Star Wars: Outlaws Review – Is It Like Assassin’s Creed With Star Wars After All?

The word theme park is often used in video games with vast open worlds, where the map constantly contains activities. This is how parks are set up to get from one point to another to get doses of dopamine from one game to another. In the field of video games, Ubisoft is the “mother” in creating such worlds through… patented, one might say a formula that becomes… copy and paste from one open world game to another.

On the one hand, this ensures reliable operation and “A” quality in the worlds in which this model is placed, and on the other hand, everything looks the same, and the whole “walking” in it creates deja vu. star wars outlaws From the moment we saw it in the trailers, it seemed like a dream game for any fan of George Lucas’ universe. After all, this was the first time we saw an open-world Star Wars game that felt truly free-form and had a sense of Grand Theft Auto-like homelessness due to the setting in which the game takes place – the Underworld, since the protagonist is a villain, based on the Han Solo archetype.

From this trailer, expectations were created that we would be playing a game that would at worst replicate the style and layout of the latest open world Assassin’s Creed, along with all the side quests/quests, collectibles and activities, while at the same time being at odds with what’s best. It’s like trying to approach the Star Wars universe with the fluff of Red Dead Redemption or Grand Theft Auto. Ultimately, it may not be the best of the two, but that doesn’t make a video game devoid of pure fun. After all, what would video games be if they didn’t provide those dopamine hits that we interpret as fun?

In Star Wars: Outlaws, as I said, we delve into the underworld of the universe starring Kay Vess and her beloved, battle-hardened pet, Nyx. Kay is no stranger to the underworld and is a rookie trying to find her footing, something the gangsters in the game know all too well, and the story evolves as she “steps up” through the ranks of the galaxy’s criminal organizations. Her goal is to create a criminal group to pull off the biggest heist in the galaxy against the up-and-coming and brazen Star Wars “Night Godfather.” Yeah, you kind of call it an intergalactic La Casa De Papel with a Star Wars theme and Kay goes by another “Tokyo” name since they share a similar headdress.

Of course, the whole development is superficial and the relationships that are created between the main protagonists and characters get their foundation in the matter of writing. One of the classic traits of Ubisoft is its stories. This shallowness governs all “Outlaws”, but it is not necessarily a “red flag” for the experience and I will explain it below. The structure of the game has something of Far Cry and the latest Ghost Recon where four major criminal organizations dominate the galaxy and depending on the jobs (with tassels) you perform for them, you enjoy the service or feel the breath of their minions on your neck.

This translates into good jobs, many without betrayal or fraud on the part of the contractor, and access to exclusive equipment and discounts in shops controlled by the “mafia” in question. In fact, these are resounding names that have passed through Star Wars films and series such as Pykes, Hutts, Crimson Dawn (with very interesting appearances) and finally the Ashiga Clan, created to meet the needs of the game as one of the small additions that Massive has made to the Star Wars lore.

I was asked many times in missions to decide which side I preferred and to weigh my options and where I wanted to get the most credit gains or to favor one side or the other. But it could have had an actual impact on the outcome of the story, but it doesn’t. The entire score of the game is classic Ubisoft. That means Kay moves and has animations that you could easily tell were taken from the central characters in the latest Assassin’s Creed. Meanwhile, the type of side quests, collectibles and general secondary missions, tread on this familiar yeast.

While I expected and wished for more freedom of movement and interaction in the world – or rather worlds – of Outlaws, as its trailers have prepared us for such situations, things unfortunately swim in very shallow waters. You get some random world events like fighting smugglers and “goblins” (short for Imperials) and intervening between them to seize loot, or saving commoners from pirates.

Traversing the world on a speeder bike has a pure Star Wars feel to it but I want more because the feeling you get is that you’re like “why don’t you let me steal a stormtrooper’s motorcycle and beat them up”, filling up the wanted level with 5 “stars” like in GTA space. Bumping into other vehicles in the world has no interaction either, and you’re not allowed to shoot while driving a speeder which I thought was a yellow card, unless you hit Kay’s “Dead Eye” targeting system or when passing through restricted areas with blocks of Imperials or gangsters looking at you with half an eye. Its aiming and cover system is completely superficial. It’s these simplistic implementations of ideas that could be deeper and make it greater that put a “ceiling” on the experience and don’t make it great.

Where it gains depth is in the different tools and abilities you unlock, such as the chopping and actions Nyx performs, which while useful as a pet, only has a safe implementation of 4-5 jobs.

But it does have its open world moments in the exploration portion that really upped the immersion levels and impressed me as a Star Wars fan. Like climbing mountains, ledges, small forests, and entering catacombs and caves to find treasures, information, or gifts for Nyx. The design and art direction in Outlaws is the area that sets the tone for the game perfectly and is the reason I was searching every spot on every map.

For example, the sunset on the African savanna-like planet Toshara, with its vast sky and horizon, was something that took my breath away and I sat and stared. I was impressed by the fact that something so beautiful could be explored up close. I first experienced this feeling in a Star Wars video game as a fan. Each of the five planets has its own look, its own characteristics in flora and fauna, and its own unique art direction. This is where Outlaws reaches its peak. There’s also space for each planet to explore, and I tell you, it feels like they’re stuck in a mini-Battlefront 2 game there. With “Trailblazer” you can also swim non-stop, explore points, rescue people from pirates, and fight in space in honest aerial combat, reminiscent of the corresponding battles in Battelfront 2 or “Squadrons.”

Overall, Massive Entertainment has done a fairly safe job of creating a massive Star Wars theme park for the first time. It has laid out five areas, huge and stunningly beautiful but with little room to fully experience them, like a modern open-world game. But the fact that it does five things so well also brings a sense of fun that kept me entertained, despite the… ceiling. My nearly 30-hour experience with Outlaws had many finely crafted, wicked moments in the story, the original Star Wars and the excellent original soundtrack, which was a good imitation of the John Williams music from the Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi eras, since, after all, our adventure falls chronologically between them.

Technically, I will say that the code given to me has some known issues, such as entry/exit and some freezes, which I think are an update issue that needs to be fixed. Visually, the game is beautiful, but not eye-catching or something you could say that raises the bar, at least on the Xbox Series X that I tested, because the PC version with the ultimate settings I think will have a lot to offer. Let’s say the facial expressions were not its strong point and were very reminiscent of… Assassin’s Creed in every sense of the word. In fact, it has three settings (performance at 60 FPS, quality at 30 FPS, and preferred quality at up to 40 FPS), and I played with them mainly to get a balance between frame rate and quality.

The canteens, casinos, and the underworld with its smoke, sewer filth, and neon lights were perfectly captured, as were other weather conditions, lighting, and environments such as forests, deserts, and snow. But the “epic” was when you reached a certain point and looked out into the vast horizon, trees and plants swaying in the wind, something a bit reminiscent of Ghost of Tsushima. We’re also talking about impeccable sound design, which was at the high levels known for Star Wars and other franchise games.