Massive Entertainment took it upon themselves to develop the first Star Wars open-world title. While other games set in the universe have allowed players to visit different planets, Star Wars Outlaws is arguably the largest yet, at least in scope. It’s also published by Ubisoft, meaning certain expectations were established as soon as we saw its reveal in one of their Forward shows. Does Star Wars Outlaws deliver on the promise of the most expansive title game set in the universe? Is it the open-world game you’re looking for? Let’s find out.
Kay and Nix
Star Wars Outlaws finally breaks free from the curse of the lightsaber and puts players in the shoes of a scoundrel without any force, powers, or connection to the Skywalkers. Outlaws follows Kay Vess, a thief from the Worker’s District in Canto Bight who had a hard life growing up, scraping to survive and learning from her mother and her friends.
Kay is instantly likable as a character, and her inexperience beyond petty crimes and naiveness add to the charm. She also has a companion called Nix, who, in true Star Wars fashion, is incredibly cute and always by her side. Instead of talking to the invisible player behind the screen, Kay will communicate with Nix, which is a nice way to get around the disconnect I usually feel in games where the main character is rambling about things the way no one does in real life.
After a major job goes wrong, Kay is forced to flee Cantonica on a stolen ship and crash-lands on the planet of Toshara. This begins her actual journey, where she’ll meet with the major crimelords of the galaxy, take jobs, and improve her relationship with different syndicates.
For most of your early hours, there’s no real plot thread to follow, and you’re mostly just doing jobs and improving your standing with the different crimelords. It’s a bit bland, and while most of the characters are interesting to interact with, it doesn’t push the needle forward.
Kay eventually starts recruiting different people for another larger heist, and that’s where things start to become a bit more involved. I wouldn’t say I disliked the story or character interactions, but it’s a dull experience for the most part that has a fairly strong third act.
I Know a Few Maneuvers
Kay is equipped with a Blaster, and that’s the only weapon she can permanently carry. This is a bit refreshing because I’m a fan of weapons feeling a bit more personal. The Blaster can be upgraded for added utility and firepower and can be customized with different skins as well. While I enjoy the personalization, it’s a bit confusing why Kay can only carry the Blaster and has to drop every other weapon after either exhausting ammo or having to interact with a ladder or her speeder.
Combat itself is a bit dull as well, and most shootouts play out largely the same way as the opening encounters. You crouch behind cover and shoot till the enemies are down. It doesn’t have the same tacticality we’ve come to expect from the studio’s previous titles like the Divison series. Stealth is seriously half-baked, too, with enemy AI that’s either too easy to exploit or too random to properly react to.
Things gradually improve when Kay has a few more abilities, but combat itself is largely the same and doesn’t innovate or challenge players in any meaningful way. I’m glad that Massive took the risk of stripping down all the RPG-lite elements that we’ve come to expect from Ubisoft open-worlds, but the core combat mechanics need to be strong enough as well.
There’s also a wanted system similar to GTA titles, where the Empire will start hunting Kay down. To get rid of them, she’ll need to hack a terminal at guard posts, which involves the slice minigame. While this is a fun mechanic, it gets a bit tiresome after the few times you’ve lost them. It’s better to just die than go through the entire ordeal of finding a guardpost and hacking a terminal.
Combat on the Speeder and the Ship follow a similar trend and are just serviceable, lacking the depth and nuance we’ve seen previously from the same studio.
I Know a Guy
While combat is arguably the weaker aspect, Star Wars Outlaws has some very interesting mechanics when it comes to progression and exploration. Kay isn’t bombarded with quests and points of interest, but rather she has to seek out intel by listening into conversations, taking different routes during missions, and even buying information from different NPCs. It’s a fun way to introduce the world without falling into the usual trappings of open-world titles that constantly get in the way of player discovery.
Similarly, Star Wars Outlaws ditches the usual skill trees in favor of the Expert system, where Kay tracks skills from different specialized characters by completing contextual tasks to unlock them. I prefer this to skill trees because it pushes players to do specific tasks to earn a useful ability rather than dumping points into a tree to get 5% more blaster damage. For instance, if you want to access “requests” from vendors, you’ll need to unlock the “I Know Someone” ability if you speak to six different merchants and spend 1000 credits at different stores.
Presentation
Massive Entertainment is no stranger to dense and highly detailed worlds, and Star Wars Outlaws is no different. Each planet you visit is packed to the brim with authentic Star Wars imagery, characters, and locations. I particularly like all the bars you’ll visit, as a lot of effort went into making them feel lively and a joy to be in.
Character models are detailed, and while the facial animations aren’t the best, the game has enough variety that it’s easy to forgive. Star Wars Outlaws is a stunning experience on PC, and after a few tweaks to image quality, this is one of the best-looking titles of 2024. The reflections, in particular, are incredible, and it’s a blast exploring Imperial locations thanks to all the shiny surfaces.
