Star Wars Outlaws had a lot of things stacked against it. First off, it's a Star Wars game where the player doesn't get a lightsaber. It's also a Star Wars game that is similar enough to be compared to Jedi: Survivor but different enough for it to never live up to the eyes of Jedi: Survivor's fans. But is the game even good to begin with? We check out Star Wars Outlaws review scores to find out.
Star Wars Outlaws Review Scores: 76 on Metacritic
As of press time, Star Wars Outlaws sits at the mid-seventies of the aggregated Metascore on Metacritic. Even though there were reports of the game having game-breaking bugs on the PS5, the scores across all platforms are almost similar. However, there's a stark contrast between the critic scores and the user scores, outlying just how bad of an experience your everyday gamer had with the game.
The reviews below are spread out across the spectrum. There are, of course, high scores for critics and players who really loved the game. There are middling reviews that acknowledge both pros and cons of the game. There are also very negative reviews that dunk on the game's weak points without giving much credit to the good parts.
However, regardless of which review you read, there's always this one constant: bugs and performance issues. Regardless of the platform, there appears to be a big problem when it comes to bugs and glitches for Star Wars Outlaws, affecting the experience of many players and critics.
It is hopefully Ubisoft Massive's priority right now to fix all of these issues, as apart from the bugs, glitches, and performance problems, there are much bigger issues afoot that need to be addressed, sooner or later, if Massive were to make a sequel for Kay Vess' adventures.
Let's start with the game's review scores from critics.
Star Wars Outlaws gets mixed reviews from critics
Star Wars Outlaws received its lone perfect (5 stars out of 5) score from NME, with a review that reads:
“Outlaws feels like a proper Star Wars game, but isn’t tied down to the Skywalker saga. The world feels suitably massive, with plenty of places to explore, skills to learn and dodgy dealings to get involved in. Developers have cherry-picked the best moments from groundbreaking titles such as Uncharted, Tomb Raider and The Witcher to create a unique, cohesive Star Wars title.”
Gamers Heroes also gave the game a high rating of 95% out of 100%, with a review that reads:
“Massive Entertainment created breathtaking environments across the galaxy, delivered a fast-paced combat system true to the scoundrel style, and crafted a story that rivals the modern movies. Star Wars Outlaws is, simply put, the Star Wars game of a generation.”
It's clear that a majority of the positive reviews came from critics who greatly appreciated Ubisoft Massive's strong presentation of the Star Wars ethos, praising the game's coherence with the source material and how much canon it feels, in spite of it being the first shot at it by the developers.
These reviews also note how fun the game's mechanics gelled together, noting that they enjoyed the balance between stealth and light shooter action that the game offered. The open-world and just how detailed the environs are were also often cited as positives.
However, not a lot of critics agree with this assessment. There are still forgiving critics, who, in spite of pointing out more flaws, still gave the game a decent review score.
One of these is IGN, which gave the game a 7/10 score, with a rather succinct conclusion that reads:
“Star Wars Outlaws is a fun intergalactic heist adventure with great exploration, but it’s hindered by simple stealth, repetitive combat, and a few too many bugs at launch.”
GameRant was more elaborate in their explanation of how, in spite of its flaws, Star Wars Outlaws is still a game worth playing. Their review score for the game is 3.5 out of 5 stars, with a conclusion that reads:
“Somehow, despite the negatives, the game is still worth trying out. Star Wars Outlaws offers a decently fast jaunt and ends before the downsides can become completely unbearable. It’s an ambitious game, and Massive either bit off too much or perhaps played it too safe. The result is a slightly-above-middle-of-the-road affair that shows promise and will hopefully result in a more well-rounded sequel that addresses many of Outlaws' shortcomings.”
Eurogamer wasn't too thrilled with the game, however, giving the game only 2 stars out of 5, with a disappointed review that reads:
“The heist flick works because of its characters – their complexity, obsession or greed – as much as it does the sheer fun of actually doing a heist. Star Wars Outlaws, by comparison, feels like it's blagging it – much as Kay can, when regularly caught out by some far more worldly syndicate boss. The result is a series of quite painful comparisons: it lacks the branching, open stealth of an Arkham game, the systemic options of a Dishonored or the incisive, relentlessly satisfying speed of picking enemies off in Assassin's Creed.”
Eurogamer isn't alone in expressing frustration on the game's lack of depth, but Hardcore Gamer felt that the themes of Star Wars Outlaws were lost in a genre that didn't exactly fit the mold. In their 2.5/5 review, Hardcore Gamer writes:
“The idea of a Star Wars game focusing entirely on the world of outlaws in its seedier parts of the universe is a great one, but it deserved a different kind of game than Star Wars Outlaws, instead of being suited for something more like Shadows of Doubt, Disco Elysium or even L.A. Noire. Even a straight, linear action game would be better. Instead, we get a boring, open-world monstrosity with uninspired gameplay, way too many useless features and a constant deluge of uninteresting side content. Kay and company deserve way better and so do the players. Save your credits and wait for something like a solo Kessel Sabacc game instead.”
Fan reception of Star Wars Outlaws is overwhelmingly negative
If this game were on Steam, you bet this game would read “overwhelmingly negative” review scores, and it might stay that way until the game goes on sale. In lieu of the ever-reliable Steam reviews, we have the Metacritic user reviews instead.
You get a good feel of that from Star Wars Outlaws' user review scores. Many of them, understandably, come from the PS5 camp. Many of them experienced the save-deleting issue that plagued the most loyal of fans – those who pre-ordered.
But outside of technical woes, there are also a lot of players who complained about the game's fundamental flaws. One user writes:
“Beautiful landscape, but that's it. For an open world game, being forced to play a linear and necessarily stealth mission to start is a drag. The combat is bad, the stealth system is laughable. I've seen better AI on a typewriter. I won't even talk about bugs, for they'll be patched, hopefully.”
There are criticisms as well of the main character, Kay Vess, a recurring sentiment from the negative reviews written about the game. Many claim that for an IP like Star Wars, it could have been easy for the developers to write a more interesting, unique character, but we had to settle for a human girl.
Somewhat unfairly, there are also others who compared the game to Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, with some users obviously just wanting more of Jedi Survivor and looking for the wrong things out of Outlaws. Their feelings are still valid, although their opinions do require a bit of filtering.
Many of the disappointed players felt that Kay was uninteresting and was vastly underdeveloped. Her skills in the game were also lacking, with missing traversal and combat abilities one would expect from a rogue scoundrel. Gameplay expectations were definitely not met by these fans. One fan even questioned Massive's decision to have stealth as a core mechanic for the game.
While, of course, there are still users who provided positive review scores of the game, one thing's found in almost all reviews: the game at launch was filled with bugs, and crashes happen way too often for a game that costs $70. Many fans felt that by giving the game a bad review, it would affect Ubisoft's attitude towards their pricing strategy for their games moving forward.
With all of that said, check out our own Star Wars Outlaws Review and read about how we felt about Ubisoft's latest release. Spoiler alert, we gave the game a 7.5/10 because we actually enjoyed the game and didn't experience as many bugs as most players did. Read our review to find out how we arrived at that review score.
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