 4K at the highest settings and never dipped below 120fps.

Prove It
Options and supposed specs are one thing, but those don’t always translate to actual performance. In this case, performance is, well, stellar. I had no issues with crashes, significant bugs or even texture pop in. Now and then, movement while climbing felt a little imprecise, but no more than when I played it on PS5.

In a landscape littered with lazy, poorly optimized or outright broken PC ports, Stellar Blade stands out for its attention to detail, wealth of options and strong performance. It’s a great way to experience one of the best action-adventure RPGs from 2024.

***PC code provided by the publisher for review***

The Good

Excellent action RPG
Tons of options
Works well on older hardware
Very polished

90

The Bad

So-so story
Slow start
Music quality is a little uneven