While many of the most recent Star Wars-based video games have been pretty good, they were mostly specialized around a specific aspect of that universe which kind of limited their wider appeal to all Star Wars fans. For example, Star Wars Squadrons was all about starship combat while the Jedi Survivor series focused on difficult, almost Souls-like combat. And the Battlefront games have, of course, always concentrated on squad-based combat. If you were looking for a Star Wars open world where you could do pretty much anything you wanted, then you needed to jump into a Star Wars MMO like The Old Republic. But because that was a massively multiplayer online title, there were limitations like individual characters not being able to make significant changes to the communal world or having to share all those environments with thousands of other human players who did not always behave right or role-play well.
The release of Star Wars Outlaws changes all that by letting players operate however they choose in not one, but five open worlds deep within the Star Wars universe. And it does that in a single-player format where everything is crafted around player choice, providing an experience that is deep and meaningful without the need for an MMO or an always-online component. The one possible caveat for some Star Wars fans is that the main character, a charismatic young scoundrel named Kay Vess at the very start of her career, is a normal human, not a Jedi or Sith. Those players who really enjoy Jedi powers, lightsabers and the galactic war in general may be disappointed as none of that is the focus here. However, freeing Vess from any allegiances also provides players with unprecedented choices that they never had in a Star Wars title before, which is pretty refreshing.
Set in the timeline between the Episode V and Episode VI movies, you begin your adventure on Kay’s home planet of Canto Bight, which we have seen in the movies before as The Casino Planet. Kay eventually acquires the means to venture to other places, and players will get to visit and explore the planets of Toshara, Tatooine, Akiva and Kijimi, most of which have impressive open worlds that are beautifully rendered and packed full of secrets, quests and outright adventure. There is a main quest to follow which involves Kay trying to raise enough money to pay for a blood bounty on her head (which stems from how she acquired her starship), but it’s never pushed really hard, giving players the freedom to explore the various worlds, take on jobs, earn credits, cross and be double crossed by contacts, and generally improve their gear and skills at whatever pace they choose.
There are two main elements to the gameplay of Outlaws, the planet-side exploration part where you are either on foot or zooming around on your speeder, and then piloting your starship through space. The on-foot part makes up most of what you do, although that depends to some extent on the missions you take on. Players who enjoy the dogfighting element can certainly concentrate on ship-based missions if they choose, although much of Outlaw’s content is set on the ground of the various planets or within the confines of different space stations.
While the overall story has Kay trying to work up to a big heist that will supposedly free her from the blood bounty, most of the time players will be taking on smaller missions and just trying to survive. Many of those normal missions are extremely well-crafted and just as fun as when following the main quest and will find Kay breaking into secure locations, tracking down bounties, stealing goods, talking with various criminals and specialists, looting and – when necessary – shooting. One word of warning is that quite a few of the missions, both with the main story and also during those aforementioned side quests, involve stealth to some extent. Kay either needs to remain hidden as part of the mission parameters, or it’s simply much easier to sneak around unfriendly compounds knocking out adversaries quietly to clear a path as opposed to trying to shoot it out with mobs of criminal syndicates, pirates or the entire imperial army.
You get to meet and work with a variety of interesting characters as you adventure, but your constant companion throughout the title is a loveable creature named Nix, who is about the size of a cat and has both incredible agility and stealth abilities. Not only is he a great friend to Kay, but he’s also extremely helpful as you can send him on mini missions to perform tasks that Kay can’t, or which are much easier for him. For example, after entering into a special sight mode, you can see all the people around you carrying valuables that Nix can steal. He does so with perfect accuracy every time, so his tricks become a great source of extra income, especially early in the game before your reputation is high enough to take on more valuable missions.
During missions or just when exploring, Nix can also open doors, push buttons that are really far away and distract guards with his playful antics, helping Kay to maintain stealth in difficult situations. In combat, he can attack opponents and keep them off guard, and also learn special skills like automatically tossing thermal detonators back at opponents before they can explode and damage Kay. He’s invincible too, so working with him is not an escort quest. There is never any downside to having Nix along for the ride.
Another great thing about Outlaws that makes the world realistic is that there is an extremely interesting reputation system that governs everything. There are three major criminal factions in the title, The Hutt Cartel, The Pyke Syndicate and the Crimson Dawn. Eventually, you will be able to add the Ashiga Clan as a fourth syndicate you can work for as well. As you do missions for each faction, your reputation grows, and you can earn rewards like new blaster skins or outfits with special bonuses. But here’s the catch: the factions don’t like one another and often compete. Many of the missions you take on will raise your reputation with one faction while lowering it with another. And just like having a good reputation has advantages, having a low one with a major criminal faction brings challenges. Disliked people are not allowed inside faction-controlled territories and can’t conduct any major business with faction merchants. At the lowest level of reputation, the offended group might even send out hit squads to kill off Kay once and for all. Keeping most of the factions happy, or at least making sure they don’t hate you, is one of the keys to making life easier and more profitable for Kay.
The open worlds in Star Wars Outlaws are also packed with tons of things to do even beyond the official side quests. Often times people will talk with Kay in the streets and that will lead to mini quests that can be fun and profitable. There are also a lot of side activities like betting on the Fathier Races (which is like horse racing), playing cards using a poker-and-blackjack-like game that is unique to Outlaws, searching for hidden treasure, racing speeders or eavesdropping in on people to get special hints about the galaxy’s many secrets. It’s extremely easy to get lost in the world of Outlaws as everything seems very alive and interconnected.
The space-based parts of Outlaws are also impressive. Having struggled a bit with navigating through space in Squadrons and with dogfighting combat in Battlefront, I was a little afraid of that element in Outlaws. However, while I would not ever rate myself as a top pilot, navigating space is made a lot easier with good 3D maps and the generous use of automatic waypoints. And the combat, while challenging, never got too difficult for me. I preferred having my feet on the ground most of the time, but got pretty comfortable in space as well, especially as I upgraded Kay’s stolen ship, The Trailblazer, for better performance, defenses and weaponry. Space can also be a real money-maker too, as you can find destroyed ships (or destroy them yourself) still filled with valuable cargo that you can tractor beam into your hold for use or sale later on. I can see some players really making a lot of money and having a lot of fun with the space-based parts of Outlaws.
Graphically, Star Wars Outlaws uses developer Massive Entertainment’s Snowdrop Engine, which is impressive. The graphics don’t look quite as realistic as many recent games that were made with the Unreal Engine 5. However, Snowdrop is able to render some beautiful words with stunning vistas without requiring a huge hit on performance, something that Unreal Engine 5 titles seem to struggle with. On the PlayStation 5, Outlaws was able to maintain a pretty consistent 40 frames per second in quality mode. Even during massive firefights or space battles, everything was always buttery smooth. You can even change things over to performance mode if you want even more emphasis on that aspect of the gameplay at the expense of some graphical fidelity, but given how good quality mode works, I don’t see any need for that.
The voice work in Outlaws is really well done. Kay Vess is voiced by Humberly Gonzalez while Nix is voiced (or maybe squeaked) by Dee Bradley Baker. But everyone in the cast does an amazing job with voices that perfectly match the character they are playing. The soundtrack, as might be expected from any Star Wars game, is outstanding. I could definitely hear the soundtrack for Outlaws playing during The Mandalorian or a Star Wars movie. The composers, Wilbert Roget II, Jon Everist and Kazuma Jinnouchi really captured the essence and freedom of Outlaws perfectly.
Honestly, I never thought we would get to experience an open-world Star Wars title like Outlaws, which offers a perfect blend of role-playing and action, mixed in with a heavy dose of player freedom. I put it right up there with some of the top Star Wars titles of all time, like Knights of the Old Republic. It’s one of those adventures that players really need to experience, and an instant classic that will be talked about for many years to come. Especially for Star Wars fans, but really for anyone who enjoys high-quality open world gaming, Star Wars Outlaws is an amazing experience that should not be missed.