0 comments

Star Wars Outlaws is a hugely ambitious game | Hands-on preview

by Adam Cook on July 30, 2024

Star Wars Outlaws is an ambitious game. After spending four hours playing it, I can confidently say that if you’re a big fan of the juggernaut that is Star Wars, then the world that developer Massive Entertainment has created is likely one that will consume you for hours, exploring for references, loot, and just to exist in a large, open-world Star Wars game the likes we’ve really never had. That said, there are caveats to these statements, and despite experiencing a hefty dose of the game, I still have questions about how the final game will feel when all’s said and done.

First things first, for better or worse (and I happen to be a fan of the Ubisoft-style of game), I don’t think Star Wars Outlaws feels like “Assassin’s Creed but Star Wars”. I also don’t think it feels like any of the big main Ubisoft franchises. It borrows elements, and you can definitely expect a smorgasbord of content and a veritable cornucopia of icons on your map, but there’s something about Outlaws that feels different.

The main meat of my hands-on started at what I suspect to be just after the opening cut-scene of the game. Protagonist Kay Vess has crash landed, and is immediately thrown into a gunfight, only you’re not directly controlling it. Instead, a Splinter Cell like mark and execute tutorial is offered, some exposition, then you’re on a Speeder and zooming across a planet while being attacked by bandits, causing more use of the mark and execute. As openings go, it’s impressive, very Star Wars, and really good. There’s an instant sense of scale an theatre, and I dig it, a lot.

Shortly after arriving at the opening town, things almost slow to a crawl. There is just so much of Outlaws that it’s totally fair Massive Entertainment explains it to players. The focus here isn’t on Sith and Jedi, it’s about Kay and her outlaw career. The game contains multiple gangs and factions (from the Ashiga to the Hutt clan), all of whom you can work for, and all of whom are of varying degrees of underhanded and nasty. Working for one will net you rewards and allow you more freedom and bonuses for being friendly with a gang, but it will directly alter the relationship for Kay with another gang. I saw this happen in real time as I chose a side and did some missions, ending up annoying the rival gang so much I could no longer gain direct entry into their controlled areas.

But this doesn’t mean the map is closed off. No, instead, it just means you have to sneak in via an alternative route. Every area seems to be chock full of personality, life, and ways to get in and out. It reminds me Mass Effect in how you are a real person with real consequences, and how you act and speak affects how you are perceived other inhabitants of the world. It is here that Star Wars Outlaws feels a roaring success. The world building works, and I can imagine hardcore Star Wars fans adoring sneaking around and working one gang against another, learning routes in and out, and robbing their least favourite gangs blind.

The issue is that some of this, mechanically, requires a suspension of disbelief that most modern games don’t push for. We can all accept a level of “gamey-ness”, and we all have our own limits to that. By that I mean we don’t want a super realistic simulation that spots our sneaking because we’ve stood on a twig, or been in the peripheral vision of a guarding Stormtrooper: that’s only fun for those of you who adore full-on simulations. But Outlaws bends the rules to breaking point, allowing you to be practically squatting next to a bad-guy and taking them out, because you’ve not entered their cone of vision which is very much one that, if you’re not in front of their eyes, they don’t see you.

On top of that, in my hours there was a seriously high volume of instant-fail stealth sections. Every time I would become immersed in the mechanical debris, sneaking through vents, and creeping around grabbing all that wasn’t nailed down, I’d set an alarm off and be faced with enormous on-screen text telling me I’d failed. You can be booted out of an area if it’s not too bad, or it’s a full on fail-state in others. It feels out of time with modern design and games that allow you to rejig plans on the fly, and it feels out of place in a game that is all about immersing you in the Star Wars of it all.

It may just be that the early game is all about being quiet, but there are so many areas where going loud starts because you’re spotted, only for a rogue gang member to run to an alarm and, whoops, restart, text on the screen again. You can get out of some of the situations with violence, but there are others that are simply fail states which boot you backwards, or to a checkpoint. It may seem I’m labouring the point, but I cannot stress enough how prevalent these sections were.

And it’s a shame, because once I’d left town to get on with my outlaw business, I was back to loving things again. Massive Entertainment wastes no time giving you the freedom of the Speeder bike, and you can even get a full on pilotable spaceship within a few hours; probably sooner if you’re not a looty pixel hunter like me who loves doing side quests. On that note, transitioning from planet to space is well done, and smooth, and once again provides a real feeling of you having ownership of a spaceship that you can walk around in, before taking off and committing to travel, or space combat, which itself is great fun as well.

Away from the main missions I enjoyed myself immensely, and I get the feeling there’s a huge amount of game here. The gunplay feels fine, though the fact you’re committed to the one blaster throughout that is upgradeable is a slight concern. Companion Nix can be instructed to move about distracting guards, or opening locks, and it all builds to a real feeling of immersion that is superb, overall. When it all comes together, it truly feels like you’re playing a badass outlaw in the Star Wars universe.

Time will tell if Star Wars Outlaws sticks the landing, but when you’re allowed to roam and explore, it feels like the Star Wars game you always wanted. No, you’re not swinging a lightsaber, and there are no powers I could see available. The main missions feel restrictive and very safe, but there’s something here, and I never got bored grappling around and exploring the environments.

Usually after four hours I’d have a really good handle on a game like this, but all I keep thinking is how ambitious it is, and how I need to see more of it to be sure. Kay is a likeable protagonist who has existed in this world before we got there, and that’s always a good sign when you feel that. A few gameplay issues aside, there’s definitely something strong here, and this could finally be the Star Wars you’re looking for. Fingers crossed.