Developed By: Massive Entertainment & Assisting Ubisoft Studios
Published By: Ubisoft
Platforms: PC / Xbox Series S & X / PlayStation 5
Reviewed On: PlayStation 5
Review Code Provided By: Ubisoft
Depending on which part of the spectrum you are on social media right now, Star Wars Outlaws is either one of the most anticipated games of the year for you or the next in line with the many supposedly doomed new games yet to come out in the industry. A short while back I decided to tune the noise out because it felt like it was getting to be a bit too much as if a game nowadays isn’t valid enough to stand the test of time on its own.
I approached Star Wars Outlaws with perhaps the least attention I could as it was something on my radar, but I don’t particularly have a great experience with the breadth of Ubisoft titles. I find that the bigger AAA titles like the Assassins Creed series feel too big and bloated but their smaller more focused efforts are some of the best gaming experiences like Immortals Fenyx Rising or Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown which came out earlier this year.
Thanks to Ubisoft, we were granted the opportunity to review Star Wars Outlaws. After spending a significant amount of time this past weekend with it, I truly felt quite surprised in a very good way how much of a great time I am having with it. I’m hovering around just past the halfway mark in the main story (with 25+ hours played so far) but I feel that I’ve played enough of it to grasp the flow of the entire experience and just could not wait to share my experience with it; flaws and all in this review of it.
Kay Vess, The Underworld’s Favourite New Scoundrel
Star Wars Outlaws starts with players taking control of its protagonist Kay Vess, a street thief with designs of securing a way to get off Canto Bight for a new beginning. Due to a job that went sideways, she now finds herself on the run aboard the Trailblazer with her loyal companion Nix from Sliro, leader of the Zerek Besh and trying to navigate the politics of various other syndicates as she makes her way to the core worlds.
Most major Star Wars games focus on Force users or the Rebel Alliance’s fight against the Empire’s forces. The general vibe of Kay Vess’s journey in Star Wars Outlaws is how someone small and insignificant in the Underworld slowly finds her place in it. The “scoundrel” aspect of it takes a bit more front and center here and I found myself enjoying how the story plays out. Kay Vess isn’t the perfect protagonist who is somehow smarter or more able than everyone around her but rather she regularly finds herself to be the right person in the wrong place making the best of it. The shadow that the Empire casts is a big one, regularly lurking in the background, but the choice to focus more on the various syndicates themselves and their ambitions was a great one as it brings a different side reminiscent of stories like the one told in Andor.
Of course, a protagonist’s story isn’t fully realized without a great cast of characters surrounding her. Nix her loyal Merqaal companion is a constant source of delight, and I loved how there was an eating minigame that went an extra step into making me as a player bond with Nix. ND-5, the stoic droid who is always on Kay’s shoulder provides some protective guidance with familiar dry humor. The rest of the crew like Waka, Ank, & Gedeek are introduced with a respectful level of story and development instead of just being dropped in to fill out the roster. Of course, apart from the formidable syndicate leaders, the antagonist Sliro is also a constant presence in the background always pushing his weight around menacingly to get his target.
During the main story, I appreciated how I was able to just go through it at my own pace but not miss a beat or forget something that happened a while back as I constantly found myself preoccupied with just generally exploring or being a scoundrel. That ease made my journey very memorable as a game which has a lot of moving parts always runs the risk of something falling by the wayside.
There Is Nowhere In The Galaxy You Can Hide
Right out of the gate I love how Ubisoft is having Quality, Performance (60fps) and Favor Quality mode (40fps) as a standard in their games moving forward. I am playing mostly in the 40fps mode, and it is fantastic. What works the most for me in the presentation of Star Wars Outlaws is how every choice the devs made makes the game one of the most quintessentially cinematic Star Wars gaming experiences ever. From the 21:9 screen framing with black bars, the incredible HDR lighting, shadows and the familiar Star Wars font and aesthetic to the incredibly detailed gorgeous environments, Star Wars Outlaws feels so familiar yet an authentic triumph.
What added an extra layer of immersion is how sublime the sound design is in this game. I truly was taken aback by how well-realized it was in almost every aspect. In one of the early areas of the game when I walked into a club, the accompanying thumping club music which feels it was paired with 3D Audio was exceptional. The soundtrack of the game in ambient music or themes was phenomenally crafted and I enjoyed almost every track. I expected that when it comes to blaster sounds, explosions, speeder & ship reverberations during traversal and battles to be the standard fare but I truly did not expect it to be this good.
The cherry on top of the immersion is how well the Dualsense features are also implemented. The club scene and the thumping music were accompanied by the haptics that simulated the reverberations based on proximity to where the sound was reverberating from. Maybe it has been a while since I’ve felt some great haptic feedback, but this truly felt like one of the amazing ones. Adaptive Triggers were also well utilized for puzzles and shooting sections.
Of course, players will be able to adjust graphics or gameplay settings to their comfort level as I suspect some will find it slightly challenging, but the accessibility options provided are also quite expansive and accommodating. But I also have to highlight how there are expected janky bugs that include some geometry issues, NPCs falling through the map and music that cut out unexpectedly, but it was quite infrequent for me that it did not impact my playing experience except crashing twice randomly at separate sections. I do hope they can iron out these bugs in time as we have seen how it can be detrimental to how a game is perceived over time such as last year’s Star Wars: Jedi Survivor.
Punch It
When I first started Star Wars Outlaws, I admit I was quite intrigued by how the game kept morphing over time as it revealed itself. Initially, I thought it played more closely to the Uncharted series but then it evolved more towards a hybrid of Assassin’s Creed meets Red Dead Redemption with space battles. But before I get ahead of myself, I must emphasize how much I love how Ubisoft has finally understood that less is more. In the past, open-world Ubisoft games have been overwhelmingly littered with suffocating icons on the main map with an insane number of activities. I can understand the design decision of giving players many activities to do but Star Wars Outlaws does the complete opposite.
Part of why the game feels exceedingly cinematic is how the HUD is almost empty. Everything is drawn back to a minimal level which helped me the player immerse myself even more limited only to my sense of observation, exploration and adventure. The map whether in the city or the open world is also empty initially until players collect datapads, listen in on conversations, or explore by themselves to open quest chains, vendors, treasure rooms and more. It feels incredibly rewarding just paying attention to things and finding a breadcrumb to follow. The sandbox players are presented with is also open-ended with multiple approaches being completely viable. Go in blasters blazing or like a ghost where no one notices you coming in or out.
A major factor in your decision-making would be the syndicates and how your choices will affect the bigger picture. There are four syndicates: Pykes, Crimson Dawn, Hutts, & Ashiga. Often every mission or choice you make will be at the expense of gaining the favor of one syndicate at the expense of another. Raise your reputation high enough and you can walk into syndicate-controlled areas (except for restricted areas) with no resistance to purchase unique items. Drop your reputation low enough and entering one of these areas will usually result in them hunting you down. Of course, a true scoundrel will always play the game to always maintain the best relationship with all syndicates which does take a lot of work.
Players will also get access to four star systems; Toshara, Kijimi, Akiva & Tatooine each with their cities and explorable areas planet side and surrounding space which is traversable with the speeder or with the Trailblazer both upgradeable with better survivability and weaponry. Each star system feels sized accordingly and never too small or too large that it’s a hindrance to my own playing experience and I appreciated how curated each felt.
As Kay Vess, players will have options to upgrade her blaster weapon with Plasma, Ion, and Power modules and will eventually unlock more abilities that provide more traversal, exploration, and combat options. One example would be unlocking the Smoke Bomb option that will hide your visibility to enemies but is upgradable to a concussive effect that will also disorient enemies for easier takedowns. Nix is also and very helpful companion as apart from being able to be commended to retrieve items and weapons, Nix can also distract, attack, push buttons and assist in multiple situations.
Most of the combat scenarios play out satisfyingly but there are some drawbacks due to bugs or perhaps design decisions. There were moments where it felt like there was an infinite number of enemies that kept respawning (in moments when they shouldn’t) but after reloading a save it fixed itself. Even during traversing, there is always a brief second where when Kay grabs something there is a delay before she starts moving which I feel in part is due to waiting for Nix to jump on her back visibly but often it feels like a second too long.
It took me a short while to understand the core loop of the gameplay, but I enjoy almost all aspects of it. Ground battles to space battles always felt fun, but more surprisingly I vibed a lot with the quiet moments of traversing, exploration or just sitting down to play a game of Sabbacc.
What I Loved About Star Wars Outlaws
- Story – I resonated with how the story feels a little more focused and grounded in the same vein as Andor and puts a spotlight more on the Underworld syndicates. The multiple possible dynamics with the syndicates added an extra layer that perhaps was not to a majorly divergent playthrough but enough that there were some stakes in it.
- Characters – I like Kay Vess, Nix, ND-5 and the rest of the major and even very minor brief character appearances.
- Graphics & Sound Design – This one surprised me the most because it all came together so cohesively impressive with attention to detail that I just love what has been created. Flying through the nebula in the Kajimi star system is one of the most beautiful space environments to dogfight in.
- The Minimalism – I liked how clean the HUD is and encouraging the player to be more observant of things going on around any area with it always being worth it leading to treasure.
- Core Gameplay Loop – I liked having multiple options (with stealth being my go-to) as it’s just so much more satisfying heisting and getting away consequence-free. Then going to space and just blasting away space pirates or Imperial TIE Fighters.
- Sabbacc – I don’t usually care for card games or minigames in most games, but I got how to play Sabbacc my very first game and always love taking the time to play one whenever I can.
What I Wished Was Better
- Bugs – There is janky stuff and there are bugs. For me at least it wasn’t a lot but it’s still there and it can get hilariously funny or cause some frustration.
- Enemy A.I – It can feel very simplistic as the priority seems to be just to overwhelm with numbers and grenades rather than flanking tactics, etc.
Trust Is A Sentimental Word For Mutual Interest
I felt like I was caught off guard by Star Wars Outlaws. I was aware of some of the early previews not being very positive or just being lukewarm on it but as soon as I sat down to play, it has been one of my best gaming experiences of the year. I am almost positive that there will be someone who will find some element about it that they don’t like but for some reason, the entire package worked for me in an incredibly positive way. There is some part of me that feels that there is a high possibility things might go wrong later on where there is some story beat or gameplay moment or even a potential game-breaking bug that might impact my score in the end but one thing that felt undeniable is how I just couldn’t wait to share my joy in playing it.
If this is meant to be the start of a new franchise, it is an incredibly impressive start and it does make me excited to see how far it will go. I feel like it captures the spirit of curiosity and adventure in the Star Wars universe that few games have been able to do and I for one cannot wait to boot it back up and continue my journey with it. Also, I can’t wait to read up on other players’ experiences with it, flaws and all.
