Ubisoft’s next sprawling open-world adventure is also the first of its kind for a Star Wars game. Star Wars Outlaws is a wretched hive of scum and villainy encapsulated in video game form, and it’s so great at it. Outlaws is the fix for those who have been burnt-out by traditional Ubisoft open-world games and Jedi-centric Star Wars films and television shows over the years. Massive Entertainment, the developers behind my personal favorite RTS World in Conflict, as well as The Division and The Division 2, offer a wholly new experience by giving a look at the galaxy through the eyes of an up-and-coming scoundrel. Star Wars Outlaws is an excellent entry in what I hope can become a series, as I want to go on more adventures with Kay and Nix, who steal the show. And so Star Wars Outlaws is the elation and nostalgia of “Chewie, We’re Home.”
Set between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, you play as Kay Vess. She’s a street rat who comes up in a world controlled by the Galactic Empire, and has to do what’s necessary to survive, working her way up as a scoundrel by way of Han Solo. Voice actor Humberly González does well to play off what’s going on in any given cutscene to convey that Kay’s trying not to make it look like she’s new to all of this (but she very much is). She stumbles into the heist of the century, and what you get is a “gather the team” story where there’s adventure, treasure, and rep to earn. The story has plenty of twists and turns, all of them earned, and is fun to see it all unfold. What Outlaws does best is that even though there’s a task, smartly no urgency is tied to it, giving the player all the more reason to soak up its world for anywhere from 25 to 50+ hours.
Massive really nailed the vibe and setting here, with everything having an appropriately filmic look (thanks to film grain). It has that 90s neon soak with the 70s grime that cements the original trilogy so well. Wilbert Roget II’s compositions offer a lot of new music for a Star Wars game, while mixing in familiar themes we’ve come to know and love in excellent ways. As you experience the seedy underbelly of any given city, you’ll encounter all kinds of music. Clubs will have proper thumping music, but cantinas will use jizz band music to fill the scene. It’s a fun period piece, but done with Star Wars and in video game form. And like “Andor” and “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”, there aren’t any Jedi or Sith cluttering the screen with their laser swords and other nonsense. It is the game’s greatest strength, and not relying on that crutch, and is able to provide fun and variety it otherwise wouldn’t have.
The intro mission on Canto Bight is a nice nod to Rian Johnson’s “Star Wars: The Last Jedi”, and a wonderful backdrop and contrast to the heisting and thievery that will take place throughout the game. This is also serves as the game’s tutorial, letting you learn of Kay’s abilities and limits. There’s a strong focus on stealth throughout the game, and Kay’s silent takedowns can take down anyone, helmet or not, giving her unarguably the strongest punches in the galaxy. By her side is Nix, a pet that’s more than cute, because he can distract, steal, or sabotage equipment without Kay having to get too close. These two make a fantastic team, and is only the tip of the iceberg of their bond.
You’ll do a lot of shooting in the game, and Kay Vess’ blaster starts off as passable, but along the way she’ll be able to customize it with various modes and mods. Kay’s blaster has two additional modes that can be added to its default plasma. There’s ion which can power-up electronics and destroy droids. Early on I found a place I couldn’t access, as I didn’t have the tools to open it, I came back to it eight hours later after I acquired the power upgrade to the blaster that could. Star Wars Outlaws is a bit like metroidvania where certain tools or abilities needed, and you come back hours later to uncover them. The lockpicking mini-game we’ve grown accustomed to gets a face lift, as the data spike you insert into door locks is now a musical timing game in order to get doors unlocked, and it’s actually a really fun time (except if you’re in stealth and trying not to get caught).
Two kinds of stealth exist here: forced stealth and optional stealth. The forced stealth with objectives of “do not get caught” upon getting caught will cause a restart of the whole mission. During these missions, there will be a lift of that restriction, but it can sometimes be painful if your timing isn’t near perfect. The missions where stealth is optional is where things are most fun, because outwitting enemies feels good, as are the aforementioned silent takedowns. Though if you do get caught, shooting your way out feels exhilarating just like when the jig is up in “Star Wars: A New Hope” and they have to shoot their way out of the Star Destroyer. Kay can pick-up heavier duty weapons, but there are merely pick-ups as she can’t keep anything beyond your basic blasters. Stealth and combat are a lot of what you’ll do, and both are extremely fun for as much or as little as you spend with them.
Once you’ve landed on the first real planet, Toshara, you’ll see everything the game has to offer in terms of exploring the underworld, traversing the overworld, and go out of this world to see what awaits in space. It feels like I spent all of the first act on Toshara, constantly uncovering new places to visit, unlocks to acquire, and quests to take on. There’s three other systems to explore, and now when I say systems there’s space and a primary planet or moon to visit – there aren’t full systems to explore like it were Starfield or No Man’s Sky. The fact that you can traverse a planet’s surface in five minutes on a speeder should not be concerned, my fears were allayed when I saw everything a planet had available, that wasn’t icon overload. Even if Toshara was the only planet in the game, there’s still be so much to do and see, though I’m thankful it’s not the only planet, because the three other systems offer four biomes to experience: the plains of Toshara, the tundra of Kijimi, the jungle of Akiva, and the desert of Tatooine. One of the smartest decisions, is that once you’ve visited a place (and have adequate rep with a faction), you can fast travel anywhere. This does mean that you can fast travel to other planets and systems without needing to get into your ship and hyperspace travel if you don’t want to, but is very immersive if you do.
A plethora of quests await Kay to take on, and while it can seem like too much, it gives you the choice to do what you want, and when. First you have your quests, which are main and side content that propels the story forward. Then there’s intel missions, where you could come upon what’s essentially a gas station, walk in, and overhear criminals talking about a (not so) hidden stash that points you to it. Then there’s “expert” intel missions to improve the quality of Kay’s abilities, and finally “key part” intel that leads you to new upgrades. After some time, contracts open up to you, and you’re able to take these on for quick reputation bonuses. Lastly there are outlaw legends, a decidedly vague questline of discovering the rarest things in the game, but require you to figure it all out. There will be times that you’re traversing a planet’s surface, and a pirate raid event will come up. You can either race to scoop up everything before someone gets there, or wait it out to attack after two opposing sides have fought over it. All the odd jobs and things you do in this game make total sense, as you’re making a name for yourself and establishing relationships. It works really well in the game’s favor, more than most in and around the genre.
There’s an impressive amount of flora and fauna to encounter, speeder races to take part in, and so much more. There are multiple arcade games like a retro racer and a nod to vector-based Star Wars game. There’s a card game called Sabacc that has its own quest arc and system in the game, not too dissimilar from Gwent’s importance in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Lastly there’s race betting (essentially horses, and not pod racers). If you wanted a break from treasure hunting and even the questing, there’s a whole section of gambling and gaming that is sure to satisfy, but totally optional.
Kay’s speeder is a lot of fun to use, and looks like a wheel-less motorcycle. A lot of what Kay does and says speaks to her fallibility And much like a Stormtrooper on the forest moon of Endor, Kay can too crash and fall off her speeder. A lot of the early game is about the Trailblazer, a space-faring ship with blasters, torpedoes, and more. The Trailblazer is a character of its own, as grows and changes, especially in the early parts of the game. Those who’ve played Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Jedi: Survivor might notice some traversal similarities like sliding down angled and slippery surfaces, climbing walls, and going in-between tight spaces. While I’m not sure if they’re on purpose, it does nicely feel familiar, even across different Star Wars games.
There’s so many lootables in the game, and doing so can lead to unlocking the purchase of new equipment. Kay, much like her pet and companion Nix, the ship, and her speeder, can improve. She can equip different shirts, holster, and legs. Each new find could feature a special feature or buff to things like making her more resistant to blaster damage, take less fall damage, or be quieter in stealth. Some items for Kay can be cosmetic only, offering no benefit. I do hope transmogrification becomes available in a future update, because I want Kay to look good while being able to utilize the benefits of certain items that may not match. Kay also can equip charms, one major one and two minor ones. These can have similar buffs like the clothing items, and can help cater to your playstyle or helping you in areas you’re not skilled at.
Factions are the backbone of Star Wars Outlaws, offering an impressive and socially exciting tug-of-war between the factions as you play them off each other, often for your own gain. There will come time to make decisions, and often they are binary such as sticking to the deal you made to gain rep with a certain faction, or double-cross the source faction for a bonus from an opposing offer. The juggling of factions is so impressive, as no choice is easy, and the system is a delicate balance. There are a total of four factions you’ll be working with throughout the game: The Hutt Cartel, Crimson Dawn, and The Pyke Syndicate round out the known ones, but the Ashiga Clan were created specifically for Star Wars Outlaws and feel like a Warframe entity. There’s five ratings to attain: Terrible, Bad, Poor, Good, and Excellent. Baseline ratings put you at Poor, and from there you will raise or lower them based on actions. The easiest way to raise reputation with a faction is to complete a contract for them, which often is grab cargo and deliver it to its destination. The twist is that sometimes it will have a stipulation like “no fast travel” or “cargo must not take damage”, it adds some challenge to these that they otherwise don’t have. You can raise reputation by selling data to factions merchants. When there are big decisions to make, the game will show clearly show who’s faction rep will go up, and who’s will go down. Sometimes the game only gives you icons to factions, so it can be difficult to remember which one is which.
At one point I ended up with one faction absolutely hating me, falling into the “terrible” rating. So I had to do missions to raise their liking of me, just so I could no longer be constantly chased by death squads. I was able to dispatch them with ease over time, but the constant interruptions made me desperate to at least be tolerated, and left alone. It’s things like this that really solidify that you are a scoundrel and relations can be fickle for any employer. There will simply be things you cannot see and places you cannot go due to your choices, making replaying the game almost essential.
Merchants are many, and are strewn about cities. Some of them belong to certain factions, and as a result, bad relations can mean poor pricing where Kay would pay more than talking to a merchant she had good relations with. Merchants can often do barters for items useful to you, allowing you to trade junk for prizes. The underworld isn’t seedy, it’s greedy. And when it comes time to sell, the game explicitly calls out what items are essentially junk, and are safe to sell. And other items are called out as being useful for crafting, barters, or other uses.
I did run into some inconsistencies, foibles, and simple bugs in my time with the game. For instance, Kay often can’t access areas but would if she could simply crawl under the blocking object. At no point can you make a hard save during a mission, you have to rely on the (multiple) autosaves to get you through it. And as mentioned earlier, if you fail a stealth-only mission, back to the start you go. As far as bugs, the binoculars you use to scout areas have an incredibly high sensitivity that cannot be adjusted in the settings. I saw many people driving around on speeders, crashing into everything where it sounds like a toddler banging pots and pans. And there were times where the camera would get stuck and character can walk off-the-screen. This only happened a couple of times, and reloading the last autosave fixed it both times.
I reviewed the majority of the game with the NVIDIA GameReady 560.94 drivers. There was one day of reviewing on the previous set of drivers, prior to these being ready. The game comes equipped with nearly every NVIDIA, DLSS, and RTX feature. Since Star Wars Outlaws can be really demanding, enabling DLSS 3.5 was a priority. With everything set to its maximum setting (either High or Ultra), enabling things like: DLSS at Quality settings, Ray Reconstruction enabled, RTX Direct Lighting enabled, and Frame Generation on, I was averaging around 70fps. With DLSS at Quality setting and Frame Generation on but all RTX features off, I was getting around 115fps. The game can be hefty on your GPU, as I saw it using 13 of the 16GB of my 4080’s VRAM.
Thankfully, there’s plenty of customization to dial in the experience to your liking of either performance or quality. While I prefer the highest framerates whenever possible, RTX simply had to be enabled for me, as it adds so much color and depth to everything you do. Ubisoft also seems to still be working on a lot of the RTX features, and I think we’ll see a lot of optimizations post-launch. Now that’s not to say it’s unplayable now, but you may have to make some concessions along the way.
My PC Specs:
– Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
– Intel Core i9 13900K @ 5.8GHz
– ASUS ROG RYUJIN II 360 ARGB AIO Liquid CPU Cooler
– G.SKILL TRIDENT Z5 6000MHZ 64GB (32×2) DDR5 RAM
– ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 16GB GDDR6X
– WD_BLACK SN850X M.2 (4 TB)
– LG UltraGear 34GP950B-G (21:9 Ultrawide @ 3440×1440)
What Respawn did with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Massive has done with Star Wars Outlaws, and that’s creating a unique Star Wars experience we haven’t had before. Star Wars Outlaws does a lot of things, and at no point does it fumble with its ambition, and executes on it with truly epic moments, fun stealth, and freedom of choice. Massive Entertainment really knows how to make their game worlds feel lived in, and there’s no better setting than Star Wars, especially during the latter episodes of the original trilogy. Star Wars Outlaws epitomizes the Han Solo line, “Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid” so wonderfully.
A Ubisoft Connect code for the Ultimate Edition was provided in advance by the publisher for review purposes
