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As a long-time Star Wars fan, I can admit that being part of this fan base is a double-edged lightsaber. If you say something nice about Star Wars, people will hate you. People will hate you equally if you say something bad—there’s no middle ground. Naturally, when Ubisoft unveiled Star Wars Outlaws, this became more evident. On one side, you had fans excited for a proper open-world Star Wars adventure. Conversely, you had doomsayers praying for this game to flop. Let me put your minds at ease. In the words of one iconic senator (kind of): “This is how skepticism dies, with thunderous applause.” In other words, you may rest easy because Outlaws is one of the best Star Wars games ever.
Before I delve further into this galaxy far, far away, let me address the Sarlacc in the room: yes, it is an open-world game published by Ubisoft. And yes, Ubisoft has had a rap sheet regarding open-world games. However, Massive Entertainment helms the project, and it is known for games such as The Division. With that in mind, know this: Star Wars Outlaws is the perfect example of how an immersive open-world game should be made. For the first time in years, I felt as if I was truly living in this dangerous galaxy with nothing on except my wits, a blaster, and a space axolotl.
A Smuggler Who Can’t Catch a Break
One thing that instantly caught my attention about Star Wars Outlaws was the focus on the smuggler archetype. If we think about the famous characters of this universe, Jedi, Sith, and bounty hunters come to mind. There’s nothing wrong with them, but some tend to overstay their welcome. On the other hand, the smuggler rarely takes the spotlight. Han Solo is the quintessential smuggler, and no one can deny that. Star Wars: The Old Republic also took a shot at it in the MMO as one of its playable classes. And yes, other media has featured smugglers in some capacity. But no other game has done justice to this archetype as Outlaws.
Thus, the journey begins at a cantina in Canto Bight, where the up-and-coming smugglers Kay Vess and Nix are trying to find their big job to help them earn their freedom, a recurrent topic throughout the game. With a seemingly good gig at their doorstep, they took it only to end up with a death mark and chased by the galaxy’s most dangerous syndicate: the Zerek Besh. The silver lining is that she managed to steal a ship, so I guess that’s a win at the end of the day.
Since credits move everything in the underworld and are necessary to clear Kay’s bounty, she has no choice but to look for another job, earn money, and somehow stop the convoluted mess she’s in. However, this is easier said than done because poor Kay’s journey is one of double-crossings at every turn.
Luckily, amid every dark cloud that follows Kay, a new opportunity appears at her doorstep again and offers a way to finally earn her freedom. And so, the plot of Star Wars Outlaws turns into a heist movie reminiscent of Ocean’s Eleven, where you have to travel the galaxy to recruit people for the biggest heist ever. And so, exotic locale after exotic locale, we assemble this eclectic crew ready to make a fortune.
Trust me, I’d love to tell you more about the story, but there are so many plot twists that the most minor clues would spoil them. Instead, let me tell you about the more significant aspects. It has a few slow moments, especially during the opening hours. Thankfully, it picks up quite fast for the grand finale. The plot might be a hit or miss for some, but for me, it felt like a proper Star Wars adventure from start to finish.
Lastly, I have to talk about Kay Vess as a character. Initially, it was hard for me to place her as a character. But I quickly realized why: because she’s flawed. Not in a wrong way or meaning she’s a bad character. On the contrary, she’s so human and grounded that she’s a terrific protagonist. She can be highly resourceful in her job, but she has the people skills of a socially awkward teenager. Kay can kick butt in many ways, but she’ll fumble many gigs in the process. These things make her a more organic character that fits the universe perfectly.
An Underworld Ripe For The Picking
Lately, I’ve used two words to describe modern open-world games: icon clutter. I am not exaggerating with that. Any new open-world game we get is full of icons and lacks any sense of discovery or exploration. You finish a tutorial just for it to hold your hand for dozens of hours. If you think this is what is coming to Star Wars Outlaws, let me use another quote from the book: “I find your lack of faith disturbing.”
What surprised me the most in Star Wars Outlaws is how it sells you the feeling of being an off-worlder on a new planet with zero knowledge. This game never holds your hand. Quest markers? What are those? There are no exclamation marks to tell you where a new quest is. You must eavesdrop, read datapads, and talk to people to get new missions. If you only stick to the main story without talking to others, you won’t see everything this game has. Star Wars Outlaws puts exploration and discovery at the forefront in every area you visit.
For example, when I arrived at Toshara, I only saw question marks on my compass. Naturally, I thought those would lead me to quests. But no, they led to treasures, shops, and other side activities. That caught me off-guard because I asked myself, “Are there no quests in the game?” So, I kept walking and saw the option to “Listen” to people talking nearby. I selected the option, sat on a bench, and listened to how these two bandits hid a treasure somewhere in the mountain. And then, a clue appeared on my quest log. It wasn’t the exact location of the treasure, but rather intel on where I might find it.
This applies to most quests in the game, except main story missions. You get a lead about something, and every mission becomes a treasure hunt. Yes, there’s an approximate area where you might find something, but that’s it. It’s up to you to determine where a syndicate vault is or where an abandoned treasure may be hidden. I loved that Outlaws made me remember how fun it was to discover things without a system holding my hand. It made me feel like I was exploring a new planet with nothing but my speeder and space pet.
Vent-Crawling, Helmet-Punching, and Other Scoundrel Techniques
To complete any of the game’s varied missions, you have many tools under your belt. The most powerful is Kay’s killer right hook because she can knock Stormtroopers with one hit, even when they wear a helmet. In all seriousness, Star Wars Outlaws emphasizes stealth a lot. Almost every main story quest has a long stealth-focused part that gets repetitive. However, you are never forced to stick to it. Blasting your way through many of the quests is viable unless told otherwise. But if you prefer to sneak around, you can knock enemies out, hack devices, or send Nix to wreak havoc by distracting or sabotaging.
For instance, I had to infiltrate an Imperial compound to help a slicer in one mission. There were at least three ways to do so, and that’s just the ones I noticed. I could walk through the front gate while blasting anyone, but that would’ve made me face an AT-ST. Another way was to climb the cliffs next to the compound to reach the ramparts. I picked the option that let me enter from the back of the compound through a cave packed with enemies.
There is a lot of player agency in Star Wars Outlaws, and I was glad that, despite the repetitive stealth-focused approach, I could always find a new way to infiltrate a new spot. However, since stealth is such a big part, I would’ve liked to see a smarter AI. I know it has to be toned down for stealth to make sense, but the AI is at a Stormtrooper level, literally and figuratively.
At one time, I shot my blaster at someone, which alerted the whole room. Because I wanted to see how far the AI would go, I stood next to a crate one foot from where I shot. The enemies arrived and stood there but only walked a little. They didn’t sweep the area or try to flush me out of my location. With a few tweaks to the AI and the detection mechanics, Outlaws would’ve been perfect, especially with such a big focus on stealth.
The same applies to the combat. The gunplay is simple but flashy. You have a blaster with three functions that work in and outside of combat. Beyond that, you can pick up stronger weapons and use them until the ammo depletes. The shootouts I experienced were great, and there are certainly many ways to go “loud” when doing a job. However, the AI really embraced the Stormtrooper aim mentality. Even at the hardest difficulty, I never felt a challenge or saw anything that would let me change my tactics or resort to something different.
Still, the combat is good enough and caters to stealth and action enjoyers. Since I’m more about the former, I always looked for ways to infiltrate a place and evade as many enemies as possible. Also, I’m terrible in any game involving shooting, so I wanted to avoid that at all costs. Therefore, I loved how Star Wars Outlaws gave me enough agency to pick the character I wanted Kay Vess to be when approaching specific missions.
No Unnecessary RPG-Like Systems
For whatever reason, every modern game needs to have RPG mechanics. Classes, skill trees, abilities, and spells to slot, you name it. Star Wars Outlaws doesn’t have anything of the sort. Instead, it replaces skill trees with the Expert system. You’ll find NPCs who can teach you new abilities during your travels. Once you do a long initial quest for them, you can work on unlocking skills, but you don’t do that with skills points. Instead, you need to perform certain tasks or gather specific materials.
To give you an idea, when you unlock the Slicer expert, you have different tasks that unlock skills. One such task had me gathering rare materials, with the rarest locked behind another treasure hunt. Once you have all the materials, you can unlock the skill from your menu. However, others task you with completing specific objectives. For example, to increase Kay’s HP, I had to defeat five enemies in a row while at low HP, thus making unlocking new things more realistic.
The same applies to gear and upgrades for your ship and speeder. For your outfit, you can play this game without worrying about set bonuses. You can equip charms with bonus effects and a jacket, belt, and boots with certain perks, too. However, I never felt it was a prominent part of the game, which I like because sometimes gear tends to be something you have to micro-manage and becomes tedious. For speeder and ship upgrades, you must scavenge the materials and even delve into dangerous locations to find specific components to get a new weapon or increase your vehicle’s speed.
Lastly, I needed to talk about space combat to wrap up the gameplay part. It is hard to emulate good space combat in a game. You either make it a starship simulator with many buttons to press and zero action or focus on the actual starship fights; Outlaws did the latter. First, steering the Trailblazer is the most satisfying thing ever. Second, the orbits of the planets you visit are unique and full of things to discover. There are a few space stations where you can land and get quests. As a kid, I always wondered how it would feel to fly the Millennium Falcon between space debris and an asteroid field, and Outlaws allowed me to experience that.
Keeping Syndicates Happy is Like Being in Four Toxic Relationships
Since Kay Vess wants to be a big shot in the underworld, she has to resort to working for any of the four syndicates in Star Wars Outlaws. The famous Hutt Cartel. The infamous spice dealers of the Pyke syndicate. The ever sneaky, ever mysterious Crimson Dawn. And the hivemind-like syndicate of Ashiga. Working for any of them means letting down another, so most missions involve Kay trying to decide which is the highest bidder.
In truth, the syndicate reputation system is quite simple. You do jobs for one, you gain a reputation boost, which unlocks new gear and cosmetics and even allows you to enter their turf. Certain quests might boost your reputation with one but hinder your standing with another. However, the game does a great job of giving you opportunities to pick your favorite syndicate and double-cross the others.
As a quick example, once you unlock contracts, which are easy optional quests for specific syndicates and the easiest way to get reputation points, you complete one and get that boost. Yet, there are situations where your crew will tell you another syndicate might pay better for the job you’re doing. Seeing that the most optional quest in the game had different outcomes that affected your standing with these factions blew my mind.
A few players might not like that syndicates only play a small role except for one part at the end, at least in the main story. I liked that, personally. Ultimately, Kay is doing a heist without the help of syndicates, so it made sense that faction quests didn’t play a more significant part in the overarching plot. However, I would’ve liked to see longer questlines for each syndicate or even more syndicate-centric contracts. Even the rewards for raising your standing with them felt a bit lackluster. Other than that, I think it was a great system that added many interesting choices for players to pursue.
A Beautiful Galaxy With Almost No Technical Issues
A common discourse surrounding Star Wars Outlaws relies on performance and looks. Looking at my specs, I have the exact ones on the recommended section, which aims for 1080p at 60 FPS and with upscaling set to quality. And yes, that’s what I got. It was a smooth ride with zero crashes, and my worst frame drop was from 60 to 50, and that’s when I swapped my DLSS from fixed to biased.
However, a few textures looked strange, especially when looking closer at them. Yet, that’s more on my PC than the actual game because my editor also played the game and had amazing visuals, so you need a good rig to experience the whole beauty of Outlaws. Overall, the performance was stellar and commendable in this day and age. With zero loading screens and a completely open world, Massive Entertainment pulled some tech voodoo on this one.
Sadly, facial animations are not ideal. Despite playing with my settings, I always felt a few issues with the lip sync. Also, while the pre-rendered cutscenes are gorgeous, the moment-to-moment cinematics were a bit jarring due to strange facial animations in human characters. It didn’t give me an uncanny valley, but it was pretty noticeable, and it distracts from the immersion other things are trying to accomplish.
Beyond that, the locations are astounding. There are a few familiar planets, but no other game has done what Outlaws did regarding presentation. As someone who loves Tatooine, I dreamed of finally experiencing the bustling markets of Mos Eisley or riding across the Dune Sea while escaping from a kryat dragon. Every planet has its particular visual style, and the developers put surgical attention to detail. Cantinas are full of people gambling, drinking, and performing shady deals. The jungles of Akiva are dense and lush. The amber mountains of Toshara contrast the planet’s greenery with beautiful orange tones. All of this is accompanied by a terrific soundtrack that makes the audio-visual design of Outlaws worthy of praise.
A New Hope For Star Wars Games
Star Wars Outlaws isn’t a perfect game, but it is one of the best Star Wars games ever. Furthermore, the endeavor to make an open-world game in this universe is huge, and Outlaws stuck the landing. While it has a few pacing issues, its story is amazing, and every single character is endearing, fitting the galaxy perfectly. Locations are beyond astonishing, and exploration is the best part of the game.
As I concluded my 40-hour journey, leaving many optional missions behind, which I’m now playing in the post-game, I realized something: this was the Star Wars adventure I’d been waiting for years. It captures the feeling of the franchise perfectly and does so in a venue that hasn’t been explored much in other media. If you’re a fan of the series, you’ll go like Chewie and Han and say, “We’re home.” If not, you’re in for one of the best modern open-world experiences. All in all, Star Wars Outlaws is an epic adventure you should live at least once.
Review copy provided by Publisher.
Star Wars Outlaws (PC Reviewed)
Star Wars Outlaws is an immersive, memorable, and engaging adventure with excellent open-world design. It sets the bar high for future Star Wars games and establishes itself as one of the best we've seen in recent years.
Pros
- Superb open-world design.
- Engaging exploration mechanics.
- Excellent performance even on a mid-range PC.
Cons
- Lackluster AI.
- Strange facial animations.
- The syndicate system could be expanded more.
