A swing and a miss!
Credit: Sumo Digital
Sackboy: A Big Adventure, and a big disappointment
- Sackboy is a good port on the surface, but two main issues ruin it.
- The port suffers from serious Shader-cache compilation stutters, affecting every PC, no matter how powerful.
- An Epic Games account is required for the online features, even if you buy the game on Steam.
- Sony’s asking for 59,99$ for what is a disappointing port.
Sony has been nailing their Playstation-to-PC ports one after the other in the last few years, but all good things eventually come to an end: Sony’s streak has seemingly ended with Sackboy: A Big Adventure with its recent Steam release.
A weird game to port
Little Big Planet is one of Playstation’s most beloved franchises, but Sackboy is a spin-off; so, choosing it for a port is weird. At least, with Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves, Sony ported Uncharted 4, a main-franchise title. Why not just port Little Big Planet 3? Steam reviews echo this sentiment—even positive ones.
It was likely easier to port the most recent title, but it was merely correct from the theoretical point of view.
#Stutterstruggle
Digital Foundry’s Alex Battaglia made one of his excellent DF Tech Review videos regarding Sackboy, and it is a disappointment to behold. His now-comical war on the Unreal Engine 4 stutters plaguing a lot of PC ports nowadays continues, because Sackboy is yet another example of this unacceptable issue.
On paper, the game is a very decent PC port, just like other Playstation PC ports. The settings are there, and so is ultrawide support for those glorious screenshots, Dualsense support on PC, etc.
These are all great signs, but they’re immediately forgotten when the game stutters on every PC setup imaginable. Even on an RTX 3080ti.
If this isn’t enough to disappoint you, there’s more. Multiple negative reviews have also pointed out that the game requires you to link an Epic Games account to play (despite buying it on Steam and the game being a Sony original title). The game automatically installs Epic Online Services for the co-op features.
These are concerning issues and Sumo Digital has yet to address them.
Sackboy isn’t worth the asking price
Sony has been pushing their PC port prices up in their latest releases, from the usual 49,99$ to 59,99$ for both Spiderman and Sackboy. People accepted this in Spiderman’s case for two reasons: Spiderman is a main franchise game, and the port is excellent. It is undeniably better than its PS5 remaster and is the definitive experience.
Sackboy is neither of those things. It is a spin-off of a beloved franchise that has no other games on PC, and the port is frankly unacceptable. This makes Sackboy: A Big Adventure Sony’s first big PC-port blunder. Let’s hope it will be the exception.
