Star Wars Outlaws
Developer: Massive Entertainment
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S (Reviewed), PC
Release Date: Available Now
Price: $69.99 USD – Available Here $109.95 AUD – Available Here
Overview
There have been a wide-array of Star Wars games ever since the incredibly popular franchise started licensing itself out. One thing that nearly all of these games had in common though was the fact that if players weren’t playing as a pilot controlling a star ship the whole time, they were almost always a Jedi of sorts instead. There have been a few different games that have explored various elements of Star Wars‘ vast potential, including an MMO followed by an even grander MMO, but few that actually placed players into the boots of an everyday character trying to survive in a world where entire planets can be destroyed by space stations. As such we find ourselves here with Star Wars Outlaws that looks to set itself apart a bit by doing just that, telling a story about a roguish lead looking to make her way through the galaxy by any means necessary.
Story
Kay Vess has had a fairly hard life, eking out a living doing small crimes and other odd jobs when she can land them on the streets of Canto Bight. While Canto Bight might be a luxury world for the rich where they can gamble on races and party away, it is also a hive of scum and villainy down below where a rising crime boss has solidified himself as a newly feared face in the underworld.When Kay, along with her little Merqaal companion Nix, hear of a big score that might finally allow them to get off of the world they’ve found themselves trapped on since Kay was a child it seems almost too good to be true.
Of course, when things go wrong, Kay still manages to escape with a star ship of her very own but unfortunately a Death Mark as well, with a high enough bounty on her head that Kay’s plans to retire on a fancy planet somewhere nothing more than a fleeting dream. With a damaged ship, a bounty on her head, and only the few credits she had on her, Kay eventually finds some help, a bit of backstabbing, and another chance at a score that might just put her life back on track, even if it means assembling an entire crew herself and going for one big heist yet again with the help of yet another mysterious character.
Star Wars Outlaws manages to blend together the classic “heist” formula and the Star Wars lore together in rather exceptional fashion here even if some of the parts of the story itself are a bit lacking. As Kay puts together her crew for the heist by tracking down experts she’ll travel to various signature planets and locations that any Star Wars fan should be familiar with and, since the game is set between The Empire Strikes Back and The Return of the Jedi, there are plenty of references to events that happened over the course of the films, things happening that will be referenced in the next, some namedrops, and of course plenty of little easter eggs for fans to enjoy all while they chart Kay’s own journey through the stars.
The unfortunate part here is that while Kay herself is a pretty solid character that has a quick wit and charisma that makes her just as likely to take someone’s hand as she is to stab them in the back as well, a lot of the other characters players interact with don’t. This is mostly due to the fact that while these characters may seem interesting when interacting with Kay, they rarely end up actually interacting with one another in any meaningful way. This is likely due to the fact that, after a certain point, the game’s “open world” nature allows players to recruit characters in any order they see fit but it does feel like a missed opportunity. It is also worth noting that Nix is a wonderful little companion both story wise and mechanically. Not only are Kay’s interaction with her companion always fun, be it taking part in a gorgeously overdone mini-game involving street food, following Nix towards a treasure it wants to collect, or siccing it at an enemy’s face, a companion animal/creature is always a bonus in a game and it certainly is here in Star Wars Outlaws.
One thing that is nice to note is that Star Wars Outlaws really manages to feel like it takes place in the universe itself, a lived in and breathing set of locations where players can even gather intel for small side-quests by finding datapads or eavesdropping on conversations. Alongside the various characters that Kay meets she will also have to make plenty of deals with the various criminal factions and run into Imperials as well. The factions system is unfortunately rather underwhelming, especially in regards to how it actually plays into the grander tale. Again, this is likely the writers not wanting to deviate too hard depending on who players are working with the most, but some more variation here would have been nice.
Gameplay
Star Wars Outlaws is, at its heart, an open world game that takes quite a bit of time to actually open itself up to players. Once players are finally free to do as they please they’ll find that many of the worlds they can explore are filled with optional tasks, little set pieces to explore, and quite a bit more. This is mostly handled through gathering intel by listening in on conversations, reading datapads, or even purchasing it from merchants, taking contracts from contacts at local cantinas and even just zipping around on Kay’s land speeder. Of course, a lot of these optional activities and exploration will also bring players face to face with the faction system involving the various criminal syndicates.
These syndicates all have their own territories that will differ from world to world and, depending on Kay’s status with the faction, will either allow her to fast travel and freely walk into the location and trade with special traders or shoot her on sight. Oddly enough, even with the maximum reputation with a faction each location still has areas that are completely “restricted” and will possibly trigger a fight. Along these same lines, there are actions players can take completely out of sight of anyone else and still suffer reputation loss, such as stealing or knocking out a guard when no one is looking. That being said, there really isn’t much of a punishment for actually having a low status with a faction and since players can sell certain types of data to each faction and contracts for them even if they hate Kay, fixing a bad reputation is incredibly easy. Of course, since most of the rewards for having high reputation are rather simple outside of some exclusive items, the faction reputation system feels surprisingly lackluster at times, especially in regards to the story as we’ve mentioned before.
When players are actually out exploring the fastest way outside of fast travel is with Kay’s speeder. The speeder, which has its own set of upgrades and even a skill tree related to it, is fairly impressive though players might get a bit frustrated at the fact that some of the slightest ridges can send Kay flying off the speeder and taking damage. It is also incredibly strange that players cannot pull out Kay’s blaster while on the speeder and instead she must simply run away from any pursuing enemies, take enough damage to build up her time-slowing instant kill shots, or just get off the speeder and shoot them. Why? No idea. As for space combat, players will find that it is actually quite impressive as Kay’s spaceship has a fittingly in-universe targeting computer that will highlight where players should aim to properly hit enemy ships and even lock onto them with missiles.
Once players find where they need to go the on-foot traversal is mostly simple and features plenty of climbing sections. Kay can travel up walls and ledges with the best of them and swing across anchor points as well as use them to ascend and descend to reach various locations. In fact, there are even little hazards from time to time, especially during longer sections involving the platforming and climbing sections, that help keep things feeling fresh and dangerous. It is also nice to note that while players can choose to have the game highlight traversal objects with signature paint or even have Nix highlight some things, there is the option to turn it off entirely should they wish.
While it was pretty clear that Star Wars Outlaws would see players taking a more stealthy approach to some encounters, it is a bit shocking at just how much of the game’s primary missions and even side-missions focus entirely on stealth. While this wouldn’t be too bad, these are the type of stealth missions where getting caught at all results in an instant failure and a loss of some significant progress at times thanks to the fact that players cannot save during these moments and must rely on an unreliable checkpoint system instead. It also doesn’t help that the actual tools players have for stealth, especially right at the start, are incredibly shallow. Kay’s blaster has a stun-shot that takes forever to recharge, standard stealth takedowns, and of course Nix to either distract an enemy or even attack them so Kay can rush them for a fast and dirty elimination. Of course, when the game isn’t forcing an instant failure on players caught while sneaking or fearing that an enemy might reach an alarm panel, there is always the option of going loud with some similarly shallow feeling combat.
Kay will only ever carry her blaster during a fight and while it can be upgraded over time with different modules such as electric shots to deal more damage to shields or droids or rapid fire blaster rounds to turn her blaster into an automatic, any other weapon must be grabbed when it occasionally drops from an enemy and even then these weapons have a limited ammo count. As mentioned before, Kay will build up adrenaline during fights that can be used to activate a slow down skill that allows players to mark multiple enemies and, unless they are a heavy enemy or shielded, instantly kill them with a chain of shots. Players can make use of tools before and during combat, with binoculars that have a signature Star Wars feel to them that can mark various enemy locations as well as grenades and smoke grenades. Unfortunately actually using these during combat is incredibly annoying as it relies on using the D-Pad to select one and use it, halting the flow of battle entirely.
Through everything in Star Wars Outlaws Kay will have one certainty at her side, her pal Nix. This helpful little guy is a jack-of-all trades that is useful in almost every single aspect of the game be it pointing out enemy locations, vents, and even grapple points during stealth and exploration, even unlocking the ability to highlight chests eventually, he can even take part in a wide array of actions of his own. Nix can be commanded to roll around like a playful pet to distract guards while Kay sneaks by, sent to attack their face for Kay to takedown a foe, tear apart an alarm panel or even set things up to explode. When not out in the field there are also lovely little moments where Kay can take part in elaborate street food segments with Nix, hunt down treasures that can be turned into accessories for the little guy, or even be used to cheat at the fairly elaborate Sabacc card game that is fully realized here as an optional mini-game.
Players will also be doing plenty of mini-games involving “splicing” computers and “data picking” locks. The rhythm based lockpicking is a unique choice but one that feels more annoying than rewarding after a while and splicing is also an interesting take on hacking. The accessibility options available within the game, the same one that can be used to adjust the exploration helping paint, can also be used here to make these actions trivial if needed and allows for a shockingly high level of customization for player experience. Players can make things incredibly easy or crank the difficulty to eleven by turning settings higher than even the highest difficulty allows should they wish. As far as bugs go, we did experience a few though each of them were solvable through reloading a previous save. This includes a few instances of clipping into, and getting stuck inside, rocks while exploring and an instance that a forced stealth mission saw Kay with an invisible and non removable Wanted level from the Imperials right at the start, insta-failing the mission every time.
Audio & Visuals
It is pretty clear that a lot of attention has been paid to make it feel like Star Wars Outlaws takes place within the setting proper as players will encounter a wide array of aliens, droids, and of course other humans that look just like fans of the franchise expect them to look. This includes the grander designs of starships, Imperial bases, other smaller vehicles, and of course the designs of the planets themselves. Zipping along on Kay’s speeder on Tatooine and seeing a sandcrawler in the distance or dipping into a cantina to gamble with numerous other races feels like a perfect fit for the Star Wars galaxy. That being said, while we did play on the “balanced” graphic setting to try and maintain solid frame rate and graphics at the same time, the character models aren’t the best looking in-game though this is likely due to how amazing they are presented in cut-scenes as they were designed separately.
The voice work for the game is handled well enough with Kay’s voice actress putting in a great performance for her character, especially during some of the few emotional moments that happen throughout the story, while other characters are also given the same level of treatment even if they often feel underutilized. As for the soundtrack, fans of the franchise will feel right at home with most of the background music throughout the game including the signature sounds of the blasters, TIE fighters, and other Star Wars elements.
Overall
Massive Entertainment has taken the Star Wars galaxy and done their best to put a new spin on things with Star Wars Outlaws by offering a more unique approach to the usual Ubisoft open world game. Traveling through the worlds, be it in space, on speeder, or even jumping from ledge to ledge is enjoyable and the world’s themselves are just dripping with everything that fans of the franchise will love, but unfortunately the gameplay itself often feels lackluster in places or simply too simple. This means that while Star Wars Outlaws might feel and look just like the open world Star Wars game oozing with charm that fans have been waiting for, it doesn’t quite deliver. At least Nix is still a permanent highlight.
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