Welcome to our first look at Google Stadia in 2021! The new year has arrived and we decided to start including Google Stadia reviews on the website when applicable.
First, allow me to be clear about this NOT being a sponsored review as I bought the Stadia kit with my own money. I wanted to see how well the service of online game streaming would work as I live in Belgium, a country with just a few crappy (read this as evil) providers, and I am subscribed with the lesser of those, called Proximus. I used to have Telenet but as we live across a WZC (retirement home) that also uses them, their quality and reliability had gone down massively, and I am happy to have made the switch.
Now before we continue, I want to explain a little more prior to the full stadia review. I live in a relatively “long” house but thanks to the first lockdown here in Belgium, I have a full upgrade on my internal network. I use the TP-Link Deco M4 MESH wifi 5 (AC) network and yes, they have the ethernet backhaul, meaning there is a physical cable between all three devices and both my bedroom and the game room have their own device. In my bedroom, I use wifi only on my Surface Pro 7, and in the game room, all my devices are connected through a cable.
I went as far as to record bandwidth information thanks to a speed test prior to gaming and I do mention whether any other bandwidth usage was happening at the same time, like a TV playing with Netflix on or any other streaming. For the purpose of this test, I wanted to also state that I can go 100 megabit/second download and my upload rarely goes over 30 megabit/second. Another thing I tested out was Google Stadia connected as it was intended. A Google Chromecast that came with the Stadia kit, also connected via cable.
Ok, now that we got that out of the way, First off is testing Sniper Elite 4 on both my Surface Pro and on my Asus TUF. While one of both devices is a very potent gaming laptop and the Surface is basically a Windows-based tablet/pc hybrid, they both performed the exact same way. The speed test prior to both tests were very similar at 80/20 and 78/24 so very little speed difference when it happened. At the time of playing, in both cases, there was a stream on Netflix active (watching the Lupin series, which is very good)
I did notice many differences in movement though as soon as I connected my TUF laptop to the LG OLED TV. I was playing with my Xbox controller directly connected to my laptop and suddenly the movements were bizarre. I moved a little to the left and suddenly I had moved over 90 degrees. This kept repeating the entire time and surprisingly enough, this movement was also visible on the laptop screen. It also happened a few times afterward, but each time with a TV connected. Coincidence maybe?
Right after this issue, I moved to my Surface and that did not have the same issue, smooth picture and movements all over. I even went into Hitman to try out the game as I had just finished the third one for review purposes on my Xbox Series X and I got to say, smooth sailing again.
Day two, trying things once more with a lower bandwidth as I was downloading a game to one of my consoles and the available down/up was 65 and 13 respectively. I went back into Hitman 3, trying out things like state share, the new function where you can basically invite someone to join your progress thanks to a linked screenshot. Quite cool and more about that in another upcoming review.
So with slightly worse bandwidth, I still had no issue playing on my Surface or my MacBook Air, yes, those work too. I also tried the gaming laptop hooked up to my OLED TV and again, it borked in exactly the same way. Skipped frames and laggy movements getting me killed in Hitman 3. Maybe this is related to the setup so I went out of my way and disabled my laptop monitor and it did nothing to help out my issues.
Next up, testing the service on the hardware it was intended to play with, the Stadia Controller and the Chromecast! Sadly this experience started off with a bit of a sour taste in my mouth as DHL lost my shipment… It took a few mails back and forth to get things settled and now that I finally have my controller and Chromecast in hand, I can finally say what my experiences were.
It took me around 5 minutes to install the Chromecast Ultra and hook it up to my wired network through the port on the power adapter. After a short install and a very intuitive way to connect the new controller to my account, I was ready to start playing. First off, Hitman 3 on the big screen, which performed 99% fine, just a slight hiccup in the movements when I tried to purposely stress my network by downloading a new game on the laptop. But when I was having free bandwidth, Google Stadia performed very well on TV.
Later that week, I tried Gylt and Serious Sam 4 as well, both Stadia exclusives, you can find those reviews on the website too. On the TV, 4K mode active, I did have the occasional glitch where my character would keep moving, which resulted in a few deaths here and there, but nothing inexcusable.
My next test, seeing how easily I could move from one station to the next. Well, that was just about as perfect as I could have anticipated. As all the information is stored in the cloud, the games usually boot within 1 or 2 minutes and while that is slower than the next generation of consoles currently available, I still consider it very decent.
Last but not least, the Stadia store itself. Sadly I should be honest here and say it is still a little empty feeling. I can see how a service does not really benefit from a year of lockdowns worldwide and the well-known pandemic. There are games on Stadia, just nothing compared to the three big classic brands, those eShops usually have the literal thousands of games and Stadia is just at a few hundred.
Most of the bigger titles of the past few years are all present, but it is missing quite a few still. Big online games like Fortnite, Apex, … are all missing. I am sure Google will get them all on board sooner or later, but for now, their absence sure is noticeable…
On a sidenote, when Google Stadia was announced, a lot of features were showcased and the state share feature is the next one to actually get included and that allows you to share a screenshot on social media where Stadia users can click on the game and start playing at the same part of the game or join a party! I have had some experience with this thanks to the great people over at Google and I just adored this function in Hitman 3. I was joining a game where different weapons were available to me. A very fun experience!
In conclusion, Google Stadia was mostly plagued by negative comments at first, just go onto Metacritic for games like Gylt and you will see numerous people downvoting games due to lag and performance issues. Personally, I have not had such experiences that my games became “unplayable”. I had a few minor issues but overall, I am quite pleased with the current state of Google Stadia. I do think it could improve on a few points here and there.
Overall stability is mostly due to your internet service provider being great or crappy, but maybe a more aggressive downscaling feature or downscaling backgrounds if the game starts borking?
I would also do something about the Stadia store. A basic search function seems to be missing. Maybe even introduce some features or genre-related parts, … It reminds me of the Nintendo Switch store and that still feels empty.
More games would be cool as well, but we all know that is just a matter of time. The games will come as long as Google supports the service.
If you are looking for a new gaming experience without spending 500 of your monies on a console, Google Stadia might be a great choice! Google Stadia was actually better than anticipated. The mix between needing a stable connection and a still questionable starter kit to be able to play on TV did not bother my gameplay and I will admit to being happy that I bought the kit. Despite some bumps and bruises along with my testing, I can say I think the future will look brighter if the service continues and improves upon its downsides. I look forward to seeing what the future will bring for Google Stadia, I am a fan right now and if the store were to expand properly, I think we can all be fans!
