Game review: Star Wars Outlaws (PS5)

I remember when Disney first bought the Star Wars license from George Lucas; the company had an exclusivity deal with Electronic Arts for them to only make Star Wars video games. This was seen as a disappointment for some gamers because one company making Star Wars games stifles competition and creativity. 

Due to the lootbox controversy from EA's Star Wars Battlefront II video game, Lucasfilm Games opened the door for more video game companies to thankfully make their own Star Wars games in the future. This ultimately led to Ubisoft getting the Star Wars license as The Division developer Massive Entertainment has now released Star Wars Outlaws for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. 

An open-world video game based on the Star Wars universe is a dream come true for most fans of the franchise. Many fans have dreamed of exploring the Star Wars galaxy, visiting iconic planets, and piloting their own spaceship. 

The first thing I will say about Star Wars Outlaws is that Ubisoft manages to do space exploration the correct way. If you played Bethesda's Starfield last year, you may know that game disappointed many games with its lacklustre immersion. Instead of piloting and landing on a planet seamlessly, Starfield just presented gamers with boring loading screens! Not to mention, Starfield didn't allow players to even explore planets using vehicles at launch, too. 

Star Wars Outlaws is similar to that of No Man's Sky because the main character, Kay Vess, can use her ship to travel to all sorts of different planets. Players can actually fly into space, and there are zero loading screens when you exit a planet's atmosphere. Star Wars Outlaws also allows you to use the hyperdrive to travel at the speed of light without needing to replenish fuel like in Starfield as well. 

Another thing that Star Wars Outlaws does right is that Kay Vess also has access to a speeder bike that allows her to travel long distances and explore different areas of a planet. For example, the Tatooine planet is famous to Star Wars fans, and Kay can use her speeder bike to visit iconic locations such as the city of Mos Eisley to even visit Jabba the Hutt's palace, just to name a few. 

I was also impressed with how Massive Entertainment was able to nail the look and feel of the Star Wars galaxy. Star Wars Outlaws is a huge game, but players will be able to see vast cities chock full of recognizable alien species that Star Wars fans will be familiar with. The graphics are also very impressive for a game like this, considering how big each planet is. Visually, this game is far more stunning compared to Starfield's empty feeling worlds and planets. 

Before I begin talking about the gameplay, I will say Star Wars Outlaws is set between the events of 'The Empire Strikes Back' and 'Return of the Jedi. I won't give any spoilers here, but Kay Vess will see some familiar characters in her journey through the criminal underworld. 

Kay Vess becomes a wanted criminal, but later in the story, she meets a man who recruits her to try and steal a big score. What I like most about the story in this game is that it's not predictable because the player has options to choose which crime syndicate they want to work for. Not to mention, Kay isn't a huge fan of the Rebel Alliance after having a falling out with them at the beginning of the game. 

In terms of gameplay, there are two ways that you can play the game. The most common way is on foot, as Kay will need to stealthily infiltrate many Imperial compounds to complete missions. Stealth is kind of clunky though because Kay isn't sleek in killing foes. She punches like a mad woman, and this sometimes alerts other enemies nearby. Her hand-to-hand combat is wonky too, plus it's unrealistic when she knocks out a Stormtrooper with her bare hands when they have their helmets on. 

Kay is also mainly armed with her blaster and this is really the only weapon she carries with her all the time. She can steal Stormtrooper rifles and sniper rifles, although they lose ammo and can only be carried temporarily. That being said, the gunplay is satisfying, and the combat is much better than the recent Assassin's Creed games, in my opinion.   

Thankfully, Kay does have a little pet companion with her at all times called Nix. Nix can be used to unlock doors, distract enemies, or even attack foes too. The game also forces Kay to hack doors and hack computers to get the info that she needs. If you use the accessibility settings, you can bypass these hacking minigames if they frustrate you. 

One huge part of Star Wars Outlaw's gameplay is jumping and platform puzzles. Kay will have to explore a lot of huge areas and this includes a lot of climbing and grappling like Lara Croft does in a Tomb Raider game. I have to admit some of these segments were annoying, although they're doable once you know where to go. 

The second way to play the game is by using vehicles. As aforementioned, Kay has access to her own speeder bike and this is helpful in exploring huge areas and planets. The only annoying thing is that you cannot shoot while riding the speeder bike unless you earn enough adrenaline to execute a special move. You also frustratingly cannot steal other vehicles which is boring because the Empire has tons of cool ships in their bases. 

Kay also has her own spaceship, and cool-looking space battles can be performed in this game with ease. The dogfights are fast and frantic, much like they should be in a Star Wars video game. It's easy to target enemies, and flying the spaceship doesn't get too disorientating.  

Even though I enjoyed a lot of aspects of Star Wars Outlaws, there are still a few niggling flaws that annoy me. For one thing, Ubisoft has a poor track record when it comes to utilising waypoints for some reason. The waypoints are poorly positioned because they never tell you if a cliff will be in the way or something like that. 

I already mentioned the game's clunky stealth, but some of the missions can get repetitive too. As cool as it was exploring the Empire's compounds, it starts to feel monotonous when you have to do it multiple times. I also hated searching areas because the waypoint would disappear, and you had to find clues by yourself. 

I was lucky enough to avoid lots of bugs while playing this game on PS5, but I did encounter one annoying glitch. This glitch wouldn't allow me to use the pet Mix during one mission, and this annoyed me because I wasn't able to distract enemies. Thankfully, I reset the game and the glitch was gone. 

While I did enjoy Star Wars Outlaw's graphics and immersive world, the clunky stealth combat and waypoint system slightly hold the game down. Still, I enjoyed this game much more than recent Ubisoft efforts like Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Far Cry 6, and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. 

Verdict: 8.0/10