Ahead of its launch on 30 August, Ubisoft invited me to its Abu Dhabi studios to play Star Wars Outlaws and after the demo, I was impressed. This is not only a faithful Star Wars game but also a galaxy-spanning adventure that feels great to play.
Watch the Star Wars Outlaws preview below
Outlaws succeeds in many ways. The game fully imagines the Star Wars universe in the flesh in ways we haven’t seen yet. At the same time, the game feels authentic to the series. So much so that while I was playing the demo, I thought, “I wonder what Cal is up to?”. Somehow, Outlaws feels like an adventure taking place in a distant galaxy while the rest of the Star Wars comics, games and movies are canonically playing out at the same time.
While the game has hit the Star Wars appeal on the head, it has also managed to feel like a great space exploration adventure. Exploring planets felt incredibly rewarding with detailed landmarks to discover, random events to participate in and large hubs to explore. There are also various NPCs to chat with, missions to accept and puzzles that often require backtracking once you have the correct tool.
During my demo, I encountered one event where the Imperial Army tracked down some stolen loot taken by space pirates. Kay Vess, being an outlaw and not technically on anyone’s side, could jump into this conflict, kill both parties and steal the loot. Of which, I did.
It was cool to see this event take place. The radio chatter hinted to the location and I saw an Imperial ship fly down from the sky. I arrived when they were already shooting each other up so I just took them out from a distance. I then walked away with the precious metals and money they had come to seize.
I am quite curious to see where these events go and what other interactions around the world contribute to these living and breathing planets. I say that because from what I played, Star Wars Outlaws looks like Ubisoft at their finest when it comes to open-world design. The demo planet was littered with points of interest. These were NPCs, events, puzzles, items and other things that forced me to get off my bike and explore.
In between this, there were also various villages and cities. These are seamlessly entered and look pretty impressive. I made an effort to walk through them and listen to the NPC chatter. Everyone was busy with something and there were surprisingly a lot of people to talk to. Most of which had intel on stolen loot or offered me some sort of service. One corrupt Imperial Officer promised to clear my galaxy wanted level if I paid her. Another guy sold rare metals and ranked these according to my faction’s reputation.
Apart from this, these hubs are also oozing with detail. Wind blowing through the streets kicks up dust and shakes signs scattered around the buildings. Neon lights glow through the fog and polluted air. I remember seeing the small village of Jaunta’s Hope in the distance for the first time and actually getting excited to pull up and see what adventures awaited. I arrived and the combination of the game’s iconic soundtrack and detailed world produced a truly remarkable moment.
Then we take to space. Let me just say that Outlaws feels great in this regard. Boarding your ship and taking off to the stars provides that much-needed sense of discovery that space games often fail at. Starfield, for example, lacked this immersion. Outlaws, on the other hand, made me believe I was soaring through the stars above a planet I was just running around on a few minutes ago. If I wanted to go back, I simply landed again. It was a feeling I had so hoped Ubisoft got right and I am so glad they did. It could make or break the game.
Of course, this is thanks to the loading screens. Ubisoft has done a great job faking the takeoff with cloud and fog. So you see the ship leaving the planet, it enters the clouds and after it loads, they disappear revealing space. There are no black screens and it looks incredible.
That sense of exploration carries into the space areas too. These large hubs are easy to navigate around thanks to the streamlined ship controls. Speeding up and down and manoeuvring around the debris and locations felt seamless. So much so that I often made sure to take the scenic route through destroyed battleships. These tight corridors meant I had to think fast and rotate the ship to fit through small holes and spaces.
The same can be said for the hyperdrive travel which saw me get whisked away to another location. As I kicked off the process, I had to push both analogue sticks forward and engage the hyperdrive. Stars shot past me and I entered the tunnel. Upon arrival, was greeted by the frozen space wasteland of the Kujimi system. Again, full of smaller locations to visit. I sped up towards the planet and it came into view. I was filled with excitement knowing I was about to land there and discover new things to see and do.
So what I have mentioned so far regarding Star Wars Outlaws’ exploration has been very positive and I do think this game explores the Star Wars universe very well. We’ll have to see how far it stretches in the main game but I think its space elements are likely the best we have seen in a while.
Of course, there’s a lot more going on in Star Wars Outlaws than just space exploration. When it comes to the rough and tough moments, the gameplay takes a third-person action adventure and combines it with stealth gameplay. The result is a satisfying game where shooting baddies felt fun and sneaking around compounds delivered some intense heart-racing moments.
Most of the time, I was able to decide what route I wanted to go. Should I sneak in or go loud? The demo locations also offered unique crawl spaces to sneak through in order to get behind enemies and Kay’s sprint into a-slide ability goes a long way too.
I actually felt like Star Wars Outlaws was quite relentless when it came to its sneaking. Often, sneaking in video games can be a snore fest. Enemy AI is often dumb and the whole “I see you now but my bar needs to fill up before I realise you are actually an intruder” gets old.
Outlaws, on the other hand, doesn’t hold back. Enemies detect you quite quickly and even from a greater distance, I had to be aware of spotters on much higher ledges and way back in the room.
I remember sneaking through an Imperial Starship littered with troopers. The game, of course, offers a variety of ways to get by. I could use Nix to distract some guards and hopefully get to them and knock them out before they shake him off. I could also avoid combat entirely and find another way around it.
Nix can also interact with items to distract guards. Of which, I did. I used him to knock an explosive barrel, it alerted the guards and when they walked up to it, it exploded.
But there was a time when I was spotted. In this case, these troopers run for the alarm switch. I could sabotage it manually, shoot it with Kay’s upgraded electric ammo or kill the person before they get to the switch. There’s a handy icon above them in this case.
I quickly took down the guards and sprinted with all my life to the one about to ring the alarm. I quickly dropped into a slide and while sliding across the floor, shot the guard. It was pretty cool.
The loud gameplay is just as satisfying. Kay has her blaster and various throwables that help take enemies out. These are kept in her satchel which is actually quite a bitch to use. You have to pull up the bag, select the throwable and then toss it.
She can also pick up weapons around the world and ones dropped by enemies. All weapons overheat and can be cooled down faster by timing the perfect button press.
I did notice in the demo that Kay can’t carry other weapons around with her with complete freedom. Some weapons are automatically dropped when walking through some doors and she’ll leave them behind if you crawl through a vent.
Kay and Nix are also upgradable. While you don’t earn XP and skill points in Star Wars Outlaws, companions you meet throughout the galaxy come with new gear and enhancements to current gear. However, these aren’t obtained by just meeting them.
Instead, each of them includes a list of items and loot you’ll need to track down across the galaxy to unlock that upgrade. They hint where to find these items so when you’re exploring the planet, you’ll need to keep an eye out. Alongside these items, Kay will also need to have met certain objectives. Some include defeating a set number of enemies with hand-to-hand combat or spending a set amount of credits at certain merchants.
I think this system is quite cool. Not only does it encourage exploration but it fleshed out the upgrade system further beyond just XP farming. The upgrades are also quite substantial. For example, new throwables are obtained this way and Nix’s set of skills are expanded too. I just hope the gameplay curve takes these unlockable abilities into account and spikes the difficulty up to force me to use them.
So you can tell by now that I enjoyed my time with Star Wars Outlaws. I experienced most of what the game will offer at launch and I think it has a lot of potential to be a memorable experience. The exploration is likely the best part for me as the galaxy feels infinite with adventure.
Of course, I do have a few concerns. Combat is a bit clunky especially when you consider the satchel and how you need to access it. Nix is also mandatory at this stage. You simply can’t play the game without using his features. So if companions aren’t your thing, you won’t enjoy this adorable little alien pet thing.
I am also on the fence about Kay at this rate. I just don’t like her. She is incredibly rigid and hard to warm up to. Granted, I only played four hours of the game but there wasn’t one likable moment throughout that time. I hope there’s some real emotional stuff to Kay because this whole “badass rebel outlaw” persona is tired.
There’s also the faction reputation system where you can complete main missions and side with certain factions by screwing others over. During the demo, I had two missions where I had to choose which side I wanted to take. It was unclear to me how this would affect the overall plot of the game. So as it stands, I can’t comment how how beneficial these decisions are and how they will impact the replayility of the game.
I also hope that Outlaws isn’t just a bunch of main faction missions scattered around different planets without any real story foundation. Both planets in the demo had a similar system where I had to “get good” with the factions.
Regardless, I can’t wait to play more Outlaws. I feel like I only scratched the surface of the areas I explored and there’s a lot more to enjoy. I will have a full review up for the game closer to the launch next month.
Thank Ubisoft for the opportunity to test out the game and for being such great hosts. In a time where in-person video game demos basically don’t exist anymore, this was an incredible trip.
Star Wars Outlaws launches on 30 August. Check out the game’s full pre-order guide here.
