Star Wars Outlaws

Star Wars: Outlaws is an undeniably passionate and personal jaunt through some beautiful and painstakingly curated locales. Curiosity and exploration are rewarded while an emotionally punchy tale of a lovable rogue in Kay Vess sells an adventure dripping in 80s sci-fi goodness.

Marred by some pretty significant technical issues that scream to be left in that development oven just a little longer, some thoughtful design choices help balance the experience out, delivering an overall satisfying open-world action adventure with rudimentary but flexible mechanics and a colourful cast of bandits whose knives are primed for Kay's back.

I've been playing for a few weeks now and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. I am biased, I've been a huge Star Wars fan since early childhood so I'm already pre-disposed to enjoy this, but, it's a great game. I think it's mainly highs but there's a few lows: Its huge, there's at least three very big planets to explore and they are packed with well-hidden secrets, easter eggs and treasure to sniff out. Sometimes the worlds feel small, because you are on a speeder going very very fast you can cross the map very quickly. The speeder is sometimes too fast, I've crashed and died on a rock too small to notice. Thats not a bug, that's working as intended, but frustrating. I wish the speeder would auto-follow roads.

Combat for the most part, is fairly fluid and fast paced, its not perfect, there's flaws - but Kay isn't really supposed to be an action hero, adrenaline rush is your friend! You're really meant to be stealthy.

Stealth needs one or two tweaks. I'd prefer a ranged stealth take down and I'd like a way to mark targets while in stealth and an improvement on detecting enemies whilst sneaking around. It's frustrating when you're sneaking around and someone you had no-way to detect or notice spots you, and that's the mission finished. Enemies have zero peripheral vision. But they can see past the curvature of the earth directly in front of them. Their pathing can also be frustrating. A technician can be working at a console for ages but only moves when you're sneaking around the room. They've not noticed you; they just happen to be randomly moving. Some of these things could be argued as being more realistic - but it's a computer game so it can feel frustrating - especially when some missions are auto-fail if you're spotted. Save game is disabled in certain areas and missions for some bizarre reason.

I think a lot of things in the game aren't explained or taught to the player (marking enemies with the electro-binoculars, the contract terminal on your ship etc, there's probably more.) there needs to be a much bigger tutorial.

The expert system instead of skills or levelling up is a plus. The reputation system is good but can be a bit grindy - the contracts can be a bit repetitive, standard computer game fair. Nix or BD-1? I can't decide. But there's been a few instances where I've stealthed and/or battled through huge crowds of storm troopers just to realise Nix could have pick-pocketed a security card, at range, from safety.

Theres a few mini-games, the eating mini-game is... bizarre? Can I turn it off? Lock picking is tedious. I tuned that off. Slicing computers is pretty easy - once it's been explained in a YouTube video. There are actual arcade consoles all over where you can play 80's style arcade games, including the swoop racing from KOTOR. But most importantly- Sabacc. I Love it, its surpassed Pazaak and its up there with Gwent. Here's a hint, something it took me a while to realise - CHEAT. You are supposed to cheat. Its part of the game. Gimme more Sabacc.

Overall, yes, there's flaws, but its still a great and enjoyable game.

This is a quality game, outside of a handful of bugs, this game is immersive and beautiful. It tells a unique Star Wars story and puts you right in the middle of various syndicates and let's you choose differing options to tell the story in varying ways.

I metered my expectations based on some reviews but was more than pleasantly surprised with the detail and gameplay. The open world can be overwhelming but you'll find chests, fights, and stories everywhere to keep you busy without burning out doing the same thing over and over.

Your companion, Nix, is equivalent to a droid from other Star Wars media and helps you along the way, either by stealing, opening, or blowing someone up.

There's a lot to like about this game. Nix, Kay's pet is an effective tool to help you sneak past storm troopers to infiltrate Imperial Bases. Shooting down Tie fighters and recovering cargo during the space faring areas was a highlight. Taking place right after Empire Strikes Back made for some great nostalgic moments. Familiar storm troopers, droids, and aliens from the original trilogy is an easy slam dunk. Even the lack of Jedi didn't feel like a short coming as the gameplay felt like a familiar shooter instead of one-off light saber controls. Imagine Assassins Creed with a blaster on Tatooine.

The story was the low point of the game. You play as Kay Vess, a thief trying to work her way up in 6 different factions of crime syndicates simultaneously without any sort of finesse or cunning. Just betraying them to each other without ever really feeling like she was in danger. The only interesting character is an android.

I must point out that most of the characters I interacted with were women, even the storm troopers. It wouldn't have been so noticeable if the characters were written better but even Kay's story is thin and illogical.

I like the game and recommend it for Star Wars fans, just skip the cutscenes.

Would I consider this the best Star Wars game? No. But even with Ubisoft being in charge of this, it is enjoyable for what it is. Star Wars Outlaws is a nice game that takes place after Revenge of the Sith and has built the timeline up quite nicely. The gameplay can get pretty struggling at times and there are some missions that can get uninteresting. But at least those didn't stop from making the game worthwhile with a solid campaign, great graphics, and fun scavenger hunts that extends the game. Of course as a Star Wars fan myself, I wouldn't consider this the best game, but I think it would be worth playing for those that are into heist games. If this is the kind of game you think it's gonna be worth playing, then you will have a good time with it. Like Kay herself, the game could've pulled off better, but it still did a pretty good job with the heist. Happy Revenge of the 5th.