Ubisoft’s Massive Entertainment has a decent set of games under its belt, including the well regarded Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora that released in 2024. The developer has shown a great eye for detail in licenced properties, utilising the Snowdrop engine to great effect. Star Wars Outlaws is Ubisoft’s first foray into an open world galaxy far, far away… With so much of the Star Wars game library being EA angled in the last few years and skewing towards the eponymous Jedi Knights, Star Wars Outlaws promises a fresh approach by having players star as a rogue. Does it rise to the challenge or get frozen in carbonite?
It’s nighttime on Canto Bight and Kay Vess wakes up. First mission? Get some food. Nix, the charming cat/dog-like creature, is doing its best to get her attention and guide her down to the bar. This little friendly interaction actually sets the scene pretty well. Star Wars Outlaws starts on a slower note, letting players drink in the lush visual density and movie accurate designs while an appropriate Star Wars soundscape brings things to life. Here, the opening leads players through a tight tutorial where Kay interacts with some key figures, including the Rebel Alliance and the sinister Zerek Besh, before wrestling her way off the planet.
Set between Star Wars movies The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, the Empire is at its fullest power and, boy, does it feel that way. Enraging the Empire in this game is very easy and almost always has consequences. Heck, even just walking into a stormtrooper is enough to get Kay arrested at times, which adds a real feeling of oppression to the world. Kay quickly discovers she is somewhat naive as she gets pulled between all of the different factions, and realises she needs to build connections and create a team. Cue a series of story events involving a varied and colourful cast of characters, some of whom join Kay in her planet-hopping adventure as she tries to gain her freedom.
The story’s pacing is pretty good, though the design does occasionally put blockers in the way of progress. These blockers give the player a fixed reason to get out and explore each region, which is a decent compromise for those only seeking the main quest and manage to not break the pacing. There is a lot of fun to be had in the side questing, which offers a lot of new characters, discoveries and lore usually laced into fun stories. It is a pretty fun package where the story is concerned, and by the time the conclusion rolls around, players will be on the edge of their seats.
A Star Wars game lives and dies by how it feels to play and luckily this is a very fun game. Instead of the overfocus on Jedi stories of late, this is a full “scum and villainy” game, putting players in the role of a scoundrel, delivering some very cool gameplay options. Kay’s primary gameplay loop is focused on stealth, which is often the best approach and, though soon to be patched, occasionally the only option. Star Wars Outlaws is interestingly designed, with missions taking place in both staged levels and somewhat naturalistic places. Think dungeons and overworld from The Legend of Zelda. Well, thematically, at least. This gives the game a quite interesting scope for stealth as it doesn’t rely on sticky cover, letting players manoeuvre around world clutter instead of specific waist-high objects.
Stealth is far from the only action Kay can take, though. She packs an upgradable pistol with a deadly special move, but it does overheat and needs venting, adding a semi-reload mechanic to fighting for balance. As progress is made, Kay can get her hands on temporary powerful weapons like the stormtroopers’ E-11 or a handy sniper rifle, which can be used till they are out of ammo. Gunplay feels pretty good, with responsive but twitchy aiming, and a fairly frantic atmosphere. Kay is a bit of a glass cannon, though. She can absolutely hold her own in a firefight, but she has very little health, verging on a three-hit death system (though it is possible to upgrade the health bar).
Most of the planets offer a large open world element. Sometimes people refer to a Ubisoft open world as a negative term, but in this case, Massive has managed to retain a lot of the good points of such games, as well as tailor things to make them more memorable and intriguing. For example, there are no towers to climb in order to discover points of interest. Instead, Star Wars Outlaws feeds these when players listen to conversations, pick up random radio signals, or discover information on computers. This gives the entire game a natural flow that keeps things interesting and engaging, where a random smattering of important points may not.
It also helps to reinforce the situation on each planet, with characters having topical discussions on which crime syndicate holds power, how back alley dealings are going down, and what Kay can do to get a foot up on the situation. Each open area that isn’t confined to a city allows Kay to blast around on her speeder. The driving feels a bit weird, but once players realise that the camera should be left alone while speeder-ing, it gets easier.
There are lots of choices made to try and ground the RPG elements in the world by having things like skill unlocks tied to taking specific actions, as well as by placing upgrade merchants or characters in the open worlds – although much of this busy work can be done through menus or on Kay’s ship. Often, by powering Kay up there is a definitive expansion to the gameplay. For example, by following a side mission fairly early on, Kay can help a character get some Imperial tech, which will net her some new “Slicing” upgrades, opening up options for gaining control of things like autoturrets in enemy bases. This does add a nice bit of weight to the levelling up, mission structure and player investment in the questing.
Nix is a fun companion character who is absolutely key to Kay’s survival. They have a variety of commands (and can be pet) ranging from distracting an enemy to disabling an alarm. Not using Nix is not an option as this is also how the game does things like pickpocketing and bypassing a lot of locked areas. They are an utterly cute companion whose extra powers or RPG elements are found by sitting down and enjoying the most extra, disarming and charming interactions over discovering exciting new foods.
Visually, Star Wars Outlaws is a treat, with world being movie accurate and expansive. Vistas show off beautiful density and the amazingly executed dynamic weather systems. As with Massive’s other titles, the amount of plant life and movement paired with interactivity is sublime, bringing even the more deserted areas to life. Anything that was present in the movies is here in extremely accurate fashion. Using stormtroopers as the example, their armour and equipment is so movie accurate that in some lighting scenarios they appear very realistic. This is true of pretty much any asset in the game, as well as the people modelling. Sometimes the animations on characters in conversation can be a little rough, but generally they appear natural and relaxed.
Star Wars Outlaws does feature some prerendered scenes, and these are usually bombastic and beautiful, though there can be style discrepancies between them and the gameplay visuals. Lighting is handled using some ray tracing, as well as some reflections, which helps lend the world a grounded look where everything sits naturally within the scene. It adds a solidness to the world that emphasises the work put in to make the locations feel used and lived in. Imperial compounds tend to be shinier and more harshly lit, lending an oppressive feel to them. It’s genuinely impressive work, and the best looking Ubisoft and Star Wars game so far!
The only slight downside is that sometimes the picture can be a little mushy as the game uses some sort of upscaling to reach 4K, which isn’t the cleanest. Where many might find issue with the visuals is in the performance and the post-processing. There are a ton of effects added to the screen that emulate the visual stylings of the original cameras used to film the original movies. These effects can make people feel somewhat woozy, which is a shame as they cannot be disabled in their entirety from the menus.
The rest of the presentation is great. Maps and the user interface are nicely styled and in line with the rest of the game, seemingly avoiding the faux pas of generic menu designs, making the entire experience more cohesive. Maps are easy to read at a glance and provide a good overview of things like gang territory without being overly complex or buried in icons. Alongside this is a soundtrack that absolutely nails the atmosphere of the original trilogy without directly using the film music. Composer Clinton J. Bajakian has done a fantastic job catching the feeling of John Williams’ style of bombastic space opera without directly recreating any of those particular tunes. This is extra evident in the atmospheric music in places like bars where it captures a sort of grunginess, which is perfect for the underworld angle Star Wars Outlaws is focused on.
Everything is pretty great, but the game is not without bugs and issues. The integration of the Ubisoft Club is still rough, taking players into the console browser to claim rewards, which is never not jarring and can have loading issues. During gameplay there are not many problems – this is far from Assassin’s Creed: Unity – but sometimes Kay or enemies will exhibit odd physics and potentially get stuck, halting progress.
