Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Massive Entertainment
Release:
Earlier this year, I flew to Malmö, Sweden, to get an exclusive first look at Star Wars Outlaws for our cover story. During that time, I played through an hour of early-game content, spoke with various members of the developers, and dove deep into the approach the studio behind The Division took when crafting its adventure in the galaxy far, far away. Several months have passed since my trip out to Sweden, and with Ubisoft hosting one final preview event prior to the game's August 30 release date, I traveled to Irvine, California, to get my hands on a longer section of the game.
In Star Wars Outlaws, you control Kay Vess, a scoundrel who gets swept up in a difficult situation and must navigate the criminal underworld in the time between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. But she's not alone; she has her faithful (and insanely cute) companion, Nix. Together, they forge new relationships, backstab existing ones, and play the politics game in the criminal underbelly of planets like Tatooine and Kijimi, as well as the all-new moon, Mirogana. Their ultimate goal is to earn their freedom after unwillingly getting swept up in a situation that resulted in a crime lord putting a hit out on Kay.
Return of the Scoundrel
My demo begins minutes before my initial hands-on impressions from our cover story earlier this year. Kay and Nix have landed on Toshara, and their ship, the Trailblazer, needs some new parts before they can get off the moon. As she exits the ship to survey the landscape, she's attacked by a Rodian named Waka. When Kay asks what gives, Waka makes mention of something along the lines of, "I thought you were one of them." While that raises an additional question, it immediately answers itself, as it's revealed that "them" is a group of bandits that were attacking him.
Kay ducks behind cover, and I begin blasting. Here, Star Wars Outlaws tutorializes a mechanic I didn't get to check out in my first hands-on session: the Adrenaline Meter. If Kay is under pressure for long enough, her meter charges, which allows you to activate it to slow down time. In this phase, I can select nearby enemies on a short timer, then return the game to normal speed to have Kay automatically take them out. After using Kay's adrenaline to blast the bandits, she has a chance to chat with Waka, who, as luck would have it, is a mechanic. But he needs parts, and he recommends Kay seek the help of Gorak of the Pyke Syndicate.
Following that chat, the peace ends as more bandits descend upon their location. Kay hops on her speeder and sets a course for Mirogana, the capital city of Toshara. After a speeder chase sequence (where I again use the adrenaline meter attack to blow away Kay's pursuers), I reach Mirogana. I once again play through the hour of gameplay I experienced at Massive Entertainment earlier this year. However, it's much more polished and streamlined this time – the result of playtesting. Waypoints and destinations are more clearly marked and breadcrumbed, and sections of what I played at the studio have been smoothed over in noticeable ways. It makes for a better experience overall, even if I still enjoyed my time with it the first time.
Even with those changes, the basic flow of the missions and cutscenes remain the same: Kay sneaks into Gorak's private suite, gets tossed out, takes a job with a mystery client to steal data from the Pyke Syndicate, sneaks into Pyke territory, connects with Crimson Dawn, and then steals the parts she needs from either Crimson Dawn or the Pyke Syndicate. Much like my first playthrough, I aligned more closely with Crimson Dawn, which means I don't have to sneak around to steal the part from them. It's all part of the Reputation System, which tracks the ebbs and flows of your relationships with the various criminal organizations you interact with (learn more about the system here). I then rendezvous with Waka at Jaunta's Hope, a small town outside Mirogana. For a more detailed rundown of these events, head to my original write-up of this sequence here.
After acquiring the Ion Blast ability for Kay's blaster, which served as the ending of my previous demo, I continued playing for another couple of hours. I speak to the bartender in Jaunta's Hope, who informs me about Experts. These reputable characters around the open world allow you to complete in-game tasks like jumping your speeder a certain distance or stealthily taking down distracted enemies to unlock certain abilities like a faster speeder or an option to fast-talk your way out of capture.
I decide to follow one of the questlines involving a nearby Expert, but on my way there, I play around with the open world a bit. En route to a small wind-fishing town, I hear radio chatter of stolen Imperial parts that some Stormtroopers are pursuing. I follow a dropship flying overhead to reach the site, where a blaster battle breaks out between some pirates and The Empire. I let them pick each other off so I could have a better chance; then, once the Stormtroopers won, I finally stepped out from behind cover to polish off the remaining troops and claim the bounty.
I continue down the path, I spot a mini Imperial base. I decided to devote most of the rest of my first gameplay session to messing with The Empire. I direct Nix to detonate a barrel to draw attention, then I sneak up and stealthily take out some of the Stormtroopers. A nearby officer notices me and opens fire. I fall back, and the snipers stationed on top of the base start blasting in my direction. After wiping them all out, my Wanted level rises. Chatter starts over the radio, talking about a dangerous woman in the area. I climb up to the top, pick up the sniper rifle, and try to pick off a nearby Stormtrooper on a speeder. He doesn't take kindly to that and rushes in my direction, and my Wanted level rises again. As your Wanted level increases, so does the pressure you feel from The Empire. I didn't experience this, but if you reach the maximum level, The Empire will even send death troopers to hunt you down.
Up, Up, and Away
After messing around with The Empire and raising my Wanted level, I decide it's time to pursue other off-world adventures. I bring the fuel injectors Waka needed to repair the Trailblazer, and it's off the space we go. Space flight gives you an orbit around planets and moons that you can explore in Kay's ship. Flying the Trailblazer feels good, with the right analog stick controlling speed, the left stick controlling your orientation, and options for boosts, blasters, and missiles.
After flying around for a bit, I navigate to an Imperial Fueling Station to wipe some data. This consists mostly of stealth sequences, as I need to get to the terminal to wipe the data while Waka keeps them busy. As I work through the station, I sneak behind moving carts, climb through vents, and grapple across chasms. When I need to, I also knock out some unsuspecting officers and troopers in my path. This elongated section culminates in a massive room full of Imps; after three failed attempts to sneak through it, I find an alternate path to send Nix through a vent and move a ship blocking a walkway suspended above the room I was struggling with. After sneaking past a probe droid, I finally make it to the terminal, where I can choose to side with the Pykes or Crimson Dawn.
I stick with my allegiances in this playthrough and help out Crimson Dawn, but the sequence features an interruption by a bristly disembodied head in a jar (yes, like in Futurama). This Pyke's name is Bosnak, and he was working with The Empire but is open to forming an alliance with Kay. To wrap up this long mission aboard the Imperial ship, Kay must sneak Bosnak out. Once he's close to the ship, however, the Imperial forces are alerted of Kay's presence, and she must hold them off until he can board and the door can lower. Once Waka is ready for takeoff, Kay sprints aboard the ship, and they fly out of the station.
But it isn't that easy to get away from an Empire that you just assaulted and stole from. TIE Fighters are hot on the Trailblazer's tail, and I get to put the space combat through its paces in a more fleshed-out way. When you have an enemy in your sights, holding the left trigger brings you into Chase Mode, which zooms in the camera, follows the target, and displays a UI that tells you how far to lead the target with your aim. After taking some time to get used to it, I finally took down the TIEs to escape. This ended the longest portion of my gameplay, but after a break, it was right back in the shoes of Kay Vess as we were whisked away to Kijimi.
Winter Storm Warning
The second portion of my demo takes me to Kijimi, a location most known for its appearance in Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker. Regardless of your opinion on that movie, Kijimi was a fascinating location and I'm glad to have a chance to explore it more thoroughly during a different era. This portion of my gameplay session begins in the orbit of the frigid planet. After gunning down some ambushing space pirates, Kay starts her approach to Kijimi.
Kay arrives on the planet searching for a safecracker named Ank for the heist she needs to pull off. On her way to the territory of Ashiga Clan, another one of the crime syndicates, she runs into an Imperial officer who operates a side hustle. The officer tells Kay that if she picks up too much heat and needs to clear her Wanted level with The Empire, she can pay her to wipe it from the database. That might come in handy, but for the purposes of the demo, I keep moving on. After sneaking into Ashiga Clan territory, Kay commands Nix to steal a keycard from a guard, which she then uses to access a restricted room with a computer. After hacking the computer using a minigame where you have a set number of attempts to guess a sequence, she learns nothing about the factor that Ank is said to be held in, but instead uncovers details about an ongoing conflict between Ashiga Clan and Crimson Dawn.
Kay learns that the relic that the Ashiga Clan is so up in arms about was taken by Crimson Dawn and held in a private club on Kijimi called The Wellspring. My Reputation I built up with Crimson Dawn in my first file was lost in the transition to the new save file, so I need to sneak in to The Wellspring. I once again sneak past the guards and use Nix to steal a keycard from a guard. Entering the control room, I lower the barriers around the relic. From there, I decide it's time to go loud; I use Nix to distract one of the beefier-looking guards, then run up and take him down. The alarm sounds, and a shootout begins. Using all that I've learned – Nix's distractions, the Adrenaline Meter, and how the Ion Blast is stronger against droids – I narrowly escape with the relic.
From there, I guide Kay back to Ashiga Clan territory. After some smooth talking by Kay, she is escorted to Queen Ashiga, who thanks her for retrieving the relic. The screen tells me that my reputation with Ashiga Clan has gone up while my rep with Crimson Dawn has taken a pretty serious hit. However, I didn't have the chance to see the implications of that as my time with Star Wars Outlaws came to an end.
Open-world titles with long gameplay loops are difficult to demo in the course of a few hours, but from the two hands-on sessions I've experienced to this point, I've enjoyed getting started with Kay Vess and Nix's adventure. If the loop can deliver on the promise of the game's various systems and provide a strong hook to keep me coming back for more, my inner Star Wars fan could very well have something to look forward to next month. Thankfully, the release date is not far, far away, as Star Wars Outlaws launches on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on August 30.
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