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 established works.
You can check out the full review for Star Wars Outlaws from the link below.
Joonatan Itkonen
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 her trusty companion Nix, 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.
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.
Once Star Wars Outlaws finds its pace, though, 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.
The Switch Version
The Nintendo Switch 2 isn't as powerful as the PlayStation 5. It cannot compete with a high-end PC, either. While a noticeable jump from the original Switch, this is still a console that chases accessibility and ease of use over raw power.
It's also the first Nintendo console in ages, perhaps ever, that has the capacity to power bigger AAA-titles, and Star Wars Outlaws is a great place to start. It is, after all, a franchise meant for everyone. That's kind of Nintendo's ballpark.
But how do you port something as demanding as this for hardware that is, in many ways, running to keep up? To answer that, Ubisoft brought in their subsidiary, Redlynx, a Finnish company best known for their work on the iconic Trials series and The Division.
Their job couldn't have been easy. After all, how do you port something as demanding as Outlaws to the Switch 2, and on top of that make it work in both docked and handheld modes, with touch controls to boot?
Somehow, Redlynx has done the impossible. Outlaws on the Switch 2 isn't just a great port, it's one of the best ways to experience Star Wars Outlaws, period.
Yes, there are some caveats. The game is locked at 30fps at all times, and there's no way to get around that. This could be a dealbreaker if Outlaws was even just a tad more hectic, but Redlynx has found a way to smooth out the rough edges just enough that gameplay feels surprisingly smooth even when riding a hoverbike in the great outdoors.
Secondly, and slightly less worryingly, some of the textures are a bit soft and muddy, especially in handheld mode. Big whoop. The game is still sharp and easy to play even on the go, which is something that nobody should take for granted considering its demands. Especially when you take into consideration how it compares to the Xbox Series S version. Even in handheld mode, you'd be hard-pressed to find things to fault. On a pure technical level, Redlynx has accomplished one of the most impressive feats of engineering in years.
In practise, after settling in with the framerate, I never felt like I was playing a lesser or a compromised version of the game. After testing Outlaws on both the PS5 and PC, that's a major compliment. If I were to recommend the game to friends, I wouldn't hesitate to include the Switch 2 version into the mix. It is as good of a version of the title as any other – and that's something I don't think anyone could have seen coming.
On top of that, the motion controls are intuitively implemented, and they add beautifully to the experience. There's something Star Wars-y about being able to just click away on the Switch 2 screen in the middle of my swashbuckling adventure, and it's the kind of little addition to the immersion that ends up being a whole lot more than the sum of its parts.
Verdict
Star Wars Outlaws is still an absolute blast to play. It's a joyous mix of everything that makes the franchise fun, complete with great characters and a part of the universe we rarely get to experience.
Yes, Ubisofts strict adherence to dated mechanics does grate, and the mentality of "more is more" simply doesn't hold water. A stricter and perhaps even more linear design structure would have worked better. I'm still waiting for a real Uncharted-style Star Wars adventure to really sink my teeth into. But for what it offers now, Outlaws delivers big time.
As for the port, Redlynx has done Star Wars fans proud. This is a fantastic way to experience the big, sprawling Star Wars adventure. It never feels like a lesser edition or pared down in any way. If you own a Switch 2, you can buy Outlaws and never feel like you've missed out on something. Which is exactly as it should be.
