Star Wars Outlaws review- a scoundrel's life for me

Star Wars Outlaws has been one of my toughest reviews so far, and while I’d describe my time with the game as enjoyable, it’s clear it has some identity issues.

This is Ubisoft’s first step into the Star Wars galaxy, and in many areas, it absolutely nailed it, but choked in others.

Check out the trailer for Star Wars Outlaws below.

Star Wars Outlaws is a story about Kay Vess, a scoundrel who, like many, is looking for her quiet corner of the galaxy. She believes if she can successfully complete one big score, she’ll be set for life, and will do just about anything to achieve her dream of an early retirement.

She’s joined on her quest by her trusty critter companion Nix, and later ND-5, an old Commando Droid that’s tasked with helping her execute the greatest heist the galaxy has ever seen.

It’s a story we’ve heard before, and not just outside of Star Wars media. Kay’s story is reminiscent of Han Solo’s but differs with Kay never involving herself in the galactic war between The Empire and the Rebellion, which I’m honestly really happy about.

We’ve had loads of Star Wars games where we play as powerful Jedi on a quest to stop the Imperials, so it was refreshing to play another title that treats that conflict as the backdrop rather than the main event.

While I wasn’t exactly blown away by how the story developed, I will say I loved the characters, especially ND-5, and I was impressed with how the pacing and narrative mirrored the films so well.

Ubisoft

As for the gameplay, Star Wars Outlaws feels like a mash-up of different well-known action adventure games but with a Star Wars aesthetic. Aside from the obvious comparison to Assassin’s Creed, after all it is a Ubisoft game, I could also see elements of Uncharted and even Red Dead Redemption, whether intentional or not.

Kay’s a skilled combatant, a climber, and knows her way around a blaster, a true jack-of-all-trades, but she still has plenty to learn.

Fortunately, the galaxy is a big place and she'll have plenty of talented individuals who’ll teach her a thing or two about being a better scoundrel, but you’ll have to do a bit of exploring to find them.

Enter the open-world, or rather open-worlds. A handful of planets are available for Kay to explore; their sizes vary. Toshara and Tatooine are the true open-world areas, and I think they struck the right balance of not being too big and not too small. There was never a time where I felt like traversal was a chore rather than a cooldown between missions. Smaller worlds like Kijimi are more self-contained settlements that see Kay wandering the streets and alleys, bumping into all sorts of characters and offering a few minigames to take part in, like Sabacc and race-betting.

I said it in my preview pieces but I’ll say it again, Ubisoft nailed the visuals and atmosphere of this game. The detail feels like it’s on another level and I particularly loved walking into a new cantina and seeing what faces I could spot. I’ll also add that it’s fantastic Ubisoft included a photo mode, as the scenery is jaw-droppingly gorgeous so you’ll want to take plenty of pictures. A particularly magical moment for me was finding Luke’s home on Tatooine and staring out at the binary sunset, which is now a core memory.

The sightseeing was some of the most fun I had in the game, and I’d always stop to listen into nearby conversations between NPCs, or to give a bantha a pat on the head while Nix lets out a jealous gurgle.

Ubisoft

Unfortunately, the exploration does start to suffer from something Ubisoft fans will know quite well, a beautiful open-world but with hardly anything to do in it. As you’re riding through the fields or deserts you’ll occasionally come across a random encounter, but it didn’t feel random because I got the same “defend settlers” mission about three times in a row on Tatooine. There are also a handful of vaults on each planet with special gear and credits inside, but breaking into them requires several key cards so unless you really want what’s inside, you’re never required to get into them. There are a few Imperial bases to infiltrate for a bit of variety, but unless you’ve got a mission that’s sending you there, all you’ll really get are a few credits.

Gameplay was enjoyable too when it worked. You start the game incredibly weak, able to survive just a few blaster bolts before dying. This makes stealth and strategy essential to your survival. Alternatively, you can run out guns blazing like a complete badass and hope the enemy AI can’t keep up with you, which is most of the time.

The amount of encounters I could just avoid by lightly jogging past a group of enemies through the next door was quite astounding, even more so how quickly they lose track of you when you turn a corner. That’s most of the time though, because sometimes they went in the opposite direction and turned into special forces operatives.

There’s a running gag in Star Wars media that stormtroopers can’t aim to save their lives, but that isn’t the case in Star Wars Outlaws. In this game, I’d half expect to see John Wick under all of their helmets, as they land cross-map shots on me while I’m standing behind cover.

It’s really inconsistent, and made several combat encounters a real pain as they’d either provide no resistance or challenge at all, or way too much.

Eventually, you acquire a few upgrades to your health, weapons, healing items etc that make you more of a match for the enemies, but for the first few hours, expect to be overwhelmed pretty easily if the AI knows what it’s doing.

Ubisoft

Star Wars Outlaws also implements a Grand Theft Auto-style wanted system where Imperial troops will chase you on speeder bikes. While zipping through canyons in an attempt to shake them off my tail was fun the first few times, it quickly grew old especially since you can’t shoot back at them while riding the speeder. The only way to damage an enemy while riding a speeder is to use Kay’s dead-eye-esque ability. You can’t just fire a blast normally until you hop off.

If you cause enough interference and max out your wanted level, the Imperials deploy Death Troopers, which I was really excited about when I first played. Unfortunately, this isn’t what you’d think it to be at all. Instead of Death Troopers hunting you down across the open-world, three are instead stationed at a random outpost, which you have to sneak into to remove your wanted level. While the Death Troopers are tougher than any other enemy in the game, their AI functions in the exact same way so sneaking past them is ridiculously easy.

Another big part of the game is the faction system. The Outer Rim is crawling with criminals, many of whom work for one of the galaxy’s big syndicates. You’ll meet these syndicates and their leaders throughout the game’s story, and getting in their good books by completing missions for them is generally recommended to make life easier.

If a faction trusts you, you’ll be able to waltz into their hideouts like you own the place, and will be undisturbed if you bump into them out in the open-world areas. If a faction doesn’t trust you, they might attack you on sight, but you can quickly earn back their trust by helping them out with a mission.

It’s a balancing act but not one you have to participate in if you don’t want. For most of my playthrough, Crimson Dawn has hated my guts whereas I’m practically Jabba The Hutt’s right-hand man in the Hutt Cartel. It’s ultimately up to you if you want to be friends with them all or play favourites.

Ubisoft

Aside from main and side missions, Kay will also meet talented individuals who can teach her new skills/give her new equipment. Once you’ve completed their quest, you’ll unlock a set of personal challenges that unlock new perks. These were a nice addition and I’m glad Ubisoft opted for a way of progression that’s rewarded through your gameplay rather than a bog standard skill-tree.

Starship gameplay was decent, though not dissimilar to what we’ve seen already, and more often than not, I went for missions that placed my feet on the ground rather than the ones in orbit. If you’re playing on PS5 too I’d turn down the DualSense volume before you get into any space battles, as the sound effects that blurted out of my controller were atrocious and incredibly off-putting.

Star Wars Outlaws is a great Star Wars game, and as stated before, it was refreshing to play something that puts you in the shoes of a normal individual rather than an all-powerful force user. Playing as a scoundrel was a lot of fun, and the growth you feel as a player when acquiring upgrades, completing missions and bending the factions to your favour felt like it mirrored Kay’s progression very well.

That being said, I felt a real conflict of identity when playing, especially with the open-world environments. I had the most fun when the action was contained to the cities than I did speeding through another empty field that had the style but lacked the substance.

I’m willing to give it the benefit of the doubt as Ubisoft’s first Star Wars game, and I’m certainly interested in seeing more of Kay, Nix and ND-5 in the future. If you’re a fan of Star Wars, I’m confident the game will impress you, but if you’re familiar with the work Ubisoft has done in the past, it might feel a bit too safe for your liking.

Pros: Gorgeous and immersive environments, nice player progression, new characters are great additions to the canon, factions are fun to manipulate

Cons: Open world feels empty, combat can feel inconsistent, story feels like it's been done before

For fans of: Star Wars Jedi Survivor, Uncharted, Assassin's Creed

8/10: Excellent

Star Wars Outlaws is available on 30 August on PlayStation 5 (version tested), Xbox Series consoles, and PC. Review code was provided by the publisher. Find a complete guide to GAMINGbible's review scores here.