I’m wandering around a seedy bar, thinking over my life decisions after a stranger just called me “desperate, but cute.” That itself wouldn’t make it a unique experience, except that stranger was a Mon Calamari, one of the iconic fishy-looking aliens in a galaxy far, far away. This is Star Wars Outlaws, the new Ubisoft video game that my colleagues demoed last week at Gamescom and I got a chance to play ahead of its release on Friday, Aug. 30.
In Outlaws, you play as Kay Vess, a young heart-of-gold grifter, along with her cuddly thieving companion, the scampering alien Nix. Star Wars canon-wise, the game takes place during the Imperial Era, i.e., after Luke meets Yoda but before the Ewoks make a Stormtrooper drum set. Early flashbacks reveal Kay spent her childhood running small scams around the slums of Canto Bight with her currently MIA mom Riko, who teaches her the all-important lesson of “You can’t always expect someone to be there.” (Not ominous and indicative of a future-found family at all.)
Star Wars Outlaws takes place between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back.
Down on her luck and out of a home after an unwitting run-in with some Rebels, Kay is on the hunt for what many a scoundrel wishes: one last big job. That means she’ll have to take care of a hundred little missions and make half a dozen frenemies before we get off-world. This is a look at the grimier side of the Star Wars universe, but there’s still plenty of adventure and lots of fun characters to meet.
The demos at Gamescom were limited to three short midgame missions, but here are my thoughts and a few time-saving tips after about 22 hours of playing the game on PlayStation 5.
Yes, Star Wars Outlaws is an open world game
There are countless hidden gems (literal and otherwise) in the open world of Star Wars Outlaws and the game lets you peruse them at your leisure. However, this freedom can sometimes make locations hard to find if you don’t have your cardinal directions memorized. While pressing Up on your D-pad helps ping your objective and also activates your “Nix sense” (which highlights interactive elements around your environment), there are no highlighted paths to follow for quests or objectives. You have to rely on your map and the compass HUD to navigate to your desired location. This can make things difficult if you get turned around easily in games. There were several missions where I found myself biking hundreds of meters in the wrong direction until I consulted my map again.
You can also find yourself in areas that are not yet ready for interaction. For example, on Toshara — the second of four planets you can visit — there are a few treasures hidden behind objects that you cannot destroy until you receive upgrades later in the main quest line. Just trust that if you don’t have an ability, it’s because you don’t need it yet. Keep following the story and you’ll get there.
You like minigames? You’re gonna get minigames
Lock-picking tests your rhythm while slicing (hacking) is like Wordle in space. Out in the world, there are many Sabacc tables to win and lose credits at, along with sports betting. In-game arcade cabinets can be found in mechanic shops and hidden alcoves. Within my fifth hour of playing, I even got a strange but charming food minigame where Kay and Nix eat space corn. Much like Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the plethora of minigames give you a break from the action and tell you a bit about the story, and most of them are optional.
No need to keep an eye on your speeder bike
Your speeder bike won’t always show up on your map, but if you’re in an open area you can call it to your side by holding right on the D-pad. I didn’t realize this until after a handful of frustrating stealth missions on foot in the grass plains of Toshara. I’d unmount to go shoot some bandits, only to realize I’d completely lost my bike somewhere in the tall grass. Occasionally the map will let you fast-travel directly to your bike, but it’s inconsistent. Again, I’m still only on the second planet, so maybe I’ll get to call a bantha in the future too.
Nix, the cute lap-sized alien who can distract enemies, is Kay’s sidekick.
You can pet the dog and so much more
Nix, Kay’s merqaal buddy — like if Disney’s Stitch was part axolotl — is available for cuddles 24/7, when he’s not stealing things and opening far away doors. You can give many free-roaming critters a good scritch behind the ears as well. Unless they’re naturally aggressive, in which case: run. You can also collect cute accessories for Nix, such as a tiny Chewbacca-style bandolier.
You need plenty of stealth no matter which side you choose
There are many crime factions in Outlaws, the main gangs being Crimson Dawn, the Pyke Syndicate (the catfish guys from The Clone Wars, most recently seen in The Book of Boba Fett), and the notorious Hutt Cartel. As you can imagine, while you can perform jobs for multiple crime families, building affinity with one over another will have its advantages and drawbacks.
I chose to start with Crimson Dawn (mostly because Han Solo’s ex-girlfriend Qi’Ra is mentioned in a lore paragraph. Will we get to meet her? I hope so!) but it meant I had to be extra stealthy whenever I was in Pyke Syndicate territory. I had to rely a lot on Nix’s distraction powers to steal a quest object from the Pykes. I could have stolen the part from the Crimson Dawn, but getting caught meant my reputation with them lowered each time. (And I got caught a lot.) This becomes a little easier as the game goes on and you can pick up more missions from various groups to build your reputation, but early on it can be tough.
Take advantage of the gameplay accessibility options
While writing this review I tried my best to play on the Normal mode but went back to my regular default of Story mode as I am just not great at stealth missions. I did appreciate that the game has a high-contrast mode to make it easier to find interactive objects, although it was disappointing that in many non-cutscene interactions, Kay and the nonplayer characters were blue creatures like the kids in the ’90s Capri-Sun commercials. I learned later you can toggle the opacity of these filters so it’s not quite as jarring.
High-contrast mode is worth it to be able to find usable footholds, as the physics of what Kay can and can’t climb makes no sense. Furthermore, with so many options for blaster settings, extra tools and all the actions Nix can perform, having guides up is crucial for remembering every last controller move.
Watch this: I Played the New Star Wars Outlaws Game at Gamescom
Speaking of display options, here’s how to turn off black bars in Star Wars Outlaws
Disregard the “note”. The interface elements look fine in this mode.
One of the best features of Star Wars Outlaws is its gorgeous art style and breathtaking vistas inspired by the original trilogy. This is highlighted by the game displaying in Cinematic Mode (21:9) by default, adding black bars on the top and bottom of the screen, plus a grainy film filter to emulate that classic ’70s movie look. If you want to play in fullscreen mode, you can change this in the Display and Graphics menu in the settings. Just toggle Fill screen in the Cinematic display mode options. Don’t worry, if you still want that retro look, you can still keep film grain toggled on (or off, if you want to see things more clearly).
Read more: Change These Settings as Soon as You Start Star Wars Outlaws
That’s all for the tips as you look forward to playing the game, which comes out in mere days. Although I have personally built a Lightsaber at Savi’s Workshop in Disneyland and have a cat named after the rebel droid Chopper, this is my first time playing a Star Wars game. I can’t give a fair comparison to games like Jedi Survivor or even Knights of the Old Republic. In the grand scheme of “run around, punch people and steal things” games, Outlaws reminds me most of Red Dead Redemption 2 and The Outer Worlds, but with much less romance and fly fishing than the former (so far, anyway). There’s plenty of exploration to do on and off-worlds, morally gray decisions to make, fascinating bits of background dialogue to hear, lots of laser guns and ship blasters to shoot, and enough Star Wars lore to excite even the most scruffy-looking nerfherders.
Star Wars: Outlaws comes out for PlayStation 5, Xbox, and PC on Friday, Aug. 30.
