Our review of Star Wars Outlaws, developed by Massive Entertainment, and (very obviously) published by Ubisoft. Available now for PS5 (reviewed), Xbox X/S, and Windows.
WHAT IS IT?
A space smuggler simulator.
IS IT GOOD?
It’s a fairly standard Ubisoft open-world game, aided enormously by the Star Wars licence.
WHO SHOULD PLAY IT?
The Outrageous Okona.
HELP ME UBI-WAN-KENOBI
What if Andor but long?
That’s the best way to describe Star Wars Outlaws. A succession of stealth missions punctuated by the occasional space combat or speeder bike chase, Outlaws is an open-world action-RPG not unlike any other open-world action-RPG, particularly its fellow Ubisoft stablemates like Far Cry or Assassin’s Creed. While it benefits enormously from the Star Wars licence, there’s no escaping the fact you’ve played Outlaws – and encountered its “motley crew pulls off a heist” storyline – many, many times before.
A GOOD BLASTER AT YOUR SIDE
Kay Vess (Toronto’s own Humberly González) is in trouble. Much like Han Solo or Cassian Andor or Dash Rendar (deep cut!) before her, Kay has run afoul of a few too many bad types, sending her fleeing across the galaxy in a rickety old spaceship, with an adorable sidekick for company.
Of course, like any decent scoundrel, Kay knows how to work a room (or remote galactic outpost), taking on odd jobs for Rebels, Imperials, criminal outfits, and desperate space citizens alike. Kay is fun, she’s likeable, and her obnoxiously cute pet, Nix (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker), is good company, even if he might just tiptoe across the too-cute line established by Baby Yoda.
Like so many rogues before her, Kay is an ace with a blaster rifle, an expert sneak, and can “slice” (the Star Wars term for hacking) into almost anything. She gets to do a lot of those things over the 24 or so hours it takes to complete Outlaws, travelling across planets by speeder bike, or through space in her Discount Millennium Falcon.
As in most games of this ilk, a plethora of activities – story missions, side missions, minigames – split the difference between enthralling, okay, and mediocre. That said, all credit to Outlaws for including a surprising number of in-universe vector graphic arcade games, in homage to the greatest vector arcade game ever made.
Players should know up front that Outlaws is essentially a stealth game. While there are plentiful tools and weapons at Kay’s disposal for full-on firefights, combat is actively discouraged. For one, combat becomes rote after a while, as there are only so many exploding red barrels and cannon fodder Stormtroopers to mow down before it gets boring. For another, the reputation system in Outlaws, through which you earn the trust of different factions, requires that you pull off missions without being detected, since getting caught loses you cred with whichever faction you’re currently infiltrating and/or betraying.
DON’T GET COCKY
Outlaws is also, and it wants you very much to know this, a heist game. Much like Andor before it, Outlaws is centred around building a team to pull off a daring heist, with a huge payout in Imperial Credits at stake.
But not before you complete a tutorial where you break into a restricted area to steal something. And then on to the next mission, where you sneak into a restricted area to steal something. And the next mission after that. Occasionally, the game shakes things up by asking you to risk your reputation with one faction by – wait for it – breaking into a restricted area to steal something for another faction.
You get the picture.
Kay isn’t alone throughout all this. There’s her motley crew of heisters, not unlike Andor‘s motley crew of heisters but with decidedly less Desi (or, if you prefer, Cousin Richie). There’s also, lord live the little guy, Nix, who serves as an extension of Kay’s move-set: send Nix to distract an enemy, hold a door open for you, steal an item just out of reach, and so on. Nix is neither the best nor the worst AI sidekick in gaming history, but you’ll appreciate Nix’s presence, particularly during the more daunting stealth challenges.
I HAVE A BAD FEELING ABOUT THIS
What really saves Outlaws from being just another open-world Ubisoft title is the licence itself.
Outlaws absolutely captures the Star Wars aesthetic, from the environments to the hacked-together droids, to the aliens that look like elaborate puppets. Admittedly, some of the environments are bland, but the game shines every time it throws you into a familiar scenario or location and lets you roam freely.
Tatooine in particular stands out among the game’s four main hubs, letting you explore Star Wars‘s most famous planet as an open world for the very first time in gaming history. Also excellent are the Imperial facilities, where the familiar trappings of Star Wars – legions of Stormtroopers, starkly beautiful architecture – conjure deep feelings of nostalgia. So too does the game’s John Williams-alike musical score, which occasionally quotes directly from Williams’s classic soundtrack.
Still, the over-emphasis on stealth can be a downer, especially since (a) it’s impossible to conceal bodies you’ve knocked out, and (b) the infrequent checkpoint system can set you back significantly any time you’re caught.
Space combat is okay, but pales in comparison to classics of the genre such as the Rogue Squadron and Battlefront titles. On land, I love Kay’s speeder bike (which reminds me a lot of Jak II and Jak 3, of all things) but I do wish it was possible to steal, er, “borrow” other vehicles, Grand Theft Auto style. Outlaws‘s Sabaac card game doesn’t hold a candle to Pazaak of Knights of the Old Republic fame.
Fundamentally, the Outlaws problem is that it’s not that interesting. It’s interesting enough, but the too-long story doesn’t do enough to capture or hold your attention. Even at their best, Kay and her gang merely serve to remind us of other, more beloved, characters. (Credit to González, however, for an excellent voice/mocap performance.) Oddly, it’s not even clear when Outlaws is supposed to take place, given the paucity of details about the state of the galaxy during the game. At least Mandalorian had the courtesy to tell us right off the bat exactly when it takes place.
Outlaws may not be quite the droid you’re looking for, but it’s still a fun little jaunt through familiar territory, helped along by a nostalgia for a time and a place which, in this Disneyfied era, feels ever longer ago, in a galaxy further and further away.
***
Final score: 8/10 high grounds.
Visit the official website for Star Wars Outlaws here.
