Star Wars Outlaws Review

Star Wars, as an IP, is chock full of lore, stories and locations that should mean making a video game should be straightforward. Sometimes it creates an instant classic such as Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic and other times they can just feel like a cash-grab (I’m looking at you Star Wars: Battlefront II and your loot boxes). There are also plenty of others that sit somewhere in between such as Jedi Survivor, a game rich with its own cast of characters that intertwines nicely with the established lore. Seeking to make its own mark within the franchise is Ubisoft’s Star Wars Outlaws. Here you take on the role of a young thief by the name of Kay Vess who, along with her companion Nix, seek to make a score big enough to let them leave Canto Bight and live free of anyone’s control.

Taking place between Episode V and Episode VI there’s a lot going on in the galaxy so, in theory, most are distracted with the ongoing war between the Rebels and the Empire. So much so, knocking over some rich guy with a big vault of goodies could go relatively unnoticed. Unfortunately for Kay things aren’t quite what they seem and a death mark is placed upon her. This complicates things as to really be free, she needs to be free of that death mark and so our story begins with one goal, clear the death mark and leave for the inner planets. Thankfully, most of the other crime syndicates recognize an opportunity when they see one, and due to Kay’s desperation to be free, she is also the perfect person for them to exploit..

What this translates to is a world chock full of opportunities to score some credits and, depending on your standing with each syndicate, chances to do jobs for them too. These can range from smuggling to infiltration jobs where you need to steal data or items from a specific mark. If you get caught, your relationship to either syndicate can be affected and if your status with them is too low, they’ll shoot on sight rather than just evicting you from their turf. Equally, though, if your reputation is high with one of them, if they end up being your mark, it can make part of your job much easier as they will allow you to roam around without asking too many questions. Alongside populated towns and cities, the world of Star Wars Outlaws feels quite alive. Townsfolk will chatter and Stormtroopers will, invariably, complain about their posting. If you turn up at the right time, though, you can also learn about secret locations or intel for jobs you might be able to pull if you follow the intel chain to its completion.

There are a lot of side and incidental missions that you can pick up as you wander around and, if you’re not too careful, your journal can become quite full. At the same time, I like the fact that you’re not spoonfed everything you need to know. There are also specialists who you need to discover in order to upgrade things like your blaster or ship as well as your own skills. However, you need to go find them and, more often than not, you’ll need to complete a job for them before they’ll help you. This loop of following intel, whilst straightforward, is much more fun than being told to go to a person who is located in a certain spot. It made me feel much more engaged in the story and the task at hand as opposed to being told what to do, when and how by some random NPC.

So for the most part, then, Star Wars Outlaws is a superb game. However, there are some truly odd things that, once you notice them, you can't unsee. Chief among them is the disparate quality of cutscenes. Typically, in modern gaming, they are either pre-rendered or use the in-game engine. Star Wars Outlaws seems to do both and, occasionally, has cutscenes that look notably worse than the game itself. This is typically on character models and whilst I’m not a graphics expert it looks like the textures are either not being rendered properly or, for whatever reason, being ignored entirely. It’s quite jarring at first and very, very noticeable. Equally, the first time you see it you wonder how, exactly, could you decide that having cutscenes that look worse than the in-game graphics makes sense? It’s entirely possible this is a bug and may, eventually, be patched. However, it seems odd that this would escape any sort of quality control ahead of its launch.

There’s also the usual mix of graphical bugs, glitches which can vary in their severity. In one notable situation I ran head-first into a gun fight and slid Kay into cover behind a rock, only to realise that I must have hit hyperspace as I slid as the rock and I had now become one. Sure, a reset to a recent checkpoint resolved things, but they occur often enough to frustrate you, especially since you can’t save whenever you want. I’m also sure the decision to not allow you to build an arsenal of weapons has disappointed some but I’m firmly in the camp of having Kay Vess rely mostly on her blaster than just grabbing the best gun in the game and romping to victory in every combat. For me it pushes you towards stealth and picking your battles and I quite like that.

It’s a shame, then, that even when you’ve been the secretest squirrel out there, you’re often forced into shooting your way out of battle. I know it’s a kind of trope but I’d genuinely like to be able to sneak out of Imperial bases every once in a while. I’m also not a fan of a game being open world only when you’re not on a specific mission. It’s frustrating to have a big warning telling you that you’re leaving the mission when, realistically, all you’re doing is taking a different route to the destination. This railroading of some missions is kind of annoying and it’s not clear when a mission is like this. If you’re going to build and market a Star Wars game as open world, let it be that all the time.

Overall, Star Wars Outlaws is good fun. The story is so-so, but I’d argue better than some of the plotlines we’ve had in the more recent movies and some of the spin-off TV shows. It also passes the “walk around” vibe check. It’s definitely the sort of game you can fire up and just enjoy wandering around in and, if you have a spare few minutes, a quick game of Kessel Sabacc, the in-game card game that is an absolute blast to play. Whilst the shortcomings are there I’d wager most Star Wars fans will enjoy themselves as they hop around the galaxy chasing leads and performing jobs for Jabba the Hutt.