Stepping into the shoes of a galactic scoundrel, navigating a galaxy brimming with danger and adventure, all within the rich tapestry of the Star Wars universe, is a dream come true for fans like me.
Star Wars Outlaws is the first ever open-world Star Wars game. Set between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, it builds on the beloved Star Wars timeline, offering fans a new, yet familiar, narrative experience.
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Since George Lucas first introduced audiences to the galaxy far, far away in 1977, Star Wars has become a cultural phenomenon, expanding through films, TV series, books, toys, and games. Each instalment has added depth to the vast universe, exploring the complex interplay of good and evil, the Force, and an intricate family story.
With Star Wars Outlaws, Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment are seemingly pushing the boundaries of what a Star Wars game can be, blending storytelling and exploration in an unprecedented way.
Check out our interview with Lucasfilm and Massive Entertainment:
Thanks to Ubisoft, I had the opportunity to play the upcoming game and sit down with the team behind it. My hands-on experience, combined with insights from the creators, revealed just how much passion and planning went into bringing this game to life.
READ MORE: Interview | Star Wars Outlaws creative director
Toshara is an all new planet in Star Wars lore; within moments of hitting the ground I got to ride a speeder bike, gun down some bandits and race across the landscape in search of help to repair my ship.
Overall, I got to explore two planets in four and a half hours: Toshara and Kijimi.
Toshara features savannah-like plains with the city of Mirogana at its heart and several smaller settlements scattered throughout. While there’s plenty to stop and look at, some areas are very dangerous to wander into unprepared; not aligning with the Pykes, the planet’s leading crime gang, could see you hunted down on the plains.
Kijimi, a familiar setting from the ninth film in the series: The Rise of Skywalker, brought back memories, though I didn’t encounter the likes of Babu Frik. Instead, I found myself stealing a relic from the Crimson Dawn to give to the Shiga clan, a testament to the complex syndicate interactions within the game.
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Four syndicates have been revealed so far, it’s unclear if there’s more to come, they include: The Ashiga Clan, Crimson Dawn, The Hutts and The Pykes. Each gang offers their own perks and rewards, and I had to choose many times who to side with – you can’t please them all!
There’s also a huge orbital zone surrounding Kijimi to explore, with wrecked ships, large asteroids and other potential treasures hidden throughout.
The game features Red Dead Redemption-like shootouts, rhythm lock mechanics, deep decision making and a world teeming with exploration and adventure.
When starting any mission, there’s almost always another way to approach it. Going in guns blazing is often not the best bet, as protagonist Kay Vess is a regular scoundrel, not a lightsaber-wielding Jedi.
My experience playing the game was deeply immersive.
Taking control of Kay Vess, I quickly learned that she’s a nimble character to play. Kay is quick, can jump and roll with ease, is a great climber and knows how to point a blaster. That said, she’s also the opposite of a bullet sponge – unless you’re stacked on bacta vials during a fight, you may be left for dead.
Blasters don’t run out of ammo, they overheat. Much like the Battlefront games, you can perform a quick cooldown by hitting the “reload” button at the right time. Timing is also key when unlocking doors and chests, Kay uses her data spike (conveniently stored in her hair) and must time the locking mechanism to the flashing lights and beeps – I love this method of lock picking.
Having Nix alongside Kay is pure joy. This adorable little critter is not only a cute-little-alien-lizard-thing, he’s also extremely useful. Kay can send Nix in to distract bad guys, simply by playing dead or dancing in front of them.
It’s a great way to break up the tension! Nix is the perfect in-game companion.
This isn’t a game where you’re a Luke Skywalker-level hero cutting down stormtroopers left and right. Your actions have consequences, and the small nooks and crannies are worth exploring.
Kay Vess and Nix are already shaping up to be two of my favourite characters in the Star Wars universe. After a few hours of gameplay, I felt like I had barely scratched the surface of the overall story, but couldn’t wait to play more.
Outlaws is a true Star Wars experience.
Sitting down with Julian Gerighty, Creative Director at Massive Entertainment, and Steve Blank, Director of Franchise Content and Strategy within Lucasfilm, it was clear the game’s authenticity to the Star Wars series was essential.
“Very, very early on we had to put fixed points and what we wanted to do because we had a strict timeline, a strict budget, a strict team size,” Gerighty told Quest Daily.
“We couldn’t make a game that was 300 or 400 hours long. We decided to focus on a 25-30 hour narrative campaign, but with completionists spending like 60-70 hours in it,” he said.
READ MORE: Review | Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection (PS5)
“So it’s something manageable for us. But the fixed points were the narrative, and that was super important for us to settle. I’m working very closely with Lucasfilm Games to guarantee authenticity and the fact that it fits into canon,” he said.
From when I picked up the controller, the game placed me about two hours into Kay Vess’ story, her ship had just crash landed on the planet Toshara. As to why and how she got there remains unknown!
“You’re still gaining your powers. But one of the concepts we had was to start off really enclosed, really claustrophobic, and keep opening up, opening up, opening up. And the moment you picked up was when you crash land and it opens up and you have a speed of for the first time,” Julian Gerighty told Quest Daily.
The game pitch was settled inside Star Wars creator George Lucas’ old office at the famous Skywalker Ranch, Gerighty and Blank told Quest Daily.
“To the original pitch, which we made in San Francisco in George Lucas’s old office — seeing the Golden Gate Bridge — the original pitch was: open world, scoundrel, Star Wars,” Gerighty said.
“We loved to be able to lean into that and hear that pitch and go, ‘Oh, okay, where can this fit?’ What is the right point on the timeline to tell a scoundrel-forward story where you can step into the open world and explore all these nooks and crannies?” Blank added.
“That moment between Empire and Jedi, when the Empire’s law is focused elsewhere, made the most sense,” he said.
Massive Entertainment announced earlier this month that the game had gone gold, meaning it’s all systems go for launch. Now, the team’s job is to tweak and balance, says Gerighty.
“It just means there’s another milestone, which is first day. We still need to push and that, everything isn’t done. We still need to tweak and balance and things like that. So the producers shuttle me off so I can’t disturb the people on the floor anymore!” he laughed.
Star Wars Outlaws promises an engaging and immersive experience that both Star Wars fans and gamers alike will cherish.
As I wrapped up my time with the game, it was clear that the team’s dedication and passion had truly brought the Star Wars universe to life in a way never seen before. Star Wars Outlaws is coming to Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 and PC on August 30th — and I can’t wait!
Julian Price travelled to LA as a guest of Ubisoft to conduct interviews with their developers and play the upcoming game.
