Ubisoft Massive’s Star Wars Outlaws is the newest game in a galaxy far away. Revealed during Xbox’s summer showcase, Outlaws looks to put a focus on the seedier underbelly of the Star Wars Universe. According to Ubisoft, the game will be an open-world action game centered around the scoundrel Kay Vess. The reveal trailer for Outlaws left many Star Wars fans palpably excited, in part, this is due to the game’s striking resemblance to the canceled — but never forgotten — Project Ragtag.
Project Ragtag was a Star Wars game under development at Visceral Games until the project’s cancellation in 2017 alongside the studio’s closure. Development on the project had several big names attached to it beyond Dead Space developer Visceral, including Uncharted creator Amy Hennig, Assassin’s Creed producer Jade Raymond, and Hennig’s Uncharted 4 writing partner Todd Stashwick. The game was going to be a heist game in the Star Wars universe starring an Oceans 11 style cast of no-good scoundrels pulling off an impossible job.
The game’s basic premise and visual style (from the little concept art and in-game footage we did see) bear a striking similarity to Outlaws. The official description describes it as follows:
“Risk it all as Kay Vess, an emerging scoundrel seeking freedom and the means to start a new life, along with her companion Nix. Fight, steal, and outwit your way through the galaxy’s crime syndicates as you join the galaxy’s most wanted.
It will take place between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Teases of iconic Star Wars characters and locations can be seen in the reveal trailer, including Han Solo frozen in carbonite.
Outlaws is setting itself in the similar seedy underbelly of the Star Wars universe that Project Ragtag planned on inhabiting. With the success of Andor, which itself delves into the morally grey aspects of the larger universe, it seems like Outlaws is able to build off of the success of the Disney + show. Something that Ragtag never had the benefit of.
According to reports, one of the biggest problems EA had with Project Ragtag was the lack of lightsabers and the Force in the game’s narrative, which is something the Jedi series from Respawn Entertainment features plenty of. But there is a proven audience for stories that don’t only focus on the Jedi.
At the center of Outlaws is Kay Vess, a charming rogue who lies and cheats her way through the corners of the galaxy ruled by crime syndicates. The trailer sets up the stakes of a massive heist, with a mysterious man named Jaylin offering Kay Vess a job she simply cannot refuse. This job will pair her with a small crew of conspirators and span multiple planets.
Both Project Ragtag and Outlaws sound thematically very familiar in how they interpret and live within the larger Star Wars universe. What gives me hope that Outlaws will succeed where Ragtag failed is that Ragtag’s cancellation itself serves as a learning point for Ubisoft’s new title.
In addition to oversight problems for EA, one of the biggest issues Ragtag faced was that the vision of an extensive cast that would all be controllable by the player turned out to be incredibly complex and hard to deliver. The vision of Ragtag struggled to take form in reality. Based on Outlaws’ first trailer, the cast is much smaller but still has the focus on a daring heist that Ragtag wanted to capture.
Project Ragtag is still dead (although Amy Hennig is working on a new Star Wars game), but Star Wars Outlaws picks up where that game left off, and looks to deliver a thrilling experience that fans have been waiting years for.
