The first time I hopped on my speeder, I immediately careened straight into a poor unassuming Stormtrooper, sending him sprawling across the screen. This instantly rocketed up my wanted level. Moments later, an entire Imperial garrison was hot on my trail across the hills of Toshara.
Playing Star Wars Outlaws, there was one question that kept popping up every hour: Why haven’t we had more open world Star Wars games? Being able to explore that galaxy far, far away and go anywhere you want is something I’ve wanted for all the decades I’ve been playing video games, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. Because of that fact alone, Outlaws has a lot of expectations riding on it and a lot to live up to as the first true open world Star Wars game.
After experiencing over five hours of Outlaws, it doesn’t feel revolutionary. It’s even a bit rough around the edges. But it undoubtedly nails the most important thing it needed to — making you feel like a part of a fantastical Star Wars galaxy ripe for exploration.
A Beautiful and Complex Star Wars Open World Game
In Star Wars Outlaws you play as Kay Vess, a young scoundrel with dreams of making it big in an underworld thriving under the harsh rule of the Galactic Empire. Kay is accompanied by her diminutive animal companion Nix, with the duo ready to take on every roughneck and criminal in the universe.
Most of my time with Star Wars Outlaws was spent hours into the story, which gave me full access to the open world. I was free to roam around two different planets: the savannah-esque moon of Toshara and the snowy underworld of Kijimi City (first introduced in Rise of Skywalker). On top of this, I had a few chances to blast into space to attempt a few dogfights and search for hidden treasure. Pieces of the game’s main story were interspersed among a cornucopia of open world activities, from tracking down keycards for a valuable vault to playing a few rounds of Sabacc.
What Outlaws gets right, first and foremost, is the aesthetic and general vibe of Star Wars. This is a game world that simply feels like a joy to exist in and roam around, brimming with personality and detail. Ubisoft Massive has done an impeccable job capturing the aesthetic of the original trilogy, with chunky architecture and technology, dozens of weirdo aliens everywhere you look, and a bright and cheerful color palette.
Visually, Outlaws is an absolute treat, and it’s hard to not crack a smile when a sweeping orchestral score kicks in as you blaze over alien planets on your speeder or get in a shootout with a group of bandits. On the most basic level Outlaws appeals to that classic Star Wars fantasy of getting to take part in a living, breathing universe, and it’s effective.
Beyond the visuals, both locations I explored felt unique and distinct, packed with side quests and secrets. Outlaws open world has a lot in common with recent Ubisoft games like The Division 2 or Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. In recent years, Ubisoft open worlds have shifted much more heavily on exploration, and Outlaws feels like the culmination of that pivot.
While there are dedicated side quests to undertake, there’s also a huge emphasis on discoverability. Strolling through a cantina, I was able to lean against a wall and eavesdrop on a conversation, which tipped me off to a hidden door in the market that could lead to some extra treasure. At another point, a shopkeeper told me about a secret high-stakes Sabacc game somewhere nearby. A little digging and questioning led me straight to a hidden room in the cantina where I played a few rounds of the surprisingly fun minigame that feels like a Star Wars twist on poker fused with Yahtzee.
Outlaws’ journal, where you keep track of quests, has an entire section for “Intel,” which are these rumors and little bits of info that you learn as you explore. You can choose to follow up on any of these at any time, and all of this is in addition to side quests and faction quests. That’s where the other major open world element comes in: crime syndicates.
There are four major syndicates operating in the world of Outlaws: the Hutt Cartel, the Pyke Syndicate, Crimson Dawn, and the Ashiga Clan. Kay has a reputation with each, and that reputation determines how they treat you (it also ripples out into how you interact with the entire open world). It’s an ambitious system that could be extremely interesting, in theory, but a big part of that will be how it plays out across the entire game.
For example, at one point I had to find a part to upgrade my blaster with an ion pulse. The easiest way to do that was to steal it from a syndicate. Because of decisions I’d made in previous quests I had a high standing with Crimson Dawn. This allowed me to walk right into their base and lift the part I needed when no one was looking. Alternatively, I could have used stealth to venture into the Pyke base and eliminate guards.
Kays’ reputation seems like it plays directly into the story, determining what quests you can undertake and how certain events play out. But again, five hours of playtime simply isn’t enough to see how it’s really implemented.
I can also already see how this system could quickly get frustrating. As I explored Toshara, I found myself under attack from any group of Pyke soldiers that I ran across, constantly throwing me into battles I didn’t want when I was trying to tackle objectives. Outlaws is going to need to strike a delicate balance for these systems to really work.
Generic Gameplay Holds Back Star Wars Outlaws — With One Exception
While the open world elements of Outlaws felt immersive and dynamic, they sometimes clashed against the nuts and bolts of its gameplay and story. That fantastic sense of exploration and discovery is juxtaposed against a third-person shooter that simply feels “fine.”
The minute-to-minute gameplay of Outlaws resembles your average generic shooter with a Star Wars coat of paint. There’s a surprising emphasis on stealth in Outlaws, with story and side missions alike constantly tasking you with sneaking around. As someone who doesn’t particularly enjoy stealth, I found a lot of these forced missions obtuse (this is more the Assassin’s Creed style of stealth, and less like Splinter Cell). Outlaws also often falls back on a timing-based lock-picking minigame and a computer hacking minigame, which both feel frustrating and drag down the game’s pacing.
The one bright spot is Kay’s adorable companion Nix, who opens up a wealth of gameplay opportunities. Nix is essentially your Swiss Army Knife, a tool that can do just about everything you need. You can command him to crawl through vents and open doors, distract guards by playing dead, retrieve items and weapons, and even attack enemies in the heat of battle. Having Nix distract a guard and then pick up a grenade launcher so I can let loose on the room is brilliant. It’s the one gameplay element in Outlaws that felt inspired. but I’m not sure if it’s enough.
I can’t shake how generic a lot of Outlaws’ gameplay moments feel, even when it comes to space exploration. It’s fantastic to be able to move seamlessly from a planet to space, but once you’re out in the vast field of stars, the only things to do are find floating bits of treasure and engage in dogfights that, once again, simply feel fine. Like the third-person shooting mechanics, ship battles are mechanically satisfying but lack punch.
More than anything, I’m worried about how the two halves of Outlaws are going to mesh — how the linear story sections and dynamic open world will blend together. Based on my demo, Outlaws feels like two different games in one. I’d like something more seamless.
There are pieces here that I absolutely love. Nix is an ingenious sidekick that’s both adorable and satisfying to use, the open world genuinely feels dynamic and interesting, an astounding aesthetic, and fun emergent moments like my run-in with the Imperials. But mixed into all of that is rote and generic shooting and platforming, a syndicate system that could be too intrusive, and it feels janky and buggy in a lot of areas. Part of me feels like Outlaws is simply trying to do too much at one time and being too ambitious with its systems.
But at the end of the day, Star Wars Outlaws has a universe that I’m dying to explore and sink hours into. I can’t wait to find every little nook and cranny, play Sabacc for hours on end, and see how a scoundrel-focused story plays out. It’s a Star Wars game that gives you the freedom to do what you want, and maybe that’s enough.
