Review: Star Wars Outlaws Keeps Things Fresh and Familiar

Over the years, Star Wars video games have become their own institution separate from and adjacent to the source material. The massive multimedia franchise offers a wide range of playstyles ranging from RPGs, a variety of first and third person shooters, Lego platforming games, and even an ongoing MMORPG. However, the franchise was missing a proper open-world experience. Or at least it was before the arrival of Star Wars Outlaws, a full-fledged scoundrel adventure game spanning a galaxy far, far away.

Star Wars Outlaws is the first open-world game available featuring the Star Wars extended universe. This third person shooter adventure puts players in the role of Kay Vess, a fledgling scoundrel accompanied by her alien mascot Nix. After two failed attempts at her big break in the criminal underworld of Canto Bight, she gets thrust into a galaxy-wide underbelly world of intrigues, backstabbing, political alliances, where the powerful and influential have a lot to lose and everyone else has a lot to gain. With a reputation following Kay, a new and flashy spaceship in tow, and a death mark from the head of the biggest crime syndicate himself on her back, the scoundrel must now find a way to survive in a ruthless galaxy and make a credit or two in the process.

After a brisk and exciting prologue setting the events of the game in march, Kay Vess lands in the planet of Toshara, where she needs to get her act together and start acting as a true criminal and trickster. The first few main quests in the game introduce the players to the structure of the game and its main draw— the aforementioned open-world. While the first planet offers a vast expanse, the always accessible speeder allows for these big open areas to feel easy to cover. The focus is always on exploring and finding points of interest in the map, whether it be interconnected and detailed city hubs, settlements, caves, or Imperial bases to sneak into and get a hold of rare parts and materials.

What I found most interesting about Star Wars Outlaws is that it felt like games I’ve already played, but never before for a Star Wars title. Different parts of other titles combine to make something exciting. The main gameplay loop lies in semi-linear missions, third person action, and free-form exploration. On top of it all you have a healthy dose of stealth-action, some light roleplaying elements and decision making, and even some space travel elements added to the mix. Star Wars Outlaws doesn’t reinvent the open-world, but it adds layers of genres you’re familiar with to make for a fun theme-park ride that keeps itself fresh for long enough to captivate, but not to much that it bores or distracts from what makes the game enjoyable.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the game is how reactive the world felt to my choices. Throughout both main story missions and other various contracts and side quests, Kay has the chance to ally herself or favor the four major crime syndicates that appear in the game, these being Crimson Dawn, the Pyke Syndicate, the Hutt Cartel, and the Ashiga Clan. During my time in Toshara I spent plenty of time favoring Crimson Dawn over rivals, which led to my reputation following me when I traveled to other planets.

The narrative of the game is mostly linear, meaning that the game only allows for some decisions to truly alter the world of Star Wars Outlaws. Despite that, the Reputation system of the game stands out for its interesting gameplay repercussions. If your stand with any of the crime syndicates is good, you’ll have it easier to get inside their home turfs both inside cities and in the open world areas. Meanwhile, a bad reputation means getting worse deals from their merchants, or even being persecuted and blacklisted if you mess with them too much. I like how this meld with both side content and main story quests, as you will often need to have a different approach to complete objectives depending on who you favor and who you betray for plenty of occasions.

This is different when it comes to the Galactic Empire, as they have no interest in making friends. Instead, the Empire and its iconic Stormtroopers act as the Wanted system in this game. If you cause too much trouble to them, the Empire will put a bounty on you that you can only clear by staying off their nose for long enough. Unless you max out your bounty, in which case they will deploy a full manhunt for Kay. I met this instance twice, in which I had to go to a Death Trooper camp and delete my record from their files to clear my name. While this sounds daunting, the manhunts are a good spectacle and show of might for the Empire, deploying an inordinate amount of war machinery against a single person. Fortunately for Kay and for the player, clearing your name is not too difficult or intrusive, and it made for very cool highlights of my galactic hijinks.

The events of Star Wars Outlaws are set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, allowing the Rebel Alliance and Force-sensitive characters to take a step back in the narrative and allow the criminal syndicates to take center stage. Star Wars hasn’t been historically great at allowing non-Force sensitive characters to take the spotlight, which is why I loved being able to soak in the more mundane and down to earth world of Outlaws, with its common folks trying to make a quick credit and its more unsavory fellas waiting to double cross you at the drop of a hat.

Some colorful and interesting characters complete the roster of the game, with the Clone Wars-era ND-5 battle droid being a standout with his sexy long coat. While he’s a great crew member, I wish he had gotten a bit more gameplay participation than just being your handler and your guy on comms, as he’s always a great presence to have. Likewise, Sliro and his Zerek Besh crime syndicate are an interesting addition and offer great tension throughouth the course of the game. Aside from them, the adorable Nix is your mainstay partner. Nix is great fun and acts as both great comic relief as well as a great gameplay element. Nix can fetch items for Kay or distract them during stealth, as well as attack enemies to blind them in the fray of combat. Using him to open vents or complete platforming puzzles always felt fun and quick.

Other gameplay elements that changed the experience somewhat noticeable were the varied costumes, tokens, and collectibles. Almost everything you collect has a gameplay purpose, and with exploring feeling fast and engaging every aspect of Star Wars Outlaws felt rewarding. It helps that both the various planets available in the game and their corresponding surrounding space areas are absolutely stunning and filled with unique looking vistas. Some maps like Akiva or Tatooine can feel vast and their scope too big, but the speeder and some smart fast travel points make them very easily accessible. Meanwhile, planets like Kijimi focus on a maze-like single city and hiding things at every corner.

With an oversaturated market for open-world games, Star Wars Outlaws keeps things varied, fast-paced, and constantly rewarding. Developers at Massive Entertainment focused on variety and quality over quantity, and didn’t skimp on visual spectacle. There is always something for Kay Vess and her Trailblazer crew to do, whether it be treasure to find, some gang territory to sneak into and rob, an Imperial space base to assault, or even some card games to play. For a true space scoundrel there is no limit in the galaxy.

Star Wars Outlaws will release for the Playstation 5, Xbox Series X, and Windows PC via Ubisoft Connect on August 30, 2024.