Video games are an interesting experience because they are so multifaceted. Playing a video game can at times be akin to watching a full season of a TV show. Sometimes it’s like sitting down and listening to a new album. And the actual video game element can be dramatically different depending on what genre you are playing. Many people enjoy video games for entirely different reasons. It’s what makes video games such a joy for me personally. But it’s also what can occasionally make them difficult to evaluate.
Star Wars Outlaws is one such example of how video games can bring so many different things to the table. At times, the excellent plot pacing and characters made me feel like I was watching a brand new Star Wars movie. The excellent soundtrack also gave me the same chills that watching the original trilogy as a kid did. As I zipped around the open worlds on my speeder, I felt transported into these spaces. The organic exploration had me immersed on a level that few games reach. The cinematic platforming occasionally had me thinking that I was in an Uncharted game.
However, coming at Outlaws as a stealth game or as a third person shooter, while not awful, can, at times, leave a little to be desired. This game blends so many elements together that the elements you are most interested in could drastically affect the way you perceive it. If you want this to be Gears of War, Metal Gear Solid, and Star Wars, you might come away disappointed. But if feeling truly immersed in the Star Wars universe sounds appealing to you, I don’t think any Star Wars game has done it better.
This Ain’t Your Daddy’s Ubisoft Open World
The big hook of Outlaws is that it is the first true open world Star Wars game. While most Star Wars games aren’t totally linear, this game has another level of freedom as you would hope and expect. The open world gameplay truly ends up being the highlight of Outlaws, and I’d say this is one of the most engaging open worlds I’ve experienced in the past few years.
Ubisoft has been derided constantly in the past for the way it handles its open worlds. Their formula is pretty predictable at this point. Usually, the goal is to go to towers that are marked on the map. By going to those, you unlock all of the various side activity markers that are out there. This formula has been adopted by plenty of other games, but Ubisoft has become synonymous with it in particular. While this system has its upsides, it also really takes away the feeling of exploration that should come with being in one of these worlds.
Ubisoft appears to have taken all of the criticism it has received to heart with Outlaws. The exploration fits a very nice balance between games that have you discover nearly everything on your own, like Elden Ring or Breath of the Wild and more classic Ubisoft fare. Outlaws does not just hand you a million icons to go to, but it makes it easy enough to discover them in organic ways. Most of the spots on the map where you can find special loot are discovered by walking around town, reading datapads, talking to random people, and listening in on various conversations in town. While you are in the open world, question marks will also pop up on your HUD (but not on the map) if you are close to a location that has something of significance. This leads to a feeling like you truly earned every discovery that you find in the game. It also makes it so I never felt bombarded with icons and overwhelmed, which is usually the standard course for these games. I wasn’t out to check boxes while playing Outlaws, I was just exploring the world and going on any adventure that caught my fancy.
Many of these adventures are also brought about by interacting with the various syndicates in the game. These syndicates give the lead character Kay Vess a lot of her jobs, and getting on their good side gives you several benefits, like free access to any area that they own. In many missions, you can decide whether to side with one syndicate or another, which can lead to reputations with each going up or down. This system was kind of cool, but I also think it could have been better. Basically, being in poor standing with any faction in Outlaws is an absolute pain in the ass, as you can’t go into their territory freely, and there are important things and quests to find in each territory. So I rarely felt too conflicted with any decision I made when it came to who to side with. If I was in poor standing with a faction, that was pretty much always going to be who I sided with. I wish they had developed a system that made me think a little deeper about which route to go. I think if the game was a little less punishing when it comes to being in poor standing with a faction, I might have been more inclined to just side with syndicates that I liked more. While this had potential, I found it to be a missed opportunity.
Sneaking and Shooting Never Felt So “Eh, It’s Passable I Suppose”
When you aren’t just wandering around or dealing with factions, you will generally be doing various main story quests and side missions like any open world game. Pretty much any quest in the game generally ends up being either a stealth mission, a more action oriented mission, or a platforming navigation puzzle. The majority of the game focuses on the stealth, which makes sense, as Kay Vess is not a jedi. She is just a thief and not built to mow down armies. I found the stealth exciting for much of the game, but I also wished it had a bit more depth. The biggest strength for the stealth is the level design. There are several different paths to tackling each mission as you would hope, and plenty of secret vents and other shortcuts that those looking hard enough can find. Many of the main stealth missions take place at big bases for the empire, and it is genuinely thrilling to sneak through them while surrounded by dozens of stormtroopers. You also have your pet, Nix, who is adorable, and can be used to distract or even attack certain enemies in order to give you openings to sneak by or quietly take out foes (with some of the more awkward assassination animations I’ve seen in a stealth game).
But the lack of depth with the stealth mechanics was a bit disappointing. While you unlock a few additional stealth abilities as you go, I almost always found myself wishing I had a few more that could really ramp up my creativity. While there are multiple paths through any of the stealth missions, I felt pretty boxed in as to how I could tackle most of them because of the lack of options. There is also no body hiding mechanic, and the enemy A.I. seemed pretty oblivious even when they were in sight of an incapicated ally. I thought this was a pretty big miss from an immersion perspective. There is enough here to make the stealth passable, but I found it to be several levels below the best of the genre.
There are also some insta-fail stealth missions and many missions that fail if the enemies trigger an alarm. While there is a lot of complaining about these online, I actually enjoyed these mechanics for the most part, as they gave the stealth an extra spice and intensity that helped compensate for the more underwhelming mechanics that are there at times.
If you get caught in certain missions, you are free to let loose with your blaster. Once again, there are fun elements, but it also feels lacking at times. Kay’s main weapon is her blaster. She has three different firing modes. There is a standard blaster attack, an ion attack (good for droids and lasers), and a power attack. I rarely saw the need to switch my attack outside of when I was fighting droids as the ion blaster is significantly more effective there. The sound design is excellent with the blaster, and it feels way more satisfying to shoot than I expected because of that. That sound design is the biggest upside to the combat and is the number one element that carries it.
You can also pick up special weapons that enemies drop with limited ammo, which can be fun to use, but they also automatically drop if you use a grenade or do any sort of platforming, which was kind of annoying. Switching to grenades is also a bit clunky and rarely felt worth it.
Because of all this, combat can feel pretty one-note, as I really wasn’t doing much besides getting behind cover and blasting away like a shooting gallery. Melee takes up too much time to be effective in a big firefight, and I felt like a lot of the combat areas didn’t have great options for flanking. Luckily you don’t spend much time in combat (unless you are really foregoing the stealth), so while it slowly got old for me as the game went along, it was never outright offensive because it just isn’t used that often. The occasional space battles in the game actually end up feeling a lot deeper and more satsifying from an action perspective, but those are also relatively rare.
Finally, you spend a pretty surprising amount of time doing navigation puzzles with cinematic platforming akin to the Uncharted series. While these didn’t blow me away, I did find them to be competent and a nice change of pace.
The Most Star Wars Game To Ever Star Wars
Somehow, all of these different missions just seemed to take a backseat in my mind to the joy of speeding around the different planets in the game and feeling absolutely immersed in all of these worlds. While I’m not a giant Star Wars fan, being on Tatooine gave me chills at times with how important that planet is to the series as a whole. The planet you spend the most time on, Toshara, is the biggest highlight, with a wide array of lush landscapes that had me stopping to enter the photo mode constantly. The art direction is stunning here, and despite playing many Star Wars games over the years, this is the first time I think I ever felt like I was truly *in* the Star Wars universe to this extent.
The story and characters also add a lot to that feeling of being in that Star Wars universe. While most Star Wars games have great plots, there is a level of pacing to the story that feels way more like a Star Wars movie than anything else I’ve played (even if a classic like Knights of the Old Republic has a better story overall). I never felt like there was a serious lull, and I definitely was on the edge of my seat at some key moments. I thought the game nailed the ending as well. Outlaws only taking about 25 hours to beat probably helps a lot, as the story just doesn’t have an opportunity to drag because there is usually some urgency.
This is also one of the best casts in all video games this year. Kay Vess is, of course, modeled after the iconic Han Solo to some extent, but she carves her own path in many ways. The excellent performance by Humberly Gonzales really brings her to life, and I felt more and more attached to her as the game went along. Her pet Nix is an absolute superstar as well, and the bond between Nix and Kay is fleshed out in some wonderful ways throughout the game. The rest of the heist crew also all have some fun moments. But more than anything, I left this game wanting to experience at least one more adventure with Kay and Nix down the road.
Not a Perfect Video Game, But A Perfect Experience
I also hope for one more adventure with Kay because there is just so much potential with a Star Wars Outlaws series from what I played here. I’m almost in disbelief at how much they nailed the Star Wars vibe here. The characters and story are so strong, and the immersion with this world is on a level that few video games can reach. While no core gameplay mechanic is totally broken, almost all of them just feel slightly lacking in various ways that could easily be improved upon in a sequel. Luckily, since you hop around all of these different gameplay mechanics so often, it generally stops them from getting too exposed and really becoming grating.
Because of that, when I look back on my time with Star Wars Outlaws in future years, I doubt I’ll think tons about how I wish combat and stealth were deeper. I imagine the main thing I’ll remember is how I truly felt like I was in the Star Wars Universe for 25 hours. As I explored Tatooine in particular, it made me realize that I have nostalgia for this franchise in a way I didn’t fully realize. I used to watch the original trilogy on VHS almost any day that I was at home and sick from school. Playing this game transported me back to that time. I can clearly picture the TV I watched those movies on and the couch I laid on. Star Wars Outlaws made me realize that Star Wars means something to me in a way I didn’t even fully realize. And that matters. Even if it’s not always the perfect video game, it’s damn close to a perfect “experience”. You should check it out, warts and all.
Score: 8.0/10
Big Nerd Gaming 
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