'Star Wars Outlaws' Spoiler-Free Review
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Star Wars Outlaws was officially revealed a year ago, and since then, many fans have been eager to get their hands on it. Developed by Massive Entertainment, the game offers fans an exciting experience, an open-world Star Wars game set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, with a myriad of exciting gameplay elements and connections to existing lore. CultureSlate is happy to say that it meets existing expectations despite a few flaws.
Gameplay
Outlaws has an intriguing gameplay experience that blends multiple elements and features strong core elements. Kay is not a Jedi and is not heavily armored, so stealth is the name of the game, which suits her small stature and origins as a thief. Kay has to learn abilities and acquire gear to make herself more powerful, with some essential and others less so. Certain outfits also grant boosts to combat, and Kay always has the option to pick up alternative weapons, though only using them until she drains them of power. But, even with these upgrades and brief power-ups, she is never an arsenal. Stealth remains a critical tool for players, but the opportunity to go in guns blazing or to switch to that strategy increases with time and patience.
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Beyond combat, Kay has two core methods of transportation, her speeder and her ship. The speeder is a bouncing, perhaps even described as clunky, method of transportation that can lead to both frustrating and hilarious moments. Her ship, the Trailblazer, is a much smoother craft, helping you get from place to place while its interior is comfy yet small, with the essentials all close together. Both vehicles, much like Kay’s weapon and other tools, have upgrades, and the multiple paths for different features are essential if players want to make the most out of their experience. And, of course, one can’t forget about Nix! This little critter is essential to many puzzles, as he can interact with objects in the world. Their extrasensory ping is also important in finding objects, elements of those same puzzles, and detecting enemies.
Graphics
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Star Wars Outlaws is a constantly beautiful game, with lush vistas, thoughtful designs, and sprawling setpieces mixed into the traversable worlds. While a few visual glitches exist at this point, the game is still sumptuous to see, and the details a player can catch in any of the game’s bustling market or urban areas are sure to make them wish they were there (the food Nix and Kay can share is especially mouth-watering).
Story
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When players dive into Outlaws, they will play as Kay Vess, a criminal new to the galactic underworld, eventually pulled into a heist to steal a vast sum of wealth from a major crime syndicate, Zerek Besh, and its leader, Sliro. With help from the mysterious Jaylen, the BX-series commando droid ND-5, and Kay’s lifelong companion Nix, players will face the wrath of the Empire and Zerek Besh while managing their reputation with four criminal syndicates in a romp across four main worlds, and several space stations.
Before the game launched, we here at CultureSlate ran through each group: The Pyke Syndicate, The Hutt Cartel, Crimson Dawn, and The Ashiga Clan. But, we were remiss to have ignored the role of the Empire in both the story and the worlds of Outlaws. The Empire is very much a fifth faction, such as on Toshara, where the Pykes and Imperials have very close ties. All Imperial outposts teem with well-armored Stormtroopers, as do their compounds, and they bring deadly firepower to bear quickly on a thief like Kay. Each world, Toshara, Tatooine, Kijimi, and Akiva, has a mix of territories controlled by the different factions, and each location has its ongoing narratives. Using Toshara as an example again, the corrupt governor of the wind-swept moon has grown restless about his existing deal with the Pykes and tension is high between the two sides, not helped by the arrival of Crimson Dawn. As Kay, players need to navigate these larger narratives, while also making progress in the main story.
To briefly speak on that main story but avoid specifics, Kay’s tale is absolutely one in the Star Wars mold but has its twists and turns. Kay is a brash character who tends to talk too much for her own good but she has also led a rough life which shaped her into that figure. Her quest for freedom and the desire for a better life for both herself and Nix drives her in a relentless push for better things. It is that push that ends up putting her on a collision course with bigger players and situations than she could have ever dreamed of getting entangled with while living in Canto Bight’s Worker’s District.
Pros And Cons
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The pros of Star Wars Outlaws are many, and in a non-exhaustive list are as follows: a rich, immersive slice of the Star Wars universe well-connected to existing lore while also forging its own, multiple intriguing main and side characters whose stories are a must-watch, engaging stealth and shooting gameplay, and finally, the score. That last element deserves to be strongly highlighted because all of the excitement before the game launched regarding this game’s soundtrack is completely justified, with many ear-catching tunes that are sure to become beloved.
As for cons, the emphasis has to fall on the glitches and bugs that have been hitting the game. While this reviewer’s experience was relatively smooth, there have been small immersion-breaking glitches that remind one a game as big as this has some drawbacks. However, there have been more substantial issues as well. An example has been a disastrous PS5 glitch that resulted in Ubisoft warning multiple players to restart their gameplay, or else their games would eventually fully break.
Verdict
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Star Wars Outlaws is an incredible experience for any Star Wars fan but should also prove accessible to newcomers. Filled with references, faithful recreations, and plenty of new content right at home with what existed before, the game and its story are firmly nestled as a notable piece of Star Wars media. Its rough edges, however, keep it from perfection, with some traversal design choices creating difficulty, and ongoing minor or for some, major, technical difficulties an unfortunate detractor from the final product.
Ranking: 8.5/10
Developer: Massive Entertainment; Publisher: Ubisoft; Players: 1; Released: August 30th, 2024; ESRB: T for Mild Language, Simulated Gambling, Violence; MSRP: $69.99
Review played on PS5
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