Star Wars Outlaws (PC) review "A guided tour of a galaxy far, far away..."

I purposefully avoided learning too much about Star Wars Outlaws before playing it, because I thought I already knew about what it would offer and I wanted to encounter a few surprises. Unlike some people, I appreciate the typical Ubisoft approach to open world games enough that I’m not sure I’ll ever tire of it. For me, it works beautifully. I figured this new release set in a galaxy far away would closely resemble other sandboxes from the studio, except maybe the towers would have droids guarding them instead of cloaked assassins or whatever.

It turns out I was wrong.

Star Wars Outlaws begins by introducing players to Kay Vess. She’s a tough-as-nails, independent sort who might remind you of a cross between a less charismatic Han Solo as depicted in the first three movies, with bits of Rey from the last few films. Her best friend is an adorable critter named Nix who she found years ago while learning how to be a thief from her adventurous mother. As the game begins, Rey is so desperate for work that she agrees to break into a heavily guarded facility to steal from the local wealthy guy, Sliro. She has no way of knowing that an apparently simple heist will lead to much bigger adventures around the galaxy.



The game’s story—and the detailed history of Kay Vess it explores along the way—didn’t particularly interest me. I didn’t mind watching everything unfold, but I’ve seen enough stories of this sort play out in various mediums that the whole affair felt predictable. Kay Vess is betrayed by virtually everyone she meets, and most of the men wind up meeting unfortunate ends. Which is fine. They aren’t all that interesting, anyway. Outlaws has a regrettable shortage of intriguing characters all around.

By the time you reach its conclusion, the plot has at least offered most of the expected beats, but it doesn’t dwell on stuff like space exploration or the Jedi. The game engine doesn’t seem to know what a lightsaber even is. Instead, it focuses on something that makes sense, given the protagonist’s tendency to steal things: stealth.

I’m not big on stealth games, I must say. In fact, I can’t remember previously enduring so many stealth sequences in a single game without finally wandering off to play something else instead. In this case, I kept going because I figured the early stealth segments would give way to something more interesting. But Kay kept finding excuses to sneak into facilities. And each time she did, there typically were lengthy sequences wherein she had to avoid being detected by enemies or machinery that would then sound an alarm. Even if Kay might reasonably have blasted her way out of a tough situation (or fled through a nearby door to reach safety or an important eavesdropping session), getting spotted was the kiss of death. I did not enjoy that. At all.



Fortunately, the game employs a fairly generous checkpoint system… most of the time. You’ll rarely make it through many rooms without producing a record of your progress through the gauntlet. Less fortunately, there are a few lengthier corridors with numerous side passages, where eagle-eyed guards might lurk just out of sight. Until you know where they are, they can spot you and sound the alarm before you even know they exist. Which is bad, because then you might have to creep through another few minutes of the same stuff you already did, just to get to the area where you got caught on your previous attempt. This game made me realize something: my main issue with stealth games isn’t completely a lack of skill. I just don’t have the patience for them.

But I scraped together enough patience in this case, because there are other gameplay elements I enjoyed a fair bit more. The cover-based shooting, though shallow, feels very Star Wars. I was generally quite satisfied when the game let me actually blast my way out of tough situations. Most extended firefights also have checkpoints that activate along the way, so you can just brute force your way through them when they give you trouble. In fact, you can brute force your way through much of the game, when it comes right down to it. Very little that’s on offer should challenge veteran players. Maybe even none of it?

Hacking is also kind of fun, and taking two main forms. You might have to press a button in time with a particular rhythm to disengage some locks. Or, you may need to play a logic-based game of Mastermind, wherein you figure out which glyphs must be placed and in which order to hack into a computer terminal. I never failed any of my attempts, so I’m not sure it’s even possible to run into real trouble. But I’ve certainly played worse hacking mini-games in other titles.



I previously mentioned Kay’s pet, Nix. It looks like a cross between a spider and a poodle, with expressive eyes it might easily have borrowed from Grogu. You can use it as a tool. Your adorable ally distracts nearby guards, pulls open shutters so you can blast switches from afar, retrieves items, and so forth. You’ll have complete access to the critter throughout most of the campaign, and the bond it shares with Kay is pretty cool. Nix is transparently designed to satisfy the game’s cuteness quota, but I’ll be darned if that doesn’t work exactly as intended.

Over the course of the adventure, Kay herself develops into a genuinely useful protagonist, a feat she mostly accomplishes by regularly upgrading her blaster. The weapon starts out without much power, but you’ll find ways to modify it so it fires pulses that disable electronics and enemy shields, or more powerful bursts that turn rocks to rubble. It’s easy to switch between modes as situations dictate, although there’s little need to do so in most cases since it’s not like you’ll be shooting a lot of enemies in the first place. You need to sneak past them most of the time, remember?

Missions combine the same few elements outlined above, time after time. When you start a new quest, you can practically count on having to ride a speeder across a sprawling but mostly lifeless environment to reach a crowded base or city. Then you’ll probably have to sneak into your destination, maybe while solving a few rudimentary puzzles along the way. You might have to survive a shootout and then you’ll probably need to escape, and maybe you’ll have to ride your speeder to another remote location or even blast off into space for a rare dogfight. Someone will soon betray Kay, and she will vow to never let it happen again… but of course there’s skullduggery in the next mission, and the one after that, and… well, you get the idea.



It probably sounds like I didn’t much care for Star Wars Outlaws, but I did. It might not have delivered the sort of experience I went in expecting, but it does a fantastic job of capturing the surface-level charm of my favorite sci-fi license. Outside the main quest, you take on various assignments for characters from each of several factions, including the Hutts and the Pykes. You track down rare loot to fashion upgrades you don’t need, and you play a variety of mini-games. The developers at Massive have filled each of a few cities with all sorts of NPCs, so that it really does feel like you’re wandering through little pieces of the overall Star Wars universe. In some respects, the main campaign feels more like a tutorial designed to introduce you to the wider play area. I just wish there were more incentive to wander off the beaten path, the way I so often did in Starfield.

If you have a lot of time to sink into Star Wars Outlaws, and if you love the license to pieces, there’s a lot to like. Star Wars games aren’t uniformly amazing, but this is one of the better ones in spite of its shortcomings. I anticipate that many people will happily meet the game on its terms and enjoy playing for years to follow. Me, I was ready to move onto other things by the time I hit the closing credits. I liked knowing that I could keep exploring and tackling assignments I hadn’t already tended to, but I hadn’t enjoyed myself so much that I felt desperate to extend my stay in the game’s world. If Ubisoft decides to keep return to this world, a follow-up effort that builds on the foundation established here could be downright amazing. For now, though, Kay Vess and friends will have to settle for “better than average.”

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Staff review by Jason Venter (September 10, 2024) Jason Venter has been playing games for 30 years, since discovering the Apple IIe version of Mario Bros. in his elementary school days. Now he writes about them, here at HonestGamers and also at other sites that agree to pay him for his words.