If you’re a fan of games set in a galaxy far, far away, it’s fair to say you been having a good run these past few years. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Star Wars: Squadrons and Star Wars: Hunters all hit the mark. Plus, there have been some solid remasters of classic titles too in Star Wars: Dark Forces and Star Wars: Bounty Hunter. And so, hopes are high for Star Wars Outlaws.
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Star Wars Outlaws, on paper, ticks a lot of the Ubisoft boxes. Open world? Yes. Action-adventure? Definitely. Tonnes of things to do on a map? Absolutely. But, thankfully, there is more to Star Wars Outlaws, and can, at times deliver a fun and engrossing adventure.
No Sith, Sherlock
Set in-between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, the tale follows Kay Vess. Vess, a young scoundrel, is assembling a team for a massive heist in order to pay off a crime syndicate.
Outlaws is a an outlier within the franchise in that it doesn’t feature a Jedi or Sith as mains. Instead, Star Wars Outlaws goes for a more Han Solo-ish heroine. And this simple choice delivers something fresh in a universe where the Jedi/Sith focus had become way too familiar.
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However, it’s worth noting that this winning start doesn’t take too long to falter. Outlaws is filled with missed steps, weak writing, glitches and bugs, aged design choices and poor AI. And while little issues like these on their own are not a fun killer, their combined weight drags the whole down.
Open-Planet Action Type
Gameplay is a loop of finding and completing jobs, building a rep, getting paid and doing it all over again. You’ll be playing off number of syndicates, who will request your services. And, no matter how hard you try, you can’t please everyone, which will also impact your game.
You’ll be currying favour with the likes of the Ashiga Clan, Crimson Dawn, Hutt Cartel, and Pyke Syndicate. These groups give you the better and more interesting work.
However, annoying one or all opposing syndicates may close off a quest path – because a given group just don’t trust you. This means you have to weigh up your actions and the impact it will ultimately have on your reputation.
Solo Run
When on jobs in Star Wars Outlaws, you’ll explore areas with a heavy push on stealth. Like it or not, you’ll be lurking in the shadows and picking off stray guards 98% of the time. Which wouldn’t be an issue, but not being able to move knocked out enemies is a pain. Odds are jobs will fall apart by an enemy finding an unconscious friend.
And when it all goes loud, it’s very hit and miss. Kay has her trusty blaster, but it’s a bit of a peashooter. You can grab a beefier shooter from a fallen enemy, but that’s a one clip and done deal. So, full blown gun fights can get messy, especially when facing the Empire.
That said, there is an upgrade tree for Kay’s skill and kit. You can upgrade your ship, the Trailblazer, and your handy speeder bike, which you’ll use 98% of the time to get around on when planet side.
Cold Start
It’s just a pain early doors that you don’t get the upgrades and skill to really help you when in a pinch. A key example, if a syndicate and you are not on terms if you go into their area, they will instantly attack you.
Or worse, you’ll get an instant fall in losing more rep with them and be kicked out of the area. This is a pain, force stealth and stealth as I said above is really hit and miss.
Nix of One
However, Kay is never really alone. You’ll journey through Star Wars Outlaws with cute and handy companion, Nix. Nix is a dog/lizard thing, with a number of very useful abilities you really have to use if you expect to complete jobs cleanly.
Being a distraction or flipping switches or blowing up barrels, Nix is a lot like BD-1 from Jedi: Survivor. But, actually has a main role in the gameplay, over just spamming health packs at you.
Space combat in the Trailblazer is a refreshing break from the on-foot stuff. And it’s here where you get to live out your Star Wars dream, helping the needy or picking a scrap with the Empire.
Star Wars Outlaws is visually stunning and looks like the ultimate Star Wars experience come to life. On the other hand, it has draw distance issues (I’ve hit countless rocks I never saw coming on my speeder), animation glitches, frame rate drops and oddly lip-syncing issues too. But, it’s an open-world game, so a lot of this can be overlooked/accepted given the scale of what is really on show.
Sound is true to source with blasts, sirens and stormtroopers all sounding the part. Star Wars Outlaws also features a soundtrack that only adds to the epic/tense moments nicely.
Star Wars Outlaws starts out strong but becomes unstuck due to one-too-many rough edges and an overriding feeling of clunkiness with some of the core mechanics. Does it let you live your ultimate Han Solo life? Yes, but as is always the way at a price which may leave some thinking this just maybe isn’t the Star Wars game they are looking for.