For a decade, the only official Star Wars games allowed were made by EA, and they were of varying quality. But, thankfully, we're finally done with that miserable time period.
At long last, we get to see an open world take on Star Wars from Massive Entertainment — the studio behind Ubisoft's hit "The Division" series.
With over 60 reviews counted, "Star Wars Outlaws" has a "Strong" average review score of 77/100 on OpenCritic. Compared to the "Fair" 71/100 score for "Avatar: frontiers of Pandora," Massive Entertainment's previous game, this is a nice step up. However, it is a bit lower than we expected after some very glowing previews earlier this year.
But let's forget about numbers for a second, and see exactly why Star Wars die hards should play "Outlaws."
It feels very different from other recent Star Wars games
It's not perfect, but overall, I've enjoyed my time with Kay, Nix and ND-5. I'd even go so far as to say that this open-world adventure scratches an itch that the "Star Wars Jedi" games didn't satisfy. Massive Entertainment managed to beautifully recreate familiar locations while providing engaging activities to keep players entertained. From playing simple arcade games to breaking into mansions and racing around on a speeder bike, "Outlaws" delivers exciting action.
The crew matters a lot more than you'd expect
"Outlaws" is at its best when it's telling you a story. I was immediately invested in Kay and Nix and loved going on this journey with them. I didn't skip a single cinematic or hurry through dialogue and, as a casual Star Wars fan, I would say that's a big win for the folks at Massive Entertainment.
The story of "Star Wars Outlaws" is well-woven into its main quest and all the secondary quests that make up the game world. Things like local lore and discovering new locations are fed into the living planets Kay gets to visit as a form of organic storytelling.
It's also bolstered by its unique cast of characters. For example, there's Kay herself, whose no-nonsense attitude isn't dampened by her situation; Nix, her companion and beloved family member; and ND-5, a droid from the Clone Wars era who is surprisingly fleshed out in a positive way.
The dynamic syndicate system will keep you on your toes
A lot of that you've probably seen in a Star Wars game before, but one of "Outlaws" most interesting and novel features is its syndicate system, which reminded me of the reputation system used in "The Outer Worlds."
Basically, you can't really complete a quest over the course of the campaign without pissing off one of the four main crime families in order to please another. [Cozying] up with one cartel might get you cheaper prices at a merchant you're onside with, but it'll also rob you of the ability to move about freely within the headquarters of another gang you've slighted, inadvertently or otherwise.
It's a clever system that makes picking which quests to embark on feel like a choice that's more meaningful than just ticking objectives off a list before inevitably doing the rest, as carefully deciding which clan to offload your stolen goods to can have substantial benefits to your progression.
[IGN]
At its best, it feels like you're playing a Star Wars movie
"Star Wars Outlaws" is a unique experience among Star Wars games. A canon title that brings players to some of the hives of scum and villainy we've been fascinated by within the original trilogy; what sets it apart is the visual style. With sideswipe black screen transitions, a 16:9 format with the horizontal black bars that define the wide-screen film and a minimalist HUD, "Outlaws" aims to immerse you just as much as any of the films in the franchise.
The bugs during the review period were brutal though
Unfortunately, this playthrough was riddled with bugs. Certainly, plenty of them will be fixed upon full release, but even so, various glitches were disruptive at times — a couple of crashes most of all. NPCs sometimes got stuck in floors or walls, a character would have a gun sticking through their hand in a cutscene, the camera would stutter against a tight corner while climbing — nothing game-breaking but certainly enough to notice often during the playthrough.
[CBR]
In the most egregious bug we encountered, Nix became entirely unusable, thus making that area's puzzle entirely broken. The only fix for this was to load a save from three hours previous. We also encountered our share of hard crashes, though the game's generous autosave meant this was more annoying than catastrophic.
[VGC]
"Star Wars Outlaws" releases on Friday, August 30, 2024 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. However, early access is available three days early with the premium versions of the game.
Want a deep-dive into more Star Wars content? We've got an analysis of the most-seen characters.
[Image: Ubisoft]
