I said it once and I'll say it again: I love Star Wars, but even I will admit that the series has had some missteps throughout the years. The recent shut down of Star Wars Hunters comes to mind, and I think, personally, would've had a better longevitiy if it made it to Steam and Xbox. But, I digress, as that's neither here nor there. Today, I want to focus on a title that came out last year that seems to have been ignored by many and passed off by others: Star Wars Outlaws. It's a pity it got such a weird reception from fans as this is actually a pretty fun Star Wars game, if not one of my favorites.
To prevent myself from revealing any spoilers for this game, this review will mainly focus on the game itself. But, to summarize the story, you play as Kay Vess and, after a heist goes wrong, you are now on the run from Zerek Besh. Along the way, you meet up with a whole cast of likeable and not-so-likeable characters as you begin planning the ultimate heist to clear your Death Mark, which is your bounty. Right out of the gate, I was pleasantly surprised with how well the story grabbed me from the get-go with it's simple premise and I found myself routinely surprised by some of the directions the story took in it's, roughly, 10+ hour story (I'm going by my save file here), if you just focus on the main quests itself. There were even a few twists that took me by surprise, including one that I was thinking was going to lead to a comedic moment, given how the dialogue was playing out, only to instead to go a completely different direction, as well as introducing of one of the game's coolest characters: ND-5, who is a repurpose droid commando from the Clone Wars era and is pretty much this game's version of Garrus, minus the calibrations. Now, I should stress that, even though you do acquire a crew, this isn't a Mass Effect-style game and I can see some being disappointed by that. Instead, the crew you hire throughout the game are mostly there for the main story and nothing much else. I would've loved to have some small side quests to do for them and, OK, maybe a romance subplot with them but, hey, that wasn't the main focus of the story. Still, the crew you do acquire are some lovable scoundrels, including the bomb maker Ank who was, by far, my favorite character in the entire game. Her explosive personality, pun intended, and how she acts, I swear, never failed to bring a smile to my face. Even her interactions with the Jawas (this isn't spoiling any major story beats as this is a side quest I'm talking about) was hilarious, especially when you hear, over the comms, one poor Jawa blowing himself up. Actually, speaking of the Jawas and, this is sorta off topic, but it feels like ever since the Mandalorian, these little rapscallions have gotten more love and personalities since their appearance in the first Star Wars movie and I, for one, am all for it. Even if they are little bantha poodoos at times.
Outside of the main crew, the other NPCs you interact with all have unique personalities and are fun to chat to, with many offering upgrades for you and your vehicles, which I'll touch on later. What I think helps here is the strong dialogue. Now, strong dialogue is something that I feel Star Wars, on a whole, does struggle with at times. I mean, how many iconic lines from the series that we remember are the more cheesy lines rather than the epic ones? Here, though, the dialogue, despite some iffy writing at times, feels believable and, like I said, is some of the strongest the series has to date. The dialogue between Kay and many of the characters, for instance, comes off as relatively natural, with these little facial movements each character does which, as usual for a Ubisoft title, are amazing though some do come off slightly uncanny at times. Even many of the alien species you chat with that don't speak Galactic Basic (English, for us) come off as believable, even though you mostly hear Huttese. Yes, there are some characters in the game who I wasn't a fan of, one in particular that comes to mind being the head of the Crimson Dawn gang as well as one particular character that shows up near the end game portion, and a few I was able to tell weren't trustworthy, and some enemy NPC dialogue you will hear repeated, but those few weren't really enough to sour my enjoyment of the world this game inhabits.
I'd say the only real low-points of the story are the villains and two of the crime syndicate members you can work with. The main villain really doesn't do anything really villainous to make him stand out and be a legitimate threat, outside of putting the death mark on Kay, and outside of a scene near the end of the game, he really just feels forgettable. Same goes with two gangs you can work with, which brings me to this aspect. The game has a loyalty system where the more good you do for one of the four gangs - Crimson Dawn, The Pykes, The Hutts, and The Ashiga - the more bonuses you can get like being able to explore their areas without issues and discounts at certain stores. But, the more bad you do, like killing and stealing from them, the more they'll hate you and take shots at you whenever they see you. While the Ashiga Clan and, surprisingly, The Hutts are interesting characters to interact with, Crimson Dawn and the Pykes are probably the weakest and my least favorite of the gangs, even though I ended up doing more good with the Dawn, ironically enough. I feel the main issue with the Pykes is that I never really found them to be that interesting of a gang and I found their designs to be sorta not that interesting. With the Dawn, while they do seem to be the more "lawful neutral" of the gangs, going by what I’ve seen, I just wasn't a fan of their leader, whom I won't spoil here as it does tie in with the movie Solo: A Star Wars Story, which I will give the game credit and say that is probably the first time I seen anything Star Wars related reference that movie (Side Note: Solo is a good movie and I do feel it's the more under-rated of the film series), so that is a good thing. It's just a pity what it references from the film is the weakest aspect, but that's just me. I'd also say the voice-acting, while there is some good writing, ranges in quality. Some characters' voices, like the aforementioned Kay and ND-5, are incredible and some of the best voice acting I've heard while others, like the main villain and some NPCs you can interact with, are spotty. Nothing to hurt the immersion or anything, just spotty. Zerek Besh, I feel, does have some slight issues with emoting but it's, again, really nothing that took me out of the game.
Now onto the gameplay and this is where, I feel, Outlaws both shines like Queen Amadala's personal ship but falters just a bit like the Millenium Falcon. On the surface, this is a typical third person action/stealth affair set within a Ubisoft-style open world, but I feel it's one of their better ones. For one, instead of one set massive open world location, you have multiple medium-sized worlds to visit and explore while completing various quests and side-activities. The main crutch of the game involves you heading to a location and stealthing your way through without being caught and, if you are, either shooting your way out or hiding and disabling the alarms. Unlike most stealth action games, this one doesn't really punish you for being seen, outside of a few missions that require you to be sneaky, and it really does encourage you to play with whatever style you feel more comfortable playing.
The stealth, for instance, is basic on the surface but still feels rewarding when you pull off a successful stealth run. When stealthing, Kay is able to dispatch enemies either by a contextual button press or by using her blaster's stun ability, the latter can be recharged when taking out enemies with said button press. You can even lure enemies to a stealth take down or away from a location by whistling or distracting them with this game's coolest and cutest character: Kay's pet named Nyx. Of all animals in any game, Nyx takes my award for not only being the cutest (I seriously want a plush of him), but also the most deadly. At first, he can simply distract enemies or the various cameras for you, but he can also sabotage alarms, steal valuable items for you from either the world itself or NPCs, and, probably the more fun one, cause a grenade to explode on an enemy. The latter I definitely used more often than not in certain situations as it was a huge help in clearing out certain areas.
But if you get caught or the mission calls for it, the main combat is fun and highly engaging, with Kay's blaster being able to take out pretty much any enemy with ease. Of course, you find other weapons in the world, like the iconic E-11 Blaster that Stormtroopers wield, but these aren't permanent and, once their power core is empty, you'll toss it and have to go back to using your blaster. I think this is the only piece of Star Wars media, outside of the Read-Along Story 'Planet Of The Hoojibs', that had blasters getting drained and Iactually think that’s a pretty cool mechanic. Speaking of which, Kay's blaster can be upgraded to better suit your needs and there's three main upgrades you can get: Photon, Ion, and Blast. Photon is your basic blaster bolt and can be changed, for instance, to be a burst fire pistol. Ion is useful for stunning enemies, taking out shields, and one-shotting any droid that comes in your way and Blast is a good crowd-control upgrade and can be used to find hidden areas in the world. Crafting these upgrades do require parts and, thankfully, it is very easy to find these parts as you'll acquire a good bit of them from doing the main quest line or just finding them throughout the worlds you visit either out in the open or by buying them from certain shops using credits. You can also craft outfits for yourself and Nyx and these offer little bonus, including a main one if you have all the clothing in that category equipped. Crafting also ties in with your main ship, The Trailblazer, and your speeder, which the later I love how it looks like a classic Harley-Davidson motorcycle. While I'm a bit disappointed you can't fully customize your speeder, outside of paintjobs and little trinkets, or, for that matter, buy other types as I would've loved to be able to drive a Swoop, the upgrades you do get for it are very useful, including one that allows you to drive over locations with deep waters. The same goes with the Trailblazer as you can only upgrade the basic necessities on it, those being the blasters and shields, but you can acquire missiles and an ion cannon that can really help even the odds when you traverse space which does lead me to my first negative of the game and that is the space sections. Whenever you leave a planet, you can explore the space around said planet for more materials to either sell or craft with and get into dogfights with various ships that can appear. A novel idea but one I only ever really did when the mission I was on called for it, like the final mission. I personally would've loved to have been able to do just a bit more in space like, maybe, try my hands at the Kessel Run or maybe do some flying around on the planets, but what's here is passable.
Speaking of missions, while most of the game involves you heading to a location and doing stuff, there are the occasional side-quests that involve no stealth and guns blazing and these I'm also mixed on, namely the Sabacc mini-game. So, the way it works is that your main goal is to get as close to zero as you possibly can while using little cheat chips to help even the odds. A novel idea and I do like being able to finally check this game out after seeing it in Solo, but truth be told? I was more annoyed by it than I was having fun. I think the main issue is that, once you realize that all you need to win is to have the first card be a two or a one and scrap any card higher than a four, you're pretty much guaranteed to win all matches with no issues. Yes, you can 'cheat' by sending Nyx to look at an opponent's cards which I never pulled off successfully, but, again, this was something that could've been fun but, ultimately, feels meh. A real shame because the one DLC allows you to play in a tournament, sorta, and cheat to make it easier, but I’ll talk about that in a bit. There's also a hacking minigame and these, also, are not my favorites. The first one is a Data Spike one, where you have to time your button presses just right in a sort-of Elite Beat Agents-style rhythm minigame. Again, a cool concept but one I kept messing up on thanks to how particular the timing has to be. I will give the game credit and that it gives you the option to make it easier with a help ring, but it still doesn't change the fact that this is the least enjoyable aspect of the game. The other one is marginally more enjoyable and that's a mini-game reminiscent of Mastermind. You have four or five empty squares and you fill these with numbers and, if it's right, it becomes blue or yellow, with yellow meaning it's in the wrong area. Do it correctly before you pass a certain threshold and you can score bonus credits, which is a nice touch. Still, that one aside, while the main quest line is fun and engaging and there are a few standout side-quests, the rest are just, like I said, meh. Not forgettable, mind you, just meh. I do like that a lot of these quests aren't easily failable, with only a few exceptions, and that is something I appreciate a lot.
One thing I will say is this game's strongest area is the graphics. This is a beautiful looking game with nice attention to details strewn throughout the five planets you visit. You begin the game in Canto Bight on Cantonica - You know, the gambling planet from Last Jedi that a lot of people seemed to hate and felt didn't fit in Star Wars, yet actually makes sense from a world building perspective - before heading to the planet Toshara where the first hour or so of the game takes place. Afterwards, you can journey to one of three planets, with the first being the snow planet of Kijimi, making its second appearance since Rise Of Skywalker and one I was curious about exploring as I felt its Asian aesthetic was interesting. The second planet is, of course, Tatooine as it's not a Star Wars media without a visit to the desert planet and this may sound weird but this is my favorite one in the game. I remember, back in the day, playing The Phantom Menace on PS1 and spending tons of time just replaying the Tatooine missions as I loved exploring Mos Eisley, so being able to explore it in HD is like a childhood dream come true. Yeah, you could sorta explore it in Battlefront 2 from a few years back, but this one feels more alive and believable then previous incarnations. Even the areas surrounding Mos Eisley are nicely detailed, including the inside of a dead Sarlacc, which you explore for one side-quest, and that is something I don't think we ever seen since The Book of Boba Fett (or Robot Chicken, if you want a random reference). The only planet, out of the five, that I wasn't a fan of was Akiva. Despite its beautifully lush forests, serene waters that are fun to ride your speeder over, and rain storms, the planet was just a bit confusing to navigate at times and I found myself hitting more trees then a scout trooper on this planet then I did on other planets while traversing on my speeder. I also found myself looking over my shoulders more often than not on the planet to make sure not Ewoks were hunting me, though that may still be the nightmares from that Ewok mode in Star Wars Battlefront (On a side? Why haven't we gotten a proper Ewok game yet).
Even the interior locations you can visit are well thought out, from the grungy cantinas to the pristine Imperial bases, with every one, like I said, feeling alive and believable. I even found myself, at one point, just taking my time exploring one of the Imperial bases and just soaking in the atmosphere and enjoying how seemingly retro everything looked and felt. Heck, I even enjoyed the little details, like cobwebs in the vents you can travel through, or the various non-lethal droids you can find, like these little roomba-style droids or the mouse droids. The only area where I think this game does kinda struggle is in the animation department. While there are some amazing animations, especially in the cutscenes, there are some that kinda stick out like a sore thumb and look just a bit iffy, like how some NPC's transition from one action to another. It's not enough to break immersion or anything, just enough to be noticable. What may break immersion for many are some of the bugs and glitches that are typical in an open-world game of this scale, like how I saw a few NPC's vanish off of a dewback or some glitch into the door when I took them out. I even had a few weird graphical hiccups in certain areas and I had one instance of my speeder getting stuck in a location that I couldn't climb up and had to venture further out than usual just to get it unstuck. There was one cutscene, near the end, that I thought had bugged out as Kay and ND-5 were repeating a few animations a couple times, but it did progress, so I have a feeling this may have been a hidden loading screen. Still, I didn't have any crashes or anything and the game is very stable, with nary any dips in the framerate that I could tell. I also really enjoyed how accessible the game is, with options to really make the game easy to access for everyone. I really have to praise Ubisoft in that department: all their games are very customizable in the accessibility department and I really wish more games did this.
But recall I mentioned about DLC earlier. So, this game has, as of this writing, two pieces of DLC: Wild Card and A Pirate’s Fortune. The first, Wild Card, sees you teaming up with Colt 45 himself, Lando Calrissian, in an effort to get a map back from the Imperials, involving a rather disappointing high stakes sabacc game. I say disappointing because you don’t really get to play sabacc outside of two missions; one at the beginning to get something of Lando’s back and the main tournament which you don’t get to finish at all, so the tricks you learn from Lando don’t really come into play at all. A real shame cause this actually could’ve been a fun piece of DLC and give me an excuse to play sabacc more. A Pirate’s Fortune, on the other hand, is the better of the two and this one sees you teaming up with Hondo Onaka himself to stop another gang from opening a vault. I won’t be getting into spoilers here but I will say this DLC had some of the more memorable missions and a surprisingly clever last mission that changes depending on how you proceeded in a previous mission. Plus, I mean, you’re working with Hondo Onaka. I may have not liked the Clone Wars animated series but I have seen the episodes with Hondo and these were always some of the best, so being able to work alongside him is a treat.
I know it's fun to hate on Star Wars and Ubisoft but I implore you to give this game a shot. Outside of some small issues I had, I really had fun playing this game and it was one that brought a huge smile to my face, something that only happens with games that 'click' with me. Maybe that's because I'm just a huge Star Wars fan and was waiting for something to come along that wasn't another Jedi game or maybe because of some other reason but, at the end of the day, I had fun playing Star Wars Outlaws and I can easily see myself logging in more time on the Trailblazer exploring the galaxy...while also still struggling with Sabacc and remembering why I never got into these types of card games in real life.
