When we think of Star Wars games, it will always be about playing as soldiers in some war, or on the side of the Jedi or Sith. Either as a commander or general of a fleet, an elite marching to the orders of their superiors or as a wandering hero or villain out to achieve their mission and goal.

Mostly, these other games are largely contained experiences that focus on an adventure, or a large-scale battle. And they attempt to get every detail as right as possible. So Star Wars Outlaws is actually placing itself in a unique position in terms of the game worlds that have been explored in the past. Yes, there have been games where you maybe do a deal with a syndicate or visit a random cantina to find or figure out your next objective. But they usually simply do it for a small part of the game. It’s never about being part of the galactic underbelly where you regularly live under the empire’s control, and attempt to make deals with shady cartels and may have to work with or betray criminals for a fatter payout.

And who better to realize such a dense, intricate and intertwining world than Ubisoft, who I’ve expressed many criticisms for their copy-paste content, their pricing models, and some of their more recent releases didn’t really help. So, I ask you to trust me when I say I was very skeptical of a Star Wars open-world game. But I also have to admit that I’m wrong about my predictions.

Now, two things. First, this is still an open-world game, there will simply be things that are part of that formula, and ones that Ubisoft likes to particularly add, that may not be for everyone, bugs and crashes included. Second, for those who are looking for an action game where it can feel good to slide and strafe and shoot, it’s not that kind of game. For those that think this will largely be a stealth game with sneaking missions and many gadgets to help, no, it’s not that kind of game either. It’s something in-between, and a bit more extra, where it doesn’t try to lean into any of these aspects too hard and wants to make your experience more about the Star Wars underworld. Sometimes it’s Far-Cry, sometimes it’s Uncharted, but every second of it is letting you know it’s about Star Wars.

 

Alright, I’ve kept you at the door long enough, let me tell you how the thief Kay Vess, her trusted buddy Nix, managed to sneak one past me. Surprising me with how robust and fun playing as a lone scoundrel could be.

 

Production (4.5 / 5)

 

 

Let’s immediately address the elephant in the room, Kay Vess could look better. But after some time with her, I can see why her looks fit the role. Every other walk of life around these planets isn’t exactly supermodel material either, so the way she currently looks does blend in. Still, the way she looks seems much older than the character and personality she gives off, so I still have my qualms about it. She is, however, much more expressive than other humanoids in Star Wars Outlaws. Where this is a thing for Ubisoft games, the face animations tend to become stiff, or just very subtle in expression. And for me, they sometimes end up looking too dead inside, as if talking about working for a gang with their lives on the line is about as boring as pushing papers in a white-collar job.

Though, when you’re not getting obsessed with every little detail like I was, the title managed to really create a nice, dense, and living world for you to wander around in. You’ll have many opportunities to just lean over a counter or a wall and just enjoy the beautiful landscapes or the vibe that a bustling inner city would be like. Along with the ultra-wide setting that the game automatically goes into, it can easily feel like you’re living the experience that movies have before shown in the world of Star Wars.

 

 

Speaking of video settings, the PlayStation 5 ran on a constant 60 fps without any issue on 1080p, and I also went ahead and put it on a 4k TV setup, which I felt had almost no difference in terms of frame rate, though there is a quality mode that amps up the detail and resolution in fixed 30 fps framerate and a Favour Quality mode that is something in between Quality and Performance but with a 40 fps framerate. So console players rejoice, I can’t speak to the PC releases but considering Ubisoft’s pedigree I would trust that it would run well.

Getting back to the feel of Star Wars Outlaws giving a good reflection of the movie experience, I’d like to point this out with effects as well. They’re not overplayed, lasers are just simple projectiles, and explosions look like your ’80s practical effects. So being in the middle of firefights felt grounded and authentic, and never felt too cluttered to know what was going on. 

 

 

The discipline shown by the UI design demonstrates this as well. It’s still able to give you relevant information in a timely manner without taking up too much screen space or constantly nagging you to do something. Your HP bar, your blaster, or even your map markers don’t appear unless you need or want to know about them. And coming from other Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry games, this is a big step forward. Less is more.

 

 

Their subtlety with design does so well that even the all-powerful yellow paint can still elude me when I’m looking for a way forward in some areas. Elements just blend in so well that I’m not sure which parts of the environment I’m supposed to get through or interact with, it’s honestly a little annoying, but I never got stuck in one place for too long to call it a problem. But again, whether it be a wrecked ship, an old commercial center that’s aged many years, or a pristinely kept Empire facility, the set design is very much on point.

When it comes to what you hear in Star Wars Outlaws, like in every other Star Wars game, the sound effects are pretty much lifted from the original IP. So I have nothing to say but it sounds good, but also this much is expected. What I wasn’t expecting though, was that they wouldn’t just reuse music from the movies, there’s quite a bit of atmosphere that the music puts on that seems just right for every place you go to. The stingers they suddenly play when you’re about to be detected, and the sudden muting out of everything as the game patiently waits for your reaction in-fights. I think it’s all very well orchestrated.

 

 

Finally, I do believe that the voice acting is probably one of the better parts of the game’s immersion. Characters have unique accents, rarely ever sound stilted, and match the character they look like. Even the radio call-outs you overhear while escaping the empire or whoever you decided to piss off that day feel very in character and kept me invested in the experience.

So aside from some personal nitpicks, I do believe that Star Wars Outlaws very much understood the homework, and proceeded to deliver on the game style.

 

Mechanics (4 / 5)

 

 

I said earlier that Star Wars Outlaws isn’t quite as hardcore as with gun combat, even though we know the developers are very much capable of making that happen. I could say the same about the stealth gameplay, as well. So this may look like the weaker part of the title, but I do believe that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, so stay tuned.

When it comes to combat, I’d have to say that the closest experience I had to this game would be Uncharted. Enemies can be sort of bullet sponges, how weapons work is pretty simplified, and aiming isn’t a priority. There are such things as headshots, and you do have to consider your blaster’s heat sink, but I never felt like winning gunfights was a problem. It’s more about knowing which targets to take down fast and having to move around as enemies flank you or throw grenades if you stay in one place for too long. It is possible to pick up other weapons from enemies you’ve taken down in the middle of fights, but these are always simply temporary pick-ups. As soon as you have to do a special action, you drop them, and this signaled to me that combat shouldn’t be too much of a focus at all. Fortunately, there are ways to upgrade your blaster, so you won’t always feel like you’re on the back foot in a shoot-out. It’s also pretty handy that you have a sharpshooter ability that works much like Bill’s in Red Dead Redemption 2.

 

 

Equipment loadouts are also going to be a thing here. Initially, new equipment will look like they’re just for customizing the look for Kay and Nix. But you will later see that they will have effects like increased health, better adrenaline gain, steadier aim, or even set effects that can give you bonuses like nearly perfect stealth or passive health regeneration.

The stealth gameplay is also simplified. Yes, you do get the signature “sensing-people-through-walls” button, but I feel like it’s a very limited ability, which can be upgraded. And with your multi-purpose friend Nix, you can think of how to avoid detection or activate out-of-range switches with the help of your crawly friend. It adds a new dimension to how you play the game, making you able to do actions risk-free. Still, with missions where getting detected isn’t an option, I would have appreciated better movement, hiding, or detection tools. There is a grappling hook that might have been useful, except that where it can be used and what it can do is so limited it might as well not exist. Ubisoft could have placed ladders and bridges where the grappling hook was applied, and I wouldn’t really be able to tell the difference.

 

 

Not that stealth was all-that challenging, getting people to one-by-one, come over to the suspicious whistling sound by the tall grass or cloud of steam to suddenly find themselves permanently on the floor was a rather simple task. Their ability to spot you from a distance was pretty unpredictable and at times annoying.

Also, this is a bit of a nitpick, but I’m certain I’m not alone in this. You can’t hit fully armored enemies from behind with a whack on the head and expect them to get knocked out, let alone killed. Even NPCs without armor require at least 3 shots of a blaster before they drop, you can’t expect me to believe a punch from someone like Kay is enough to make somebody unconscious. With all the budget they had, they could have put some alternate animations for stealth takedowns, but here we are. End of rant.

 

 

They put in two puzzle activities that are your stand-ins for breaking through locks or hacking computers. One is a rhythm-based mini-game and the other one is mastermind. I welcome these mini-puzzles as they do mix up the journey through enemy bases and keep the game exciting without constantly relying on blaster fights.

 

 

And finally, what surprised me the most was the space combat, even though it’s also simplified, it feels thorough enough to not feel like a chore. You have to fly through debris, asteroids, and enemy fire, you can chase and shoot down enemies, and you don’t necessarily follow the laws of physics, which is something I’m willing to give Star Wars a pass for. Being able to travel through space and even go so far as to fight other ships out there was a pleasant surprise for me, and it was a huge plus that the controls felt complete enough to wage ship combat with.

 

Content (4.5 / 5)

 

This is the point where I think Star Wars Outlaws really struck gold, where maybe they checked out how other successful open-world-type games did it. Wherein they sort of copied the homework but not really, and I do believe that they’ve made an excellent set of offerings as a result, so cheers to that.

I would generally split their content into two halves, linear story missions and open world content. Linear story missions are what you expect them to be, they involve big events, move the story forward, and can’t be replayed after. Open world missions or tasks are a bit more complex.

There are random events that you can suddenly take part in, like defending innocent civilians from pirate raids. Or maybe play the third party in ongoing combat to walk away with the spoils. Then there are rumors or other bits of information you can pick up and investigate as you explore the living spaces of each world. One of which has led me to spend way too much time playing the mini-card game of Star Wars Outlaws, Sabbac. But it can also lead to treasure, or supplies, upgrade materials, or more.

 

 

And you actually want to do more of everything in Outlaws, because this is exactly how you progress your character. For example, you gain the ability to use your connections in convincing a guard to let you through, by speaking and shopping with various merchants. Nix can learn new abilities by doing a QTE mini-game with him when eating specialty dishes on various planets. Kay can learn to move more quietly when she does enough stealth takedowns. So rather than learning skills of some chart through grinding experience points, you simply become more capable by trying more and more things in the game.

One of the more rewarding things to do for the title would be doing contracts for the gangs, as these give you bigger payouts and keep you off their kill list. Contracts are missions you choose to take on and are very much the open-world kind of activities you might come to expect. Many of them depend on stealing or sabotaging something out there. It does become repetitive over time, but my real motivation for playing them is not only the credits but the reputation I gain or lose by pushing through with them.

 

 

There will be points where you can choose to make one faction happy, and another one heavily upset with you, and trust me, you want to stay on everyone’s good side, far better than being shot on sight. You can choose which faction to support or betray in many of these contracts as well, giving you many opportunities to maintain relationships with these factions as you see fit. Getting on better terms with them also means better access to their wares and their prices. So sometimes it’s actually worth risking your reputation to get these rewards, especially when you eventually realize that getting paid by one faction isn’t nearly enough for those upgrades you want to buy.

 

 

And it’s this underlying concept of long-term goals you can pick and choose to go after that really keeps the open-world content worthwhile to do for me, there’s always a tension to it, always something to consider, instead of having a seemingly infinite laundry list of things to do. And with that, I truly do think Ubisoft has struck a great formula for Outlaws.

Though, the open world experience does come with its usual issues. Sometimes quest chains don’t properly activate, forcing me to restart a game. There was a point where enemies were still spawning and one of the NPCs wanted to ask for advice about her daughter. There was a point where a navigation marker kept relocating between two points without anything happening. Sometimes geometry for flying creatures would keep flickering. But nothing kept me from progressing the game after maybe reloading a save file or such. I’m more charitable to the goofier, non-game-breaking bugs, and that’s what most of these are.

With a good amount of optional open-world quests and tasks, it took me about 12 hours to get the game to open up to where it wants you to be, traveling between worlds, picking up jobs that suit you the most, and most of the in-game features and abilities unlocked. From here, aside from story missions, much of the content will feel similar or repetitive, so far I’m still enjoying it, your mileage will vary. So do take note of that.

 

Features (4 / 5)

 

 

Star Wars Outlaws comes with accessibility features for those who have issues with their sight, hearing, or even skills! Kidding aside, you can play the game at several levels of difficulty if you want to give yourself more of a challenge, or if you just want to keep your encounters as simple affairs. The game can also accommodate those who may have issues like color blindness, have a hard time following abstract symbols, or simply have difficulty hearing the game.

You can also play it with 7 different languages, voice included, which is pretty amazing.

It also comes with a photo mode which I haven’t bothered to explore, since the title is very picture-esque on its own, really.

It will also obviously have an in-game shop, which hasn’t been live by the time of this writing, but we do know that it has an exclusive mission, two other story DLCs, and a set of custom cosmetics set for release soon.

There are also a ton of customization options you can do for not only your characters but your rides as well, the ones I can use are the ones I’ve found in-game, but I’m willing to bet that there will be ones that you can buy by the time the game releases.

 

Conclusion

 

 

Think about how you’d describe a universe, you can’t just focus on a few aspects. You have to give an impression of what every major part of it is like. And I believe that’s why the developers have gone with this concept of simplifying much of everything you do in the game. The platforming, the gunplay, the piloting, and even the roleplaying. Outlaws is always guiding you through the ideal path and tries to keep its hand-holding minimal by simply not making you invest too much into one part of the game. Once you’ve figured out the ins and outs of a certain faction, mission, or obstacle, you’ll want to explore the other dimensions of the title as more attractive rewards await in those areas. And I think that’s how they managed to keep me wanting to do more as if I’m a kid in a theme park.

There were many times I decided to just slowly turn the camera around as I took in the atmosphere of the game, because I believe they’ve done a great job of reproducing an interactive Star Wars world, and one we don’t see too often. And if I had to put it in one word, they wanted to create an underworld vibe, and in this they’ve greatly succeeded.

I would like to point out that just like Jedi Survivor, Outlaws has made a similar approach, instead of making use of old characters, they made new ones and set them on their adventures and stories within the universe of Star Wars. It gives the freedom needed to be able to do everything the game needs them to, with very little of the lore having to shackle them down. It gives opportunities to see existing characters and factions in a new light, which you may or may not meet in the course of the game. It’s a great ride because you can introduce so many new things and moments without having to take from the IP’s legacy.

There are personal nitpicks for me like how I wish they had a better radar, and there are character designs and choices that I don’t personally agree with, but these are small issues to me in the face of what Star Wars Outlaws have brought to the table. It certainly took me by surprise with how well-realized its worlds were, and this is a genuinely good game. I would recommend this to anyone who’s a fan of Star Wars or is looking for a good adventure game.

 

Star Wars Outlaws has certainly earned its credits, scoring a 4.5 / 5

Available on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.