Star Wars Outlaws Review

Many Star Wars games pull in the same direction, focusing on either Jedi or Force-sensitive characters. Using the Force makes sense and provides an avenue for skill progression. We have seen it via the acrobatic lightsaber combat in Jedi Outcast, the storied encounters with the Sith in Knights of the Old Republic, and the rise of a padawan in the recent Jedi: Survivor. Star Wars Outlaws goes in a different direction, swapping out the typical Luke Skywalker type for a protagonist that is more like Han Solo. As a third-person action game, players explore big worlds on a hover bike, take contracts from criminal syndicates in bustling cities, sneak into Imperial outposts, and blast pirate ships out of orbit. Despite the lack of traditional lightsaber combat, the combination is effective and entertaining, aided by great presentation. But Outlaws is not flawless, due to humdrum stealth and action, and minor gameplay quirks.

Nix is the perfect partner in crime

Kay Vess is the hero for this new adventure. She was raised as a thief and left to fend for herself at a young age, and players are treated to a sprinkling of predictable flashbacks that reveal more. Her companion is an exotic animal called Nix, who she rescued. Not only is Nix insanely cute but he can be ordered to steal and distract guards. Despite Kay’s kleptomaniac tendencies, she is likable due to a steely resolve, humor, and her victims being either criminals or the evil Empire. But Kay gets into strife when she tries to break into the safe of a wealthy gang leader. She barely escapes, and somehow steals the leader’s rare spaceship. This results in her receiving a death mark that bounty hunters across the galaxy will jump to collect. The only way to remove this mark is to steal a bigger score from the same gang leader, but this time she’ll need experts to make sure the job is done right.

As Kay travels across worlds looking for help, she’ll come across many unscrupulous individuals. Some are aware of her bounty and try to cash in, resulting in an unpredictable narrative with double-crosses. Many initially promising heist candidates end up dead, either at the hands of Kay, another bounty hunter, or some alien creature when things go catastrophically pear shaped. A few characters serve as brief acquaintances that allow Kay to access improvements by completing basic challenges, to increase health, unlock gadgets, or expand Nix’s capabilities. The story benefits greatly by jumping through so many characters, as it keeps things fresh and there is no need to spend forever earning one person’s trust. The downside is that you will quickly learn not to get attached. And characters that are part of the final heist team are not always well developed.

There are four worlds that players can explore freely, once that stolen ship is back in shipshape condition. Three worlds have large open areas that are navigated by zipping around on a customizable hovering Speeder bike that is fun to drive. The open landscapes have hidden caches, remote settlements, roaming animals, bandit camps, and zones occupied by either the suspicious Empire or crime syndicates (aka factions). The world is peppered with basic platforming obstacles, some requiring metroidvania tools—typically Kay’s multifunctional blaster. While there is plenty to do, the worlds are unnecessarily large and fairly sparse, with not enough fast travel spots and too many indirect traversal routes.

Worlds are large but the Speeder is fun to drive

Each world has a main city hub that is a complex urban area. These can be a little confusing to navigate, especially the introductory one that has multiple tiers and many similar corners. Each city contains dark alleys harboring mysterious traders, gambling dens to play Sabacc (a surprisingly fun card game), shady brokers offering risky smuggling contracts, unique characters looking for lost droids, and lifelong criminals who want to hire Kay as a thief and hacker.

Four vying criminal factions need Kay’s skills. Their optional tasks include stealing valuable intel, hacking Empire terminals, and sabotaging opposing structures. At the end of a quest, there is a binary choice that awards one of two factions with the fruits of Kay’s labor, boosting her reputation. Opting to go against the faction that provided the quest may result in better monetary compensation, but could boost reputation less. Since all factions are up to no good, players are free to choose based on their moral disposition, whether that means remaining loyal or disliking particular characters. While it is possible to keep all factions on good terms, it is hard because most choices shift a heavy chunk of rep from one to another.

There are tangible benefits for keeping a faction happy. Friendly gangs will let you walk into their territory so you can trade, pick up more contracts, or just get quicker access to the restricted areas containing goodies. Help them enough and they will send you gifts, in the form of clothing that helps in combat or sneaking. If reputation with a faction drops too low, they’ll attack on sight. If you infiltrate their territory and kill a battalion of soldiers, reputation only drops a fraction, so it takes a lot of aggressive behavior to make them hate you enough to send groups that hunt you down. Since factions are involved in main story quests, reputation remains in flux and this helps to create an interesting dynamic world.

Sneaking has most of the basics covered

Many encounters, with factions or the Empire, will begin in stealth. Sometimes remaining hidden is forced; you cannot use weapons in cities and certain missions will fail if Kay is detected. Nix’s abilities mean that sneaking around is a bit like in Watch_Dogs, as the lovable critter can remotely disable alarms, trigger explosives, steal grenades, or just pretend to die to lure a guard to a quiet corner. Then Kay can either perform a silent melee takedown, use the single-shot stun on her pistol, or just walk on. One cool ability is being able to fast-talk guards when detected, which provides a small window of opportunity to gun them down mercilessly.

Stealth works okay because there are usually multiple routes to destinations. But sneaking about only becomes really enjoyable when the level structure and enemy patrols are in sync. There are some good infiltrations of Empire facilities, but most other places have fairly loose setups. Regardless, stealth is quite easy and shallow, with no way to move bodies and limited gadgetry. It is a pity that Ubisoft did not emulate Splinter Cell: Blacklist, especially because the AI in Outlaws comes up short. Patrolling guards do the bare minimum and occasionally stop thinking. Their actions are also inconsistent, ignoring Kay when she’s standing in front of them or spotting her hair curls from 100 paces. Once detected, you can hide and wait for the guards to catch amnesia, or decide to expedite proceedings by blasting away.

Direct action is a little clunky but, like stealth, it is mostly effective. Many story missions actually end with full-on action, as Kay inevitably triggers an alarm or is betrayed again (which gets tiring). Kay only carries one weapon: a pistol blaster that has three fire modes, including an ion shock that works great against droids. The AI has just as many problems in battle, including crashing into each other on speeder bikes and endlessly spawning from a tiny room. In combat, Kay gains adrenaline that, when full, can slow time and tag enemies for instant elimination, like the Mark and Execute feature in Splinter Cell Conviction—this is also the only way to shoot pursuing enemies while riding the Speeder. While shooting works okay, Kay’s actions are not always smooth; she often aims wrong when peeking out from cover, and gets caught on obstacles when moving around the battlefield.

Some of the heavy guns are a blast

To change the tide of battle, additional weapons can be picked up for temporary use. All of these are much better killing machines than the default pistol, so hunting them down is worth taking a few stray blaster shots to the head. Each weapon has limited ammo and is forcefully dropped when climbing up ladders or going inside vents, which is annoying. It is a shame the game did not employ a more traditional arsenal of around four weapons, each with upgrades and ammo types, as it would have perfectly suited the gameplay and still allowed the pistol to shine.

Additional action and exploration is available in orbit around planets. These zones feature asteroids, dust clouds, ship wreckage, and maybe a lively space station that you can land on and explore for more contracts. Smuggling quests may require the collection of goods from orbit to be transferred elsewhere, disabling fast-travel for extra challenge. Floating caches provide materials to upgrade the ship much like the Speeder bike. There are space battles in the main story and contracts often involve run-ins with space pirates. Dogfighting is like other games where it is not the most crucial feature, such as in Starfield, and that means getting dizzy as you turn and turn while chasing those red markers.

The space backdrops are pretty

With a huge army of developers at Ubisoft, it is not surprising that Outlaws looks great. It is extremely authentic to the first three movies from the ‘70s and ‘80s, and similar to DICE’s outstanding visual efforts with their Battlefront games. The open world areas look nice, from windswept valleys on one planet to the jungle on another. The cities are impressively detailed and full of life, with places to overhear conversations that begin quests. It is so great to mosey down the streets of Mos Eisley, past bizarre animals and space junk, before speeding off towards Jabba’s palace for another contract. Even the quaint Japanese-inspired Kijimi city provides good contrast with its intimate snowy alleyways. Infiltrating imperial bases is also a highlight, with shiny interiors full of retro terminals and tiny cleaning robots that scurry about. Most of the alien races and creatures look fantastic too, although it is ironic that humans tend to look alien, possibly due to their stiff facial expressions.

Audio helps the setting tremendously, with familiar droid beeps, pew-pew blaster fire, hums from the Speeder bike, and a wonderful thick ambience inside the many different Cantinas. The music score sits on the periphery of the official one by John Williams, and it differentiates itself with an Old West twang that suits the criminal undertones. No matter where you go and what you do, it regularly feels like you’ve just stepped onto a huge movie set and fans of the first three movies will definitely appreciate it.

Fortunately the game is in a decent technical state. Although max settings will require a killer PC, it ran well on mostly high with upscaling tech. The deserted plains of Tatooine did run significantly better than the jungle planet though. Aside from the aforementioned bugs relating to AI and movement, no quest bugs or serious glitches were observed. It did crash twice over 30 hours though, but at least it saves fairly often.

Come for Jabba, stay for Sabacc

Star Wars Outlaws proves that crime does pay, assuming you can deftly navigate the criminal underworld in a galaxy far, far away. It all starts with a likable hero who crosses paths with volatile characters in an effort to clear her name. Balancing faction reputation is satisfying and results in tangible changes to the world. Stealth works okay with the help of the wonderful Nix, and full-on combat is simple enough to enjoy in spurts. It is also nice that the game looks and sounds fantastic, with a fairly solid technical base. So if you light up at the thought of a criminally infused Star Wars with none of those silly glowing swords then Outlaws might be right up your alley.