Star Wars Outlaws Review

Developed by MASSIVE ENTERTAINMENT and published by UBISOFT Star Wars Outlaws is supposed to be the triple-A Star Wars adventure game to get tongues wagging. Oh boy, are they wagging, and the feeling about this game is on a knife edge. An open-world Star Wars game playing a scoundrel – what’s not to enjoy? Well, there is plenty to enjoy and despair at this game so opinions will be very divided.

                You play as Kay Vess, a down-on-her-luck human bandit seeking freedom and a new life. She embarks on a heist which backfires and leaves her with a death mark from one of the biggest crime factions.  She comes across as a naïve risk taker who talks and acts like she is invincible. Considering others are being shot at and dying around her, it doesn’t seem to faze her too much. I would say her story arc has her develop into a lovable rogue character but I don’t get that feeling. I do enjoy her trusty axolotl-looking alien companion Nix more who steals the show for me in this game. But Kay wants to pull off the biggest heist of the galaxy and buy her freedom although it never becomes clear what she wants to do with that freedom.

                There is lot to be impressed about the look and the music of this game. It very much feels like the universe of Star Wars and the sounds of the gunplay, the aliens, the spaceships – it’s all there and very immersive. Graphically it’s a bit more hit-and-miss but it looks impressive enough and you’ll come across familiar characters like Jabba the Hutt and even a Han Solo frozen in carbonite. But there are also some janky graphical glitches at times which makes the game come across as dated compared to other more polished games. The populated areas of each planet do feel quite naturally alive with people walking around and having conversations which you can listen in to and sometimes get hints as to where some loot might be stashed. You can also interact with people and just have conversations not quest-related but just a throwaway chat to make the place feel more immersive.  On the flip side, there are many immersion killers when there is no reaction to things. Throwing grenades in certain areas does nothing to NPC’s or the scenery and some of the enemy AI is just daft at times and makes the game feel dated.

                The gameplay is also a bit hit-and-miss for me as it seems confused on what it wants to be. It announced itself as an open world title which a lot of it is but you don’t experience the open world until about an hour into the game. Most of the story and action is supposed to be played with stealth which I am not a big fan of but it doesn’t seem set up as a stealth game. With the help of your buddy Nix who can pickpocket grenades, trigger explosions or traps and cause distractions, he makes the stealth style a bit more familiar but it feels clunky. Enemies can see you at quite a distance but as there is no cone of vision it’s hard to know what distance is safe. On the flip side hiding in the tall grass or a vent turns the enemy into a slapstick comedy act not knowing where you went even if they are staring straight in your direction. As stealth bores me I tend to go a bit more guns blazing and that’s fine as even though she is a non-force-wielding human with just a blaster she can hold her own against a half dozen enemies. Unfortunately, there are times when that approach is forbidden as some missions have a no-detect requirement. Meaning if you are detected then you have to restart from the last checkpoint. I personally hate those missions as you have to constantly try to detect where the enemies are and their patterns as well as hunting for vents and climbable walls. Luckily, they are not super frequent and that’s for the better as I am not a fan.

The combat is the bit I enjoy the most about the game as your blaster can be switched to different bullets for different situations which also comes into play for some of the platforming puzzle elements of the game. But you can also pick up some enemy guns and use those too which can be fun. The enemy AI can be a bit daft at times but you can ramp up the difficulty if you want more of a challenge.

                But with the platforming puzzle elements I mentioned before it does give me the same vibes as Jedi: Fallen Order as there is a lot of climbing, swinging, triggering hard-to-reach switches and moving through narrow “game loading” paths. There is a speeder you can use to traverse the planet on and it gives me mixed feelings. I appreciate moving from place to place much quicker but I find too often there is scenery that juts out a little too much that causes me to get knocked off my speeder which can get a bit annoying. The sound and look of the speeder are pretty cool though and the fact you can call it to your location is neat too. When you do get to fly the spaceship, it is very exciting at first as it feels like you have your own millennium falcon called the Trailblazer.

Steering the spaceship can feel uncomfortable at times especially when you are tracking down loot and trying to open cargo boxes. There is no reverse and sometimes you need to fly around certain objects to look for an opening and it’s like trying to park a giant old Volvo in a tight space with your eyes closed.  Space warfare also feels a bit bland too as it is just a matter of locking on and firing away. Your ship can take a bit of a battering before you get in trouble and if things get too hot you can zip away out of danger to fight another day. But travelling via the spaceship is probably the best bit as when you unlock hyperdrive, jumping to other galaxies is nice to watch and when you want to go to a plant you steer towards it and initiate landing and you get a nice cutscene of you breaking the atmosphere and landing on the planet in one of its key areas.

                As for content, there is plenty to enjoy here aside from the main story which is said to take about 30 hours. It’s nice to keep the main story ticking along as it’s required to help you unlock certain areas as well as gain skills and tools to help you access previously inaccessible areas. The main story has you trying to build a crew for the ultimate heist of the people who put a death mark on you. Of the crew, the most interesting is ND5; a hardened droid who gives Kay a hard time but also helps her on many of her missions with guidance. Then you also have the 4 factions to work with or against who each have their own quests, merchants, contract brokers and sections of the map which is their territory. Unless you are in good standing with them then encroaching on their area of the map will have their grunts shooting at you on sight and you won’t be able to do jobs for them. Whereas being in their good books allows benefits such as free-roaming into their areas of control, more job contracts, discounts on their stock and some rewards which are usually some cosmetics but can be some good equipment with better perks. The contracts on offer are quite varied and are a fine distraction from the main quest. When you complete some of them you also have the choice of whether to fulfil the contract for that faction or divert the contract to a different faction depending on who you want to get in with. They are all morally questionable so you don’t feel you have to be too loyal to any of them or risk annoying them.  There are also mini-games to mess around with in some of the town areas. A card game Sabakk where you need to form the lowest pair, a horse racing betting stand and a few basic arcade games which can preoccupy you for a few minutes.

                Aside from them the rebel alliance and the empire do make an appearance with the latter being more abundant everywhere. You have to be careful not to annoy the Galactic Empire too much as they will continually hunt you and eventually send death soldiers after you which you have to defeat to remove your wanted level. You can’t ignore it either as they are relentless to the point of irritation with every 2 minutes a stormtrooper on the radio saying a fugitive is in the area and they just keep popping up all over the place.

                One mechanic I do like about the game is ability progression. Rather than just levelling up with experience you have experts that Kay meets in the progression of the main story. Each of the experts have ability challenges where you have to do certain objectives to gain the ability. I am sure it is not the first to do it but I do like the fact it encourages you to try out all the different actions and tasks on offer to experience all the game has to offer.

                There are some things I wish they did do aside from iron out any glitches or bugs. This game is not alone but I wish it just didn’t have a quick resume. It works amazing for some games but this isn’t one of them. When I try to pick up where I left off the following day I cannot unpause the game. The error message shows where the controller has been disconnected but no matter what I press I cannot carry the game on, I have to quit the game and load it up again.

Conclusion

Star Wars Outlaws is by no means going to be in the conversation for the game of the year but I don’t think it’s as much of a bomb as others are making out. There are a few bad choices which do make the game look dated but there are also some interesting elements to the game. It does feel as if Starfield and Jedi Order had a lovechild that was born 5 years ago but some people enjoy those games and I am sure they will enjoy this game for what it is.