Star Wars Outlaws Review – Galaxy of Crime

Set in the familiar galaxy far, far, away, Star Wars Outlaws is a third-person, open-world adventure stealth game developed by Ubisoft. Taking place between the events of the classic films, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, this original story promises exciting antics and calculated subterfuge. Considering Ubisoft’s track record with franchises like Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry, an open-world Star Wars game could be a complete hit or a blundering miss. Putting players into the shoes of a newbie outlaw thrown headfirst into the criminal underworld, Star Wars Outlaws is a surprisingly immersive and enjoyable stealth game that rewards curiosity and drums up a bit of that old-school Star Wars magic.

Aspirations of a Young Outlaw

Star Wars Outlaws follows Kay Vess, an aspiring criminal who’s stuck living in the attic of a bar. Although she pulls off small-time scores in her flashy hometown of Canto Bight, she still feels stuck on planet Cantonica, and aspires for greater things. Together with her cutesy, creature companion, Nix, Kay eventually runs afoul of the scheming crime lord, Sliro Barsha, and with a target on her head, she is forced to flee from Cantonica. After crash-landing on the moon Toshara, Kay’s epic journey starts in full, as she must embrace the outlaw life and gain favor with the criminal underworld if she wants to evade Sliro’s headhunters.

This tale of a young ruffian and her pet pal turned to hardened, calculated criminals is not only contained to Cantonica and Toshara, but also leaps to various other celestial bodies around the galaxy. You’ll explore the snowy streets of Kijimi City, spend some time on the jungle-laden surface of Akiva, and of course, speed across the dunes of Tatooine. Characters aplenty pop up throughout the journey and some will join the squad for Kay’s big heists, including a protective droid named ND-5 that was particularly likable. As you delve deeper into a life of crime, factions such as the Pyke Syndicate, the Crimson Dawn, and the infamous Hutt Cartel can offer assistance or become extra adversaries, depending on the choices you make.

In the end, Star Wars Outlaws presents a heist story that feels personal and adventurous, staying true to the source material while carving out an original tale of crime. Kay, Nix, ND-5, and the rest of your ragtag group are all pretty memorable, with solid voice acting from the entire cast. The facial animations during dialogue are rather wooden and unimpressive, but the cutscenes are just the opposite, looking sharp and exciting. Best of all, Outlaws holds back on excessive fan service, something that plagues many other Star Wars games. While there are a few fun references or missions that call back to moments from the movies, the overwhelming majority of the narrative is original, fresh, and intriguing.

Living the Life of a Merc

Star Wars Outlaws is reminiscent of other open-world games by Ubisoft, but with much greater emphasis on player discovery. A common complaint with the Ubisoft formula is that you’re often blindly following waypoints to find and complete quests, but in Outlaws, most of the missions and points of interest are discovered organically as you play. The main quest offers both open-ended and linear missions, with equal focus on infiltration, stealth action, and daring traversal. Talking to NPCs, investigating environmental oddities, and generally exploring with a curious mind are often the best ways to uncover new tasks for Kay to complete. Running through the main quests will provide lots of sci-fi fun, but to see the most that the game has to offer, it’s important to take your time, allow yourself to be immersed, and check out stuff that looks interesting.

When you arrive on a planet, it’s common practice to make a trip to the nearest cantina in town, chat up with the locals, and try to hunt down some mercenary work. You’ll often discover side quests this way or stumble upon valuable pieces of intel, leading you into the larger open-world map outside city walls. Unlike other Ubisoft games, there’s no super tall tower to climb that reveals activities around the map. You actually have to go out there and look for stuff yourself. There’s no shortage of merchants to meet, mini-games to find, or hidden treasures to uncover, whether you’re inside city limits or exploring the wilds of any given planet. I particularly enjoyed the simple but strategic card game, Sabacc, which you can play in bars around the galaxy (or in secret underground tournaments, if you can find them).

While you’re free to blaze across the map with your speeder, Star Wars Outlaws is designed with stealth in mind, as making a ruckus will likely make your life more difficult than if you had kept quiet. Playing as Kay, you have a baseline set of abilities, such as melee attacks, an upgradeable blaster to use, lockpicking prowess, and a handy grappling hook, but she’s not a killing machine. Instead, it’s smarter to use her dexterity to slip past guards, pull off stealth attacks, and sneak through areas undetected. Your companion, Nix, is also a major boon in this regard, and is able to distract enemies, pickpocket items, access otherwise unreachable switches, and much more.

Starship gameplay is also available, as you can take your cruiser into the orbit of each planet, shoot at TIE fighters, and pilfer crates of floating cargo. Flying through space is relatively simple, as is the dogfighting combat, but it’s a fun time nonetheless and adds another layer of open-world exploration to enjoy.

Unfortunately, climbing, melee combat, and some other elements of navigation feel clumsy at times. It’s easy to make a blunder by jumping for a ledge, only to discover that Kay cannot grab onto it, your mistake made worse by punishing fall damage and limited health (unless you grab the right upgrades). I also have a few gripes with the gunplay, like Kay’s inability to hold onto any other weapon other than her blaster, as she constantly drops rifles and other guns to interact with the environment, climb ladders, or other minor actions. Using items like grenades and smoke bombs is also awkward, as you have to open your bag, select the item, and then throw it (dropping your secondary gun in the process). These problems aren’t enough to severely dampen the fun of Star Wars Outlaws, but they add a bit of jankiness and are annoying to deal with.

Keep Your Friends Close and Your Enemies Closer

One of the defining features of Star Wars Outlaws is its reputation system, which tracks your alliances with the various criminal syndicates around the galaxy. As you interact with gangs like The Crimson Dawn, the Hutt Cartel, and others, your reputation will fluctuate based on your actions. Completing missions for a given gang will raise your reputation, but if you get caught stealing, fighting, or double-crossing anyone, that reputation will similarly plummet.

Since different areas of the planets are controlled by various factions, it’s important to stay in high regard with as many crime syndicates as possible, but you’re bound to betray someone along the way. Though it’s relatively easy to increase your favor through side missions, the reputation system provides tangible consequences for your actions, both good and bad, placing greater emphasis on your choices throughout the adventure.

It’s important to be social, too, as Star Wars Outlaws has a different “experience” system than most open-world games. Instead of leveling up and upgrading skill trees, Kay learns new abilities from various “Experts” she meets around the galaxy. After befriending a given expert, you can unlock further skills by completing small sub-challenges, granting you more options both in and out of combat. New gear and equipable charms can help boost Kay’s power, but engaging with experts and learning their skills is the fastest way to become a true outlaw.

The Bottom Line on Star Wars Outlaws

Star Wars Outlaws is an entertaining open-world adventure that prioritizes player immersion and discovery over scripted encounters and blockbuster action. Although there are plenty of set piece moments, Outlaws is a personal story that’s driven by player choice, with a contained narrative that rarely succumbs to cringy Star Wars fan service. This is Kay and Nix’s story, set in a familiar world but one that’s still ripe with new and interesting things, not just an excuse to retread highlights from the original film trilogy.

Although there are some flaws with the controls and occasional gameplay bugs occur, these annoyances are equaled out by the refreshing reputation and expert systems. Ubisoft has definitely learned some important lessons from previous games, and while far from perfect, Star Wars Outlaws is a step in the right direction.