Over the last couple of months, there’s been a lot of noise around Star Wars Outlaws, the next Star Wars game, but this time made by Ubisoft Massive.
And not all of that noise has been pleasant, with a section of users crying fowl over the protagonist’s appearance and some weirdly expecting the game to fail. Amidst all this, I sat down to play the game over the last week.
Surprisingly, I was taken aback when I was expecting the usual open-world Ubisoft shenanigans with Star Wars Outlaws. The game felt like a grand adventure set in the universe and a completely new experience in a good way, giving a fresh look to the series.
So, what made me come to this conclusion? And is the game even good? Let’s find those answers in a brand-new story in a Galaxy far, far away!
Live the life of a scoundrel
Star Wars Outlaws takes you across the galaxy we’ve all loved and cherished over the years. The game occurs between the “Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi” movies, which means the Rebels are already working to overthrow the evil Galactic empire.
While various games have satiated that power fantasy of playing as a Jedi or a Sith wielding lightsabers and force powers, we are thrown into an entirely different experience this time.
Outlaws live up to their name, letting you play the life of a scoundrel who’d instead work for their benefit. You play as Kay Vess, who wants to make a name for herself in the seedy underbelly of the Galactic empire.
After having a run-in with a prominent crime lord, which ends with stealing his favorite starship, Kay ends up with a bounty on her head. From here on, Kay sets out to make a name for herself while dealing with the death bounty put on her head.
Story-wise, Star Wars Outlaws has that Star Wars feel, where things can go wrong anytime. And as a matter of fact, it does go wrong quite frequently. While the game doesn’t have the star power of its TV show and movie counterparts, it does have a likable cast of characters. Kay and Nix have so much lovable synergy that I always look forward to their interaction.
Similarly, later sections of encounters with supporting characters were also a pleasant surprise. Whenever a Star Wars video game is set in the universe, I’ve always wondered how they’ll make it work.
In the case of Star Wars Outlaws, it works wonders for them because it feels all the adventures, be it infiltrating an Empire outpost to steal schematics or helping Crimson Raiders get stronger against the Pyke Syndicate might be something simultaneously happening on a more ground-level in the movies.
The game takes creative liberties while still being rooted in the franchise’s history. You’ll see a lot of existing planets, items, and factions.
Yet, on a ground level, you’ll still feel mesmerized because of the setting and backdrop. For generations, I’ve always played Star Wars games where they allowed me to live my Jedi fantasies. For once, playing as a character with every odds against her was a fresh breath of air.
Get the job done by any means
Since you are a thief amidst ruthless criminal factions, the gameplay had to be tuned around that experience. The best way to do that is to make every experience feel overwhelming yet rewarding, and the game does well.
The game’s core is helping factions with their problems and Kay making a name for herself in the criminal underbelly world. In every city on the planet, you’ll have contact brokers who provide you with jobs, which range from a simple fetch quest to stealing some information for one of the factions.
That is what the entire game is about outside of the main plot. You pick a contract, reach the location, finish the job, and get rewards. And in the process, you improve your standing with the factions. Since multiple factions have their egos, there’s a reputation system. But we’ll get into that in a while.
When you are not doing the usual scoundrel things, you can rewind and explore the five planets at hand, which you slowly get access to, which brings me to my biggest gripe with this game. Things aren’t readily accessible from the get-go, especially the planet. While the game gives you the illusion that everything is open and available, it truly isn’t.
You can’t visit parts of the game because you must find a hyperdrive. And you can’t get the hyperdrive unless you upgrade your speeder. And to upgrade the speeder, you have to do this one job, which felt like a drag. This structure of missions made me a tad bit tired with the game. The first five hours made me feel numb from boredom, which is a shame because once the game picks up gears, it is an enjoyable adventure full of twists and turns.
The game does this to give the players a sense of direction but kills off the flow in the process. But outside of this one gripe, the game does most things well. This brings me to my few talking points about Star Wars Outlaws—being the Scoundrel.
Double-cross is the way
Kay Vess is a morally grey character who is out for her benefit. If she has to, she will double-cross anyone and everyone. And this entire idea plays a significant role in Star Wars Outlaws.
The world of Outlaws is controlled by crime syndicates, which you’ve heard across the movies and series – The Pyke Syndicate, The Crimson Raiders, The Hutts, and a brand-new one named The Ashiga Clan, who are at each other’s throats for power and supremacy.
Being an outsider willing to do dirty work, you get hired by these syndicates for various jobs. And that is where the reputation meter comes in. Depending on who you help out with, your reputation with a syndicate increases or decreases.
If your reputation with a syndicate is good, you can strut into their area without any troubles, get discounts from syndicate-affiliated traders, get access to better jobs, and have a pleasant time overall—however, the reverse makes your life harder.
So, ultimately, this entire system becomes this intelligent rock-paper-scissor system of choosing the right faction to help out. Every faction has unique benefits; you’ll be siding with either, depending on the situation. And just like in real life, you can’t appease everyone.
The reputation system is simple, yet it has significantly impacted the game. I’ve seen multiple instances where the world interacted with me differently.
For instance, I was on good terms with the Crimson Raiders. So when the job came of stealing some items from them, I simply walked into their compound quickly, stole them from under their noses, and left without any gunfights.
On the other hand, stealing plans from Pykes was much more challenging because of my lousy standing with them. Later hours got me siding with Pykes because of the benefits they provided.
This system is enjoyable, and ever so often, it changes how the game behaves based on my actions in the world.
Stealth and finesse your way out
Still, how do you complete the jobs given to you? You aren’t a strong Jedi or Sith, but you have your street smarts to work with. Most of Star Wars Outlaws revolves around playing it in stealth and rewards you by giving you a safer playing option.
To help you with stealth comes Nix, an alien creature who is your trusty companion. Nix can sabotage, pickpocket, distract, and attack the enemies. So, you use Nix, accomplish your jobs, and leave the area.
I love stealth in video games, and two of my all-time favorite games are Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory and Dishonored. So, when I was presented with stealth gameplay almost the entire time, I played sneaking around places patiently, using Nix’s assistance, and got the job done. The stealth never felt unfair or forced.
Of course, you can always go guns-blazing, which isn’t recommended because you will always be against the odds. While you have your trusty blaster to get you out of tricky places, you can also pick guns from your enemies and use them.
The haptics made the shooting portions satisfying since I played the game on a DualSense controller on PC. However, I barely got into a gunfight because I prefer playing in stealth.
Dogfight your way to victory
And what is Star Wars without some good old space exploration? Star Wars Outlaws also features space sections, where you explore outer space using Trailblazer, a ship you stole from a ruthless crime lord.
Space sections of the game feel a little dry, where you are mostly stuck exploring the wreckage for materials, getting into occasional dogfights, or going to a mission-specific area.
Outside of these three choices, you can’t do much in the space, and it feels wasted when you realize just how fun it is flying the Trailblazer. You can barrel-roll, dodge, shoot, and later get some gadgets fixed to gain an advantage against the space pirates.
And before anyone asks, yes, the take-off and landing are seamless, but there are some quirks. You can only land at particular points of the map on a planet, and you don’t control the descent and ascent of the ship. I wish we had more control of the ship and flying it around, at least for entry and exit from a planet. However, that means making the entire planet explorable, which sounds like additional work.
Ultimately, I wish there was more to do in outer space than we are offered. Things get pretty repetitive in space over time, and I hoped that maybe there was something more to do outside of the occasional dogfights and cargo searches in the wreckage.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t, and I hope that down the line, we get some sort of an epic Space-based mission.
Improve the chances of Kay
Another thing I highly appreciate in Star Wars Outlaws is how it doesn’t add a forced skill tree into the game. Instead, the skill system is tied to the people you meet through the journey and the acts you perform in-game. So, if you meet a prominent character in the story, you’ll unlock their skill card, under which multiple skills exist with conditions.
Some will require you to meet a set amount of vendors, while others will make you splice doors, stealth takedown enemies, etc. It is all tied to your natural gameplay, and by the end of it, it doesn’t feel forceful. I have an immense distaste for games that tackle in a skill tree for no apparent reason. Implementations like these help me focus on other essential portions of the game.
There is also a gear system with full transmog in Star Wars Outlaws, where, depending on what jobs you complete or how many worlds you explore, you’ll get gear for Kay. Each gear has special buffs attached to it, and you pick and play with them.
However, the effect of these gears barely felt useful in my playthrough, and I lived without focusing much on it. Unlike the previous Ubisoft Massive Game, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, you don’t have to force yourself into gear management.
Ultimately, the character progression has once again made me a sane and happy player in a recent Ubisoft game, and if you don’t enjoy forced progression, you’ll be at home.
In Conclusion
I won’t call myself a big Star Wars fan, but I enjoy this universe’s games and occasional TV series. In every instance, we’ve mostly seen a Jedi going against the odds, at least in video games. Star Wars Outlaws introduces a refreshing take that, for once, gave me a grounded experience in an otherwise sci-fi setting.
While the space portion of the game does feel wasted and dull, and the overall gameplay progression could’ve been a little more open, there are a lot of smart choices here. Each system makes the game an otherwise fun experience.
By the time this review is out, there will be a lot of bad-faith actors crying about many superficial things around Star Wars Outlaws.
I’d say ignore those noises, look through or read through some impressions and reviews, and make your decision. I know this game isn’t an affordable experience, but it is a damn good one in the extended Star Wars universe, oozing out with style.
Code provided by: Ubisoft
Reviewed on: PC (Ubisoft Connect)
