Star Wars Outlaws bills itself as the first-ever truly open world Star Wars game. Set between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, it follows Kay Vess, an emerging scoundrel fighting for scraps and looking for the next big job that will set her up for life.

The game is both ambitious and self-contained. An open world Star Wars game definitely sounds attractive for both casual and dedicated fans of the franchise. It’s a tall task that may not have been possible in previous generations of gaming. 

And instead of telling a Jedi story like the most recent and prominent Star Wars games, we step into the shoes of a Han Solo-like character who’s simply trying to survive. Kay Vess has no stake in the struggle between the Empire and the Rebel Alliance. She’s only looking after herself and her trusty companion, Nix, in a world where the odds are stacked against her. 

Nails the Original Trilogy vibes

Massive Entertainment, the Ubisoft Studio responsible for this game and other titles like Tom Clancy’s The Division and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, built an intergalactic setting that truly captures the vibes of the original Star Wars Trilogy.

Each location that you will spend significant time in feels dense and lived in. Everything from known locations like the freezing outdoors of Kijimi, the deserts of Tatooine, and the lush greens of Akiva were on point. And even the new location called Toshara screams Star Wars. 

Inside these locations you’ll find City Hubs, small towns, and many other spots that are prime for exploration. The City Hubs, in particular, feel exactly like what towns would be like if under the rule of a tyrannical government. At every corner you see people from different walks of life just trying to survive in a world where the Galactic Empire reigns. The term it’s a “dog-eat-dog” world perfectly encapsulates the inhabitants of such a setting with people just trying to get by. 

It’s the perfect setting for the story Star Wars Outlaws is trying to tell and also sets up an interesting set of mechanics to keep the gameplay loop engaging. 

Reputation System

The Reputation System is the backbone of both the main and side quests of Star Wars Outlaws. It will influence your decision-making in which jobs to tackle, which intel to follow, and which tasks you should prioritize. 

It consists of four factions who lord over different sectors in the Galaxy. They’re allowed to operate as such under the watchful eyes of the Galactic Empire. The four factions are: 

• Pykes
• Crimson Dawn
• The Hutts
• Ashiga Clan 

You have five levels of reputation with each faction and always start in the middle which is “Poor”. An “Excellent” reputation in each of the factions will award you gear that has both the aesthetics of the faction as well as buffs unique to each of them.

Getting a “Good” reputation will net you cosmetic items to change up how Kay Vess struts around the galaxy. Other rewards in this reputation level include jobs from the faction’s main brokers. These jobs will net you either Credits or Materials for upgrading the various weapons, gear, and rides in your arsenal. They also increase your reputation in that particular faction. 

But it’s not that simple. Oftentimes you’ll be offered jobs that are in direct competition with each faction. This means your reputation between factions will fluctuate throughout the game. Some of these jobs will have you deciding which faction to favor and it will affect the outcome of certain storylines. 

“Good” and “Excellent” reputations in these factions will also grant you access to their strongholds in various locations of the galaxy. Access to these strongholds also affect the quests and loot you’re able to collect. 

It’s a tough balancing act that has massive consequences in how you progress throughout the game. 

Open Galaxy 

Instead of being strictly an “Open World” game, Star Wars Outlaws feels more like an “Open Galaxy” game. 

To get from one world to another, you have the Trailblazer ship. With it you can jump from world to world as well as traverse deep space. Some jobs will have you collecting stuff and doing battle missions in space while onboard the Trailblazer.

Once you land on one of the planets, your main mode of transport is your Speeder. Your Speeder gets you from different places within a main planet hub. Like the Trailblazer, you’ll also have battle encounters while riding. 

Both the Trailblazer and the Speeder can be upgraded throughout the game. Ship and Speeder parts can be collected all throughout main and side quests. 

These will improve everything from how they handle as you drive, their firepower, defense, and many more. Some upgrades also include cosmetic changes to make each vehicle feel truly yours even though Kay just stole them to start the game. 

Overall, this approach lends itself to being a world that’s built for exploration. It’s through these exploration that you tackle the more moment-to-moment gameplay mechanics. 

Neither one handle particularly well especially in the beginning. The Trailblazer parts feel like a modern graphics version of one of the arcade mini games found in city hubs. Not sure how space exploration should feel like and while this is functional, it’s mostly forgettable.

The Speeder would have also been great if the battle encounters were handled better. The only way to deal with enemies pursuing you is through “bullet-time” shots that aren’t always available. Most of the time we just resorted to speeding and maneuvering from them to escape.

Gathering Intel, Stealth, Combat, and Traversal 

The different variety of quests in Star Wars Outlaws are all contained in the Journal. On it you’ll find the Main Story Quests and sub-quests, Intel for treasures scattered throughout the different locations in the game, Expert Contracts, Job Contracts, and more. 

Each Journal entry is a quest. Many of the intel you gather by eavesdropping on the people around City Hubs and Towns lead to treasure. Meanwhile the contracts are jobs that earn you credits and reputation on each faction. 

You can choose to track whichever journal entry or quest you like. It all depends on what you want to prioritize. It’s a great way of managing the open-world aspect of the game instead of just waypoints on a map – which still exists, by the way, but you’ll only find myself consulting the map when you feel like you’re pressed for time to complete certain quests. 

Intel threads, quests

Many of the quests in Star Wars Outlaws feel like actual story threads. Some will have you jumping around a hub area while others have you going hyperdrive from one world to another.

There’s also enough variety here to keep you busy. Some quests can be strictly stealth where any time you get caught, you can’t go all guns blazing to finish it off. It’s an automatic mission failure. There’s a surprisingly hefty amount of stealth sections in the game and they can be pretty challenging.

But as you progress and upgrade your skills and gear, some of these quests become easier to deal with. Missions where you raid certain locations to steal items offer the most tense moments. 

Uncharted in a Galaxy far, far away

Some sections of the game are very reminiscent of the Uncharted franchise. There are missions both in maid and side quests where you’ll do a fair bit of platforming. This includes a lot of jumping, swinging with your grappling hook, and hanging from yellow-marked areas. 

The gunplay will also remind you of Uncharted. It’s a standard cover, dodge, and shoot affair. It does offer some variety with you needing to change between blaster-types for certain opponents. It’s nothing too difficult nor strategic like say changing stances in more action-focused games. But there’s a fair bit of change-up to keep the blaster fights interesting.

You can even pick-up enemy weapons to use against them. The catch is you can’t use them for too long and you often have to drop them once you go into some platforming sections. 

Presentation, mini games, and more

In many parts of the game, Star Wars Outlaws definitely nails the Star Wars vibe. Everything from the City Hubs to its inhabitants, and even its atmosphere and music is undeniably Star Wars. Technically speaking, though, things stand on hollow ground.. 

Perhaps this is the challenge of developing for multiple platforms, but the graphical presentation of the game feels shaky in a lot of the non-main story sections of the game. They’re not terrible, but they’re certainly not stellar either. It’s a good thing the game has plenty of good voice acting performances to carry some of the jankier facial animations. 

This not being a graphical marvel shouldn’t take away from the amount of effort that was put into all the details of each area to make it feel truly Star Wars. Mini-games like the arcades, the race betting, and even the Sabacc game show how much passion was put into making this a true part of the Star Wars franchise. 

Is Star Wars Outlaws your GameMatch?

Star Wars Outlaws nails the vibes of the original trilogy films it’s set in despite being technically shaky in some parts. The Open World game is founded on the Reputation System that helps tie together the main and side quests. The moment-to-moment gameplay isn’t revolutionary but there should be enough here to keep you engaged. 

When you hit a wall in one quest or intel thread, it’s easy to jump to a different one and you might even find that completing one leads to a breakthrough into another. They aren’t exactly seamlessly interconnected, but they do feel grounded in the world that Massive Entertainment established from the get go. 

The world-building of Star Wars as a franchise is fascinating. It’s given birth to a myriad of stories that can be told in its universe. As a story, Star Wars Outlaws feels just one of many. But as an interactive experience, it’s one that has a chance to be remembered fondly even in just the quieter corners of the franchise’s galaxy.

The game was reviewed on a PlayStation 5. The Review Code was provided by the publisher.