Review: Star Wars Outlaws provides freshness and familiarity

Over the years star Wars Video games have become an institution of their own, separate and apart from the source material. The massive multimedia franchise offers a wide range of gameplay styles ranging from role-playing games, a variety of first and third person shooters, Lego platformers, and even an ongoing MMORPG. However, the franchise lacked a proper open world experience. Or at least it did before the arrival of Star Wars Outlawsa full-fledged rogue-like adventure game set in a galaxy far, far away.

Star Wars Outlaws is the first open-world game with the star Wars expanded universe. In this third-person shooter adventure, players take on the role of Kay Vess, a young villain accompanied by her alien mascot Nix. After two failed attempts to make her big break in the criminal underworld of Canto Bight, she is thrust into a galaxy-wide underworld of intrigue, scheming, and political alliances, where the powerful and influential have much to lose and everyone else has much to gain. With a reputation following Kay, a new and flashy spaceship in tow, and a death mark from the head of the largest crime syndicate himself on her back, the villain must now find a way to survive in a merciless galaxy and earn a credit or two along the way.

After a brisk and exciting prologue that sets the events of the game in March, Kay Vess lands on the planet Toshara, where she must pull herself together and act as a real criminal and con artist. The game’s first few main quests introduce players to the structure of the game and its main attraction – the aforementioned open world. While the first planet offers a huge area, the always accessible speeder makes these large open areas seem easy to explore. The focus is always on exploring and finding points of interest on the map, be it interconnected and detailed city centers, settlements, caves, or Imperial bases to sneak into and get rare parts and materials.

What I found most interesting about Star Wars Outlaws is that it felt like games I have played before, but never before for a star Wars titles. Various parts of other titles are combined into something exciting. The main gameplay consists of semi-linear missions, third-person action and free exploration. In addition, there is a healthy dose of stealth action, some light role-playing elements and decision-making, and even some elements of space travel. Star Wars Outlaws doesn’t reinvent the open world, but it does add layers of familiar genres, making for a fun theme park ride that stays fresh long enough to keep you hooked, but not so much that it becomes boring or detracts from what makes the game fun.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the game is how much the world reacts to my choices. During the main story missions and other contracts and side quests, Kay has the option to ally with or favor the game’s four major crime syndicates: Crimson Dawn, the Pyke Syndicate, the Hutt Cartel, and the Ashiga Clan. During my time in Toshara, I often favored Crimson Dawn over rivals, which resulted in my reputation following me when I traveled to other planets.

The game’s narrative is mostly linear, meaning the game only allows for a few choices to truly change the world Star Wars Outlaws. That said, the game’s reputation system stands out for its interesting impact on gameplay. If you’re in good standing with one of the crime syndicates, you’ll have an easier time getting into their home territories, both the cities and the open worlds. A bad reputation, on the other hand, means you’ll get worse deals from their dealers, or even be tracked and blacklisted if you mess with them too much. I like how this blends with both side content and main story quests, as you’ll often need a different approach to complete objectives depending on who you favor and who you betray on many occasions.

The Galactic Empire is a different story, as they have no interest in making friends. Instead, the Empire and their iconic Stormtroopers act as the wanted system in this game. If you give them too much trouble, the Empire will put a bounty on your head that you can only redeem if you avoid them long enough. Unless you reach the maximum bounty, in which case they will launch an all-out manhunt for Kay. I’ve experienced this situation twice, having to go to a Death Trooper camp and wipe my entry from their records to clear my name. While this sounds daunting, the manhunts are a good spectacle and a show of force for the Empire, who are using an excessive amount of war machinery against a single person. Luckily for Kay and the player, clearing one’s name isn’t too difficult or intrusive, and it made for very cool highlights of my galactic escapades.

The events of Star Wars Outlaws are between The Empire Strikes Back And Return of the JediThis allows the characters of the Rebel Alliance and the Force-sensitives to take a back seat in the narrative and the criminal syndicates to take center stage. star Wars has historically not been particularly good at letting non-force-sensitive characters take the lead, which is why I loved being able to immerse myself in the more banal and down-to-earth world of Outlawswith the simple people who want to get credit quickly and the shady types who are just waiting to cheat you over the smallest detail.

Some colorful and interesting characters complete the game’s roster, with the Clone Wars-era ND-5 battle droid standing out in particular with his sexy long coat. While he’s a great crew member, I wish he was more involved in the game and not just your handler and guy for communication, because his presence is always great. Likewise, Sliro and his crime syndicate Zerek Besh are an interesting addition and add a lot of tension throughout the game. Aside from them, your main partner is the adorable Nix. Nix is ​​great fun and serves as both great comic relief and a great gameplay element. Nix can retrieve items for Kay or distract her while sneaking, as well as attack enemies to blind them in the thick of battle. Using him to open ventilation shafts or solve platforming puzzles was always fun and quick.

Other gameplay elements that noticeably changed the experience were the varied costumes, tokens, and collectibles. Almost everything you collect has a gameplay purpose, and since exploration is fast and exciting, every aspect of Star Wars Outlaws felt rewarding. It helps that both the various planets available in the game and the corresponding surrounding space areas are absolutely stunning and full of unique looking vistas. Some maps like Akiva or Tatooine can feel huge and their scope too large, but the speeder and some clever fast travel points make them very accessible. Planets like Kijimi, meanwhile, focus on a labyrinthine single city, hiding things around every corner.

With an oversaturated market for open-world games, Star Wars Outlaws ensures variety, pace and a constant reward. The developers at Massive Entertainment have focused on variety and quality rather than quantity and have not skimped on visual spectacles. There is always something for Kay Vess and her Trailblazer crew to do, whether it’s finding treasure, sneaking into a gang territory and robbing it, attacking an imperial space base or even playing card games. For a real space villain, there are no limits in the galaxy.

Star Wars Outlaws will be released on August 30, 2024 for Playstation 5, Xbox Series X and Windows PC via Ubisoft Connect.