Star Wars Outlaws Review — Not too Forceful

Another canonical story in a galaxy far, far away, Star Wars Outlaws attempts to shed the open-world trappings of its Ubisoft origins while also sticking closely to some of the most established AAA formulas around. It’s fun, and I enjoyed my time with it, but there’s a lot to unpack about this new science-fiction adventure.

Every Journey Starts with a Single Step

The biggest compliment I can pay Star Wars Outlaws is to its character work. Everyone, from the main cast of Kay and her crew to the more incidental and quest-related NPCs, is well-written and believable. Each of them gives off the air of a being just trying to get by in a heartless galaxy. Almost nowhere is there a hint of the Jedi/Sith conflict; the Force is mentioned only tangentially and only once, and the only real constant is the Imperial presence in every world you visit.

Kay Vess, the player character, is a small-time thief from a backwater desert planet called Canto. When what should be the greatest heist of her career goes wrong, she’s not thrust into some galaxy-spanning quest for revenge or towards joining the rebellion. She just wants enough to survive comfortably somewhere where no one can bother her. That conviction never wavers, even when the Rebel Alliance makes its inevitable appearance.

Notably, the rebels in Star Wars Outlaws are the least effective faction and are painted more as bumbling amateurs trying and failing to do anything of substance. They are the reason Kay has to escape her homeworld and why one of the major crime syndicates gives her the death mark that starts her adventure.

The adventure is simple, straightforward, and relatively brief. Gather a crew of fellow ne’er-do-wells and crack the vault Kay failed to open at the beginning of the game – a vault with the promise of enough money to set them all up for multiple lifetimes.

Most of these allies have their own idiosyncrasies, but unlike almost everyone else in Star Wars Outlaws, they’re good people who do questionable things because their skillset would force them to either rot in a cell or work for the empire. One of Kay’s previous partners was actually faced with that impossible choice and couldn’t take the third option, though when she recruits him for the job, he manages to take it sometime after the fact.

The other acquaintances and contacts Kay meets in her journey are similarly well-rounded. The savvier ones understand that Kay is young and untested, but as she proves herself working for them, their views change ever so slightly.

The same can be said of the villains in Outlaws, at least at first. The most prominent of the antagonists is a crime boss called Sliro, who built a vast underworld empire using his family’s stolen fortune, a lot of murder, and a mountain of spite. He doesn’t spend much time on screen himself, but his presence is felt through the syndicate he founded, Zerek Besh, which has its fingers in every pie Kay tries to take a piece of.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of story threads that go unresolved. One of the planets you visit, Kajimi, sees Kay unwittingly assist with an attempted coup that ends in the death of either a queen or her heir. The choice the player makes has no bearing on the larger story, and the syndicate that stood to capitalize on the power struggle, one called Crimson Dawn, seems to gain little regardless of which side gets what they want. Instead, the quest is essentially an extended reputation booster for one faction and a loss for another. Nothing more.

In other words, the character work is a mixed bag. The story of Star Wars Outlaws is bland by comparison. It has a few neat twists and turns but was mostly predictable, safe, and generally appealing to the widest possible audience. The stakes were never particularly high (despite Kay having a massive bounty on her head), there were few narrative set pieces or powerful moments, and there was maybe one risk taken across a 15-hour campaign. It wasn’t a risk you couldn’t see coming from the start, but it was a risk in a game with tons of opportunities for them.

I wish I could say more about the story of Outlaws because I genuinely enjoyed seeing what characters did in each situation, but because it was so monotonous and by the numbers, the only emotion I can muster is a shrug.

Safe Story, Safer Gameplay

I have comparatively less to say about the combat and gameplay of Star Wars Outlaws, and my opinion is comparatively less positive. In my view, Star Wars Outlaws has few new ideas, whether in terms of gameplay, map design, or progression. It is, instead, a mashup of every AAA stereotype in the book. Let us count the ways:

• Yellow paint for platforming sections.
• Mandatory simple climbing sections.
• Mandatory, unrefined, cover-to-cover stealth.
• A grand total of three mission types.
• A simple weapon crafting system.
• Very little enemy variety.
• Non-main quests are more chore than content.
• The maps are mostly empty spaces between loot locations.
• Lots of padding activities in all missions.
• Rewards are almost universally either money or crafting upgrades.
• The faction reputation system has little effect on the story.
• You can ignore every optional mechanic and mission ahs still get through the game just fine.

I could go on. And I’m not on the “yellow pain = bad design” train, because despite it futzing with an established art style, it can be useful to ensure players always have an idea what they’re being asked to do. I think Elden Ring using the environment and other in-world landmarks as a guide is better, but yellow paint doesn’t bother me.

And I’m not even bothered by almost anything else on that list. Star Wars Outlaws doesn’t lose anything for ticking all those boxes, but it also gains nothing and offers almost less for relying on them. There are no pinnacle challenges in the game that give the rush defeating a Souls boss does, nor new gameplay styles to try out. Outlaws will always feel the same to play, no matter who’s behind the wheel. Even getting the best ship upgrades only makes getting through the game easier. They add little to the dogfighting experience.

If you go into Star Wars Outlaws expecting a genre-defining experience, then, you are bound to be massively disappointed. It’s enjoyable for what it is, especially if you want to turn your brain off for a bit and enjoy a nice gaming snack.

The Rest Is Never Best

Like the gameplay and some of the story, I cannot give too many kudos to the rest of the Star Wars Outlaws experience. The music: fine. The world design: fine. The stealth mission design: functional. The set pieces: entertaining enough. They aren’t “meh-tier,” but they also won’t make you rethink your life choices the way higher-quality games will.

Even the UI is a bog-standard AAA design. That is, there is too much going on, too much space is taken up, and it’s generally cumbersome to use. Once you understand how it works, you’ll be fine. It is frustrating that every big studio title these days drops the ball so completely on its interface and experience design. I’m looking at you, modern Call of Duty.

Final Thoughts

Throughout my time with Star Wars Outlaws, one thought was constant: it is one of the AAA games of all time. Like a warm blanket that you’ve used for more than a decade, it’s familiar, comfortable, and unassuming. It lacks flair, style, and excitement, but you aren’t coming to it for that. You want it because you know it and can have a nice, relaxing day with it.

I can’t say if I’ll go back to the game now that I’ve finished the story, but I don’t regret the hours I put in. After all the high-octane gameplay of Black Ops 6 and the stress of Escape from Tarkov I’ve put myself through, something as rote as Star Wars Outlaws was like settling into a bean bag chair and dozing. Enjoyable, relaxing, and an experience I’ll look forward to when I need it again.