Star Wars: Outlaws Review – A Big, Big Galaxy Far, Far Away

Introduction to Star Wars: Outlaws

There’s a commonality between pretty much all of the recent new Star Wars games we’ve gotten since Disney and EA more or less took over the franchise. It’s that they’re all fairly straightforward big-setpiece blockbusters that take place in and even expand the Star Wars universe but don’t really let the player live in the most famous setting in science fiction.

This isn’t a complaint, mind you – Jedi Survivor was one of my top games of last year, after all – but when Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment’s Star Wars: Outlaws made me promises of an open world and a reputation system, I was instantly intrigued by the chance to partake in this universe rather than just seeing it from an outcast perspective (or a warzone, as in Battlefront II).

A New Era of Star Wars Gameplay

Outlaws places the player in the role of Kay Vess, a low-life criminal living in an attic in Canto Bight until she Canto Bites off more than she can chew trying to score a big payday and has to flee the planet with a huge bounty on her head. From here, she makes friends with a mechanic, crash-lands on another planet, and gets roped into a massive heist to bankrupt the guy who’s put a hit on her and hopefully get away with it. She’ll have to travel across the Outer Rim to assemble a crew, all while navigating the complex relationships between the four major criminal factions vying for control. At the same time, the Empire scrambles to quash some upstart rebellion somewhere.

The blend of exploration, combat, and faction dynamics sets Outlaws apart as a standout in the Star Wars gaming lineup.

The story takes place in between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, but the player shouldn’t expect an abundance of familiar faces – Kay is, at least at the start, a scoundrel out for herself who decidedly does not make friends with the Rebels. Still, the less-purely-heroic characters are certainly on the table as potential allies. Some of the cast might be recognizable to those familiar with the novels, and in fact, I would recommend reading Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath as the planet Akiva first appeared there. It is one of the major explorable locations in Outlaws.

Exploration and World Design

Since I’ve already mentioned the exploration, let’s talk about it – as a Ubisoft Open World Game, a genre in and of itself, it’s easily the thing most players will spend the majority of their time on. Two planets – Kijimi and Cantonica – mostly feature linear story content with minor exploration elements. But the other three central locations, Akiva, Toshara, and Tattooine, are all massive zones with secrets around every turn. The game is somewhat lacking in fast travel points, though the speeder bike mostly makes up for this as the primary mode of transportation between locations.

Tattooine and Toshara are huge, open spaces that are an absolute blast to zoom around with the hoverbike, which is simple to drive but feels satisfying (particularly with the Dualsense integration, giving the throttle a good amount of weight). The game’s physics can get slightly stiff, yet catching sick air off a boosted ramp jump remains fun enough to offset the jankier moments.

My only major critique of the exploration is that the game’s compass does not contrast heavily enough with the environment during the daytime to be easily readable without turning the camera towards the ground. While there is an accessibility setting that solves this, it does so by putting a giant black bar behind the compass, which I consider an inelegant solution.

Combat and Progression Systems

The worlds are populated by settlements and cities full of citizens, hidden locations, and faction or bandit strongholds. Each planet features two of the game’s four factions and, with the exception of Kijimi, a Galactic Imperial presence. Most of the collectibles are just cosmetic options – put a pin in this – but a lot of them also are pointed to by the game’s Intel system, where Kay can gather information on secrets and pickups from the environment and citizens. It makes almost every location feel like its own mini-quest, even if most don’t carry much weight.

The game also features ship combat and open zones in space to uncover more secrets. Interstellar combat is more or less the bare minimum for what I would consider enjoyable, with only Kay’s stolen ship (the Trailblazer) available to use and upgrade. Still, it does solidly get the job done. My only real nitpick is that the ship’s lasers overheat too quickly for my liking, and there is no way to improve the ship to alleviate this at launch, though this seems like something that could easily be added later.

Faction and Reputation System

The big selling point is the faction and reputation system that affects many of your decisions. Four criminal organizations are featured (the Crimson Dawn, Hutt Cartel, Pyke Syndicate, and Ashiga Clan, the last of which is brand new in this title), and they’re all fighting for control and trying to get a leg up on each other. Kay has a meter for each syndicate that dictates how they will respond to her presence, and her reputation in each can rise and fall depending on which jobs she carries out and which decisions she makes during them. Almost every quest, including the randomly-generated Contracts, will give you a chance to boost your rep with one gang by screwing over another, and even the story missions will frequently move you up and down the gauges.

This is an enjoyable system that is easily broken, as plenty of missions will see you helping a gang with either roaming bandits, pirates, or the Empire, none of which carry the same weight and can be freely messed with. If you keep an eye out for jobs that don’t come at the expense of any of the organizations, it will be a slow climb up. However, it is possible to be in everyone’s good graces at once, though it’s up to you to decide whether this is worthwhile, as even the highest level of respect doesn’t let you do whatever you want.

At the lowest levels, Kay will be fired upon on sight by members of that faction, and its vendors will either refuse to speak to her (at rock bottom reputation) or only sell to her at a steep markup. It’s never too late to improve things by taking on odd jobs for little reward besides marginal rep gain, but it will be a gradual process, and you may not be able to recover without worsening your relationship with someone else.

Star Wars: Outlaws offers a fresh, immersive experience where every choice impacts your journey across the galaxy.

At the higher tiers, the player can get faction-themed costume pieces, discounts at shops, exclusive contracts and scripted quests, and even be able to take the random loot scattered around in faction-controlled zones without it being considered stealing…but this still won’t get you anywhere, as every controlled zone will still have vaults and other restricted areas that you’ll have to sneak into to plunder their secrets, and getting caught trespassing or stealing will lower your score with that group.

Massive Entertainment’s other games lean heavily into loot-drop-based character progression, but given that the combat system in Outlaws heavily favors stealth for the most part (Kay is just an ordinary person with exceptional climbing skills and can’t take many hits), I’m glad that a much simpler reward system was implemented here.

Progression is handled by giving the player “Experts” that they meet through the story and directly providing them with tasks or materials to improve Kay’s physical abilities. These require the player to take enemies out in specific ways, gather obscure items, or just make Kay’s animal companion Nix happy, and each of these rewards the player with a tangible upgrade that gives extra maximum health, more carrying capacity for healing items or more combat capabilities. Then, the rewards for completing tasks are gear with easily understood effects, cosmetic upgrades like paint jobs, or more stylish gear that can even be transmogged over your more beneficial items.

Combat itself is serviceable and satisfying, with a basic third-person combat system using Kay’s rechargeable and highly customizable laser pistol. It can switch between plasma bolts to be used against humans and electricity to target droids and shields, and if the gun overheats, the player can do a Gears-style active reload maneuver to get it working again more quickly. Hit feedback is excellent, with a clearly readable marker telling the player whether they’ve scored a hit or a killing blow or need to adjust their aim. The key here is not to get overwhelmed; if Kay gets surrounded, there’s a good chance she’s going down.

Characterization and Story Impact

Star Wars Outlaws’ weakest point is its story, specifically its main character. While a game about the scummier side of Star Wars is going to necessarily star a less likable hero than its more good-vs-evil stories, Kay’s characterization and interactions with others are inconsistent, which I believe is because most of Outlaws can be experienced in any order, so no one moment is really her “breakthrough” where she suddenly becomes more willing to go out of her way to help people.

Kay starts out petulant and selfish, a perfectly fine trait for this kind of down-on-her-luck petty criminal, but it’s hard to say that there’s any natural progression to the point the player will see. If Outlaws gets a novelization, I suspect Kay’s character journey will be more adequately shown there; the game doesn’t do her many favors.

The story overall is certainly not poor, and in fact, I like most of the rest of the cast, but it is a bit disappointing in terms of its impact. The time around Return of the Jedi especially is well-trodden ground, with both Battlefront II and its tie-in novel Inferno Squad both occupying around the same point on the timeline, as well as Battlefront: Twilight Company going for a significantly grittier, less cameo-filled story in a similar span of time. Setting this game during the Clone Wars, First Order Era or even the High Republic would have created more space for large moments that ripple out into other stories, as opposed to filling in some of the blank spaces but having to respect plot armor. Kay is very unusual for a Star Wars protagonist, and it would have been cool to see her become a more notable presence in a less-occupied story era.

Final Thoughts on Star Wars: Outlaws

Star Wars: Outlaws is, despite some narrative shortcomings, an absolute blast. It’s big enough that I couldn’t even hope to 100% it before launch, but not so massive as to make me question what I’m doing with my life (looking at you, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla). It’s the first game in over a decade to allow players to live in and properly interact with the Star Wars universe.

Its reputation system can make every choice feel essential and risky. It tells a story that doesn’t have to involve lightsabers or Sith to be interesting and expand the setting, which is an avenue of this property with tons of potential. Even finishing this review, I can’t wait to dive back in and keep uncovering its secrets because there’s genuinely something cool to find around every corner of a galaxy far, far away.