I don’t envy anyone making anything Star Wars. While for many its a global, imagination-capturing dream factory, in recent years the IP is held to such scrutiny that it feels like to work on Star Wars is to open yourself to the endless barrage of criticisms from the worst people you can imagine.
And yet, coming off Star Wars Outlaws you wouldn’t think that. Massive Entertainment and Ubisoft’s open world space-crime adventure is a game made with so much love for George Lucas’ space epic/multimedia empire that part of me wonders if any amount of its story comes from someone’s own school notebook of ideas.
Title: Star Wars Outlaws
Developer: Massive Entertainment, Lucasfilm Games
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, PS5, PC
Smuggler’s Paradise
You play as Kay Vess, a smuggler out to make a name for herself, and immediately gets thrown into the power struggles of a bunch of cartels. From cheating at cards to stealing from the Empire, there comes a point where you have to realize that deep down, Kay and Nix just like doing crime.
From a set design perspective, it’s hard to give Star Wars Outlaws anything but full marks. The locations are vibrant, detailed and thematically on point. An off-moon space station bar ended up looking just as busy and detailed as its main world counterpart, and Toshara itself is an absolute delight considering how “The Empire keeps it neutral” is a very literal statement by the game: any area you can see Stormtroopers in isn’t going to be tied to faction reputation.
There’s also the factions themselves. At first I was going to be worried that it was going to have the MMO problem of these massive, interplanetary crime syndicates being represented by singular faces. But the game does a really good job of making them feel like big threats looming over you.
Even the holy contract of employment isn’t so sacred when it comes to factions like the Red Dawn or Hutt Cartel- they’re more than happy to suddenly swoop in at the last minute and interfere with your deals. You can feel the animosity these syndicates feel for each other- almost every faction feels like it has a “Shaft the Pykes” option, while it seems like everyone’s in agreement that the Hutts have terrible employee relations but make up for it with good pay.
Given the game tells you from the start to see your relationship with the syndicates as fluid, it’s interesting to see that in practice: I’d shafted the Pykes so hard I could have sworn I was on death row- but not before their boss called me up for a big mission to make amends by dealing with a traitor. At another point, I’d offered to help locate a missing Astromech- on the condition that its owner put in a good word with the Pykes for me. The game clearly wants you to to be moving up and down these reputation meters, as is fitting of a scoundrel.
It’s the fact that these syndicates are seemingly everywhere- couldn’t get rid of them even if I wanted to- that makes Star Wars Outlaws systems so interesting. It’s way more fun than any of the freelancing I’ve done in my real life- though admittedly every bit as stressful as you try to manage client relations.
Sneaky Dungeons
Of course, a good chunk of the gameplay in Star Wars Outlaws is built around Kay’s inflitration of various bases, outposts and the like. I’ve previously praised the stealth sections in Outlaws- it’s difficult and tense in a really good way because it drives home that Kay isn’t a super soldier- she’s the equivalent of a girl and her Therapy Animal engaging in armed robbery at best.
Going further into the game you suddenly realize just how much of Star Wars Outlaws is an inversion of stealth tropes- it is far, far easier to try to ghost your way through some sections than to go loud. While Kay has a modular blaster any other guns are only temporary pick-ups. I’d fallen in love with Tattooine when I learned raiders there carried grenade launchers- only to have to part with mine any time I had to climb or interact with a console.
Combine that with segments where the stealth is mandatory and you really start to see how much the game wants to push this particular image of Kay Vess. She’s not a musclehead fighter, she’s a cunning thief. Even though Nix is extremely useful, deploying him in a scramble can be messy- the “Nix Mode” where you order him around doesn’t stop time, so if you’re going to have him jump to another Stormtrooper so you can dispatch a whole group don’t be surprised if you end up shot in the face trying.
Sadly it does feel like a lot of these sections are more linearly designed- the story levels will tend to be more strict about how you go in and out, so at the end of the day these rooms can feel like a game of “how did they want me to fix this” rather than “what can I do to get around this problem”.
Interestingly enough it’s one of the things I like about the open world- the outposts you get on the map are designed for both side quests and treasure hunting, so they feel much more expansive as a result. I’d gotten through a whole Imperial outpost’s worth of treasure before remembering that I was there for a power core- and it’s moments like that where you really enjoy skulking around hallways with Kay and Nix.
Star Wars Outlaws: Final Thoughts
If you’re the type who’s been chasing some sort of way to “Be in Star Wars”, I can’t recommend Star Wars Outlaws enough. It panders to a very specific fantasy- someone who wants to be a part of the world but not some massively prophesized Chosen One. Kay Vess doesn’t get to march into Jabba’s room and say “Do you know who I am?”, but she does get to make a deal.
Admittedly, the open world is where the game is at its weakest- picking up sudden distress signals just isn’t as fun as Syndicate missions, though I also feel like “protect the civilians” missions had to be thrown in to remind everyone that Kay is actually a good person after she’s basically been a lapdog to some of the worst people in the galaxy.
Still, it’s the fact the game makes me think of these at all that makes it such a good Star Wars game. Considering how often I’m made to listen to some downright vitriolic Star Wars opinions, it’s nice to see a genuine show of affection for the series that isn’t also slavishly devoted to using old characters.
Final Score: 8/10
Game reviewed on PS5. Review access provided by Ubisoft
