Although made by a different development studio, Star Wars Outlaws actually has very big shoes to fill. Star Wars fans have very high standards when it comes to their video games, and Jedi: Survivor is still fresh in players' minds that it'll undoubtedly be compared to it. In this Star Wars Outlaws review, we take a look if Outlaws is a fun Star Wars game and if it's worth the $70 Ubisoft asks for it.
Star Wars Outlaws Review: What is Star Wars Outlaws?
Star Wars Outlaws is a third-person action-adventure game developed by Massive Entertainment in collaboration with Lucasfilm Games and Ubisoft studios, and published by Ubisoft. The game is Massive's and Ubisoft's first game using the Star Wars IP, with the game itself taking place between The Empire Strikes Back (V) and Return of the Jedi (VI).
The game was released on August 30, 2024, with early access becoming available to fans who pre-ordered the game on August 27, 2024. It is available on PC through the Ubisoft Store and on the PS5 and the Xbox Series X for consoles.
As a third-person action-adventure game, the player controls Kay Vess, a rogue scoundrel taking on odd jobs for crime syndicates in the Outer Rim. Traveling from planet to planet to complete these jobs with her pet merqaal Nix and some crewmates, players have to navigate the galaxy's seedy underbelly for both fame and money, so that Kay could accomplish a big job that could set her up for life.
The game has multiple open worlds as there are a few planets for the players to visit and explore in the game. These planets differ in climate, culture, and population density, giving players a diverse experience when it comes to their exploration. Players can also take their spaceship, the Trailblazer (a light freighter just like the Millenium Falcon) to orbit, sometimes engaging in space combat.
Typical of games in the genre, these open worlds are populated by NPCs that can give players side quests to keep them busy. There are also merchants who can sell players weapon upgrades, vehicle upgrades, ship upgrades, outfits, materials, and consumables. The game's crime syndicates have a presence on these planets, with the Empire also making their presence felt in most locations.
These worlds also have other side activities that the player can partake in like playing arcade machines, gambling in animal racing, or playing card games on high-stake tables. These activities can give players a lot of money, or rob them completely of their credits.
The game features both over-the-shoulder shooting and stealth mechanics at its level and quest design. As a rogue, Kay Vess usually needs to sneak around and not get caught doing shady stuff. But when things get hairy, she still has her pistol blaster to rely on.
Star Wars Outlaws Gameplay
We played Star Wars Outlaws on both PC and on the PS5 for this review, although we played majority of our time on the PS5. Many players reported bugs on the PS5 and performance issues on the PC, but thankfully, in our review, we didn't experience anything more than graphical issues. Do take this into consideration when buying the game, as our mileage might vary when it comes to stability.
Let's get this out of the way: Star Wars Outlaws is a fun game. However, it has a lot of flaws. Taken as a whole, Star Wars Outlaws packs an experience that could go on for dozens of hours. There are a lot of cool places to explore, a lot of side quests to partake in, and a boatload of unlockables to chase. There are even more to come, as typical for Ubisoft, the game has a Season Pass on the way.
However, Star Wars Outlaws appears to spread itself too thin, leaving many of the experiences feeling shallow. It is most evident when it comes to the game's core gameplay loop. Both the combat and the stealth mechanics of Star Wars Outlaws feel shallow and outdated.
The shooting in the game is smooth and responsive. You'd feel good shooting at enemies with Kay's blaster pistol. It's also satisfying to fill in Kay Vess' Adrenaline gauge which allows her to High Noon her way to winning gun fights. However, this gets old really fast. Things get repetitive – take cover behind objects, throw grenades toward clumps of opponents, and then shoot your way to victory.
There's this odd design choice wherein the game allows players to pick up weapons dropped by enemies like sniper rifles and blaster rifles, but the player can't take them home. Kay drops these weapons as soon as she engages in a different activity (like riding her speeder bike) or as soon as the weapon runs out of ammo.
As for the stealth, it even feels more lackluster. Although the level design allows players to approach each stealth mission from different angles, all players really do in the game is sneak around, do stealth takedowns, and have Nix reach places where she can't to solve various puzzles or open gates. There's a lockpicking rhythm minigame that is actually unique and decent, but the game's hacking minigame is just generic as it is uninspired.
It feels that the developers had to make these concessions to try to balance the gameplay. They didn't want to go too deep into either combat or stealth so that players don't have a hard time progressing in either. This sadly made the gameplay really shallow, even with all of the abilities and tools players acquire in the game.
And that's a real shame because the game has a great progression system. Player progression goes two ways. For the first one, Players can improve their weapon by obtaining materials needed to unlock new features for their blaster. They can also purchase clothing from merchants to give them buffs and passive benefits.
Second, players can meet special NPC in the game that serve as mentors for the player. After completing a quest associated with that NPC, players unlock special task lists that when completed, unlock a new ability for Kay Vess. This is an interesting way to present progression and it makes sense storywise. Kay Vess starts out as a novice rogue, after all, so she needs these mentors to learn new skills.
But the skills and abilities that Kay learns throughout the game are never game-changing. Many of them make either combat or stealth even easier, but that only serves to make these core gameplay loops more trivial. Some of these abilities unlock more of the world for Kay, like giving her the ability to unlock special doors or open specialized chests, but they're fewer and farther between.
Where Star Wars Outlaws really shines is in its presentation of the worlds that Kay Vess visits. These worlds feel at home in the Star Wars universe, and nothing looks out of place. Character species are depicted correctly, as well as the settlements' architecture. The worlds are also marvelous to explore, and I had the most fun in the game traveling across the map going from one side quest to another.
And to their credit, this doesn't feel like “Far Cry but Star Wars,” which was a criticism that was leveled against Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Massive Entertainment's previous game. It's funny how big of an impact not having to climb high towers to unlock portions of the map could do to the feel and pacing of a game, but the fact that the map isn't riddled by millions of icons is also a good thing.
In fact, thanks to Kay's speeder bike, exploring the worlds she's in feels fun and exciting. I found myself not using fast travel a lot because even if locations are physically far from each other, traveling throughout the map is a breeze.
Another shining point for Star Wars Outlaws is how alive and impactful its faction system is. Almost everything you do in the game is affected by Kay's relationship with the game's five factions. Merchants have affiliations and your relationship with them will affect not only prices, but also the stocks they're willing to sell to you. This locks some equipment from purchase until you have a good enough relationship with a faction.
Quests are also affected by your relationship with these factions as you could find yourself in a gang's turf in these missions. Have a good relationship with them and they might just let you walk freely to do your thing. But when you're on their bad side, you'll have to sneak around or go in guns a blazing.
I found the game's faction system also affected how I chose which quests to do next. Being aware of the locations in the game, I would usually try to finish quests first that would help me get a better standing with a faction, so that I could fit in much more easily in their area and make me sneak less.
Some story beats are also affected by your current standing with the syndicates, and some quests are also locked behind good relationships. This gives the game a lot of replayability as well, as you might be left wondering how quests would have played out had you chosen to side with a different faction.
All in all, it feels like Star Wars Outlaws is a game that should be played in short bursts over extended periods of time. It's a fun game to play but it gets repetitive fast, so it's a game you'd rather revisit every now and then than binge.
Star Wars Outlaws Story
Perhaps in hindsight, not binging Star Wars Outlaws is fine. Although the overall story of Star Wars Outlaws has good pacing, it's largely inoffensive. It's your typical “One heist fixes all” story for your morally gray rogue protagonist. You'll get into a lot of missions that go sideways, there are plenty of betrayals, plenty of suspenseful escape sequences, you assemble a crew for the job, and then you set out against a powerful opponent and succeed as the underdog.
Hence, not binging the game is fine, because you would never feel lost regardless of where you drop off or regardless of how long it's been since you last played the game.
What I appreciated the most about the game's story, though, is how consistent Kay's and Nix's characterizations were. Some people might say that this is a sign that Kay didn't really grow as a character in the entire game, but for a game that is as predictable as this one, it doesn't really need a lot of character development. Kay and Nix's relationship, antics, and adventures together are also highlights of the game, although there are also some bright spots in Kay's relationship with other characters in the game.
Is the game worth finishing, then, if that's the case? While the road to get there is a bit predictable, that doesn't necessarily make the ending a disaster. In fact, since the game is predictable, it just elevates the emotional payout of the ending. This is the kind of game that would have sucked so bad if the developers just decided to swerve us last minute. But since we get the outcome that we expect and want out of the ending, Star Wars Outlaws thus sticks the landing.
Just don't feel pressured, and take your time getting there.
Star Wars Outlaws Graphics
Star Wars Outlaws' graphics is an anomaly. For one, the game definitely looks beautiful. Part of the reason why the game's exploration is as fun as it is is because the landscapes, the environments, and the sceneries you get to see look nice and memorable. The game has a dynamic weather and day-night cycle that makes the entire planet feel alive. The cities are also densely populated and feel very much alive.
The general art direction is also fine and fits right into the lore. The people from different species in this game look as you would expect them to look, which is probably expected given Lucasfilm Games' involvement in this project.
But there are a lot of graphical bugs and glitches, particularly with lighting in our experience.
The game's lip syncing and facial expressions are also underdeveloped. While the character models themselves look good, their faces just look dead and expressionless. The lip sync isn't even precise, and it makes you wonder why this is the case.
The entire game has good art direction, great models, and the world's compositions are top-notch. But your immersion in these beautiful scenes gets taken away by silly graphical bugs and unnatural lip sync and facial expressions.
Star Wars Outlaws was almost there, but depending on how sensitive you are to these kinds of immersion-breaking stuff, this might be a deal-breaker for you.
Star Wars Outlaws Music and Sound Design
Star Wars Outlaws has a score that fits every moment of the game and fits right into the Star Wars universe, almost as if the game's music was composed by John Williams himself.
It's amazing, really, how games like this could have multiple aspects in their gameplay and still have proper music for every occasion.
The emotions built up during cutscenes are intensified by the musical score – tense moments get more suspenseful and moments of betrayal get a bit more sting thanks to instruments plucking at your heartstrings.
Even moments of respite have relaxing and calming music that helps you get a sense of peace in between bouts of danger.
There's not much to discuss about Star Wars Outlaws' music and sound design because Massive Entertainment and Ubisoft pretty much nailed it. It might sound weird, but Star Wars has a certain sound profile – from how blasters are supposed to sound and how Stormtroopers are supposed to talk – that Outlaws definitely captured. Take any of the music in this game and place it in a different Star Wars media and it'd feel right at home.
The voice acting is also a homerun, with all voice actors delivering great performances minute by minute. It's a bit tarnished by the odd lip sync and unnatural facial expressions, but if you look away or close your eyes, you'll definitely feel the passion they've given into in their performances.
VERDICT: Is Star Wars Outlaws a good game? Is it worth your time and money?
As much fun as I've had playing Star Wars Outlaws, I still saw all of the flaws within it. None of them were dealbreakers for me, but there are plenty enough that some of you might find a flaw that suits your flavor of “dealbreaker.” Not to mention the many bugs that we keep on hearing about (that we thankfully didn't experience) which makes it even harder to recommend for everyone.
In fact, I wouldn't recommend buying the game at full price. The industry is starting to shift towards a new pricing model, and although Ubisoft isn't the only one pushing it, they still have to be held accountable for the price they are charging their customers. For $70, you'd expect a game with less jarring face animations and fewer bugs. You'd expect deep systems and mechanics that all gel together.
Instead, you get a fun action-adventure game that has a lot to offer in terms of quantity but not a lot in terms of depth. It's a shame, really, because I think Star Wars Outlaws is a good game. I just don't think it's worth the full $70 price tag.
Score: 7/10
Editor's Note: ClutchPoints received a PC and a PS5 review copy of Star Wars Outlaws to allow us to cover the game. These copies did not, in any way, affect this Star Wars Outlaws review and score.
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