Star Wars Outlaws Review – The Galaxy is Your Playground

There has never been a time without Star Wars games. But, either due to technical limitations or creative decisions, very few have attempted to create a truly open world. The recently released Star Wars Jedi: Survivor featured a Metroidvania structure. The cult-classic Knights of the Old Republic games opted for a semi-open world. 

Star Wars Outlaws, made by Massive Entertainment and published by Ubisoft, aims to do more. It’s on a mission to build an entirely fresh experience in the beloved universe, unconstrained by the Skywalkers, the Jedi, and the Force. But with the recent fatigue surrounding the franchise, can Star Wars Outlaws stand on its own and draw enough attention instead of being seen as ‘just another Star Wars game’?

TL;DR

Star Wars Outlaws is a true dream for Star Wars fans looking for an open-world adventure. Its immersive world design, intuitive gameplay, and dynamic story will hook you and never let go. Massive Entertainment understood the assignment and delivered an original Star Wars experience outside the established mythology.

Story – Welcome to the Underworld

In Star Wars Outlaws, you’re not the Chosen One, nor are you a Jedi. The story takes place between The Empire Strikes Back and The Return of the Jedi, when the Empire was at its strongest. You play Kay Vess, a girl living on the streets who survives by doing small jobs in Canto Bight. She doesn’t have powers or unique skills that make her special. 

She’s just a girl trying to do her best without making too many enemies. But when a job goes south, Kay is forced to leave her home planet and run in whichever direction she can. This is the premise of Star Wars Outlaws and it’s admirable that Massive Entertainment decided to make the ‘hero’ of the story just another person trying to make it through life.

Making a Name for Yourself

As Kay leaves her home, she’s faced with a choice. She has to step up and take more dangerous jobs as an outlaw working for different factions in the Star Wars universe. The Pykes, the Crimson Dawn, and the Hutts are only some of the factions you’ll have to work with. 

Balancing your loyalties and choosing your missions wisely will lead Kay in different directions. This makes Star Wars Outlaws both replayable and dynamic, and you’ll never know what might happen next. Because you’re working with outlaws, betrayals can happen in an instant, and loyalties can change without warning. Kay has to navigate this galactic criminal network and become an independent outlaw who can take care of herself.

Gameplay – The Han Solo Simulator You Always Dreamed Of

Star Wars Outlaws is a third-person open-world Star Wars game. For most players interested in playing it, that’ll be enough of a selling point. But, let’s talk details. Star Wars Outlaws lets you navigate different planets, solve main and secondary quests, explore locations in the open world, and participate in various activities and mini-games. 

It shares a lot of its DNA with Assassin’s Creed but it takes the gameplay a step further. Since Star Wars Outlaws is a sci-fi game, it has the benefit of letting players fly their spaceship, interact with dozens of alien species, use various laser weapons, and build their arsenal of stealth gadgets. The aforementioned faction system does a lot to make the game deeper and more immersive. 

Various factions have bases around the galaxy and you’ll either be welcome or forbidden from entering. When forbidden, you can still sneak in, steal things, and walk back out like nothing happened. And if you’re caught, your reputation will go down even more. It’s a balancing act of risk and reward, just like the rest of the game, and it makes the entire experience unique and worth checking out for yourself.

Revolutionising Ubisoft’s Open-World Design

Ubisoft is known for building immersive open worlds, and Star Wars Outlaws is no different. Massive Entertainment already delivered an amazing open-world game in Avatar Frontiers of Pandora late last year. Their latest game takes the formula even further with organic story progression and seamless side quests and activities that don’t feel tacked on. Just like every open-world game, Star Wars Outlaws has treasure chests and collectables for you to pick up throughout every planet. 

However, they feel very organic in the way they’re presented, not as just another box to tick on the map. Kay will always comment and engage in unique dialogue when visiting optional locations with upgrade parts or treasures. This makes the planets worth exploring and you’ll never get tired of checking out just one more location. And, there are no towers to climb to reveal the map this time around, which is a plus.

Organic Skill Progression System

Most open-world games have a predictable but reliable levelling system that players have grown accustomed to. Star Wars Outlaws does things differently by eliminating traditional levels and skills in favour of a more organic system. As Kay travels the galaxy, she’ll come across various experts in their field, whether that’s trading, speeder customization, etc. 

From then on, Kay needs to complete various activities to unlock new skills based on that expert’s knowledge. It’s a natural system that fits into Star Wars Outlaws perfectly and allows you to continuously develop new skills as you play the game. It’s also refreshing to see a game eliminate XP and levelling and try something new.

A Fragile But Versatile Protagonist

Because Kay is just a human being without special powers, she’s also very vulnerable in gameplay. Various factions have different styles of combat, and unique patrol patterns when you sneak around their bases. The worst of all is the Empire, the most dangerous faction you’ll come across in the game. 

Star Wars Outlaws has made the Empire genuinely scary and efficient when it comes to chasing you down if you’re detected. And if you’re really persistent, they’ll deploy Death Troopers to hunt you down for good. Luckily, Kay has an arsenal of useful tools and gadgets she can rely on in a fight. You can use different grenades, make sounds, or have your trusty companion Nix act as a distraction. 

Kay only has a blaster, but she can pick up any weapon she comes across, sabotage cameras and various systems, hack into computers, and create guerilla-style traps for her enemies. But in a firefight, she doesn’t last very long, so Star Wars Outlaws incentivizes you to prioritize stealth.

A Galaxy of Minigames

Beyond the main story and side quests, you’ll come across a wide variety of minigames. The best thing about them is that they’re organically integrated into the world and don’t stand out as optional activities. For example, you can visit a cantina and bet on a race. Or, you can play an arcade game, order lunch, mess with the jukebox, etc. 

Hacking and lockpicking also have unique minigames which make great use of PlayStation 5’s controller to immerse you in the moment. Star Wars Outlaws never makes you spend too much time on a single activity and keeps the pace brisk and enjoyable throughout its 30-60 hours. And if you’re up for it, you can replay the game and side with different factions to see how your decisions affect the story.

Visuals – A Living, Breathing World

Star Wars Outlaws relies on Ubisoft’s proprietary Snowdrop engine and it truly brings the galaxy to life. Each location you visit is dense with details, NPCs, and creatures roaming around. When you travel the open world, you’ll come across wildlife, travelling merchants, patrolling factions, and even see spaceships landing and leaving the planet in the distance. 

There has never been such a detailed depiction of Star Wars outside the movies themselves, which is a true testament to Massive Entertainment’s commitment to the franchise.  Aesthetically, Star Wars Outlaws draws inspiration from the original trilogy and fits into its period seamlessly. Even if you’re not a Star Wars fan, the game is a marvel to look at and simply roam around its planets, taking in the scenery.

Dynamic Visual & Accessibility Options

To offer a more cinematic experience akin to the movies, Star Wars Outlaws prioritizes the 21:9 aspect ratio by default. However, Massive Entertainment has made the option to customize your visual preferences readily available from launch. You can make the game fullscreen, eliminating black bars if you’re not a fan. 

When it comes to performance, the game offers dynamic options to favour visual quality over performance, depending on your preference. While the game does offer a 60FPS mode, there are some tradeoffs to consider here based on its overall visual quality. You’ll get a slightly murkier image quality with the Performance mode compared to Quality, which gives you 30FPS but slightly better graphics. 

There is also an in-between of 40FPS, but in practice, it doesn’t feel as good as simply choosing 30FPS or 60FPS. You can also modify blur, film grain, and chromatic aberration settings to fully customize Star Wars Outlaws to match your preferences. More options are always welcome, and Massive Entertainment did a wonderful job here. 

The same can be said for accessibility options, which offer preset and custom options for gameplay modifiers, colour, hearing, and general vision impairments. Star Wars Outlaws is a game that can be made accessible by anyone, and that’s the best direction the studio could have taken with such an iconic franchise with millions of fans around the world.

Audio – Immersive Sound Design & Voice Acting

Play the Star Wars theme to anyone on the street and they’ll instantly recognize it. That’s been both a blessing and a curse for the franchise for a long time, and Massive Entertainment knew this. It’s why Star Wars Outlaws features a new soundtrack inspired by the original trilogy’s music. 

John Williams’ legacy has been honoured with a brand-new soundtrack that perfectly fits the setting of the Star Wars underworld. Various cantinas you visit will have music bands and jukebox machines with original songs. Combat, exploration, and other situations all have their soundtracks that seamlessly match the activity. 

The same applies to voice acting, with various alien species using their languages as established by the official canon. And when it comes to English-speaking characters, they’re all perfectly cast to match their characters’ personalities. Star Wars Outlaws will sound great both to long-time fans familiar with John Williams’ work and brand-new players looking for a cool new open-world game to pick up.

Conclusion – Should you Play Star Wars Outlaws?

Star Wars Outlaws is a love letter to the original movies. It’s a competent open-world game that does just enough new things to stand on its own on the market. It’s a game that both long-time Star Wars fans and fans of Ubisoft’s open-world games can dive into and enjoy without difficulty. 

Best of all, it’s extremely accessible, with difficulty and audio-visual options that make it playable by anyone. If you’re looking for your next Star Wars fix, this is it. And if you’re just looking for a new sci-fi adventure to pick up, Star Wars Outlaws will also fill that need. The game launches on August 30th on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. It’s also available on day one through Ubisoft+.

Big thanks to CD Media for sponsoring our review!