AlthoughStar Wars Outlawsfollows a scoundrel character throughout the galaxy’s seedy underworld on a grand heist adventure, it’s intended to resemble the original trilogy’s more family-friendly and good-natured tone.Star Warshas often dipped its toes into some rather dark themes: Anakin and the younglings, Cassian Andor and the Pre-Mor police officers, and genocidal acts likeOperation Cinderand the destruction of Alderaan. However, the franchise tends to offer these dark moments sparingly, andOutlawslooks to be leaning toward that lighter side as well.
Speaking with Game Rant,Star Wars Outlawscreative director Julian Gerighty weighed in on the game’s tone and how the team sought to harken back to the original trilogy’s influences. He referenced some classic adventure films as inspiration and also discussed howRogue Onehelped guideStar Wars Outlaws' retrofuturistic visual style.
Star Wars Outlaws Won’t Be The Next 1313
When deciding on an overall tone forStar Wars Outlaws, Gerighty says that it was Lucasfilm that originally suggested Massive go with something a bit lighter, and this was an idea that suited the team. However, he noted that there isn’t an explicit rule against darker-themedStar Warsgames. Fans may remember thecanceledStar Wars 1313projectthat was rumored to be the first M-rated game in the franchise, and there’s still potential for a more matureStar Warsgame in the future.
“Very early on, we agreed with Lucasfilm—and this is more something they suggested and it just made sense to us—that tonally this isn’t a “dark”Star Wars. We could have gone with darkStar Wars. There’s no rule saying you can’t do matureStar Wars, but what we wanted to do is a throwback to the Original Trilogy, of matinee action inspired byBuck RogersandFlash Gordonand the big movies of the 70s, 80s, and 90s.Jurassic Park andPirates of the Caribbean arebig family-friendly movies that are not dark in tone, but they can be scary.”
That said,Outlawsis meant to capture the essence of the original trilogy films: wholesome adventures that established the franchise’s trademark sense of humor while also introducing a few thrills along the way. A lighter tone doesn’t necessarily mean there is no darkness, after all. The spooky dianoga creature in the trash compactor and theduel with the fearsome rancorwere analogous to the T-rex moments inJurassic Parkor the otherworldly scares inPirates of the Caribbean,andOutlawswill hopefully bring some similarly impactful scenes.
“I showedJurassic Parkto my daughter when she was four, and she’s still traumatized. That’s the type of thing that we wanted to do. We didn’t want to make it gritty and bloody. Just by that decision, you can do a lot of gunfights where you’re going to leave a pile of bodies, but it’s not gratuitous. There are no sprays of blood or anything like that. That wasn’t at all what we wanted it to do, but I’m sure somebody will pitch a super matureStar Warsgame and it’ll get made.”
Star Wars Outlaws Is Visually Inspired by Rogue One
On the visual side, Gerighty says thatOutlawstakes its cues fromRogue One.Rogue Onewas the first live-action depiction of the Galactic Civil War era sinceReturn of the Jediin 1983, and it masterfully struck a balance betweenStar Wars' retro technological style and modern filmmaking techniques.
“For us, we wondered, ‘How did they manage to get that retro feel but very fresh at the same time?’ It led to the creation of the lens project, a lens within Snowdrop that we can apply to the image that gives it this cinematic feel. You saw it’s presented in ultrawide screen, and that’s on by default. There’s vignetting, there’s lens breathing, there’s chromatic aberration, there are lens flares, all of these things are built into this lens which is designed to feel like a lens from the 70s but with today’s technology.
This film-like approach is often hit-or-miss with gamers—Starfieldwas met with many complaintsand eventually mods regarding its cinematic filtering—butStar Wars Outlaws' position in a film franchise may make this styling more palatable for those players. Either way, it can’t be argued that the Snowdrop engine facilitates some incredible-looking games.
