Massive Entertainment and Ubisoft’s much touted open world Star Wars game is finally upon us, and it probably hasn’t landed exactly the way many would have hoped it would. Certainly, there’s a lot to like about Star Wars Outlaws and the scoundrel fantasy that it concocts, but at nearly every turn, the space-faring adventure is weighed down and held back by significant issues. Here, that’s exactly what we’re going to discuss, as we go over some of the things that we liked most about Star Wars Outlaws– and some that we weren’t so crazy about.
LIKED:
FEELING LIKE A SCOUNDREL
Star Wars Outlaws’ biggest selling point was always supposed to be its promise of letting you live out your greatest Star Wars scoundrel fantasies, and thankfully, this, at the very least, is an area where the game is a resounding success. Getting to feel like a slick, smooth-talking, double-crossing interstellar criminal in the Star Wars universe feels exactly as good as it should. The game accomplishes that in a number of different ways, from giving players the tools to improvise on-the-fly when things start turning sour, Han Solo-style, to navigating the galaxy’s criminal underworld as you try to keep the many different factions happy- or at least not totally livid at the very idea of your existence. That, incidentally, brings us to our next point…
THE REPUTATION SYSTEM
The Reputation system is the heart and soul of Star Wars Outlaws, being tied to pretty much every single major system or mechanic in the game. There’s an argument to be made that perhaps it isn’t quite as fleshed out as it could have been, but there can’t be any denying that it does an excellent job of helping bring the game’s scoundrel fantasy to life. Too often we’ve seen the outlaw character trope in Star Wars deftly working with and against different criminal factions to further their own goals, and the Reputation system here definitely succeeds in emulating that. On top of that, the choices that you make often require genuine thought, and the gameplay consequences actually do often feel legitimately impactful.
THE STAR WARS AESTHETIC
This one should be an easy win for any Star Wars game. The beloved sci-fi IP has been a pop culture behemoth for as long as it has existed, and has developed a very particular visual and aesthetic identity over time- the kind that, if you do like it, you probably can’t get enough of. We certainly count ourselves in that group, so we were more than happy with how well Star Wars Outlaws captures that aesthetic. From the slick and claustrophobic interiors of Imperial bases and space stations to the instantly recognizable sound effects of speeders and blasters, from how densely packed and brimming with incredible details pretty much every single cantina you visit is to the gorgeous vistas that you see throughout the galaxy, Massive Entertainment clearly understood the assignment in terms of capturing that classic Star Wars look and feel.
THE OPEN WORLD DESIGN
You’d be forgiven for having at least some skepticism over Star Wars Outlaws’ open world design. Though Massive Entertainment itself has crafted plenty of excellent open world maps in its time, Ubisoft as a publisher has become associated with some of the most fatigue-inducing open world tropes around. Thankfully, Star Wars Outlaws feels like a very un-Ubisoft game in that regard. Far from feeling too formulaic or rigidly structured, the map here is surprisingly organic, with an actual sense of discovery defining the experience. Being naturally distracted by things that pique your curiosity rather following markers and checklists definitely makes for much more compelling open world gameplay.
KAY AND NIX
Star Wars Outlaws’ writing has its issues (more on that in a bit), which means there are plenty of characters in its cast that don’t get the time in the sun that they need, but thankfully, the leading pair of Kay and Nix is great right off the bat. Kay is no Han Solo or Lando Calrissian, in that she lacks experience and frequently makes naive mistakes, but her ability to adapt and improvise turn her into a capable leading woman nonetheless. That, combined with her endearing attitude and, of course, her unbreakable bond with the adorable Nix make her and her little companion incredibly easy to get invested in.
DISLIKED:
INCONSISTENT WRITING
Let’s kick this section off with Star Wars Outlaws’ writing deficiencies, since we’ve already touched on them. To be fair, it’s not like the writing in the game is terrible across the board. As mentioned, Kay is a great protagonist, as her bond with Nix is another bright spot, but often, the game is let down by nonsensical contrivances, leaps in logic, inconsistencies, characters being needlessly stupid, and what have you. This is also a game that clearly didn’t get the “show, don’t tell” memo, because of which some of its biggest narrative developments in the latter stages end up falling almost completely flat.
INSTA-FAIL STEALTH SECTIONS
I have no idea how we’re talking about insta-fail sections in a major new AAA release in 2024. Even a decade ago, this would have been called incredibly dated design, and Star Wars Outlaws not only adopts it, but then also proceeds to double down on it. There’s a frustrating amount of forced stealth sections in the game, which are made worse by the fact that, thanks to rough AI issues, technical glitches, and half-baked stealth mechanics, the stealth gameplay in this game just isn’t very good. We’re huge fans of the stealth genre here, but there are few things worse than a game that hardheadedly emphasis stealth gameplay even though it simply isn’t equipped to do so.
STIFF MOVEMENT
This is the one problem you usually don’t expect to find in games by Massive and Ubisoft, which almost always feel excellent to play in terms of their moment-to-moment gameplay and game feel. Weirdly enough, the same definitely cannot be said about Star Wars Outlaws. The general movement in the game feels just incredibly clunky, and though a lot of that is obviously down to the game’s many technical issues (which we’ll get to shortly), even absent those, the game just feels clunky and cumbersome to control on a very fundamental level.
BLAND CLIMBING MECHANICS
The list of AAA tropes that Star Wars Outlaws employs is a long one, with Uncharted-style climbing mechanics being high on that list. Sadly, the climbing doesn’t feel nearly as smooth and fun as it does in Uncharted games, with Kay’s movements feeling incredibly janky and stiff. As you’re clambering over walls and ledges, you can almost physically feel the seams between one animation and the next. There’s also the fact that climbing sections almost always end up being incredibly straightforward and linear, to the point where they end up feeling like the most low-stakes strings of QTEs imaginable.
TECHNICAL ISSUES
Unfortunately, technical issues at launch are not at all uncommon in Ubisoft games, or even in AAA games- hell, last year’s Star Wars Jedi: Survivor had similar issues, too. Outlaws, however, feels particularly rough around the edges. In our time with the game, we’ve been hit with performance drops, muddy draw distances, lip syncing issues, texture pop in, animation glitches, and all sorts of bugs. Given the fact that the game went gold almost two whole months before release, we’re surprised to see it coming in this hot.
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