Star Wars Outlaws hands-on: Ubisoft may have its most streamlined open-world action game yet

Star Wars Outlaws is set to be the first open-world game set in the Star Wars universe and publisher Ubisoft and internal studio Massive Entertainment have put great effort into making it a memorable and exciting experience. After enjoying a meaty four-hour hands-on with the game during a recent event we’ve come away hyped about Outlaws and it looks to be shaping up to be one of the year’s most exciting single-player experiences and one that takes the Star Wars franchise into some incredibly bold directions.

Set for release on August 30, for PlayStation 5 , Xbox Series X |S, and PC, Star Wars Outlaws is set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi . Players step in the shoes of young scoundrel Kay Vess (voiced by Humberly González) who is accompanied by her companion Nix (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker) - a member of a new species introduced by Massive and Lucas Film Games that’s a cute mix of BB-8 and Baby Yoda with incredible merchandise potential. The intergalactic street hustler and her pal begin the adventure in a galaxy far, far away by getting in over their heads during a heist.

Stealing from the head of Zerek Besh crime syndicate and main antagonist Sliro, Kay ends up with a bounty on her head. In order to pay off the crime syndicate, she’ll intermingle with four other criminal organizations and build a team to pull off the ultimate heists. There are four syndicates that players will interact with through a reputation system. By accepting certain missions from the four criminal organizations such as one headed by Jabba The Hutt or by making specific choices during certain conversation moments, Kay’s standing will either rise or fall with those syndicates.

Playing the game

Being in good standing with the various criminal organizations will allow players to freely move around the districts they occupy, earn special jobs, and even discounts for goods in stores in their areas. Being on the bad side means Kay will have to enter the syndicate’s hood with her head on a swivel which can even lead to being hunted by assassins sent by the criminal organizations’ heads. Side missions help improve relationships with syndicates, who double-cross and backstab each other in a Game of Thrones -style dynamic. During our time with Outlaws , balancing allegiances leads to some pretty cool gameplay moments where decisions can potentially have long-term consequences.

The first part of the four-hour demo took place earlier in the game on a moon named Toshara - a new creation to the universe introduced by the developers for Outlaws . This moon is filled with a desert-like environment and has a massive stone structure that’s called Miragana City. Kay is stuck on the planet after her ship is taken down and has to hustle her way to get the necessary tools to fix it. To make matters even more interesting, Kay is attacked by pirates looking to scavenge her ship. However, before the shooting even begins, Kay’s ability to slow down time, mark enemies, and shoot them all in rapid succession (a la Splinter Cell: Conviction or Red Dead Redemption 2 ) is introduced to us and makes life a heck of a lot easier.

Advised to head into Miragana City, Kay is then attacked again by pirates as she rode her S-57 Cardinal Speeder. The only thing I could do was dodge and outpace them as Kay didn’t have the ability to shoot from her vehicle in the demo like the trailer; at least yet. One thing that I also noticed is that the other vehicles seemingly couldn’t be jacked such as in other games with a similar open-world structure.

The Star Wars game you have been looking for

Regardless, the most noticeable thing about this part of Outlaws was how beautiful the vistas and large draw distances were alongside the fantastic character models, textures, and lighting. Like Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora , this game makes great use of Ubisoft’s Snowdrop engine. Even if it does take around five minutes to get from one side of the map to the other , the design does a pretty good job of making this land feel even more vast and expansive. That also goes for internal areas like the ultra glossy and highly reflective Imperial ship that comes up later. Plus, despite the visual wonder on screen, we didn’t notice any major frame rate hiccups either in these moments.

Visuals aren’t the only fantastic thing about Outlaws' presentation as the audio exceeds both in sound effects and score. Outlaws sounds like a Star Wars film from the cuddly growls of Nix to the iconic sounds of the blasters. González brings a cool gravitas to Kay who can give Han Solo a run for his money. The most impressive part of the presentation has to be the score which might be one of the most unique within the franchise’s history. Instead of chasing John Williams’ classic soundtrack, some interesting moves blend together more contemporary genres. There are even some moments with trap-like bass that surprisingly don’t feel out of place within the universe.

Once Kay gets introduced to the criminal underworld, Outlaws does a good job of taking parts from various popular video game franchises and making them its own within the Star Wars universe. Though the criminal element has already labeled the game ‘ Grand Theft Auto in Space,’ the main concept that draws on Rockstar Games’ franchises is the Wanted system with the Imperial Forces, though this wasn’t shown to me in my preview.

One thing that’s a little different from many recent Ubisoft games, and will allay fears that some fans may have, is that it doesn’t overload players with things to do. Outside of the mainline campaign missions, the side quests fit in well and didn’t feel like busy work. In a nice touch, there were also opportunities to play various mini-games including horse betting, campy arcade games, and even the popular franchise card game Sabacc.

A little alien - but familiar

The core combat of Outlaws feels like a clever mix of Naughty Dog’s Uncharted series and Ubisoft’s own Far Cry series. This means that there are options for stealth, running with all guns blazing, or utilizing a crafty mix of both. Before engaging enemy combatants, Kay can use a set of binoculars to tag foes to get an idea of the position and follow their routes. Kay’s blaster also has a sleeping shot that needs to be cooled down before being used again outside of the standard stealth melee attack. Nix can also be put to work contextually to distract enemies, fetch items, activate traps, and much more.

The stealth wasn’t overly deep but served a purpose as most enemies cycle between caution and full-on alert if Kay is spotted. Like Far Cry , some enemies will run toward an alarm that’ll bring more trouble into the area. When it comes to mobility, Kay will remind many of Nathan Drake as she can climb various surfaces (that are highlighted in yellow) and use a grappling hook.

Once the guns start shooting, Kay’s blaster has unlimited rounds with a small recharge and also features a similar reload feature to that in Gears of War . The blaster can be upgraded and can be used in different ways, including breaking enemy shields, killing robot-like enemies, and solving some light puzzles with EMP rounds. As the single-player gets going, players will be able to upgrade and customize the blaster’s look too, while constantly making use of what’s available on-site by picking up enemies’ guns for use too.

One noticeable thing is that Kay is rather fragile in the health department as a handful of shots will take her down in rapid succession. As well as having an amount of recharging health bars, at the start of my demo, Kay also had a certain amount of health packs (that you use the D-pad to consume), but later on, during a snowy outing in Kijimi, Kay had a lot more health packs indicating that this is upgradeable and changeable along the way.

Tricks of the trade

Certain locks and doors can be cracked through a lock-picking tool that Kay wears in her hair. In practice, this is a small rhythm-based mini-game that felt really good once I got the hang of it. Complementing this mechanic is a splicing mini-game that’s pleasingly based around more traditional Star Wars symbols that you engage when trying to hack servers and computers that feels like it was inspired a lot by Cyberpunk 2077 .

Rounding out the gameplay mechanics is space travel between planets aboard Kay's ship, The Trailblazer. Easily piloted on a controller using the thumbsticks, a button for temporary boosts, and the triggers for locking onto baddies and firing at them, space flight is slick and exciting. The ship can be upgradeable with a hyperdrive that was usable at the start of the Kijimi portion of my demo by pressing down both thumbsticks. During my playthrough, we fought pirates and had dog fights with Tie Fighters too. It feels as good as EA’s Star Wars Squadrons and it’ll be interesting to see how that evolves throughout the course of the game.

From our slice of the Star Wars game , Outlaws looks to deliver stunning visuals, engaging combat, and dynamic gameplay mechanics. The audio and voice acting are exceptional, and the syndicate system adds depth and potential replayability. Blending familiar gameplay elements with the rich vault of source material, and bringing it to an open-world format, Ubisoft looks to be heading in the right direction in creating a ‘Galaxy of Opportunity.’ We can’t wait to explore the galaxy with Kay at the end of August.

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