Star Wars Outlaws Final Preview – From Speeder Bikes to Blaster Fights

Star Wars Outlaws is on the cusp of release and has had a smattering of previews and events. It’s clear that Ubisoft is exceptionally confident in how the game looks and performs, despite some worries that the game in the gameplay trailers has seemed a little rough around the edges. After a four-hour hands-on preview, I can confidently say that The game looks much better than it is presented in a YouTube trailer.

Part of the Star Wars Outlaws preview was the same as we saw at the Summer Game Fest in LA a few months ago. Most of the time was spent in the open world, which was nice to finally get our hands on the speeder bike and explore and kind of see what Ubisoft is doing to get us interested in the open world and to get us to explore these vast worlds that they have either created from scratch or expanded on in a way that we have never seen before.

Toshara is the new place Massive Entertainment created for Star Wars Outlaws , where most of the preview took place. We got about three hours roughly in the open world of Chara, and that means from landing on the planet, going into one of the main Hub areas, seeing how the faction system comes into play, and being able to use Nix in unique and exciting ways to kind of further our attachments to these new Clans and one of the most interesting things right up front was how integral your relationship with these Clans would be.

“After a four-hour hands-on preview, I can confidently say that the game looks much better than it is presented in a YouTube trailer.”

During this open-world time in the Star Wars Outlaws preview, I also got to speed around the planet on the speeder bike and take on side quests and emergent missions that popped up. The main one was while speed biking down the main trail leading out of the town. I noticed an Empire ship flying overhead, announcing to some locals that they were going to come and take their stuff back. So, I hopped on my speeder bike, drove around, found where they landed, and noticed that they were fighting each other.

There were a couple of ways I could handle this. I could either jump into the fight and take on both sides, and it would be like a massive three-way brawl, or I could do what I wanted to do and hide near some grass and wait for one side to take it from the other and then sort of clean up what was left. I was rewarded with some crafting materials, which I didn’t get enough of during my time to craft anything, so we’ll see how those come into play during the full game.

The primary mission in the Star Wars Outlaws preview was to look for repair parts for our ship so we could take off into outer space. I could only find one way to do this. Still, there are multiple ways to enter the VIP area of the Cantina that we were in. Of course, along the way to The Cantina, I came across a betting station where I bet all my money and lost it all. Hence, I had to go for the sneaking route so I wouldn’t get into too many details.

“Toshara is the new place Massive Entertainment created for Star Wars Outlaws, where most of the preview took place.”

I was then told that instead of losing all those credits, I could buy a pass to the VIP area. So, there seems to be some variety in the missions in Star Wars Outlaws , depending on how you choose to approach them. The upside of doing it the way I did in the preview was that I found out that the races I decided to take part in were rigged, and I also found out who was rigged to win. I was able to go back into that race, bet all my money and win a ton of money, which was a lot of fun. It also led to me buying new clothes for Kay.

One of the first parts of them in the mission was speed biking away from outlaws trying to capture you, and I do enjoy the actual Speeder bike driving. Still, when other people are coming after you, things get a little weird, mainly because I couldn’t find a way to pull my blaster and blast them in my playthrough. I had to wait until my special blaster meter was full to tag them in slow-mo and take them out all at once.

It was an issue when it came to figuring out where they were. I thought I could bump into them, and that would happen, but it just kind of stopped the speederbike in place. I believe the Speeder bike is probably going to be the part that people struggle with the most only because it feels like this isn’t an issue per se but just like an odd design choice not to let us be able to shoot our blaster from the speederbike.

“The big push for this Star Wars Outlaws preview was the open world, and for the most part, things went really well.”

One of the other vital missions in the Star Wars Outlaws preview had us sneaking through a faction compound to meet up with the Pike faction leader, Gorak. This mission was purely stealth. We had seen in some other previews and trailers that getting caught didn’t mean the end of the mission but that Kay and Nix were okay to go loud, but that was not the case here. I got caught a few times on this mission and had to restart from a checkpoint.

This was okay because the checkpoint system in Star Wars Outlaws is forgiving, but it also meant I had to time my movements perfectly during this mission. One rough point, though, was that it felt like the enemies could see me from a mile away and sometimes around corners, which didn’t feel great.

After getting this part back for the ship, I was able to explore the town, do some side missions for the huts, further the main missions, and decide which faction to pursue a working relationship with. The next mission was an expanded version of what we saw at Summer Game Fest, where we had to escape the Imperial hangar bay. It was expanded in this preview to include more sneaking elements and to teach the player that sometimes the need to go loud will arise during these missions, but players need to keep an eye on their surroundings.

“I also found that during this Star Wars Outlaws preview, unlike at Summer Game Fest, using Nix was integral to doing things correctly.”

The next mission in the Star Wars Outlaws preview was an expanded version of the one we saw at Summer Game Fest, where we had to escape from the Imperial Hangar Bay. This preview was expanded to include some more stealth elements and to teach the player that sometimes, in these missions, you need to be loud, but you need to be aware of your surroundings.

The big push for this Star Wars Outlaws preview was the open world, and things ran really well for the most part. Things looked really good; my biggest issue was during some of the parkouring and uses of the grappling hook. Even though I would jump to where I needed to or aim myself at the hook properly, it wouldn’t always work correctly, so that led to some awkward deaths where I would just jump off a ledge or I would jump at the thing I was supposed to hold on to, instead, Kay would just jump towards it and fall to her death that was really the only issue I had when it came to gameplay.

I also found that during this Star Wars Outlaws preview, unlike at Summer Game Fest, using Nix was integral to doing things correctly. Either he distracts enemies so I can sneak behind them, or my favourite is that he attacks them, allowing me to sneak up behind them and stealthily knock them out.

“Gunplay also feels okay, but not amazing, and this boils down to the odd gameplay choice that we can only keep our main pistol.”

Gunplay also feels okay, but not amazing, and this boils down to the odd gameplay choice that we can only keep our main pistol, except sometimes we can pick up some of the enemy blasters but only for that a bespoke amount of shots and once that clip runs out of your back to your pistol. I can see this becoming a little bland during the runtime of the entire game, as during my four hours, there were gunplay sections where I really wished I could have been using something else rather than the pistol.

The last part of the preview for Star Wars Outlaws was an hour spent on a mission that we had already done during a Summer Game Fest where we broke into The Smuggler Outpost, stole a relic back, and presented it to the opposing faction. This was primarily unchanged except for after the fact that you can walk around the town where the Summer Game Fest preview had the town mostly closed off. This is also where I got to play Sabacc.

Sabacc was a fascinating choice for a mini-game in Star Wars Outlaws because it is something we have heard about in the expanded universe, but this is the first time we get to play it ourselves. Sabacc is a card game with a lot of information to take in upfront, but it becomes very addictive and entertaining to play. It is probably my favourite mini-game of the year. They also find exciting ways to entice you to play these mini-games. During the Sabacc mini-game, if I could be their best player, they would give me a customizable option for my ship, which adds to Star Wars Outlaws ‘ overall customization, making Kay Vess and her journey feel like your own.

When it came down to it, I really enjoyed Star Wars Outlaws . The game looked and ran great. There were some gameplay issues, mainly in the parkouring aspect, where Kay Vess didn’t always reach the edge I was jumping to, or the grappling hook didn’t interact appropriately. But nothing beats racing around the planet on a speeder or sneaking through an Imperial base only to blow everyone to smithereens. This is a promising look at the smuggler game in the Star Wars universe that we have always wanted. Star Wars Outlaws will be available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on August 30 for you to get your fix of the outlaw side of the Star Wars universe.