Available on: PC, PlayStation, Xbox
Played on: PlayStation 5
Ubisoft’s big Star Wars action-adventure game was hyped as the first open-world Star Wars experience. While mostly true, most gamers would push back on the limited planet excursions as a true “open-world” compared to larger games such as Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla or Red Dead Redemption.
Every individual element of Star Wars Outlaws feels a bit inferior compared to other specific games. Yet all these features combined in a single game — stealth, cinematics, open-world exploration, space travel, skill upgrades, and loot, make Star Wars Outlaws a worthy experience, and a complete joy for beleaguered Star Wars fans.
Read on for our review of Star Wars Outlaws!
Never Tell Her the Odds
Outlaws stars Kay Vess, an original character who grew up a thief on the streets of Canto Bight (seen in Star Wars: The Last Jedi). Vess gets entangled with a heist gone wrong, makes a powerful enemy, and gains an awesome starship.
The story does a great job gradually expanding Kay’s world (and soon, worlds!), her capabilities, her allies, and the syndicate factions that play a major role in the adventure.
The main story of escaping her infamous “death mark” slows as Kay explores the region finding treasures, discovering intel, and working for the syndicates.
Toshara is a fabulous starting area (after getting off Canto Bight), a temperate world of winding rivers, towering mountains, and very few trees — perfect to show off Kay’s other mode of transportation, her trusty speeder bike. Likewise, Toshara’s main hub city of Mirogana features syndicate-controlled streets, hidden alleys, shopping districts, and gambling aplenty.
Although checking all the boxes of a big budget Ubisoft open-world adventure, Star Wars Outlaws most reminded me of Red Dead Redemption, with my trusty steed (the speeder bike), fun gambling mini-games (Sabacc is fantastic), and the perfect mix of urban and outdoor events and questlines.
With Friends Like These
While the Galactic Empire and Rebel Alliance are doing there thing (Star Wars Outlaws takes place in the middle of the Original Trilogy), Kay tangles with the syndicates, criminal organizations that rule the underworld. The four syndicate factions, including the thugish Hutt Cartel and secretive Crimson Dawn, run entire sections of each city and region, and Kay’s reputation with each faction is a meaningful element throughout the story.
By maintaining a positive reputation with the Pykes, for example, I can freely enter their district, trade with their merchants, and easily sneak my way into their vault (hey, I’m a scoundrel after all). Plus, some nice faction rewards like a full suit of enhanced gear.
Reputation is improved by selling secrets and completing quests and other events for that faction. But, the syndicates are almost always opposed to one another, and often I have to make a choice between turning intel into one or another. If my reputation with that faction falls too far, I would be denied entry (forcing me to sneak around more) or even shot on sight!
Still, it’s a little too easy to get in good with all four of them, and I never felt like I had to make too difficult a choice to keep them relatively happy. It makes exploring the world a lot less dangerous — other than those pesky Imperials.
A Girl and Her Dog-oltol
Like most Ubisoft games, Kay is all about sneaking around. She may as well be an assassin as she hides in tall grass, whistles to distract guards, and takes most enemies out in a single stealthy punch (even fully armored Stormtroopers!).
It’s a bit jarring to play in a Star Wars sandbox with stealthy trappings, but I warmed up to it very quickly. And it’s all thanks to Nix.
Kay may not have Force powers, but she does have a dog-sized axolotl-alien. Her loyal companion is more than just a cute pet, he’s an important part of her skill set. With the push of a button, Nix can distract guards, activate traps, fetch weapons, and steal keycards. His most powerful and frequently used ability is to temporarily attack an enemy, allowing Kay to stealthily take out two nearby guards at once.
Kay’s no slouch either. She has a blaster with multiple firing settings and upgrades, and a charging, super-powered dead-eye mode (hello again, Red Dead Redemption!). She can pick up larger weapons such as grenade launchers or assault rifles, throw grenades, and deploy a smoke bomb to escape a bad situation.
I love how Outlaws handles skill progression. Kay’s skills (such as the smoke bomb) are unlocked by actually meeting experts in the world. By completing their quests, she gains access to their knowledge of skills and upgrades. These skills each have their own requirements, such as performing certain tasks and gathering materials to unlock them. It’s a satisfying, immersive system that lets Kay level up without simply resorting to XP and levels.
Outlaws is far from perfect, however. Many insta-fail stealth segments can be quite frustrating (so much so that Ubisoft addressed the difficulty in a recent patch), and while the world design is lovely, the character models are all a bit off, lacking in facial details, animation, and voice syncing.
I also grew annoyed during many exploratory segments, trying to find the path forward. The game blends climbable rocks and grapple points a bit too well, and hilariously uses literal arrow signs in many areas to make up for it.
The Rating
Star Wars Outlaws is rated T for Teen, with Mild Language, Simulated Gambling, and Violence. Star Wars fans won’t find anything objectionable here, with plenty of knockout punches, laser blasts, explosions, and casinos.
The Takeaway
While not without its flaws, I was very impressed with Star Wars Outlaws as a discount Red Dead Redemption set within one of my favorite franchises. It’s awesome to explore the fringes (and in some cases, very well-worn territory) of the Stars Wars universe, interacting with new and sometimes familiar characters, while enjoying a well-honed genre.
I’m confidant declaring Star Wars Outlaws as one of my favorite Ubisoft games, and one of my favorite all-time Star Wars games.
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