Star Wars Outlaws Review

After several years in development, Star Wars Outlaws is now available on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series starting August 30. Created by the Swedish group Massive Entertainment (The Division, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora), in collaboration with Lucasfilm Games and with the support of Ubisoft’s Annecy, Bucharest, Chengdu, Milan, Montpellier, Paris, Shanghai, Toronto, RedLynx and Stockholm studios, this is the very first open-world adaptation of the famous science-fiction franchise.

So, does this highly anticipated single-player action-adventure game tick all the right boxes to appeal to a wide audience? Find out in this spoiler-free review.

Galaxy’s Most Wanted

Taking place between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, Star Wars Outlaws invites us to play the role of a mercenary, Kay Vess. Alongside Nix, her loyal merquaal companion, she lives life on her own terms in the working-class district of Canto Bight, the coastal town of Cantonica seen in The Last Jedi movie. However, by constantly embarking on over-ambitious solo ventures, she ends up racking up debts and attracting the wrath of the local gang.

Taking the advice of Bram, the bartender who hosts her, she takes part in an operation aimed at Zerek Besh, which is supposed to get her a ticket off the planet. Unfortunately, things get out of hand and, after narrowly escaping from the leader of this dangerous underworld group named Sliro, she finds herself hunted by him all over the Outer Rim. In order to buy her freedom, she is now forced to work for the Pykes, Crimson Dawn, the Hutts, and Ashiga Clan, rival crime syndicates, until she can organize a suicidal robbery targeting the man who has put a price on her head.

Benefiting from a catchy opening scenario on paper, the overall writing level delivered by Ubisoft Massive is solid, without being amazing or unforgettable. Even if it only manages to surprise us on two or three occasions, due to storytelling strings that are often too obvious to anticipate, the main campaign remains enjoyable and interesting to follow from the beginning to the end. It fits in perfectly with the saga’s chronology, respectfully portraying the period in the original trilogy when the Empire and the cartels took control of the daily lives of the galaxy’s peoples.

However, Toshara’s arc is a little prolonged and the Kijimi’s lacks depth compared to what the prologue, the final chapter, as well as the acts taking place on Tatooine and Akiva offer us in terms of storytelling. We also regret that the quest “Jabba’s Favor” is only available to owners of the Gold and Ultimate editions, since it doesn’t stand out enough from the majority of the other missions available to fully justify its exclusivity to these versions.

As for the cast, the characters encountered throughout the adventure are sufficiently numerous, varied, and charismatic to carry a production of this caliber, regardless of their side or their importance in the story. Kay and Nix obviously stand out from the crowd, but we also really appreciate Ank’s rational yet wacky personality. In terms of direction, it does the job well, with convincing original and dubbed voice-overs and magnificent cinematics that sometimes manage to overshadow the lack of polish in the production.

Meanwhile, the soundtrack features music by Simon Koudriavtsev, Wilbert Roget II, Jon Everist, Kazuma Jinnouchi, and Cody Matthew Johnson, among others. Honestly, the audio team brilliantly drew inspiration from John Williams’ compositions to enhance the epic and its iconic universe through its sonic dimension.

Sneak, Shoot, and Loot

Star Wars Outlaws’ gameplay is identical to what we saw last July. In other words, the game’s mechanics are effective, well-designed, and smooth overall, but very classic for the action-adventure genre, focusing essentially on three axes: infiltration, combat, and exploration.

The first is a formula we’ve seen over and over again over the years, as we make our way to our next objective, trying not to be spotted by the guards in the area we’re moving through. If we don’t, we either get kicked out of the area and back to the entrance, returning to the last checkpoint, or triggering a skirmish.

To avoid these inconveniences, you need to carefully identify the various possible paths that patrols can take. Various approaches are available to achieve this, such as observing them from a long distance with your binoculars, advancing in a crouched position from shelter to shelter, passing through ventilation vents, as well as asking Nix to create a diversion, drop or bring back an object, sabotage an alarm or activate a grenade attached to an enemy’s belt.

We can also neutralize an isolated enemy by taking him by surprise, or by firing a stun beam from the blaster. But beware, these two actions are more difficult to perform against droids and heavy soldiers, such as the Gamorreans of the Hutt clan. In the first case, you’ll need a specific tool that we didn’t unlock during our session. In the second case, you have to attack hand-to-hand after using your blaster to get the job done.

Pleasant Combat

When combat is inevitable, on foot, the blaster will get us out of most situations, even though Kay is not a Jedi or a Sith, but a “simple” human outlaw who can hardly survive against too many enemies (especially if they belong to the Empire!). Upgradeable and customizable throughout the game, it features three modes, each with its own purpose.

Plasma is the standard mode, capable of taking out the majority of guards. Ion can temporarily paralyze guards, is effective against droids and can disable a small shield for a few moments. As for Bolt, it’s designed to make our job easier against heavy soldiers. And if that’s not enough, you can throw a grenade, detonate red barrels, equip yourself with an opponent’s weapon until you empty your magazine, make your fists talk, or use your adrenalin rush (its gauge fills up gradually when you’re under pressure).

In space, we fight our battles from the controls of the Trailblazer. Although originally designed as a transport vessel, it’s still quite maneuverable and can be upgraded and customized to take on modest fleets of pirates, TIE fighters, and even one or two small cruisers, whose weak points must be targeted first if we hope to get rid of them. Types of cannon and missile launchers, turrets, shield efficiency, hull strength, engine fuel, and performance, equipped passive auxiliary systems… there’s plenty to enjoy in an action-adventure-oriented experience.

However, don’t expect to engage in high-flying speeder combat. It’s upgradeable and customizable, but only allows you to use a boost, dodge left and right, get your adrenaline pumping, and take advantage of the environment around you to get away from chasing aircraft. In concrete terms, this vehicle is used to explore planets more quickly than when we’re on foot, and… that’s it.

Hidden Treasures and Hidden Dangers

Speaking of exploration, Star Wars Outlaws’ planets are all a real pleasure to explore, even though they’re nowhere near as vast as what Ubisoft has offered us in the past. The savannah-moon of Toshara and its orbit scattered with starship wreckage, the rainforests and asteroid fields of the Akiva system, the canyons, deserts, and sand dunes of Tatooine, the nebula of Kijimi, the cities of Mirogana, Mos Eisley, Myrra and Kijimi City… each playground is vibrant and immersive in its own way, faithful to the lore of the franchise and so beautiful, to the point of naturally encouraging us to take various screenshots with the Photo mode.

Moreover, the planets, cities, and spaces within our reach are all likely to be brimming with secrets, treasures, and activities to uncover, without overloading us with excessive content. The famous unlockable towers system, of which the French publisher has been so fond for many years, is also absent, something that will delight those who can’t stand having to deal with it sooner or later.

Side missions, activities, and contracts to complete, crates, chests and computers to hack in the form of beeps to reproduce in rhythm or Motus with symbols, imperial credits, outfits, resources and collectibles to gather, merchants to trade with, union middlemen to meet, experts to help and challenges to overcome in order to improve the abilities of Nix, Kay, her speeder and Trailblazer, mini-games on arcade terminals, bets on fathier races, games of Sabacc, tasting local street food with QTE… the game’s lifespan may be shorter than previous big productions from Ubisoft, but it remains rich and dense.

Let’s not forget that the vast majority of our actions during the adventure have an impact on our relations with the Pykes, the Crimson Dawn, the Hutts and the Ashiga Clan, the only four factions with whom we can establish bonds of “trust”, or not. While breaking into a forbidden sector or initiating conflict with their followers has few consequences, betraying them as part of a scripted quest, or completing a contract considered major in their eyes, can change things even more.

So, depending on the situation we find ourselves in, we need to proceed very carefully, or risk losing valuable advantages such as discounts in affiliated shops, exclusive contracts, resources and rewards, as well as free access to their districts. In the extreme case of bad relationships, these cartels will even send assassins to hunt us down on planets where they have some presence.

Room for Improvement

As we’ve mentioned, Star Wars Outlaws has a number of qualities. But just like the previous releases from Ubisoft and other AAA competitors in recent years, all Massive Entertainment’s efforts are affected by more or less awkward design and final touches issues at launch.

Enemy AI either too stupid or overly omniscient in infiltration and combat, space phases less interesting than those on the ground unless particularly well scripted, redundant experience that can set in gradually and even before completing the main campaign, bugs of all kinds, delays, glitches, long loading times, collisions that seem anything but natural on foot or in a vehicle… Some of the problems identified have already been corrected by the Swedish studio, but we hope that additional updates will be deployed as soon as possible to fine-tune everything as much as possible.

We also have our doubts about the developers’ ability to exploit the full graphical and technical potential of the Snowdrop engine. Despite a setting designed to run the title at 1080p with no difficulty, our laptop’s fans were particularly exhausted during our session. No surprise, this was even more the case when we activated ray tracing and NVIDIA Reflex for an hour or two.

While remaining in High settings, our components, including the graphics card, seemed to be running close to the limit of what they could handle for a minimal visual boost. So, while we’re waiting for an improved optimization in the next weeks, please note that you’ll probably need a powerful, high-end PC if you want to run the game at its full speed and higher resolution than we did.

We tested the game with AORUS 17H BXF (2023) laptop equipped with an Intel Core i7-13700H (2.4 GHz) processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop, 16 GB DDR5 RAM, 17.3” 1080p LCD screen and Xbox One controller. Our session lasted around 32 hours, enough time to complete the main campaign, take part in numerous side missions and activities, and explore the planets and their orbits at our own pace, all on Normal difficulty and with High graphics (NVIDIA DLSS enabled, ray tracing disabled).

Conclusion

Star Wars Outlaws is a good single-player action-adventure game, respectful and faithful to the universe of the science-fiction saga. While it has many qualities, it is also affected by obvious flaws, mainly due to Massive Entertainment’s lack of originality, polish and, perhaps, ambition. Although it doesn’t seem to have any real potential as a GOTY, it could serve as a foundation and more or less inspire future open-world Star Wars adaptations over the next few years, whether by Ubisoft or other studios with the human, financial and technological resources for the task.