Star Wars Outlaws Review
Summary: A galaxy-spanning romp far greater than the sum of its parts.
4.5
It’s about family
Star Wars Outlaws has some serious Uncharted vibes. Make no mistake. This is a huge compliment.
It’s been claimed that Outlaws possibly contains some leftover ideas from Amy Henig’s canceled project Ragtag, and I can see why, it is a game about a ragtag group of scoundrels pulling off a heist in a galaxy, far, far away. Like I said, serious Uncharted vibes, just on a much, much grander scale.
Likewise while playing through the expansive adventure it made me wonder about the fate of some of the Beyond Good and Evil 2 builds that there’s no doubt been over the years.
Mechanically you can see the influence of at least a decade of top-tier open-world, and action-adventure games all over it. There are flecks of Like a Dragon, hints of The Last of Us, shades of The Witcher 3, even some Red Dead Redemption for good measure, and, like I said, a huge heaping of Uncharted.
But what Outlaws nails more than anything else is creating a complex series of worlds that feel lived in and have a proper sense of place within a much larger universe; every bustling marketplace, seedy cantina, and ramshackle settlement is teeming with life, the citizens of the games four huge planets go about their daily business in a way that makes you feel like you’re not the center of the world, you’re just a stranger on a strange land, and it’s brilliant.
You can sit at a bar and people-watch, have a go at the myriad of fun little arcade machines in every settlement, or sit back and play a hand or two of Sebacc.
Once you’re out of the dense settlements on each planet you can put the foot to the floor on your speeder, hunting for treasure, upgrades, and stumbling into all kinds of trouble along the way.
Not only is this incredibly fun, especially once you’ve upgraded your speeder a little and can jet boost off the side of a cliff without worrying so much about it bursting into flames, but rewarding too as each vast landscape is littered with fun asides, smugglers’ caches, platforming puzzles and settlers to help (for a price).
Each of Outlaws’ five worlds is incredibly well realised and each feels unique. Tashara and Tatooine in particular are huge. One is a land of rolling hills and endless plains, specked with outposts and frontier towns and the other is a barren husk that’s the worst hive of scum and villainy in the whole outer rim, a dangerous wasteland home to huts, sand people, and terrifying Sarlaks.
Set after Empire and Before Jedi, while the original Star Wars trilogy is happening elsewhere, Outlaws sees players take on the role of Kay Ves, a street rat and small-time thief from the Casino city of Canto Bight on Cantonica. After a job robbing the vault of a powerful syndicate leader called Sliro goes sideways, Kay is slapped with a death mark and forced to go on the run.
After crashlanding on the savanna moon of Tashara in Sliro’s flagship, the Trailblazer, (Probably another reason for that massive bounty on her head) Kay is approached by the enigmatic mobster Jaylen, who, recognising Key’s skills as a thief, tasks her with putting together a crew to go back to Canto Bight and… try and break into Sliro’s vault again and steal the life-changing score housed inside, What could possibly go wrong?
Accompanied by the galaxy’s grumpiest droid, the strangely relatable ND-5, and Kay’s adorable pet Nix, the trio embark on a mission to find a crew capable of pulling off this seemingly impossible task.
It’s the kind of character-driven, planet-hopping, seat-of-your-pants Star Wars adventure I adore, and better yet, there’s no Jedi slicing AT-STs in half to spoil the fun.
The writing is fantastic, the main cast is incredibly likable, and everyone has clear motivations for their actions, and aren’t irritating Wheadonesque quip machines. While there are cameos, some are more obvious than others. (Jabba is a Given), but each of them feels like they have a proper place within the story.
It’s also crammed with some excellent Easter Eggs and subtle moments that’ll make you go, “Hang on I’ve seen this before”, but without being obnoxiously explicit about it.
Mechanically Outlaws is split into three distinct sections, open-world wandering, more linear action-stealth missions, and sandbox-style space exploration.
Most of your time will be spent exploring each planet picking up jobs from the four warring syndicates vying for control of the Outer Rim.
Getting in the good graces of a gang will net you new gear, better deals at their affiliated shops, and access to better jobs. However, get in their bad books and they’ll distrust you, make you pay more for materials, attack you if you even attempt to step on their turf, and eventually send a hit squad after you if you anger their boss enough.
It’s a fun game of politicking, and finding the right balance is essential as helping one gang will inevitably anger their rivals, so you’re constantly trying to balance what’s profitable, what will help you progress through the game, and not be hounded everywhere you go.
Though you can play with a ride-or-die attitude for one gang, It will make your life miserable. Besides it’s far more fun to try to have good relations with all the gangs by carefully taking on jobs that don’t annoy the other gangs, and if they do, siding against a syndicate that’s likely to forgive you, as well as sell stolen info to them for a quick rep boost ( handy if you’re trying to hit max rep). Trust me, you’ll want to keep those reputation meters topped up.
Most of Outlaws’ missions will see you attempting to sneak into facilities to free someone or lift something. You’ll avoid patrols, hide from guards, and occasionally knock one on the back of the head.
This is complemented with some fun little minigames that have you breaking locks to the beat, and hacking into computers (by playing wordle with glyphs) to disable security, steal information, and empty the empire’s coffers.
Stealth is surprisingly slick, though most of the guards are fairly docile (on normal difficulty) and you’ll be able to creep past them without too much trouble, at least when they’re alone.
Something you’ll be happy for during the sections that have an instant fail state that knocks you back to the last checkpoint if someone triggers an alarm. It’s particularly onerous early in the game when you don’t have many options to stop a guard from flipping the switch.
However, if you are spotted and the bantha dung hits the fan, enemies can be utterly ruthless at times and it’s easy to be overwhelmed when the alarms are going off and half a garrison descends on you armed with heavy weapons and shields.
For the best part though the combat is snappy and tons of fun. Diving behind cover, tossing a grenade into a group of stormtroopers, then blasting what’s left, always feels satisfying and the Red Dead-esque quick shot that lets you mark and destroy enemies with a single shot makes you feel like an utter badass.
Nix is also handy in a fight as you can send the spirited little critter to fetch guns and health packs, knock back enemy grenades ( and eventually trigger them), or scratch out your foe’s eyes.
He’s also handy while you’re sneaking about as he can distract guards by playing dead, sabotage alarms, push out-of-reach buttons, and generally be the cutest buddy a brigand could ever ask for.
There are some fantastic set pieces too, including a trip through Jabba’s palace, searching for spare parts at an abandoned separatist droid factory, and pilfering supplies from a crashed high republic cruiser that’s been reclaimed by nature.
On your travels you’ll accept numerous experts who will help you learn new skills, these are unlocked initially by completing a job or side quest for them and then further advanced tricks, upgrades, and abilities are unlocked by either collecting the necessary materials and key items, or by performing certain actions during combat.
It’s a clever system that encourages you to change up your tactics by using Kay and Nix’’s full range of abilities, encourages you to try the game’s plethora of side activities, and makes you feel like you’re always working towards something.
Your blaster can be upgraded and customised by finding parts and modules strewn across the galaxy. So if you want a fast-firing blaster that is good at taking out shields you can have it. Want something that kicks like a mule and can blow up mobs of troopers with one charged shot? It’s yours. It’s a simple system but surprisingly deep and I had a lot of fun tinkering with its settings.
The biggest unexpected treat in Outlaws though was setting off in the Trailblazer. Watching Kay’s ship seamlessly ascend through the atmosphere to orbit the planet feels magical the first time you see it.
Once in orbit, the real fun begins though as you’re sent on smuggling runs, scavenge parts from derelicts, protect cargo ships from pirates, and try to outfox the Imperial Navy ( and occasionally blast them out of the sky in thrilling dogfights).
Just remember to upgrade your ship regularly or you might run afoul of an imperial cruiser.
Though, if Outlaws gets too difficult at any point, there are tons of options that let you tailor almost every aspect of the experience; from combat and a cinematic aspect ratio to lock picking and yellow paint (which can both be turned off).
On top of that, there’s also a whole suite of accessibility options including high contrast rendering text to speech and all manner of subtitles and other toggles to ensure everyone can enjoy Outlaws.
In my mind, this level of customisation and accessibility shows that Massive respects its audience, and for a few extra toggles, you can tailor your experience to be just how you want it to be. This shouldn’t be a pleasant outlier, but an industry standard.
Outlaws’ presentation is superb. Massive has captured the look and feel of the Star Wars galaxy in a way that few games have even touched upon before. There’s a palpable, grounded quality to every part of the complex cities and wilderness you explore, and the additional creatures and worlds Massive created specifically for the game feel like they’ve always been canon.
The main cast fits perfectly into the wider Star Wars universe, which is probably the highest praise I can give. Nix is bound to become a fan favorite, how could he not? He’s adorable.
There were some minor glitches during my playthrough. At one point Nix froze every time he was supposed to run, and at one point I called my speeder only to see it knock me down and then throw itself off a cliff.
Thankfully, both were hilarious and fixed themselves when I rebooted the game.
Meanwhile, the audio is God-tier. If I didn’t know better I would swear it was a John Williams score packed with fantastic brass and string work that accompanied the actions perfectly. The Scottish Philharmonic did a wonderful job of bringing a phenomenal score by Everest, Jinnouchi, and Roger to life.
The main voice cast is also wonderful, bringing warmth and heart to your plucky crew that keeps you invested throughout. Jay Rincon as ND-5 is a clear standout and deserves a nod at the Game Awards come December for making me care about and sympathize with a battle droid.
Final Thoughts
More than just being a great open-world game, Star Wars Outlaws is possibly one of the best Star Wars games ever made.
It’s a clear labour of love for everyone involved at Massive, and it’s obvious from the team shows a clear understanding of not only what makes for a great open-world adventure, but what makes the Star Wars universe so compelling and enduring, not the blasters and lightsabres, but loveable characters and heart.
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