I won’t deny it: I really wasn’t that hyped for Star Wars: Outlaws when it was first announced. I’m a boring Star Wars fan: I want my sci-fi space operas to be filled with Jedi, preferably one I get to play. The idea of playing a gunslinging, stealthy scoundrel has never been on my checklist of “things to do in a galaxy far, far away.”
Yet the more I play Ubisoft’s open-world Star Wars game, and it took a few hours to really hook me, I’m warming up to the idea of my Star Wars stories not necessarily needing to be accompanied by a playable space wizard.
Taking on the role of Kay Vess, a scoundrel in the mold of everyone’s favorite rogue, Han Solo, Star Wars Outlaws puts you right in the middle of the seedy underworld of the Galaxy, all while the Galactic Empire’s eyes are turned towards that pesky little rebellion it has on its hands. This is a time of upheaval, and the crime syndicates who run the shady underbelly of the Outer Rim are vying for power.
And yet, after nearly twenty hours of sneaking around, splicing through countless terminals, and oh so many hands of Sabacc, I’m starting to find myself sucked into the drama. Yet, for all the good, plentiful performance issues on the PC version (our reviewed version) have hampered the experience in a big, big way.
Family is all
After a job gone wrong, Kay Vess finds herself flung into the greater drama that is encompassing the Outer Rim. Crashing her newly acquired ship, the Trailblazer, on the moon planet of Toshara, Kay and her trusty alien pet, Nix, set out to tip the scales in favor of people like them and, along the way, get pulled into one of the largest heists the Galaxy has ever seen.
A scoundrel through and through, Kay’s moral compass is flexible at best. While not an outright bad character, Kay and Nix are looking out for numero uno, and they don’t seem to care who they lie to, cheat, or steal from to keep themselves safe and moving forward. This sets up some incredibly flexible gameplay - and some compelling choices during quests that made me sit back and actually think about the direction I wanted my version of Kay Vess to venture towards.
Along her travels, Kay will come into contact with the various crime syndicates that rule the underworld: the secretive Crimson Dawn, the old guard of the Pykes, the all too familiar Hutts, and the collective Ashiga Clan. Each side will use each other to get their own ends, and Outlaws makes it clear up front that, regardless of how much you progress with a syndicate, you will inevitably rise and fall with each throughout the RPG’s runtime. Completing a quest for the Pykes might see you lose ground with Crimson Dawn while running amok in Hutt territory could see you gain favor with the Ashiga, and so on.
It was when I realized I could inject a little of my own agency into the story that it clicked for me. Teasing a Pyke overlord because I stole his ring was fun, but what if I could also help someone looking to overthrow him? I could save a Crimson Dawn spy, no strings attached, or demand he hand over a contact list to sell to the Pykes as part of the bargain, making a few extra credits on the side. There have been choices where I found myself at a complete loss of who I wanted to double cross, forcing me to play the options out in my head, agonizing a bit over the decision - something few games have caused me to do.
Looming over all is the ever-overwhelming presence of the Galactic Empire. Stormtroopers dot the landscape, patrol the streets of Star Wars: Outlaws incredibly well-designed cities, and even patrol the space in orbit around a planet. The Empire is an unavoidable part of daily life in the Galaxy, especially in this time period between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, where we see the two sides’ war ramping up towards its climax.
While the Syndicates might have a reputation that lets you know where you stand with each other, with quests aimed at gaining favor, the Empire operates more like the police might in Grand Theft Auto, complete with a Wanted system. Wreck havoc in Imperial territory, and you might see Stormtrooper patrols sent to take you in. Cause enough mayhem, like, say, storming a forward Imperial Base, blaster a blazing, and the Empire might send an elite death squad to take you out.
It’s a fun system, though it can take entirely too long to lose a wanted level with the Empire when out of danger. As I zoomed around the grassy steppes of Toshara away from said forward operating base, four out of six “stars” flashing away, I thought Outlaws was bugged with how long it took for the Empire to give up the search.
A Scoundrel’s Life For Me
Kay and Nix are at the center of all of this. Growing up in the Worker’s Quarter of the casino city of Canto Bight and surviving the streets as a thief, the two built up a bond that plays perfectly into gameplay. As much as I liked BD-1 in Respawn’s Star Wars: Jedi Survivor, I hope the next entry in that series, Cal Kestis has himself a Nix.
Some of my favorite moments thus far have been the food minigames when Kay and Nix take in a meal together. The quick-time event sees the two enjoying a bite to eat and discovering the world’s cuisine. There is such character development between the two in this small moment, whether it’s Kay and Nix fighting over the last eel in their soup or Kay teaching her friend how to gently blow on the coals to finish cooking her space corn on the cob.
Kay is down to earth, her moral compass going only so far as it helps her and Nix make it and live the life they’ve always wanted. But I really like the fact that Star Wars: Outlaws doesn’t stop you from getting your hands dirty along the way.
Kay is, at her core, a seasoned thief, and this comes off in how she and Nix play. Walking around the winding streets of Mirogana, I constantly found myself sending Nix off to pick up an item and bring it back, or steal from an Imperial Guard on patrol.
Nix’s options don’t just stop at stealing and picking up items, though. Nix can squeeze into places Kay can’t to throw a switch, bringing down a force field barrier, or hold open a vent with power coil Kay can give some juice with her Ion Blaster in order to solve puzzle.
It has not stopped being satisfying, either, watching Nix dramatically play dead in front of a stormtrooper, only for me to run up behind them and take them down silently. As someone who historically is a bit crap at stealth games, the extra layer of help here is appreciated.
Nix isn't the only companion Kay makes along the way, either. Along their journey, Kay gets embroiled in a plot to pull off the biggest heist the Galaxy has ever seen, and to do so she must recruit some of the best the Galaxy has to offer to to join her crew.
Seriously, throughout this process, all I kept thinking of was the Rick and Morty episode, hoping beyond hope that at least one member would enthusiastically say, "You son of the bitch, I'm in!"
Kay is joined from the start of this adventure by the battle droid ND-5, whose playful banter with Kay has caused me to laugh more often than not (though, I guess it's less playful banter and more "matter-of-fact disinterest). I'm still putting the band together, tracking down a heavy weapons expert on one of the planets, so I'll have more about this dynamic in the full review.
Kay herself is formidable, but definitely no Jedi. And I think I appreciate the fact that she’s not some ultra-powerful space wizard tearing through waves and waves of troopers with ease - as much as I really find that power fantasy compelling. Cutting my way through a base of Pyke footman with nothing but my blaster might have Obi-Wan proclaiming my approach is “uncivilized,” but Kay holds her own.
I think this clicked for me during a sequence that saw me helping a bombmaker escape her captors. As we could no longer make our escape secret (she was, after all, exploding bombs along the way), I found myself relying on my blaster more and more to get out alive.
Kay is scrappy, but as skilled as she is with the blaster, I do like that Outlaws doesn’t portray her has the most skilled in the galaxy. She’s shaky and still honing the craft, and this came through during one particularly hectic portion where the panic in her voice (shout out to Humberly Gonzalez here for the stellar performance) shone through.
It was that moment that made me really start to get into the scoundrel action. While Outlaws fully prefers you stealth your way through - and there are quests that require that approach to succeed, I appreciate that the unbridled chaos of going loud (which, given my stealthing skill, happens more often than I’d like to admit) is still viable and fun.
Exploring the Galaxy
None of this would matter, though, if the world around Kay and Nix wasn’t a compelling playground. Each planet - there are four, five if you could Cantonica where you start out - is varied and has its own unique feel. The sands of Tatooine are familiar thanks to the sheer amount of times it’s been portrayed in the movies and other games, but I found myself really enjoying the moon of Toshara, its rolling steppes rolling in the distance as the wind farmer’s wind sails floating in the sky above giving a tranquil vibe to a world that was anything but. I also loved the windswept red rock cliffs that dot the landscape, reminding me of nearby Red Rock Canyon at home.
It’s a far cry from the frozen wasteland and snow-laden streets of Kijimi City, its city passages lined with heaters to keep its citizens, and most importantly, clan members, warm and alive in the unforgiving world. I actually think this has been my favorite place to explore, but Massive has done a, well, massively good job building its winding cities on each planet, even familiar haunts like Mos Eisley.
Star Wars: Outlaws boasts itself as an open world, and it is - to a degree. Each planet is explorable, though there are limits to that. Each planet feels large to explore, but thankfully, they don’t feel cluttered with the standard Ubisoft checklist-style content. There are no towers to unlock the map, nor is there any real laundry list of to-dos that kept me busy. Roaming the countryside of Toshara, I had multiple opportunities to hunt bandit camps, raid Imperial supplies and even race my Speeder for some extra credits. But nothing was particularly forcing my hand there for any completionist reason. I simply wanted to do them because they seemed compelling.
It’s refreshing, and this feeling like I’m not simply checking a box on a checklist of Outlaws' tasks extends to its quest and contract system. Kay’s contacts will reach out when there are opportunities, but it’s up to you if you want to pursue them.
As a result, I never felt any pressure to complete a task the second I picked up a contract, taking things at my own pace. As someone who tends to mainline the main story in open-world games, I felt that this approach was designed just for me.
Interestingly enough, this also extends to Kay’s progression as a scoundrel. Kay will befriend Experts along her journey, each one teaching her more about a certain specialization, such as expertise with heavy weaponry, or improved hacking and slicing techniques. Some of these are optional - you’re not forced to go find every expert, but there are some you’ll have to meet throughout the main plot.
Unlocking a skill is also tied to regular gameplay, such as an early skill that saw Kay and Nix work together to take down distracted enemies, all for the skill to stall an approaching enemy through some fast talk. Another was a speeder upgrade that simply had me needing to find chests along my journey and make Nix happy through different activities (such as swinging using Kay’s grappling hook or simply petting the creature).
This approach is novel as it feels like I’m unlocking something, and now Kay is an expert at it, but rather, she’s learning over time how to do the thing. Yet another difference between unlocking a skill because you are one with the Force and needing some practical skill to unlock it.
Kay isn’t simply stranded on a planet’s surface, either. Taking off with the Trailblazer, Kay can explore the space around a planet’s orbit and even take off into hyperspace between each world. I do wish I could actually control take-offs and landings, like Elite: Dangerous or No Man’s Sky, but the way Star Wars: Outlaws handles them with a cutscene showing the entire process while it loads in the background is a marked improvement over Starfield’s simple loading screen.
Flying the Trailblazer is, well, fine. It’s not bad, but it’s not particularly great either. The throttle is adjusted by pushing or pulling on the left thumbstick, while pitch and yaw are controlled with the right. You can pull the left trigger to focus in on your reticle, which comes in handy during a dog fight, and the Trailblazer can also boost off into space with nearly unlimited boost out of combat (and limited boost in combat).
One weird quirk that kept getting annoying was the ship’s tendency to spin around and “correct” its orientation after a while if I had rolled my ship in any way. In a vacuum with no actual up or down, Ubisoft clearly doesn’t want you to fly, as it sees it, upside down.
Space holds secrets as well, from cargo hidden in the nebula and asteroid fields to space stations with their own booming marketplaces, gambling halls, and more to explore. It’s a nice addition to Kay’s journey, and I do like that some missions will start on a planet but end up exploring a station in orbit. It’s nice to have a change of scenery like this.
It’s not all good in the underworld…
That all said, I can’t help but feel, from a technical point of view, Star Wars: Outlaws could have used more time to bake. I can’t speak to the console versions, but the PC verison has been a trainwreck of performance for me. Playing this across two powerful systems, my own RTX 4090 and i9-13900K PC as well as the Starforge Systems Voyager II PC we reviewed earlier this summer, performance has been subpar at best, outright unplayable at worst.
Even without using ray tracing or any of the visual goodies on offer, I would see my framerates drop while wandering Mirogana City early on to below 60 on my RTX 4090 while playing at 5440 x 1440p on the Philips Evnia super ultrawide monitor, and even lower on the Voyager’s RTX 4070 Ti Super. Roaming the overworld on my speeder saw framerates chug, and walking into Mos Eisley, I would see my framerate stutter down into the 20s at certain spots on the map, as if it were trying to load in resources and failing each time. There were quite a few times I died while in the middle of a firefight on my RTX 4090 PC because the framerate chugged and controls became super unresponsive as a result. If Nvidia's mighty RTX 4090 is struggling, there’s definitely something under the hood that needs to be addressed.
When turning on ray tracing and using DLSS 3’s AI-powered frame generation, it got better as I went along, though still well below what I would expect, given the visual return with Outlaws. It’s not a bad-looking game, but coming out right after Black Myth: Wukong and all its path-traced glory isn’t really doing it any favors.
Additionally, cutscenes would play out sometimes oddly framed, with a character’s head cut off from view although the camera should have focused on them the whole time. Many times when the camera was positioned correctly, the lip sync felt incredibly off, distracting from the actual dialogue.
These are things that will hopefully be patched with a day one update, and to Ubisoft’s credit they have been patching the review build throughout our time with the game. This is partly why this is a review in progress - I didn’t want to blast through the game in under a week and base this review on performance that you might not experience come the actual launch day.
That said, if PC is your preferred platform, I would read as many reviews and watch as many technical analysis videos as possible to gauge for yourself whether it’s in a state you’re willing to deal with.
At the end of the day, I’m enjoying Star Wars: Outlaws much more than I think I expected I would given I can’t force push or deflect lasers bolts with an energy sword as I’m usually wont to do in these games. Kay is a compelling protagonist, and one I’m eager to see the rest of her story play out. We’ll have our full review in the coming days as we finish up the story and see how day one performance shakes out.
Full Disclosure: A copy of this game was provided by PR for the purposes of this review. Reviewed on PC.
