It’s almost inevitable that this review will echo familiar criticisms of “Outlaws,” given its glaring and undeniable flaws. Yet, within this outlandish tale of a petty thief rebelling against an empire, there are genuinely bright spots that could inform the future design of Ubisoft’s open-world games.
First Impressions: Visuals and World Design
Our review is based on the PS5 version. The initial impression is one of visual blurriness. Even in the linear opening city sequence, noticeable jagged edges mar the character models. The protagonist’s face lacks the clarity of even the bartender. Switching to the “graphics mode” doesn’t yield a significant improvement to the naked eye; the overall image remains hazy and low-resolution. Personally, I found the visuals less refined than “Assassin’s Creed Odyssey” after its 60fps patch, which diminishes the visual reward of exploring the open world.
Conversely, the towns are meticulously crafted. The designers clearly did their homework, creating bustling, vibrant streets that capture the essence of the game’s world. These intricate and lively settlements translate successfully into the game.
Story and Gameplay Mechanics
In a nutshell, “Outlaws” tells the story of an insignificant thief who, with a ragtag group of companions, launches a superficial rebellion against the Empire. Within the vast “Star Wars” universe, developed over nearly half a century, it’s difficult for a character like Kay, who operates in the underworld, to truly integrate or alter the course of the main narrative. The game relies on the “gap between Episodes V and VI” as a narrative hook, using familiar “Star Wars” characters to create tenuous connections.
Kay’s signature shooting style and weapon are clear homages to Han Solo, but this is where the problems begin. Throughout the entire game, Kay is limited to a single blaster. While upgrades add different firing modes for shield breaking and demolition, the core gameplay remains repetitive.
Ironically, Kay can pick up weapons dropped by enemies, including grenade launchers, but ammunition is scarce, and the weapons are incredibly fragile. Talking to NPCs, rolling, interacting with objects, or even climbing ladders causes Kay to discard the weapon. The purpose of this design is baffling. Why create different weapon models only to force the player to revert to the blaster? Is it homage or laziness?
The stealth and melee mechanics are equally problematic. Enemy detection ranges are inconsistent. Sometimes you can walk freely in front of an enemy, while other times you’re spotted from dozens of meters away, even on the easiest difficulty. Enemy pursuit after an alarm is comical. Even after repeatedly killing enemies in the same spot, they eventually forget your location and begin aimless searches, repeating their erratic detection patterns.
Kay can knock out fully armored Stormtroopers with a single punch. Any enemy can be defeated with three punches. If the Jedi had access to Kay, the Empire wouldn’t stand a chance. However, the game forces Kay to rely on stealth for most of the game, with “mission failed if alarm is triggered” conditions. Such strict requirements are rarely seen in other Ubisoft games.
Kay’s companion, Nix, is a cute mascot and a helpful assistant who can be ordered to open doors, steal items, or distract enemies. In theory, Nix could be like the hacking tools in the “Watch Dogs” series, but in practice, Nix is only “slightly helpful” and ultimately feels like a wasted opportunity.
Space combat is another area where the concept is better than the execution. The advertised “seamless flight” is only slightly better than the loading screens in “Starfield.” The take-off sequence appears seamless, but it’s entirely unplayable and uses an atmospheric entry animation to mask the loading. You can even skip this sequence, but often you’re already in space before the loading circle finishes. It’s a fake seamless experience. Once in space combat, the game delivers the basic elements of a space shooter, including dogfights and maneuvering, but lacks any real innovation.
The open-world design itself reverts to the checklist approach of the previous generation. This isn’t necessarily a problem; I don’t mind open worlds with clear objectives. However, the checklist design itself is uninspired. It lacks the tower-climbing of “Far Cry” and even the simple puzzle elements of “Assassin’s Creed,” such as navigating caves or shooting door bolts. It’s a unique kind of uninspired.
Similarly, the game’s basic puzzles are poorly designed. 90% of the puzzles involve rhythm-based button presses to unlock doors or brute-forcing device locks. They’re tedious and disrupt the flow of the game. Fortunately, the game’s assist system allows players to skip these puzzles entirely. On the other hand, the Sabacc card game from the “Star Wars” universe provides an enjoyable mini-game experience and allows fans to challenge Lando.
The Highlight: The Information System
As mentioned earlier, “Outlaws” has undeniable flaws, but it also has a highlight that runs throughout the game: the information system.
The information system is closely tied to the game’s various factions. There are four factions that the player interacts with, each with its own reputation level. Faction conflicts are inevitable, so completing missions often leads to gains and losses in reputation. However, the main story almost always forces Kay to choose between two factions, leading to the complaint that the factions’ intelligence management is terrible, with a traitor interfering with every choice.
Many areas in the game are divided into faction territories. If your reputation isn’t high enough, you can’t enter the territory without being thrown out. Ironically, many missions and NPCs require interaction within these territories, so you essentially need to maintain good relations with all the factions.
Since completing main missions inevitably upsets one faction, how do you balance everything out? The game introduces a contract system, which involves accepting randomly generated checklist missions from NPCs in each faction to increase reputation. It’s a return to the old open-world formula.
Returning to the information system, it’s inherently tied to the factions. When exploring faction territories, players often find tablets with interesting information, such as which horse will win the next race or who will appear at a certain location. This information doesn’t always appear in the mission log, so it’s up to the player to remember it.
Other information is obtained in a more immersive way. As Kay walks the streets or drinks in bars, she overhears conversations that become pieces of information, recorded in the menu for later reference. This feeling of accidentally discovering previously unknown information is rare in Ubisoft’s open-world games, and it’s why I believe Ubisoft should incorporate it into future titles.
Additionally, Kay’s upgrade system is somewhat unique for a Ubisoft open-world game. Kay’s skills are tied to specialists found throughout the game. Not all of these specialists are unlocked through the main story; some are linked to information, though it’s usually obvious. Each specialist provides skills related to their expertise, and unlocking these skills requires Kay to collect specific materials or complete challenges. The materials themselves have descriptions based on the “Star Wars” universe, providing narrative context rather than simply telling the player where to find them. While this design is common in American RPGs, it’s relatively new for a Ubisoft open-world game.
Conclusion: A Lack of Communication?
If I had to pinpoint the core issue with “Star Wars Outlaws,” it would be a significant lack of communication between Ubisoft’s studios.
Looking at the list of Ubisoft studios, it’s clear that most of the studios with independent names, aside from those identified by “Ubisoft” plus a location, primarily provide support development. Only Massive Entertainment is recognized as a leading global developer of AAA games.
Reviewing Massive’s history, it’s evident that since Ubisoft fully embraced open-world games, Massive has primarily focused on the looter-shooter “The Division” series, last year’s first-person open-world game “Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora,” and now the classic Ubisoft formula of “Star Wars Outlaws.” From an independent development perspective, they lack experience in developing large-scale single-player open-world games.
However, the problem is that Massive, as an important Ubisoft studio, hasn’t shared technology or learned design principles from the “Assassin’s Creed” and “Far Cry” development teams at Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft Toronto, and Ubisoft Quebec. Even basic game combat and stealth designs are inferior to those of their peers, and their Snowdrop Engine shows its age in terms of visual performance. It’s truly perplexing.
Despite these significant regressions in game design, “Star Wars Outlaws” shows some of Massive’s thinking about guiding players through open-world content, but it’s overshadowed by the game’s other flaws. “Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora” has similar issues, leading to speculation that Massive could create a truly unique game if they weren’t constrained by established IPs.
But that’s all speculation. For now, it seems that the “Star Wars” IP has salvaged some goodwill for “Outlaws.”