Star Wars Outlaws Review

Star Wars Outlaws is the newest interactive foray into the galaxy far, far away, published by Ubisoft and developed by Massive Entertainment, the studio behind titles like The Division and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. This title follows a crew of outlaws as they attempt a heist during the interlude between Episode V and Episode VI of the original trilogy, and introduces a new explorable location in the Star Wars canon: the moon of Toshara.




The title is an open-world third-person action game with stealth, climbing, and shooting mechanics, and offers players a wide variety of activities to partake in. With a long history of Star Wars games out behind it, SWO had a lot to live up to. Despite a few shining moments, this title unfortunately fell short of its highest potential in many instances.


Star Wars Outlaws’ Story Left a Lot to Be Desired

Character and Plot Felt Underdeveloped


There have been many, many Star Wars games across the series’ canon, and one of the things that sets Star Wars Outlaws’ apart is that players will not take on the role of a Jedi in this title — in fact, there aren’t even any lightsabers to be seen in this game. The idea of playing a Star Wars game as a scoundrel — essentially as a Han Solo archetype — is certainly an intriguing one, not unheard of in the franchise, but certainly less common. What’s more, seeing what another character was up to between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi is a fun starting point, as players get to see more of what was going on around the galaxy at that time.


Despite a strong premise, though, the story left a lot to be desired. For one, Kay and her crew are out to complete a heist, buying their way to freedom and clearing their names. It’s certainly a clear motivation, but it’s a simple one — a starting point to build everything else off of. However, this is where it feels like the motivations end. Players don’t get much opportunity to understand who these characters are past a base level, which is somewhat forgivable for the side characters, but certainly baffling when it comes to the game’s main character.

Kay certainly wants a better life for herself, but this motivation is so universal it borders on being meaningless. Family is important to her, and she’s supposedly a skilled scoundrel. Otherwise, it’s hard to know what Kay really wants or who she is. Any deeper expression of her internal thoughts comes too little too late, which feels like a wasted opportunity in a franchise that’s rich with storytelling ammunition in themes like fate, family, and being part of something bigger than oneself.


A big part of the game is Kay’s background as a scoundrel — however, inconsistent characterization led to a muddled portrayal of the game’s protagonist. It seemed as though the game couldn’t decide whether she was a hardened, expert criminal with unmatched skill (with various syndicate members remarking on the name she had made for herself), or a talented but unproven newbie who was still finding her footing in the criminal underworld (with ND-5, for example, talking down to her in comparison to his expertise).

This sense of unease in Kay’s abilities was heightened by her own tone — while the game seemed to insist that she was a level-headed smooth talker, including a mechanic that allowed Kay to potentially talk her way out of trouble before combat broke out, many of her character moments were played off as quirky insecurity. Creating a carbon copy of Han Solo certainly would have been a misstep, but the uncertain tone didn’t jive with the insistence that Kay was an unshakable badass.


ND-5 was a standout in the cast, both in character design and the actor who portrayed him. It was a real shame, then, that for most of the game he was constrained to the ship while Kay went out on her missions, despite his presence as part of the crew being to ensure that she doesn’t just walk away.

Similar to Kay, however, ND-5 lacks any substantial character development. He is supposed to be at odds with Kay until they inevitably strike up a friendship, but it’s hard to buy that he has any deeper reason to dislike her. He makes jabbing comments for a while, until suddenly he and Kay are best friends. Their relationship does have some interesting conflict toward the end, and is by far the most explored dynamic of the entire cast, but it still leaves a lot to be desired.


Without getting into spoilers, all of the best story moments from the game came from the last main story mission, a multi-hour culmination of the heist. A series of set pieces and scenes offered new gameplay scenarios and interesting character moments that were otherwise lacking throughout the rest of the game — not to mention some homages to the original Star Wars trilogy.

With so much of the story packed into the final quest, it almost felt as if Massive was trying to make two separate games: a Naughty Dog-style linear game with highly curated story beats and gameplay setpieces, and an open-world Star Wars game.

What’s more, many of the missions felt repetitive and bland throughout most of the main story. The gameplay loop of “go here, retrieve this object/information, get out of there” repeated again and again. Similarly, many of the missions seemed to just be a character telling Kay, “I need you to do this for me before I help you,” so it felt like the player was taking detour after detour away from Kay’s mission or motivations to do a completely unrelated task for a stranger.


SWO’s Gameplay Systems Remix the Best of Other Games

It’s Fun, But Nothing Fans Haven’t Seen Before

While Nix makes up the second of the player protagonist duo, his abilities to help Kay as she explores, sneaks, and fights her way across the galaxy are some of the most well-implemented systems in the game. His most useful ability by far is distracting enemies while Kay is sneaking around — players can target a specific enemy and lure them to an exact location by aiming Nix’s distract command.


Star Wars Outlaws has tons of stealth throughout, and many sections require players to make it through without even alerting enemies, so this ability becomes a crucial part of Kay’s kit. Thankfully, it works quite well, with the rare exception when there are a great number of enemies around, and players accidentally target a different enemy than the one they intended.

Nix can also open doors and grates for players, so they can have him run out ahead to clear the way, or have him shut a door from across the room. Similarly, he also becomes a part of simple environmental puzzles when Kay needs to send him to drop down a ladder, open a shutter, or press a button. The player can also send Nix to pick up items for them — this is useful when sending him to fetch items that are out of reach, and he can even acquire items along the way and deliver them to Kay.


Kay can also have Nix attack enemies for her, which essentially stuns them for a short period of time — this is especially helpful when taking down multiple enemies at a time, although sometimes it can be finicky trying to get it to work properly in the middle of a firefight.

Kay and Nix will find food stalls around the various cities where they can have a seat and enjoy a meal together. These sequences go on for a bit long, and basically come down to quick time events as Kay and Nix eat their food. They do have cute animations, though, and afterward the player unlocks a new passive ability for Nix, like kicking grenades away from Kay or distracting multiple enemies at once.


Players will not be left wanting for things to do in Star Wars Outlawsthis is not an empty open world, for better and for worse. Outside of the main story, various quest types include side quests, syndicate quests, intel chains, expert intel, key part intel, and contracts. Then there are the random events that happen out in the open world (similar to the crimes that happen in the Marvel’s Spider-Man games), the mini-games, and the collectibles scattered throughout the world.

At many points, it feels like this title is scared of players getting bored — it’s a constant bombardment of marks on the map and questline UI. Walking into a cantina, players will be introduced to a new thread to pull on seemingly ever five feet. The ever-present objective text looms in the top right corner, lest the player not know where to go and shut the game off out of frustration. It almost feels like the player can’t be trusted to find their own fun.


There was one moment, for example, where the player could meet an Imperial officer who was hanging out in a cantina on the planet Akiva. He tries to convince Kay to work for the Empire, informing her that they have a booth down by the loading bay. He even tries to sweeten the deal with a recruitment bonus if she does well on a shooting demonstration.

It seemed like the perfect clue the player could follow in world, solving a simple instruction, but potentially leading to a satisfying, organic payoff — one can imagine Kay signing up, collecting her bonus after a well-executed shooting mini-game, only for the Imperial office to realize he had been duped as she flees, maybe even kicking off a manhunt. Sure enough, the booth was right where the officer said it would be, complete with a line of eager NPCs and Imperial propaganda posters.

It was a bit of a letdown, then, to realize that the player could not interact with the officer or anyone with the booth at all — it was only set dressing. This instance perfectly encapsulates the various activities and missions in this game; with a few exceptions, the player will mostly know exactly what to expect, explicitly told where to go and what to do.


One of the game’s features that players got a chance to see a preview of leading up to Star Wars Outlaws’ release was its Experts — characters in the world who, in theory, were to replace a traditional skill tree. After meeting the character, the player could perform tasks to unlock new abilities — an attempt to make leveling up more immersive than the standard skill tree.

The result doesn’t necessarily feel like an improvement on the usual skill tree progression — just different. Perhaps having dedicated missions where the Expert would literally teach Kay how to perform a new skill could have achieved this, but implementing a feature like this while keeping the game’s development in scope would have been a Herculean feat, so it’s understandable why they went this direction.


The game also has four different criminal syndicates that Kay can affiliate herself with: the Crimson Dawn, the Pyke Syndicate, the Hutt Cartel, and the Ashiga Clan. The player has a reputation with each of the syndicates which shifts as Kay makes decisions. The better the relationship Kay has with a certain faction, the better deals they’ll give her at their shops, and the friendlier they’ll be when she’s in their territory. Players will also get rewards when reaching a good enough reputation level with a syndicate, and access to different quests associated with each syndicate as well.

Of course, these statuses are supposed to symbolize Kay’s changing alliances to the different factions who are all vying for control of the galaxy, but it feels a bit more flat in practice. At any point, players can complete tasks for any group in order to boost their standing, which is necessary from a gameplay standpoint, and even more interesting from a story perspective too — Kay doesn’t hold to a certain set of beliefs, but instead is willing to bend however she needs to meet a desired end.


However, it feels like this fluidity mitigates any potential consequence. If the player wants to be on a syndicate’s good side for a story mission, they can simply complete a contract or two, and all past transgressions are forgotten. From a gameplay standpoint, players will still be able to work around a syndicate’s grudge — it’ll just be slightly harder by having to stealth or fight their way to the end goal rather than just walking in.

The game also implements a bounty system — if players anger the Empire, they’ll launch a manhunt for the player; similarly, if players reach a low enough reputation with a certain syndicate, they will be aggressive with the player on sight. This plays very similarly to the bounty system in Grand Theft Auto — players can have blast evading the law with an escalating onslaught of enemies out to kill them.


If players want to clear their name, however, they can easily jump to another system in the Trailblazer, or simply pay off a corrupt Imperial officer, which is always clearly marked on the map. The game is trying to make sure players always have an easy way out if they want it, but sometimes, it does feel a bit too easy to get away.

Star Wars Outlaws Does Have Some Great Moments

Open World Thrill, Art Design, and Music Are Highlights


Despite some issues or lackluster quests, there truly are some moments where the game’s open world can shine — for example, diving into a pirate camp, stealing their loot, being spotted by the Empire as they were checking out the pirate camp, and then making a run for it makes for a thrilling chase.

Sneaking into the headquarters of a syndicate Kay isn’t in good standing with, making it to a Sabaac table, and winning a game against skilled opponents feels like the player has really pulled one over. Players who enjoy making their own fun in an open world will have plenty to work with, but these moments feel somewhat sparse in contrast to the slew of handhold-y quests and activities the game is constantly throwing out.

Star Wars Outlaws had quite an enjoyable soundtrack that both feels unique and plays into the sound of the larger Star Wars universe. Kay’s theme is particularly nice, and the music that plays every time the Trailblazer takes off makes every departure feel equally epic.


Another one of the game’s strongest points was its art design — the environments in this title look great. Each planet and its main city feels unique and vast, like there are plenty of nooks and crannies the player could get lost in. There’s a really great use of staging and color that makes environments, especially important landmarks, look distinct and striking.

The vehicles were a fun surprise in Star Wars Outlaws — both the speeder bike and the ship, called the Trailblazer, were a blast to play around with. Players who enjoy racing around the planet’s surface, jumping and speeding in a flow state, should have a great time with the bike. Similarly, the dogfights are some of the most impressive space battles in any video game ever, fully utilizing 3D space and capturing an epic feeling that a Star Wars game desperately needs — it’s just a shame that there weren’t more polished, scripted space battles, because those were truly some of the best moments of the game.


Those who enjoy mini-games will also be rich for choice here, as there are three different arcade games, a gambling mini-game, speeder bike races, and a robust gambling card game called Sabaac. The latter is also integrated into some side quests, and comes with collectibles as well. Sabaac is easy enough to pick up, yet complex enough to master with time, so players can easily sink hours into this game on top of what the rest of the title has to offer.

Bugs Were a Distraction Throughout the Game

SWO’s Biggest Issues Will Likely Be Patched Right Away

Kay looks at an Imperial officier stuck in a wall in Star Wars Outlaws


Unfortunately, this playthrough was riddled with bugs. Certainly, plenty of them will be fixed upon full release, but even so, various glitches were disruptive at times — a couple of crashes most of all. NPCs sometimes got stuck in floors or walls, a character would have a gun sticking through their hand in a cutscene, the camera would stutter against a tight corner while climbing — nothing game-breaking but certainly enough to notice often during the playthrough.

In one instance, getting killed in combat during an open-world event that popped up led to the encounter despawning upon reloading back in. Little moments like that definitely shattered the illusion, and one would simply move onto the next in the long list of things to do.

The quality of the cutscenes also varies drastically throughout, with two or three looking truly great, and the others tapering from there. Performance could also be hit or miss at points, even on a PS5, with frame rate and lighting being an issue sometimes.


At the End of the Day, This Feels Like a Star Wars Game

There Are Plenty of Surprises For Fans Along the Way

Kay hides in an Imperial hangar bay in Star Wars Outlaws

For some of the game’s less exciting moments, it’s worth noting that this certainly feels like a Star Wars game. Visually, players are constantly being reminded of the world they’re in — some of the coolest moments come from a combat arena set in an Imperial hangar bay with TIE Fighters looming over the player, for example. Hardcore fans of the series will certainly get a kick out of the various Easter eggs and homages to the franchise, so those who love the original trilogy are very much a part of this game’s core demographic.


Star Wars Outlaws is also recommended to players who are fans of a structured open-world format. As mentioned, there are more than enough various quest types and collectibles to keep players busy for dozens of hours, and free-roaming with the vehicles will make for a fun time as well, like how many players enjoy just swinging around the city in the Marvel’s Spider-Man games.

This title won’t be redefining the genre, and it plays like many of the other games in the Ubisoft catalog that most players are familiar with by now. Assuming players go in with reasonable expectations, they’ll have a good time with it if they’re already a fan of the genre.

This article was written with a review copy of Star Wars Outlaws for PlayStation 5 provided by Ubisoft.


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