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Developer (Platform): Massive Entertainment (Xbox Series X)
Publisher (Release): Ubisoft (2024)
Length: 20-30 hours (if you ignore a ton of content)
Genres: Open-World; Sci-Fi; Fantasy; Action; Adventure
❗️Disclaimers❗️:
minimal violence
this review contains low-level spoilers
recommendation: must play
👍 Pros 👍
Curated locations are packed to the brim with nooks and crannies to explore
Slow burning but emotionally poignant story
Astoundingly beautiful landscapes
👎 Cons 👎
Character animations are a bit clunky
Simple mechanics just satisfy while never shaking the feeling that something is missing
Technical issues from the minimal to near game breaking show too early a release
👀 Synopsis & Trailer 👀
Marked with death, scoundrel and thief Kay Vess sets her sights on the mother-load of credits, enough to buy her way to freedom and out of the boiling underbelly of criminal syndicates she needs to grease to her favour. Scouring the galaxy, Kay will need a colourful and capable crew, all the while watching her back for the knives they might try to pull along the way.
🛎️ Introduction 🛎️
Star Wars: Outlaws kicks off slowly, leaning hard on the gorgeous sights and distinct franchise aesthetics to drive the player from its opening to the wider and wondrous worlds awaiting beyond. Set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi from The Original Trilogy, Outlaws revels in the cutthroat galactic order to weave a personal and surprisingly emotional tale of abandonment, betrayal, and, ultimately, hope.
🧩 Plots 🧩
Outlaws doesn’t blast off so much as pop, instilling a little bit of worry in me as I wondered how it would make its mark in a franchise full of big, bold moments, and, it doesn’t…
…but that’s not the worst thing. Instead, we’re treated to a more grounded, Han Solo-esque jaunt through a galaxy suffering under the Empire and the Rebellion it’s contending with, using it and the game’s crime syndicates to show a layman’s view of these big groups wreaking havoc for control over the people whose lives they destroy during the struggle. It’s a surprisingly insightful look from viewpoints that aren’t the traditional heroes and villains.
Outside looking in…
That said, Outlaws does have some boisterous moments that take full advantage of the expansive worlds Massive have painstakingly created, leading to some satisfyingly epic scenes that scratch the need for something bigger without sacrificing their focus on a more contained adventure.
Watch your back for knives
That adventure is expertly layered, silently building the blocks needed to shock the player with an emotionally punchy experience that, while lacking a strong overall driving force, tells an engaging drama imbued with all the charm and heart that made The Original Trilogy so timeless.
‘…imbued with all the charm and heart that made The Original Trilogy so timeless.’
🎭 Characters 🎭
Helming a colourful cast of bandits and rogues, Kay Vess and loyal, lovable, must-be-protected-at-all-costs companion Nix make a similar entry that the slow opener does. I struggled to connect with Kay initially, her brash and often selfish attitude at odds with a blank personality outside of those traits. Nix provides the cute, non-human sidekick that’s an easy win with most people, but it’s not enough to carry an open-world game.
Dynamic duo
Thankfully, it doesn’t have to, and, while Kay’s development is a slow burner, it’s a worthy one that’s emotionally poignant. A blank slate with a single-minded focus to start slowly cracks as the story progresses, portraying a powerfully flawed individual whose pain has been inflicted on her by those she cares about most. The selfishness and lack of interest in bigger causes is well shown and supported, building a truly lovable rogue by the end that players won’t be able to help themselves but root for.
Places to be; people to meet
Supporting characters serve more to push Kay’s development along than standing strong in their own arcs, but enough colour is added to make them welcome additions to the adventure with some cameos sprinkled in to ignite nostalgia in longterm fans.
‘…a colourful cast of bandits and rogues…’
👾 Gameplay and Graphics 👾
Outlaws revels in its open-world genre, utilising the rich tapestry of the Star Wars franchise to collate a vibrant but controlled array of landscapes to explore. Seriously, the game is packed to the brim with places to go and things to do, and all of it is fun. One thing the developers absolutely nail – and is a near requirement of any game of its ilk – is the sheer sense of adventure and rewarding the player for their curiosity.
Rudimentary stealth and third-person shooting compliment exploration with surprising flexibility that just isn’t enough to hide the underbaked mechanics. Outlaws feels like Horizon Zero Dawn and Metal Gear Solid were meshed and simplified, with some satisfying gameplay moments peppered with some obvious omissions (like being able to drag/hide bodies during stealth).
Soak in the views when you’re not infiltrating Imperial bases
Missing mechanics aside, Outlaws and its jaw-droppingly gorgeous graphics don’t rely on style alone, packing in a Wanted system and Faction reputations that really make you think about how best to approach situations or resolve the jobs you decide to take on. Design choices like jumping from the journal to the map at the click of a button and an ability tree that requires you to master old skills to progress into new ones are only two of the thoughtful decisions that help create an overall smooth experience that layers the more you play.
Space exploration has just enough weight to compliment the spicy dogfights
With that said, Outlaws isn’t without its missteps. The game really needed more time in the oven, with some truly frustrating technical issues too often threatening to derail the developer’s efforts. An awful checkpointing system can lose you progress while simultaneously blocking progression (which forced me to load an earlier save and lose even more progress), certain parts of the game crashed, reproducibly, until I changed graphical settings to default, and intermittent bugs broke the flow enough to irritate and cast an unfavourable shadow.
‘Rudimentary stealth and third-person shooting compliment exploration with surprising flexibility…’
🧠 Final Thoughts 🧠
Star Wars: Outlaws is an undeniably passionate and personal jaunt through some beautiful and painstakingly curated locales. Curiosity and exploration are rewarded while an emotionally punchy tale of a lovable rogue in Kay Vess sells an adventure dripping in 80s sci-fi goodness.
Marred by some pretty significant technical issues that scream to be left in that development oven just a little longer, some thoughtful design choices help balance the experience out, delivering an overall satisfying open-world action adventure with rudimentary but flexible mechanics.
The Phoenix Project 