Repetitive mission design and a mostly empty open-world setting left me a little worried that the Force might be weakening in Star Wars Outlaws, which I recently played four hours of.
This open galaxy created by the team at Ubisoft is not without visual appeal, but after four hours of play, I began to worry about the emptiness of the open world.
I’ve seen quite a few people get upset about Ubisoft games lately, but I’ve rarely found myself in that position. Are games like Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry truly game-changing? No, but I’d argue they’re unlikely to. Ubisoft’s franchises like these are much happier remaining popcorn entertainment that satisfies a wide audience; providing plenty of pleasure, if not amazingly great. That being said, ever since I first played it at this year’s Summer Game Fest, I’ve had the feeling that the publisher’s open-world take on the Star Wars universe could be a different story. But after nearly four hours of exploring the open-world regions of Toshara and Kijimi, I felt it didn’t shine as brightly as I’d hoped.
I felt a great sense of relief when I began my play session on the dusty plains moon of Tshara. finally Now we have the chance to explore the setting aboard protagonist Kay Vess’ trusty speeder bike. Until now, journalists have only been able to experience short linear missions. This helped showcase the Uncharted-style action that Star Wars Outlaws is trying to offer as part of the story quests, but didn’t do much to show what players can do outside of this limited scope. Well, this is no mystery anymore. Less than five minutes after I got to control Kay in a short gunfight, I was racing in my speeder to Milogana, the central city of Tshara.
As your primary means of travelling across the game’s five unique planets, accelerating through deserts and bodies of water offers plenty of spectacle in the moment. That’s doubled when bounty hunters and Imperial forces are on your tail. I have to stalk them from behind while moving at high speeds, firing shots from afar. Obviously, this is the first time Star Wars Outlaws lets players drive speeders, and so the controls weren’t as smooth or natural as I’d hoped. That said, I did unlock a boost after completing a particular side mission later in the session. Here’s hoping this is the first of many speeder upgrades to come.
To the underworld
Even when you’re not biking to and from points of interest, Star Wars Outlaws continues to impress in terms of sheer detail and density. The city of Milogana, for example, has earned its place as Tshara’s main focal point, teeming with hustle and bustle made up of creatures you both recognise from the established Star Wars canon and those you don’t. The opportunity to bet against your far-away fathers’ race or enjoy a quick game of sabacc further brought the setting to life, providing players with the means to really experience the Star Wars rogue fantasy that developer Massive Entertainment was promising.
While exploring in and around Milogana, I was made keenly aware of just how important Star Wars Outlaws’ reputation system ultimately becomes. Playing as both Pyke and the Crimson Dawn host, I was given various opportunities to side with one side or the other, from choosing specific dialogue options mid-job to infiltrating other outposts on the planet to secure a vital part for Cay’s blaster. It’s nice to have such immediate consequences for my actions, but in the grand scheme of things, the choices I made felt a bit superficial.
Much more worrisome was the fact that throughout the four-hour session I played, I was asked to perform very similar tasks as Kay, regardless of which criminal organization I was working for. The missions mostly consisted of sneaking into specific areas, stealing parts, and then making an escape. Of course, there were a few times when I was forced to make a sound escape, but it’s no surprise that Kay constantly pulls off various mini-heists, but I would have liked the mid- and end-game to offer more in terms of mission variety. I wouldn’t complain about cutting too many enemies if I was playing as a Jedi, but in other universes you can’t wield a lightsaber. In comparison, the staunch rejection of all things Force-related means that Star Wars Outlaws needs to find new ways to inspire outside of stealth and cover shooting.
Until now, I thought that being able to explore the Star Wars galaxy in an open-world format was exactly its X-factor. While galloping through the sand dunes of Tshara was liberating, finishing off the odd bandit skirmish in a vast open space didn’t hold my interest for long. There’s no doubt that the locations on both Tshara and Kijimi are stunningly beautiful, but that beauty will only remain appealing as long as there are exciting tasks and goals to be had there. Admittedly, four hours (one of which I spent without a speeder) isn’t enough time to fully grasp how each planet opens up. But in my demo, I did little more than perform fetch quests, interspersed with gunfights on and off my bike, and most of the time I ended up in similar sneak scenarios.
Luckily, the talented team at Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment knows what to do when it comes to creating a successful open-world game. My only hope is that this idea will be elevated to some extent by the nature of being made in the Star Wars style. Given the inherent detail in the main hub location, the side activities found there, and the ability to pit different crime syndicates against each other, this is certainly the case. But now that I have the opportunity to traverse a planet at my own pace, while I am excited by the amount of freedom that speeder bike travel (and subsequent upgrades) gives me, I am nervous about whether the force of this open world will be as consistently strong as I once thought it would be.
Star Wars Outlaws will be released on August 30, 2024 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S