Star Wars Outlawslets players take on the role of a regular scoundrel, not a Jedi or Sith with powers and lightsabers. It’s an incredibly appealing proposition for aStar Warsfan: strolling through the streets of Kijimi City, riding a vintage speeder across the deserts of Tatooine, or shooting down TIE fighters from the deck of a stolen starship. Trusty blaster and adorable companion Nix at her side,Star Wars Outlaws’ Kay Vess is just an everyday denizen of theStar Warsuniverse, out to make a buck however she can, be it stealing, fighting, cheating, or double-crossing her would-be allies.
Developer Massive Entertainment clearly put a lot of work intoStar Wars Outlaws, ensuring that all the details are just right. It was a gargantuan task, and likely a daunting one, to take on the entirety of theStar Warsmythos and condense it into about 20 hours of gameplay, with the eyes of millions of fans ready to glare at any misstep. Luckily, the studio had the support of Lucasfilm, and the two companies collaborated closely to create a game that truly feels like part of the established universe.
Players will visit known locations, interact with canon species, and even cooperate with known syndicates like Crimson Dawn and the Hutts. But Massive also created new groups for Kay to befriend or fight: the Ashiga Clan and Sliro Barsha’s Zerek Besh, which quickly put a price on her head. The little critter Nix, who ends up being one of the best things about the game, is a Merqaal, a new species created just forOutlaws. And it all (kind of) begins on Toshara, a new moon in the Toshaal space system.
Soon after the start of the game,Kay Vess gets her hands on the Trailblazer, an original starship crafted forOutlaws.It’s a light freighter, one of the last of its kind, and “nearly indestructible,” according to Sliro. For players, it’s an upgradeable and fun way to skim the Outer Rim — smuggling goods, blasting pirate ships, breaking into Imperial space ports, and visitingOutlaws’five accessible planets.
The locations are sufficiently distinct from one another to spur a feeling of discovery. Toshara is a savannah, dry but with foliage, wildlife, and plenty of waterfalls. Kijimi is snow covered, Cantonica mountain covered, Akiva gorgeously jungle covered, and Tatooine is, well, Tatooine. Despite their variety, however, players will soon begin to feel a sense of sameness pervading each location. The buildings are the same, the populace is the same, the missions are the same, even the little decorations like storage chests, tables, and door panels are the same.
And this is where things turn a little negative because, unfortunately, it doesn’t take long before the awe of being a regular Joe inStar Wars(probably everybody’s dream at one point) wears off and the cracks begin to show. The game is fun, absolutely, but it’s also bug-ridden, repetitive, and lacking in some fairly obvious quality-of-life considerations. Some people won’t even see it, thrilled to simply be playing a more-than-decentStar Warsgame. For others, all the small, and sometimes nit-picky, pebbles pattering on the roof will quickly become too loud to ignore.
Star Wars Outlaws: Stealth, Sneak, Stealth Some More
Being a scoundrel means stealth, and there is a lot of it inStar Wars Outlaws, perhaps too much for some people’s liking. Kay crawls through oddly clean vents, sneaks in conspicuously placed patches of tall grass, and grapples to out-of-reach places. Stealth is a core gameplay element inOutlawsand, as such, one would expect it to be fully fleshed out, tested, re-tested, and polished. Alas, it is not.
There seem to be only about 10 different mission types, which Kay will do over and over. One of the primary ones is “sneak into a facility, steal an item or hack a computer to get some intel, then escape unnoticed.” Some of the missions even take place in the same locations, and it’s not exciting to clear out a base three times, especially when it’s so slow-going.
Kay’s blaster can knock out an enemy with an energy pulse, which would be fantastic and oft-used if the cooldown weren’t a minute long. Imposing such an excessive time limit on a key stealth mechanic in a game that focuses so heavily on stealth seems unnecessarily controlling. It won’t stop people from relying on the stun to get through missions, and it won’t push them to play in the “guns blazing” way that the devs seem to want. It just forces players to waste a lot of time waiting for the gun to recharge, feeling bored and slightly resentful.
Star Wars Outlawshas aGTA-style Wanted systemthat causes increasing numbers of Imperial troops to pursue Kay if she keeps wreaking havoc. If a Trooper spots her, she’ll be arrested, lose a chunk of change, and the game will reset to the last checkpoint. The problem is that, regularly, Kay will be caught when there is no logical way for it to happen. In one instance, she was arrested by a Trooper when she was hidden behind a cliff, 100 meters away, and hadn’t even entered the facility yet…twice. On a ledge that enemies can’t reach, hiding behind a tree dozens of meters away? Arrested. Manually saving before starting a mission became mandatory because something inevitably would go inexplicably wrong.
Quality-of-Life Issues in Star Wars Outlaws
There were questionable key-binding decisions as well, at least on console with a controller. Massive also chose not to make the controls fully customizable, which is surprising in a game that offers such an impressive array of accessibility options. There are a few premade configurations, but they don’t address the most pressing problems, like dropping to hang from a ledge instead of crouching because they’re the same hotkey.
Button prompts often won’t appear when Kay is too close, or they’ll refuse to appear even if she is positioned exactly where she was when the prompt worked two minutes ago. So, if players are relying on quickly climbing a ladder or grappling away if things go wrong, there’s a high chance they’ll be disappointed.
And once things start going wrong, they tend to go really wrong. The Wanted system means it’s easily game over if Kay starts a brawl with Imperials without a clear getaway plan. But even other enemies pose an extra challenge because combat just isn’t very intricate. Shooting’s iffy, thanks to wonky sensitivity and invisible object collision where there shouldn’t be any. There is a nifty deadeye feature when Kay builds up enough adrenaline, but that feels like it was implemented more for necessity than anything else. It’s the only way to quickly and reliably down enemies without taking excessive amounts of damage.
Combat overall inStar Wars Outlawsjust isn’t very rewarding or satisfying. Enemies always drop the same two items, fights have the same difficulty throughout the game, and the blaster feels lackluster even when upgraded. That’d be fine if it were just a starter pistol or backup, but Kay for some reason won’t keep any of the other weapons she finds lying around. She can use them until they run out of ammo (even though they’re energy weapons), and then she just drops them. If she’s carrying an enemy’s gun and tries to climb a ladder or enter a vent, she’ll toss the weapon first. It makes no sense and, in many cases, eliminates the possibility of tactical sniping, for example.
Those are just a few of the many gameplay issues inStar Wars Outlaws, and there are too many to go over in detail. Suffice it to say that, paired with the numerous bugs encountered – enemies floating or running endlessly in circles, Kay gliding through walls, quest dialogue not playing, crashes to the dashboard, etc. — the issues quickly fog up those rose-colored “I’m a scoundrel inStar Wars!”glasses.
Star Wars Outlaws’ Redeeming Qualities
As with the gameplay, players searching for a game with graphics that define the current generation should look elsewhere.Outlawscertainly looks good on console and there are a few randomly picturesque vistas, but it’s hardly impressive. It won’t drop any jaws, though that might be in part due to the sheer size of the game world, which encompasses outer space andfive planets inStar Wars Outlaws. And exploration of that immense playground is where the game really shines. It truly feels like an adventure, with a somewhat interesting story to keep things moving along, and investigating every nook and cranny will be rewarded with collectibles, new armor, blaster skins, and even trinkets for Nix to wear.
Star Wars Outlawssatisfies in a few other ways as well. Rather than the standard RPG skill tree that’s unlocked with points as the game progresses, Kay has to work a bit to gain new abilities. In an innovative twist, players need to track down trainers, who gradually add to Kay’s arsenal of skills as she completes various tasks. One of the more useful of these, for example, is called Lightfoot and renders Kay more difficult to detect when sneaking about. It’s unlocked by helping a particular NPC and earning her esteem, then lockpicking three times, pulling off a smuggling job, and performing a takedown on an Imperial officer. Massive’s version of a skill system inOutlawsis an appreciated change from following intricately branching skill paths.
Likewise,Star Wars Outlaws’Nixoffers a refreshing and lighthearted take on the typical RPG companion. The little Merqaal is incredibly useful in helping Kay fulfill her scoundrel urges without getting into too much trouble. He can sabotage or trap alarm systems to prevent hostiles from summoning reinforcements. His ability to sense his surroundings will highlight chests, vents, and even pickpocketing targets, and then Kay can send him to fetch and steal without raising suspicion. Nix will also attack foes or play dead for a distraction so that Kay can slip by undetected. There’s even a whimsical minigame when Kay and Nix stop for a snack that provides a break from the endless stealthing and waiting for the blaster’s stun to recharge.
The real minigame inStar Wars Outlawsthat players will get sucked into, however,is a card game called Sabaac, which is both simple to learn and thoroughly engaging. It’s perhaps not on the level ofGwent, but it’s still worth playing for a round or ten. There is also Fathier racing to place bets on and earn Kay some credits, as well as anAsteroids-like calledRaven Sixthat’s similarly surprisingly fun.
Somehow, despite the negatives, the gameis still worth trying out.Star Wars Outlawsoffers a decently fast jauntand ends before the downsides can become completely unbearable. It’s an ambitious game, and Massive either bit off too much or perhaps played it too safe. The result is a slightly-above-middle-of-the-road affair that shows promise and will hopefully result in a more well-rounded sequel that addresses many ofOutlaws’shortcomings.
WHERE TO PLAY
Star Wars Outlawsis available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. Game Rant was provided a PS5 code for this review.
