Star Wars Outlawstells a story between grand exploits of the usually epic space opera. Some aspects of the open-world adventure are even beingcompared toGrand Theft Auto, and it’s understandable why Massive Entertainment’s upcoming title is one of the most highly anticipated games of the year with what it promises, as well as the level of detail put into it thanks to Lucasfilm’s assistance. Fans are no longer dreaming of using the Force and are more than happy to pick up a blaster in the criminal underbelly of a galaxy far, far away.
InStar Wars Outlaws, fans get to live out the adventure of Kay Vess in betweenThe Empire Strikes BackandReturn of the Jedi. It’s Kay’s (and of course the player’s) decisions that influence what reputation she has as a scoundrel, too. Game Rant recently got to speak with numerous members of Massive Entertainment’s development team aboutOutlaws, the immersion that the backdrop of the movies gives to theStar Warsuniverse, and what role Expert NPCs play.
How Star Wars Outlaws' Expert NPCs Work
Star Wars Outlaws' dev team adores the universethe game takes place in. As a result, it’s a big goal of the team to make the world come alive in front of players and add depth down on the ground compared to the story found in the movies. In order to help with that,Outlawslooks to NPCs to help unlock specific aspects of the game.
Rather than allowing players to get new equipment and abilities as a reward for simple progression, Massive wanted these unlocks to be adventures in themselves, which game director Mathias Karlson says was the decision behind the game’s “Expert” NPCs. The director went on to say that each Expert is “a gateway to a number of unlocks,” but players need to find them first and what exactly it’ll take to get what they offer will be a surprise—a mini-adventure on a larger scale story.
“The fact that every unlock has a unique set of requirements means that you keep arming yourself with different goals and ways to engage with the game and the world. For example, one unlock asks you to jump your speeder 60 meters without crashing, and suddenly you find yourself looking at the world around you like a motocross park, in search of the biggest jumps.”
Kay Vess (and the Player) Can Do Whatever They Want and Whatever it Takes to Survive
Karlson didn’t state if these expert NPCs would be influenced by Kay’s reputation or not. However,Star Wars Outlawsmay be designed to avoid locking these NPCs behind any sort of walls along the way by the nature of the same system. Karlson states that adding a reputation system toOutlawsfelt as natural to it as the Wanted System with threats such as the Empire hanging over players' heads.
To him, the reputation system was “the key” tomakingStar Wars Outlawsinto a real outlaw fantasyin the iconic universe. Similarly to the quests with expert NPCs, though, the consequences are important, but the actions are even more so:
“A very important aspect of its design is that you are never stuck, and you don’t have to stick with one specific syndicate. You will definitely be able to gain an excellent reputation with each syndicate at some point in your journey through the game — just not with all of them at the same time. They don’t like each other… so, what is appreciated by one is often frowned upon by another, presenting you as a player with lots of fun A/B choice moments.”
Even as players find themselves backed against the wall with a particular faction, they can easily play the favor of another syndicate to get out of the situation and progress further again if they desire it. The idea of this truly makesStar Wars Outlawsindeed feel like a proper scoundrel fantasy, with Kay Vess likely able to “talk her way out of it,” hopefully a bit likeHan Solo getting stuck between the Guavian Death Gang and Kanjiklub.
It says quite a lot aboutStar Wars Outlaws' player freedomwhich makes the upcoming open-world game all the more exciting and impressive. Players can plan ahead for their playthroughs, but these dynamic systems may make it more fun to make decisions on the fly.
