| Tested on | Release date | Publisher | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|
| PlayStation 5 | 30.8.2024 | Ubisoft | Massive Entertainment |
★★★★ | Shine on you crazy diamond
Happy-go-lucky scamps
Star Wars is for everyone. It is many things on top of that, but most importantly it’s a fantasy that anyone can enjoy.
That’s why it’s so important that Star Wars can look and feel like anything; Its mythology is so vast it can take whatever shape it desires.
In Star Wars Outlaws, those elements all feel familiar. They come from franchises like Uncharted and Way of the Samurai. No matter where you look, you will find tried and tested gameplay elements. This is not a bad thing. After all, Star Wars began as a love letter to Flash Gordon and Akira Kurosawa. It’s only right that it continues the tradition of building on familiar works.
Outlaws is the story of Kay Vess, a down-on-her-luck scoundrel living in the outskirts of Canto Bight. She’s never the winner, yet an optimist, who believes one day her ship will come in. One way or another.
One day, that dreams seems to come true. At her lowest point, Kay comes in contact with a group of bandits hoping to rob the latest crime boss in the outer rim. With the other crime families on the run, it’s a foolhardy mission, but Kay isn’t one to think before she acts. The mission goes sour, and she’s forced on the run to survive in an unforgiving galaxy.
Armed with a blaster, her wit, and Nix, her trusty companion, Kay sets off on a journey with greater implications than she could ever imagine.
As a Star Wars story, Outlaws stands among the best of the bunch. It’s a joyous, often funny, and surprisingly emotionally satisfying journey that hits all the beats you could wish for. It feels like it was always a part of this mythology, and that’s as good a compliment as I can think of.
Rough landing
The first two hours of Outlaws are rough. They don’t showcase the game for what it can be, and it takes some unearned goodwill to power through them.
From the narrow corridors to poorly implemented and explained mini-games, the opening tutorial is oddly unfinished compared to what follows. It’s buggy, messy, and the always-online-components are jarring. Looking back, my first notes on the experience are almost uniformly negative. From the outset, the mood is perfect, it’s just that everything else struggles.
It takes until the arrival on the first major planet, around an hour into the story, that Outlaws finds it groove. Even then, you still have to complete a less-than-stellar sneaking mission. These are the roughest patches that Outlaws has to offer, and it’s a shame they’re right at the forefront of what most people will see.
So, let’s get the biggest gripes out of the way. Sneaking is half-hearted at best. Some mechanics are still buggy. Nix, while the cutest thing ever to come out of Star Wars, is often an extra mechanic the game doesn’t know what to do with. Then there’s that patented Ubisoft always-online-tragedy, which never should have existed in the first place.
These are all major issues that you shouldn’t disregard. For some, they’ll severely impact the enjoyment of what is otherwise a superlative Star Wars experience.
Look past them, and Star Wars Outlaws reveals itself a far better game than initial impressions would suggest. But it does take looking, at least at first.
Never tell me the odds
Once Star Wars Outlaws finds its pace, it never slows down again.
Upon introduction to the criminal organizations, including The Crimson Sun and The Hutts, players are free to make their name in the galaxy. But every action has consequences, and angering one crime enterprise to appease another isn’t always the best bet.
It’s here that Star Wars Outlaws turns the tables. The gameplay loop reminds me of one of the unjustly unheralded classics of the PlayStation 2 -era, Way of the Samurai. In it, players stumble on a small town in the outskirts of Japan, where their actions affect the outcome of everyone. Even small things, like helping or hurting a beggar you meet on the road, has implications in the story.
In Outlaws, that mentality carries over beautifully. One of my first encounters with the new world involved a hustler, promising to sell access into a VIP suite. Like a sweet summer child, I bought into the lie. Only for it to backfire on me completely. It wasn’t until much later that I realized how sweet payback could be. Granted, not all mechanics work out as well. Eventually, the back-and-forth between pleasing each criminal enterprise feels tedious, despite the fact that the missions themselves are never truly dull.
The world of Outlaws proves itself full of life, depth, and nuance. There’s something to discover around every corner, and the game rarely feels empty. Even when you’re not actively robbing someone, you can find something to do that feels just right. From playing Sabbac to catching a show at a local watering hole, Star Wars Outlaws nails the mood and feel of Star Wars perfectly. It allows me to live my fantasy of becoming a part of this iconic space opera in a way few have before.
Accessibility champions
Where Outlaws shines is in accessibility. It is, to date, the most comprehensively welcoming and inclusive game you can find with Star Wars in the title. Each aspect of the gameplay is designed with every player in mind. Want an immersive, hard-as-nails experience? You can do that. Maybe you want to see what it’s like to live through a Star Wars movie of your own? That’s possible, too.
Outlaws allows players to adjust nearly everything, and I can’t thank it enough for that. From accessibility options for physical ailments like colorblindness to hearing, the game has you covered. Beyond that, it helps out players with cognitive disabilities, reading comprehension ailments, or even just bad reflexes. This is a game that understands that when everyone gets to have fun, it’s a collective triumph.
Most importantly, none of this detracts from anyone else’s experience. No achievements are locked beyond artificial difficulty, and none of the alternative controls are mandatory. Star Wars Outlaws is a superb example of great game design that works no matter how you play, and I can’t praise it enough for that.
This is a game that understands that when everyone gets to have fun, it’s a collective triumph.
A good time to be a Star Wars fan
Star Wars Outlaws is a terrific game with a rough start. It’s merits, however, outshine those complaints. As a brand-new inclusion to the Star Wars canon, it’s a breath of fresh air. An honest-to-goodness single player adventure that delivers the goods on writing, character, and atmosphere. It is the closest we’ve got to an Uncharted game in this universe.
At a time when Star Wars is struggling to find itself in the streaming landscape, it’s a happy surprise to find that it has a strong foundation in games once more. This is a game that I can recommend to everyone, regardless of their love of Star Wars, and be comfortably certain they will enjoy it.
What a time to be a Star Wars fan.