Star Wars Outlaws Review (PS5) – From A Certain Point Of View
I know. You love Star Wars. You’ve always loved Star Wars. But you have a bad feeling about this. The reviews of Outlaws so far have you worried about this one. From one perspective, that of internet haters for the most part, Outlaws is a bit unfinished, with fairly basic facial animation and some rough AI. And that’s true. But from a certain point of view, Outlaws is also the best Star Wars video game in the last ten years.
Outlaws’ priorities are completely different. It’s more concerned with fun than worrying about graphics. It’s more concerned with detail and lore than with perfect AI. And it prioritises the narrative inter-syndicate rivalry and storyline far above its combat credentials.
Had it come out in the PS3 era, alongside Uncharted, or Mass Effect 2, it would have felt right at home, and no questions asked. However in 2024, it feels outdated and uninterested in modern gaming sensibilities. If you really miss that era, like I do, then this might be the game you’re looking for.
Never Tell Me The Odds
Outlaws story takes some time to really get started, but there’s plenty to like in this two against the galaxy, get rich quick, underworld open-world romp through Star Wars old and new. Kay Vess is a pretty simple heroine (no Sith ancestry here) but that does mean the player can project nicely onto her their own scoundrel choices and mold her into what they want.
Kay Vess is a very unlucky and very small-time hustler, a criminal sure, but a good-hearted one eking out a living on Canto Bight where everyone is seen as a criminal under the cold gaze of the Empire. Along with her sidekick, the pangolin/cat creature Nix, she has been stuck, unable to make ends meet her whole life.
Outlaws opens with a small job that goes wrong, and then another bigger opportunity that would pay enough to get off world, only for that to go horribly wrong too. Kay is the kind of scoundrel that makes it through by the skin of their teeth and should have died multiple times over by now. While sneaking into a crime syndicate boss’ vault, Kay is betrayed and caught, and only just manages to escape with her identity revealed and a price on her head. Stealing the guy’s ship and then crashing it on the next world she could find after a tiny hyperspace jump will do that.
But this is where things change for Kay and Nix. A real opportunity exists in their new temporary home on Toshara, with a speeder and a ship of their own. Kay gets involved in every hustle and job going, proving to be useful, though certainly not trustworthy, to a quartet of underworld syndicates; the Pyke, Crimson Dawn, the Hutts, and later the Ashiga, all vying for the biggest piece of the galaxy while the Empire concentrates on that little rebellion.
I’m Altering the Deal, Pray I Do Not Alter It Any Further
The syndicate system is fun – the more you work for or are loyal to a particular syndicate, the higher your reputation grows with them. High rep means you can walk their territories unmolested while carrying out subterfuge for another syndicate. The narrative deftly serves up conflicting missions constantly, and I ended up with a vast web of intricate double and triple-crosses probably pretty unique to my playthrough. KD5 even offers you the chance to double-cross your employers after literally every contract. For example, someone betrayed their boss, but instead of bringing him in for justice, I saved his life and sold him to a competitor for profit. Then when the original boss came looking, I curried favour by finding the traitor again, and sold him back to his boss again. No syndicate knew where they stood with me from one end of the game to the other, and the beauty of that was reputation was based on loyalty, not on moral choices. I never had to take the moral path.
Vess’ story does build, albeit slowly and with a lot of pauses while you find an item you want or infiltrate a base for some plans, optional side activity that derails the narrative structure at every turn. But eventually it builds. When the very cool bodyguard droid KD5 and his boss get involved, and the story starts to morph into recruiting a team of experts for a heist payoff, it really starts to feel like Mass Effect 2. Kay’s choices catch up to her, and the story ratchets up to something satisfying that might really change her life. It made for a pretty simple but nicely pulpy story and I had fun with it throughout.
Speaking of side activity, I should say you can virtually live in this world without continuing the story. Rocky grass planet Toshara, icey Kijimi, jungle Akiva, and desert Tatooine, all four of the larger maps are full to bursting with job offers, contacts, places to infiltrate, safes to crack, data to find that give you keycards to items on the other side of the map, you name it. You can also visit Canto Bight again, a number of space stations where the law fears to tread, and unwind or take a break from the story. You can try your hand at Sabacc with a fully realised version of the game, or a number of in-world video games that play like the targeting computer of an X-Wing. You can gamble, you can shop, and you can explore to your heart’s content.
I rarely felt there was too much to do, although there is a lot. The downside for me was that after a few hours contracts and such can feel recycled and I lost count how many times I needed to re-infiltrate the same Crimson Dawn hideout for various missions. When that started to happen it would usually just push me to continue the story.
I Have a Bad Feeling About This
Combat isn’t the strongest card in Outlaw’s Sabacc hand. It’s passable but fairly uninspired, but that’s often because the emphasis is on stealth. If you’ve gotten yourself into a firefight, most of the time that means the mission is over with a Grand Theft Auto-like Wasted or ‘Eliminated’ in this case. Kay has a blaster she can shoot with lethal, stun and power modes, various other weaponry she can use temporarily, and a whopping hard left hook. Seriously she can knock out most enemies with one stealth punch ala Nathan Drake, or a quick left right left if in combat. Accuracy is where it falls down a bit, and headshots don’t mean much when it often takes three, except maybe on unarmoured imperials.
Stealth is much more Outlaw’s strong suit. Kay can crouch and hide and creep around most places with ease, and there are just constant areas with bad reputation or Imperial presence where you’ll need to hide. This is a stealth game and while the marketing keeps talking about the first open world Star Wars title, you need to know going in this is closer to Star Wars Splinter Cell.
Both combat and stealth are fun and serve the story enough for the most part. However you’re likely to find the enemy AI is pretty simplistic and can be quite easily tricked. It’s some of the worst AI in a AAA title in some time. If you don’t try to break the immersion it will do its job, but the moment you mess with it, its very breakable.
Do Or Do Not, There Is No Try
Outlaws manages an amazing amount of seamlessness in its galaxy. You can move from walking in a city, to boarding your ship, to launching, to going through the clouds and the ‘hidden’ loading screen, to emerging into space, and even powering into hyperspace, and there are no menus and no black screens. Everything is automatic and you only press buttons that make sense. Starfield eat your heart out.
When in space the Trailblazer, your stolen ship, is equipped for a bit of dogfighting and can be upgraded in the same fashion as your blaster. Ship combat is fine, and it doesn’t have any real issues to speak of, but it’s also just kind of there. You steer, you boost, and you shoot. Lazers for the most part, and later on some more advanced weaponry. I think what they’ve done, and credit to them really, is to remove all complications to flying. That means the system is very simple and the flying ends up a little underwhelming, but I was never stuck, I could always dock correctly, and I never found myself fighting my own ship for power gauges and other unnecessary fluff. Sometimes removing all impediments to exploration and narrative is the right call.
Scruffy-Looking Nerf Herder
The old adage applies to Outlaws – great graphics don’t make a great game. If top-end, PC-melting graphics are the only thing you base your purchases on, you may want to look elsewhere than Outlaws. There are some texture pops, instances where faces can get a bit squished, and other bugs that I’m sure you can find online. I’m not here to smear or to sell it to you.
For my money the graphics are exactly what is needed for the type of game, and for the relatively ambitious size of it, and for it to be in our hands now rather than in another year. It might be slightly unfinished, and need a few patches down the line to help smooth the rough edges. But there is very little that is actually broken considering the size of it and Outlaws launch on PlayStation 5 is nothing to worry about.
What it does do is nail the run-down, dirty low-tech of Star Wars. Every locale, every item, every droid looks beat up and lived in and stolen and used and it’s so authentically Star Wars it had me smiling fairly often. Character models are all good and animation is really good in places.
We should talk about Nix. Nix is possibly the whole game’s saving grace. Sending him off to grab trinkets, into vents to turn off alarms, into sealed rooms to hit power buttons for forcefields and fans, all are fantastic uses of the little tyke. He’s even more versatile than BD1 who he’s very clearly replacing. His every movement, smile and mannerism is fantastic, and I just could not believe how well animated he was throughout. Even when other things were of a lesser standard, you cannot say Nix didn’t deliver. No, not another grenade Nix! I cannot think of a better animal companion in a game for many many years, and even if I can, not one as useful gameplay-wise. He’s close to a silent Daxter, he’s that good.
Graphics aside, the soundtrack is also stellar. It manages to make up a new Star Wars theme tune that is recognisably its own thing, but sounds totally in keeping with Star Wars. There’s great music all around, up there with the Mandalorian OST. There is a tendency for the music to not quite start and stop dynamically where it needs to, but it was never detrimental.
The Force Is Strong With This One
Whatever you think of a little dodgy AI, you could spin a sabacc table and pick any five minutes of Outlaws and it would be more interesting than Starfield managed in an entire game. The whole thing has this old-school action RPG vibe that’s at odds with what I thought I was getting starting a modern Ubisoft title. Here the emphasis is much less on map markers and more on the constantly changing nature of your reputation with the three criminal syndicates. Here it’s less about finding items for item’s sake, and more about upgrades – there’s no bloated item stats or rarities. Even the floaty and kind of unfinished feel gives it that older game tone. If I had to pick a game to compare it to, it would be Mass Effect 2, with that floaty gunplay but emphasis on the races and morals and such. A really great RPG feel from 15 years ago.
From a narrative and Star Wars perspective, the best thing is the lack of Jedi – it almost never mentions them at all. It makes sense considering the timeline (mid-classic trilogy), but after Jedi Survivor, it was great that no exploration happened to be a jedi temple, there were no holocrons, no lightsabers – it’s all so refreshing because there’s no religion, no light and dark side, and no talk of destiny. I love Bounty Hunters and scoundrels and syndicates, and Black Sun, and Hutt space, and smugglers. This game is what I’ve wanted since the cancelled 1313. Sneaking through Imperial Stations and outposts with just your smarts and the powers of a normal person was always fun and felt more engrossing than it did in Jedi Survivor.
So while Outlaws isn’t perfect and it’s fairly rough around the edges, it concentrates on something more important – delivering core gameplay loops that kept me engrossed and playing late into the night with that just-one-more-item/contract/hour-mentality, a great narrative, and the kind of pulpy Star Wars experience fans have wanted for decades.
Secretly an open-world stealth game, Star Wars Outlaws nails the worlds, tone, look and feel of this wonderful galaxy, while delivering constantly satisfying gameplay loops. Playing off criminal syndicates against each other and reaping the rewards of a double cross never got old. Outlaws is closer to an RPG of some fifteen years ago, but from a certain point of view, that might be exactly what you want.
Star Wars Outlaws is available now on PlayStation 5 (review platform), Xbox Series X/S and PC via EGS.
Developer: Massive Entertainment
Publisher: Ubisoft
Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.
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