STAR WARS OUTLAWS Review

When the news that Ubisoft's Star Wars Outlaws will be an "open-world third-person action game" first broke out, one couldn't help but make associations with the Assassin's Creed series. And the truth is that, at the gameplay core of this Star Wars venture, we can find several obvious AC elements, which make their appearance from the game's first moments. In fact, I'd say most of these elements are reminiscent of the older, pure action games of the series, rather than the last main releases that are essentially Witcher-like RPGs.

But leaving these thoughts aside, Outlaws remains notable as essentially the first truly open-world Star Wars game. This obviously excludes the occasional Star Wars MMORPG, but also the KOTOR games which you might be ready to raise as a counter-argument, as the latter allowed planetary exploration but on too limited a scale to be considered fully open-world.

Chronologically, Outlaws takes place right after the events of Empire Strikes Back, so we're at the core of good old Star Wars, with all that this entails (Empire, Rebels, etc., etc.). As tradition dictates in any Star Wars product more or less, Outlaws needs a central protagonist, a sidekick, and a ship. The protagonist in this case is Kay Vess, a 22-year-old scoundrel from the planet Canto Bight, which you may remember as the "casino planet" in The Last Jedi. Kay was abandoned by her mother (also a notorious thief in her time) at a young age, which had a profound effect on her and shaped her worldview and her need to survive. In this light, the game's prologue finds her ready to attempt a lucrative heist which, if successful, will make her life free and easy. Expectedly, of course, these things are rarely completed successfully and without incident.

The sidekick is Nix, a creature belonging to the merqaals species (but let's be honest, he's a cat-dog) and who is Kay's best friend. Aside from companionship, Nix also provides Kay with his valuable skills, as he is able to steal things from unsuspecting NPCs, sniff out treasures or other points of interest, interact with objects in the environment (buttons, levers, etc.) and reach places Kay can't, and more. Many of the obstacles encountered in the world cannot be overcome without Nix's assistance, making the use of his skills an integral part of the gameplay.

The ship is the Trailblazer, a super-rare relic from the Clone Wars era (it's mentioned in the game that the ship is the last of its kind that hasn't been sent for scrap yet) which, after the game's prologue, ends up under Kay's control. And which, predictably, we use during the game for our star adventures. It should also be mentioned that inside the Trailblazer Kay finds a Speeder Bike which she can use for speedy open-world navigation.

I have to say that Kay as the protagonist, her dialogues and her voice acting left me with mixed feelings. There were inspired moments where everything worked flawlessly, with Kay saying the right things and in the right manner, to the point where you fully identify with whatever drama she's going through. But there are plenty of other instances where the protagonist literally talks like an idiot, as if she's a 20-year-old valley girl placed in the Star Wars world trying to communicate in modern expressions and trying to act tough or smart.

This choice may have been made deliberately by the developers in order to make younger audiences identify more easily with her, or it may be purely a failure on behalf of the writing team. Either way, if the devs' goal was to create a female Han Solo or something like that then they failed miserably, as Kay doesn't have even 1% of the raw charisma that the legendary scoundrel had.

Coming back to the gameplay, during Outlaws we visit 5 planets (and some other locations, mostly space stations, in the context of the main story): Canto Bight, Toshara (an arid planet that makes its first appearance in the SW universe), Kijimi (an ice planet, first appearing in Rise of Skywalker), Akiva (a tropical jungle, part of the canon since some 2015 novels), plus good old Tatooine. Of course in the case of Canto Bight and Kijimi the area of action is a city essentially rather than a wider area of the planet, so the open-world nature of the game isn't 100% universal across all locations. In addition to "land-based" exploration, the action also takes place in the space around planets, as part of the Space Exploration/Combat portion of the game.

It is worth noting that the environments of the planets, both inside and outside the atmosphere, are simply beautiful. We've known the capabilities of Snowdrop Engine that Massive Entertainment has been using since The Division and in the recent Avatar game, and once again the devs have outdone themselves. You really can have a good time in Outlaws just by riding around the countryside on your Speeder Bike and gazing at the scenery.

The main action takes place in the aforementioned AssassinsCreedy manner: navigating in exclusively third-person perspective, exploring, locating points of interest on the open world (which usually lead to a quest, cosmetic item or crafting resources), fighting guards and underworld thugs, using stealth (which is implemented in a rather rudimentary manner of course, relying more on line of sight and proximity and less on light or sound), climbing up heights and other obstacles like a real Space Ezio, and completing quests. Obviously, as a purely Action title with no particular RPG elements, there are no options in Kay's dialogues with NPCs, nor real choices in quests (with some exceptions that will be pointed out), nor is there any XP to be gained or other player stats that can be raised. Also, as a typical Ubisoft open-world game, there are various optional activities we can pursue around the world: Sabacc games (with new rules, not the ones you might remember from KOTOR), gambling on space horse races ("fathier racing" is the proper term, but we all know it's just horse racing), or Arcade games!

At the core of the story and gameplay are 5 Crime Syndicates, 4 of which we can complete Contracts for. These are available from each Syndicate's Brokers and are the most common and straightforward missions in the game. They are grouped according to their objective into Theft, Smuggling, Infiltration and Enforcement, and can respectively involve stealing an item (from the Empire, from pirates, or from another Syndicate), typical fetch quests (some of which are timed!), infiltrating an outpost, or attacking another Syndicate. Obviously there are other kinds of quests in Outlaws, more complex, with more extensive background and involving more NPCs, but Contracts are the easiest way for a self-respecting scoundrel to earn money.

In addition to Imperial Credits, as a reward for each Contract we also receive Reputation to the respective Syndicate. This has 5 grades, ranging from Terrible (banned entry to areas controlled by the Syndicate, bad prices from merchants under its control, and kill squads dispatched to eliminate Kay) to Excellent (free entry to areas, better prices from merchants, access to the most lucrative Contracts, and exclusive Cosmetic Items). It is in these Contracts that we find the majority of available quest choices, as at the end of each one we have the option to either stick to the Contract, earning money and Rep towards the Syndicate that assigned it to us, or betray them and benefit a rival Syndicate, earning Rep towards them but losing Rep with those who assigned the job.

It is clear that Syndicate Rep is completely fluid and being on an Excellent level all the time with everyone is not necessary, nor does it provide any particular and irreplaceable benefit. In other words, Syndicates are simply situational employers and not some sort of Faction that the player aligns with and follows until the game's finale. It is therefore suggested that we should at all times mainly work with the Syndicate that offers us the most money, and only worry about our Rep when it falls particularly low so we can do some contracts to raise it (unless of course someone wants to reach Excellent rep with a Syndicate in order to unlock all cosmetics).

Being at the heart of the Galactic Civil War, it is clear that the Empire has more or less a presence on all planets. Stormtroopers patrol the urban centers, Scout Troopers on Speeder Bikes ride around the countryside, Recruitment Officers try to lure would-be soldiers with promises of fortune and glory in the Emperor's service, small or large Imperial outposts are scattered across the world, and TIE Fighters patrol the outer space. In this context, there is a separate "Wanted" system in Outlaws that deals exclusively with crimes against the Empire. Once we get noticed by the Imperials (by infiltrating an area under their control, tripping an alarm, or coming into direct armed confrontation with Stormtroopers or TIE Fighters), reinforcements arrive to eliminate us, and roadblocks are set up in the open world to hinder our movement. In the highest Wanted level, elite Death Troopers arrive on the scene to eliminate us with prejudice. There are of course ways to reset our Wanted level. Simply by keeping a low profile until the pursuit ceases, by bribing a corrupt officer, by hacking a terminal on the Imperial bases (or interacting with a satellite in space), or by eliminating the Death Troopers on our trail.

The above open-world gameplay elements and map exploration are further enhanced by other random events that may occur around the world. It was a lot of fun, for example, to explore in space and suddenly receive an SOS message from a Freighter being attacked by pirates or the Empire, with the option to help it. Or, similarly, intercepting an Imperial message that Stormtroopers are fighting pirates a little further away, offering you the ability to get close to the battlefield and loot rare resources. The above, combined with some excellent action setpieces as part of the main plot and with the very nature of the game as an open-world Star Wars title, are some of the main things I loved about Star Wars Outlaws.

Indeed, given that the action is set right after Episode V, Outlaws is probably the closest thing to a Star Wars playground we've received in a game so far. I'm not ashamed to admit that I spent an unacceptably long time wandering around Tatooine trying to locate sites and references to the events of A New Hope, with the expected chills when I finally arrived at the (rendered with incredible fidelity to the film) ruins of Luke's farm, the Mos Eisley cantina, or Jabba the Hutt's palace where we can prominently find Han Solo enclosed in carbonite. Some of the more memorable quests also involve aspects of the wider SW Lore, such as the quest chain of a Separatist Droid stranded on Akiva decades after the Clone Wars, still trying desperately to complete its mission and report back to General Grievous.

Other things I liked include the complete absence of microtransactions (all of the game's cosmetics for Kay, her Blaster, Nix, the Trailblazer and the Speeder are unlocked in-game just by playing and exploring), the fact that I encountered very few bugs, that all QTEs and other mini-games (as well as highlighted climbing points) can be completely disabled from the settings menu, and finally, that throughout the entire game, I did not encounter A SINGLE JEDI REFERENCE. The latter especially is a major triumph, as the Star Wars universe is usually so creatively bankrupt that sooner or later all ventures in it ended up directly or indirectly involving Jedi, but not this time.

Inevitably, of course, not everything in Outlaws is so smooth and rosy. Despite the plethora of impressive features, it becomes clear that several of these are implemented in an uneven (such as Kay's performance, as mentioned above) or even potentially off-putting manner. Chief among these is the AI, which at times approaches the levels of hilarity seen in Cyberpunk 2077 when it first released. For example, as in the original CP so too in Outlaws, NPC speeder bike drivers in the open world follow scripted routes and are thus unable to overtake obstacles, so if we happen to leave our speeder somewhere in the middle of the road then we'll soon see a queue of speeders forming behind our vehicle, waiting for when we get out of the way so they can continue their scripted course.

Similarly uneven and awkward instances are also present in the game's stealth aspect, where for example sometimes (but mostly in the open world, and surprisingly not during main missions that take place indoors) the enemy guards do not react if they come across the corpse of a colleague we have already killed or stunned, and just continue their patrol. Or, in the same spirit, it very often happens that we exchange gunfire with 2-3 stormtroopers, and just 30 meters away 2 others do not even notice the commotion and continue their patrol unconcerned. The above may not be particularly game-breaking, but it does something potentially worse: it completely ruins immersion for the player.

There are other striking flaws in the open-world sector, which in the end is rather what we would call "vast as an ocean, deep as a puddle". Some previews had described Outlaws as "Red Dead Redemption in space", which is NOT true IN ANY CASE. There is not nearly the interactivity in Outlaws that there was in RDR. You can't, for example, just walk into a city and start shooting civilians or Stormtroopers (who within urban centers are rather ornamental and just walk around to look pretty). You can't interact with the fauna - aside from 2-3 species that are hostile to us, most animals exist on the map almost exclusively as... obstacles to the speeder. There is no variety in vehicles beyond the single default speeder, nor can you, for example, threaten an NPC driver with a weapon and steal his speeder, even temporarily. For some inexplicable reason we can't even fire the blaster while driving the speeder, UNLESS we accumulate enough Adrenaline (a meter that increases as we take fire or perform dangerous maneuvers) in which case a feature that is essentially the Dead Eye from RDR or VATS from the newer Fallout is activated, allowing us to target some enemies in slow motion.

I was also annoyed by the, ultimately, rather optional nature of stealth in the game, except when a mission (mainly during the main plot) directly requires it, but even in these cases 9 out of 10 times a scripted alarm will eventually be triggered automatically and the also scripted shooting will start. Even in side-quests though, if you go full stealth and manage to completely ghost a mission, you don't gain anything extra in terms of rewards or rep etc compared to rushing in with blasters and wiping everyone out in 1 minute. Which ultimately ends up being infinitely more convenient as a practice, just being careful that no enemy triggers the alarm (again, except in circumstances where the objective directly tells you "don't get caught").

In the context of stealth, let me also mention how incredibly stupid it seems that Kay can silently take down a Stormtrooper by punching his helmet-covered head. This is yet another completely absurd element that fully breaks immersion. There are other "tough" enemies in the game, such as certain droids or Jabba's Gamorrean guards, who cannot be taken down unless we have crafted a stun rod first. I think this should have been applied to all Stormtroopers as well, which would fully enhance their threatening presence, but also promote the usefulness of stealth.

I don't know if any of the above are possibly due to a bug or will be fixed after the game's official release on the 30th, but most of them like the occasional shallowness of the open-world gameplay are probably here to stay. This shallowness has also affected some unexpected areas, such as the game's Photo Mode where, despite the possibility for extensive custom modification of the "camera", there are only 2-3 preset filters, unlike the dozens available in RDR2 or Cyberpunk (whose excellent Photo Mode even allowed changing the protagonist's pose, which is obviously not an option here).

Overall, Outlaws is a pretty uneven experience, lacking in areas that shouldn't be an issue in a game that promotes itself as an open-world action game in 2024, and published by a company with billions in revenue. And it's a legitimate question as to why this is the case. Was the release pushed forward for some reason, at the expense of content? And, if so, what extra features were planned that were ultimately cut? Is there any hope of them being added in the future?

The above photo from Tatooine of course might be able to make all of the above seem insignificant. And that's probably the essence of this review: despite the shortcomings mentioned in the gameplay, there's no way a Star Wars fan (like myself, admittedly) won't have a good time with Outlaws. The main story alone is worth a playthrough (it takes about 30 hours to complete, plus another 30 hours or more for someone who wants to explore everything and do all the sidequests), and the planetary and space rides occasionally reward the player with memorable instances. We're just left with a "what a shame" feeling in the end: the conditions are indeed there so that we could be talking about a "Red Dead Redemption in space", but instead we're just stuck with "a beautiful Star Wars open-world playground". It's clearly up to the players whether or not that's enough.

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