Thousands of credits weighed heavy in my pocket after sneaking into Jabba the Hutt’s territory to steal vital info for another syndicate. I could buy new clothes, weapon parts, anything I wanted. Instead, I spied a street vendor on the corner and decided to get some grub for my fuzzy four-legged companion Nix. The resulting rhythm minigame can only be described as the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.
Star Wars Outlaws is a momentous occasion – the first true open-world video game the series has ever seen. That fact alone puts a lot of expectations on Outlaws, and the open-world element is by far the most fascinating aspect of the game. Outlaws breaks from the formulaic tradition of most Ubisoft open-world games, instead squarely putting the focus on exploration and immersion. The game is at its best when these elements come together for unforgettable moments like blazing across grassy hills on your speeder as thugs chase you out of their base, making it through a nail-biting shootout after your infiltration into an Imperial base goes wrong, or saving a suave but inept Crimson Dawn agent who locked himself in a room aboard a space station.
Outlaws’ exploration so often leads to wonder and joy, but it's contrasted by other elements that fall flat — rote and generic quest design, frustrating stealth, and an underbaked crime syndicate system. This is a game that wants you to constantly feel immersed and soak up every second in the Star Wars universe, but it too often breaks that immersion with its own problems. Despite those complaints, Outlaws is one of the most stunning representations of Star Wars we’ve ever seen, at least visually, and a game that I learned to love, warts and all.
Not Enough Scoundrels
In Star Wars Outlaws, you play as Kay Vess, a young scoundrel living on the casino world of Canto Bight with dreams of hitting a big score and living life on her own terms. Kay’s traumatic past left her with no family and no one to rely on — except for her adorable companion Nix, an alien creature that’s kind of like a cross between a dog and a pangolin.
This dynamic duo is undoubtedly one of the best elements of Outlaws. Kay is a fantastic addition to the already expansive galaxy — a rogueish character with a heart of gold and obvious parallels to Han Solo who still manages to forge her own unique identity by being funny, witty, and a bit naive. Nix is possibly one of the greatest companion characters in the history of video games. He’s cute, charming, and integral to not just the story but Outlaw’s entire approach to gameplay. A few equally memorable colorful characters the duo them along the way, like the bitingly sarcastic battle droid ND-5.
After a job gone wrong, Kay and Nix sign on with a criminal named Jaylen, and are tasked with scouring the galaxy to build a crew and pull off the biggest heist the Outer Rim has ever seen — robbing a Canto Bight billionaire and crime lord named Sliro.
This setup is the perfect segue into an open world Star Wars game, giving Kay free rein on a handful of planets as she tracks down a cornucopia of slimeballs and criminals. This is a grounded story about personal freedom and finding your place, thankfully devoid of any big moral battles between Jedi and Sith. It’s an approach that feels refreshing, filled with the lighthearted sense of adventure at the core of everything Star Wars.
Nothing Like a Good Blaster
In recent years, Ubisoft’s open worlds, like Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry, have increasingly become “checklists,” giving you an absurd amount of map markers to unveil, quests to tackle, and items to collect. While Star Wars Outlaws still uses that same basic formula, its approach is drastically more exploration-focused. You have general guidance for main quests, but Kay will often have to explore wide areas to find an objective or person, and exploration, in general, can lead to a domino effect of uncovering new things to do. Maybe you lean against the cantina wall and listen in on a conversation, or pick up a datapad while scouring an abandoned outpost. There are so many ways to uncover new quests and details in Outlaws, all of which engross you in the game’s world even further.
To that end, the game’s quest log also separates your objectives into different categories that denote importance: Quests, Intel, Expert Info, and more. Simply wandering around different planets, stumbling upon quests, hunting down treasure, and generally vibing with the world is, by far, my favorite part of Outlaws. Kay can explore both the surface of planets and space around them, which are littered with crafting materials, paint jobs for your vehicles, new clothes, shiny objects Nix loves, and more.
Outlaws absolutely nails the Star Wars aesthetic at every turn, from the grungy junk-ridden streets of Mos Eisley to the swelling orchestral score and sounds of blaster bolts pinging off metal surfaces. The game is at its best when you go at your own pace and soak everything in, and it manages to accentuate this fact with a fascinating ability system.
As Kay explores the four different worlds she can meet “Experts,” all of which have their own dedicated quest. Completing one of these quests will unlock their slot on the ability menu, with each Expert having six skills to unlock. But the fun twist is that these skills are all unlocked through gameplay and meeting specific requirements. For example, to unlock a new ability for Nix, I had to “find six ways to please Nix,” and use him to pickpocket three times. The ability system is smartly designed to help you experiment with different gameplay styles, and it’s a brilliant way of tying Kay’s character development to gameplay mechanics, giving the player more options as she becomes a better scoundrel.
Defying the Odds
Outlaws has a lot of systems working in concert. Those are fun when you can do whatever you want, but the game starts to stumble in some of its minute-to-minute missions and mechanics.
In many ways, Outlaws feels like a space-faring, open-world Uncharted. Outside of all that exploration, you’ll be doing a lot of sneaking, shooting, and platforming. The gunplay and jumping around generally feel good, and those tense shootouts can be fantastic moments that feel like a classic Star Wars adventure.
But what came as a surprise is how stealth heavy Outlaws is, with dozens of story missions tasking you with sneaking into different facilities and often giving you a complete fail if an enemy sounds an alarm. The real problem is that, whether you’re generally a fan of stealth or not, Outlaws’ stealth simply doesn’t feel good. You aren’t given enough options or control, and dull enemy AI constantly makes stealth a case of doing the same thing over and over, whether that’s distracting an enemy with Nix and doing a takedown, waiting for someone’s route to pass by, or hacking to disable a camera. Being able to command Nix to do a variety of actions does add some variety, but some of his more interesting features have to be unlocked through abilities, meaning you won’t have them until very late in the game.
The biggest problem is how so many of the main story missions clash against Outlaws’ whole theme of freedom and exploration. Too often you’re stuck on linear paths, have to find singular puzzle solutions, or dealing with that lackluster stealth mechanic. The actual narrative and story playing out is fun, with some real emotional heft and pulpy action, but the gameplay surrounding all that just consistently falls flat.
Coupled with this is the game’s dynamic crime Syndicate system, which is a great idea on paper but just doesn’t pan out. Kay has a “reputation” with the game’s four main syndicates: the Pykes, Crimson Dawn, Hutt Cartel, and Ashiga Clan. Decisions you make in story and side quests can change your reputation, as can actions like stealing from their territory or shooting their members. A bad reputation means a syndicate will actively work against Kay, you won’t be welcome in their territory, and they’ll even send out hit squads if your reputation is bad enough. A good reputation means you can move freely inside their territory, pick up special contacts, access merchants, and more.
This makes sense in theory, but ultimately your reputation with syndicates does almost nothing to alter the story or how you interact with the world, outside of causing some frustration. Story missions will constantly task you with going into a specific syndicate’s territory (massive portions of the map) and can make even reaching the mission marker a hassle. In one case, I was swarmed by Pyke soldiers after setting foot in their territory and had to spend nearly 20 minutes fighting enemies off before I could activate the quest.
That would be fine if it was integrated into the story in any way, but it’s not. I constantly found myself wishing the syndicate system had more depth to it and didn’t feel so much like an afterthought. There’s the foundation of something really special there, it just needs more development.
A Second Chance
The more time I spent with Kay and Nix, exploring the underworld, the more I grew to love Star Wars Outlaws. Ubisoft has created an experience that grows richer and better the more time you put into it, but there’s always the nagging detractor of the game’s problems. The generic stealth missions constantly drag down the pacing, the syndicate system feels lackluster, and there’s a handful of bugs that I ran into along the way.
What’s amazing is that, despite those issues, I still look fondly on almost all of my time with Outlaws. There are frustrations at every step, but Outlaws wildly succeeds with its big memorable moments and sense of place. Not since Knights of the Old Republic has there been a Star Wars game that feels as vibrant and exciting to simply spend time in. Walking around bustling cities and underworld hubs never got old, especially as I could hear rumors popping up left and right, catch some Imperials giving someone a hard time, or watch a courier frantically trying to reach his destination.
Surprisingly, Outlaws reminds me a lot of Jedi: Fallen Order, a foundation that’s undeniably good and introduces a cast of characters that I already love — but one that could be so much more if it’s given a second chance. I desperately hope Outlaws is given that.
7/10
Star Wars Outlaws releases on August 30 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. Inverse reviewed the game on PC.
INVERSE VIDEO GAME REVIEW ETHOS: Every Inverse video game review answers two questions: Is this game worth your time? Are you getting what you pay for? We have no tolerance for endless fetch quests, clunky mechanics, or bugs that dilute the experience. We care deeply about a game’s design, world-building, character arcs, and storytelling come together. Inverse will never punch down, but we aren’t afraid to punch up. We love magic and science-fiction in equal measure, and as much as we love experiencing rich stories and worlds through games, we won’t ignore the real-world context in which those games are made.
