Massive Entertainment is undertaking a, pardon the pun, massive task in designing and putting an open-world game like Star Wars Outlaws but to be fair, it’s not the studio’s first soiree in the open-world scene. Earlier in the month, Ubisoft gave me a chance to play a portion of the game for a handful of hours, which was a mistake because I was left wanting more.
As this was a media preview, Ubisoft also rushed us through a few linear missions, with the occasional “Ooh, what’s that?” along the way. All in all, it did not disappoint for the most part.
Hitting The Ground Running
My preview of Outlaws pretty much starts in media res: you play as Kay Vess whom, as you’ve no doubt seen throughout all the trailers that are out there, is the main protagonist of the game. Along with her is Nix, her loyal and just-so-goshdarn cute sidekick and alien pet. This is also my first exposure to Toshara, a planet that Massive pretty designed from scratch and is now canon to the current Star Wars universe, and its main city, Mirogana.
Oh, on a sidebar and if it wasn’t already made clear, Outlaws is set between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
Off the bat, I’m quickly introduced and keyed into the first part of the game’s combat mechanics: blaster combat. It’s pretty basic – point-and-shoot at enemies, shoot from behind cover, and again, if you’ve seen the gameplay footage, Kay has a be-all, end-all skill where she marks multiple targets and then takes them out in one shot. It’s all very familiar but not groundbreaking, but to spice things up, I had Nix pick me up more powerful blasters from fallen enemies every now and then.
Another first exposure are vehicles, which you use to get around and cover long distances in Outlaws. And in case you’re wondering: yes, you can traverse entire planets on foot given the mechanics but trust me, it’s not worth it. That being said, controlling the speeder bike takes some getting used to, although I suspect it was because I was using the keyboard and mouse combo. To control the direction of the bike, you glide the mouse left or right. What I didn’t know was that the in-game sensitivity for controlling it was so high, I’d start doing hover-drifts with it if I moderately swung my mouse on either side.
Then there’s ship navigation and combat, which actually feels far more forgiving. If you’ve played Squadrons, flying Kay’s vessel feels just a little familiar, particularly ship combat. To simplify, you get a targeting and leading reticule, a payload for dealing with other scoundrels more quickly, and of course, the obligatory upgrade options that come with every action-oriented, open-world RPG title these days. Sadly, the options available to me were limited but the good news is (for me, at least) that the mechanics is simple to understand.
Of Scoundrels And Dirty Dealings
The preview also introduced me to the traversal and stealth mechanics, which I dare say still feel pretty clunky. Starting with traversal, there were moments when I was a little bit stuck, wondering how to get out, only to realise that the answer was staring me point blank in the face, literally. There are some elements of Deus Ex that I think Massive is paying homage to, such as navigating through some vents that are clearly way too big and shouldn’t technically be able to fit an entire humanoid inside but meh.
I don’t know if it is too late at this point, seeing how this was something of a final preview, but goodness Ubisoft and Massive, you could at least highlight or make the scalable objects stand out or look more blatant. And not just highlight certain objects when I activate Nix’s spatial awareness.
Speaking of Nix, that brings me to the Stealth aspect of Outlaws. So, the first thing I will say is that this is not an Assassin’s Creed title, so manage your expectations. I found that you can still sneak around with Kay and Nix but instead of a hidden blade to the face, Kay is a little more pugilistic in her approach (read: dirty fighting). As for Nix, his spatial awareness skill basically serves as your multi-tool, highlighting enemy positions and items in an area, helping you pick up items across the room, or even distracting enemies with their cuteness.
There’s a restraint to Kay’s stealthiness here too. Again, this isn’t Assassin’s Creed and as a Scoundrel with no inherent skills mastered through long years of training, you feel that heavy-handedness, which made me really appreciate every enemy that I managed to knock out, up close and personal no less. There is a ranged option for that too via the Stun Mode on her blaster, but Ubisoft put a long cooldown on it, lest you start clearing out areas Metal Gear Solid style. That said, I found myself just throwing caution to the wind whenever the situation allowed for it, and went in blasters blazing.
One thing that both Ubisoft and Massive were very clear and impressed upon me: in Outlaws, deals, partnerships, and alliances between the warring syndicates are meant to be broken, and understandably so. Like all backstabbing pondscum, you want to align your interest with the group that offers the path of least resistance, and that’s what I did. The starting basically pitted with between the Pyke Syndicate and Crimson Dawn, the latter being another one of the many smuggler groups that you’ll no doubt come across. And yes, The Hutt Cartel is one of them.
Depending on your standing with each smuggler group, you’ll either be barred from entering their territories or have a bounty out for your head, or they’ll let you waltz right into their territory and get access to their stores. As always with that last bit, the better your standing with each group, the better the merchandise you get.
It’s a delicate balance you’re obviously forced to maintain although at this point, I think it’s still too early to see if being completely one-sided with one faction is actually possible, therefore breaking the game. You know, typical endgame stuff. For that matter, there’s no telling if the game is entirely devoid of Force-sensitive folks, Jedis, or even Siths.
The Amount Of Detail Is Astounding
As I said, this isn’t Massive’s first time building open world games but it’s sure as shoot the first time they’ve embarked on a task involving the Star Wars universe. And boy, let me tell you: they’ve done one helluva job. Once again, the studio created an entire new planet, Toshara, just so you’d get a hang of the game, before you start going on an adventure across the galaxy. Not only that, but virtually everything is interactive, from Imperial structures, to the flora and fauna of the planet.
It’s all the little things done properly, too. Take lockpicking and hacking or in Star Wars lingo, slicing. With lockpicking, you break open a lock by hitting a sequence that is dictated by a rhythm. With Slicing, you need to properly guess the symbols – there is an options to display numbers instead – and then line them up in order, which again is a guessing game. In my demo, I experienced both the basic and a more advanced version of the mini-game.
And to say nothing of some of the mini games I missed during my Outlaws preview. At one point, I came across a mini-game that allowed me to place bets on the Star Wars version of horse racing but as my allotted time with the preview was quite limited, I was rushed off to finish the linear missions. Ubisoft, I apologise if the next part comes off as flippant but you made the smart choice of letting Massive handle Outlaws. This isn’t me saying that the game is perfect; it’s still clunky and in my gameplay, I did encounter the odd glitch or three. Overall though, Massive has clearly done a good job in ensuring that this near-final product is polished enough.
Star Wars Outlaws launches 30 August and will be available via Ubisoft Connect and Epic Games Store. A Steam release is definitely coming, although Ubisoft isn’t saying when exactly.
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