OnLive Reviews

Given the fact that Borderlands, Dragon Age: Origins, and Mass Effect 2 are all launch titles for OnLive (and Alpha Protocol and Deus Ex: Human Revolution are coming soon), I thought I’d round up the first several reviews we’ve seen for the MicroConsole and the cloud gaming system itself.

GamesRadar doesn’t seem too impressed:

If you’re considering purchasing an OnLive Gaming System, we highly recommend that you wait until the service adds more titles to its catalogue. If patience isn’t your strongest virtue, do yourself a favor and at least check out the service with your PC or Mac by visiting www.onlive.com first. Create a free account and take advantage of the free trials. That way, you’ll know what titles will look and play like with your broadband connection at home.

IGN deems it worthy of an 8.0/10:

But what about the OnLive service itself? Well, it’s hard to say definitively, as performance depends largely on connection speed, area, and your home setup, but our experiences on an average 4 to 6Mbps home connection were pretty solid. Games ran smoothly without framerate drops, interruption, or sizable amounts of compression, and navigating menus and firing up games was a cinch. The number of available games is admittedly limited, roughly 40 available titles, and still growing, but more titles on the way, and more same-day releases are on the way, including the upcoming Deus Ex.

Joystiq passes their judgment:

Being an optimist, I’m going to consider a future where OnLive is alive and healthy, in which case I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the MicroConsole to those who don’t already have an HD console, aren’t keen to play the games the service offers via PC/Mac, or are PC gamers who have grown just plain tired of upgrading for each major new release. There’s something kind of magic about OnLive, and now with this impressive hardware, it will hopefully start to get some recognition from the masses. And that, dear Readers, can only help stave off my “the games are gone!” doomsday scenario.

MaximumPC rolls out an 8/10:

It’s a gamble that will be interesting to keep an eye on, as its success is no longer dependant on hardware limitations, but the interest garnered from game developers. But with strong new titles confirmed on the horizon Assassins Creed: Brotherhood, F.E.A.R 3, and Duke Nukem Forever, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, to name a few and a compact, inexpensive, and sleek form factor, we’re impressed, and positively curious about the future of cloud based gaming.

MacLife gives it a 4/5:

The MicroConsole is a winner, making OnLive’s already solid games-streaming service more versatile than ever. Games look terrific at full 1080p, and we never noticed controller lag. Being able to demo games before purchase and opt to rent instead of buying is a huge plus, and OnLive will even offer an optional “all you can play” service later this year, offering unlimited access to its “back catalog” for a monthly fee (more details to come on onlive.com). The only way OnLive could make gaming easier or more convenient is if they sent over an intern to finish your chores so you’d have more time to play.

And Destructoid doesn’t do scores for hardware, apparently:

If you can tolerate the sometimes finicky graphical fidelity, slight lag, and the (closed-garden) approach to multiplayer and DLC (don’t expect to be playing any multiplayer with your friends outside of OnLive, using mods, or getting much free DLC), the OnLive MicroConsole is a great piece of hardware. It’s very high-quality, and when everything is set up, so unobtrusive that you can forget the device is actually there. The games are playable (with some griefs), but with more game options coming, some hints toward a European launch, a constantly improving service, new subscription plans in the pipe, a holiday 2010 marketing push, and even more services hinted at by the company, OnLive is quickly becoming something relevant. With the MicroConsole, OnLive no longer feels like a half-assed service, but a fully featured infrastructure for potentially a large audience. That’s a good place to be.

UPDATE: Despite Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2 being available on OnLive during its beta period, EA has since pulled their titles and has instead signed on with Gaikai. Sorry for the confusion.