– Spoiler Review –
From the moment Ubisoft and developer Massive Entertainment announced Star Wars Outlaws, I was smitten, especially given the many starts and stops over the past near decade of similarly rogue-ish focused Star Wars games. My hype was pretty excessive by the time I sat down to play Outlaws for the very first time, and after 45 hours and two months to finish much of the game, I can safely say it lived up to my expectations more often than it didn’t.
Unlike most reviews for Star Wars Outlaws when it first released, mine isn’t after only 5-6 days to play through a massive, open-world experience, hoping to meet embargoes or get the early impressions on social media platforms, but rather it’s after, like I said before, having played the game for over 45 hours across just over two months. I experienced the game as it initially was before recent patches have helped smooth over some the game’s rougher edges, but also noticed (or didn’t) the quality-of-life improvements made since. I feel like the story of Outlaws’ release and player response mirrors protagonist Kay Vess’ story, one with rougher beginnings and, over time and learning and growing, becoming a pro, for the most part, at what it does. It’s not a perfect experience, and most games aren’t but they can come close, but I felt like Outlaws was able to live up to much of my hype with an overall sense of immersion in the galaxy far, far away, thanks to providing the ‘seamless’ transitions from space to planets at a player’s whim, the large and expansive planets to explore, its Reputation system for dealing with the era’s many syndicates, an entertaining story, cast of characters, and an engaging lead in Humberly González’s Kay Vess. Some of those very things are to Outlaws’ detriment, as the Reputation system, while interesting and brings some variety to the overall gameplay, doesn’t affect the story much, if at all, so it can feel disconnected, while the large maps, while filled with life and NPCs, can seem lifeless in a way by being static, and lastly the many Contract missions can start to feel rote after a while. And yet, I was committed the whole way through, going out of my way to play sabacc, fulfill contracts to help get syndicate rewards, work through the Experts system for upgrades, sneak into various bases to steal rewards, and finish Kay’s story (for now), and it’s this push and pull, with the pull being stronger, which makes Outlaws an overall rewarding experience.
Taking place between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, an already packed part of the timeline thanks to 5 years’ worth of comic stories set during the era, including four different crossover stories and much of it featuring syndicate wars headed by the return of Qi’ra (from Solo: A Star Wars Story), Outlaws follows lowly Canto Bight thief Kay Vess who ends up biting off more than she can chew and becomes the target of one of the deadliest syndicates around after stealing its leader’s prized starship during a job gone wrong. As she works her way up in the underworld in hopes of removing the death mark, Kay becomes involved with Jaylen Vrax (Eric Johnson), a smooth criminal putting together a crew to go back to the site of Kay’s woes and steal her freedom. Spread across 45 hours like it took me, as I focused a lot on exploration and side missions, Outlaws’ story is still engaging and interesting, especially as you build Kay’s crew and meets Experts to level-up along the way, but much of the big reveals, like the Empire’s true involvement in the story, Jaylen’s relation to a different character, or the return of Kay’s mother Riko (Nicola Correia-Damude) feel like they come too late and are barely unpacked before we move on/the story ends. I did appreciate how much of the end game knows we likely won’t care much about the bigger revelations after spending time with other characters like ND-5 and constant companion Nix, focusing the final parts of the story on helping the aforementioned enforcer droid or forcing Kay and her mother to spend a considerable amount of time together, all while making sure it’s Kay and her desire to be free which pushes the story forward, not the machinations of anyone else. Keeping such a big game more intimate in its story was the right call, as Kay deals with both the Empire and the Rebellion here and there, but she’s not worried about their fight given how little it’s already mattered to her life, as all she cares about is getting out alive and free to be what she wants in the galaxy instead of living for scrapes or being at the mercy of others again. This drive and separation from the bigger galactic battle allows players to feel like, via Kay, they are carving their own story out in the galaxy. The way the gameplay doesn’t always seem to add up to or cross over with the story holds some of Outlaws back, but once again, it’s the smaller scope which mitigates this.
I don’t think Outlaws would’ve worked as well without Kay Vess, as playing a more established character, while I’m sure would be fun, wouldn’t have given a sense of player surrogacy which lends much of the awe, wonder, and fun to Outlaws’ smaller stakes and galaxy-hopping adventure. Audience surrogates are a time-honored tradition, like Ezra Bridger at the start of Star Wars Rebels, but Kay isn’t some silent protagonist nor is she an RPG character to mold like other games, rather she’s very much her own person. Abandoned by her mother at 12, much of her life before and after have been dealing with issues stemming from Riko’s actions, but instead of perpetuating the cycle, she’s constantly trying to break free and isn’t having much luck, as people keep leaving her and she can’t move beyond, the hope her mother may return holding her back, whether she wants to admit it or not. The only one who remains by her side is Nix, the adorable Merqaal companion (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker), and beyond having him tied so closely to gameplay, his support via noises and other cues, the cute little eating minigames, and his ferocious defense of her throughout the story make him a memorable creature I found myself relying heavily on throughout the 45 hours. Since Nix can’t talk, only help her where he can in other ways, Kay does a lot of talking, which gets her in and out of trouble throughout the game, and it was fun to watch her grow more confident about dealing with syndicates and each new situation as she works to complete the big job, but none of this would’ve worked so well if not for González’s performance. I’ve spent 45 hours with Kay so far, and not only am I looking forward to the upcoming DLC story additions, I feel like it’s through González all on her own which makes Kay such an engaging character overall. There’s some harshness to Kay’s dealings with the rebels that always threw me off when playing, but González brings a heaping amount of earnestness and fierceness to how much Kay cares for Nix (which González really leans into when he’s Nix-napped), wanting to be free, and getting to know ND-5, patching things up with a childhood friend named Gedeek, or even cutting through bounty hunter Vail’s coldness, all of which really made her a fun character to know and left me rooting for her and her shot at freedom. González’s work alongside ND actor Jay Rincon is a real highlight and helps form a surprising emotional core, which like I said earlier, the game rightly focuses on in its final acts. That Kay’s sort of figuring this all out on her own, about being a better scoundrel and leading a crew, lends itself well for players to learn alongside her, leading to interesting interactions as she meets Experts to learn new skills or getting involved with syndicate machinations, and it’s all thanks to Humberly González it’s end up being as engaging as it is.
Speaking of the syndicates, the game features the Pykes, well-known to animation fans but they’ve recently made it to screen in Solo: A Star Wars Story and The Book of Boba Fett, the Hutt Cartel, which of course means Jabba the Hutt and Bib Fortuna interactions, Crimson Dawn, which is now led by Qi’ra from Solo (her return fully plays out across several comic crossovers), and a brand-new one called the Ashiga Clan, run by an insectoid race named the Melitto. Kay interacts with them through the Reputation system, where doing Contracts or story missions lead to an increase or decrease in players’ standing, affecting gameplay in ways big and small, like access or lack thereof to syndicate headquarters in cities, active hostility towards the player if you cross into their territory, decreasing prices for items, or access to exclusive gear. This changes the overall gameplay in fun ways, as your standing with a syndicate could make a mission to grab something from their territory that much harder or easier, while also keeping you on edge in space as well, in case one of their capital ships happens to be floating around. I spent a lot of my early time on Toshara, the windy moon created for the game, running around and doing missions for Crimson Dawn in hopes of unlocking their specific outfit, so by the time I actually met Qi’ra (voiced by Tamaryn Payne) on Kijimi, I was wearing their outfit yet Kay’s dialogue suggested she didn’t know the Dawn very well and Qi’ra didn’t make a comment on the outfit. This is a small example of the disconnect between the story and the Reputation system, as events still play out and big missions still happen regardless of your connection with the syndicates, which in the end makes sense so that no one is locked out of main content, but given how there isn’t even a small change to dialogue to reference your work (or lack thereof) in a custscene, besides during Contracts/side missions communications, it makes it seem like the game devalues your playtime and this messes with the immersion (like the syndicate which comes to Kay’s aid in the finale could be your lowest ranked). I think my biggest issue lies in the storyline with the Ashiga Clan, as once players make a choice regarding the current queen and her daughter, the storyline is over and we don’t really hear or see the Clan again, nor are they involved with anything going forward, it’s just abruptly done, you don’t get to see or experience any of the repercussions of your choice. Kay makes comments to ND-5 about how it felt to get involved, but since the game won’t show the impact, it makes her comments hollow. I overall still enjoyed playing around with the Reputation system and I would hope in any potential sequel (which doesn’t seem so likely given Ubisoft often being disappointed with the game’s sales), it could play a bigger role in things, but I understand, given how everything’s canon, how it might not be as acceptable for such player freedom.
To help Kay rise in the ranks and succeed in her missions, she “levels up” via Outlaws’ Experts system, which I felt brought mostly useful skills and improvements to her move-set, all done in a more organic way than most games. Instead of assigning skill points in a menu, players first do a mission with each new Expert, and then they must meet specific requirements to unlock additional skills or upgrades from them, usually three different goals make up most requirements, meaning players are spending less time in a menu and more time in the game itself. I still found myself glancing at the Experts menu to figure out what skillful thing I needed to do to get a specific upgrade I wanted, but the game automatically displays when you’re meeting certain requirements and even allows for multiple to be satisfied if more than one skill has the same requirement. There were a couple of skills I didn’t find the most useful or didn’t use very often, like Fast Talking (I warmed up to it later, but really never needed to use it), but overall each expert largely comes with enough helpful skills, even for Nix, to warrant there being nine of them; having Lando Calrissian (Lindsay Owen Pierre) opening up more sabacc cheats was a nice touch. I do wish most Experts weren’t as much of a one-and-done thing, as often times you’d meet these interesting characters, or Kay might have a flirtatious interaction with one, but then you’d never directly interact with them again, or even need to, and it made them a cool system without a lot of legs at times. Certain characters, like Temmin “Snap” Wexley (Sam Scherzer) or Lando, are involved a little more due to the overall story, but the majority of them are mostly window dressing. Heck, having them check in with Kay after players complete all their skills, or even one last mission for/with them, would’ve gone a long way to make them feel more like part of the game world than just upgrade paths. Players can place “charms” on Kay for certain effect buffs, while other ways to improve Kay’s abilities, especially combat or item changes, come from gear specific buffs, like wearing certain clothing gives her a faster refresh on the stun function of her gun (which I used EXTENSIVELY), same with little Nix as well, but I felt like there wasn’t a ton of variety, as many of them increased grenade carrying capacity and I rarely, if ever, used grenades. Players are also able to upgrade Kay’s ship, the Trailblazer, her speeder, and of course her blaster. There are cosmetic changes one can make, be it paint jobs, trinkets, or exhaust colors, but thankfully most of the upgrades for these items are useful ones. The Trailblazer gets new missile types and defense measures, while Experts provide pathways to new maneuvers for it, and the speeder gets maneuverability, speed, and boosting upgrades, while an update to the game helped make smaller objects less of a hassle, as even the smallest rocks could send Kay flying from her seat when the game launched (now, you can glide over!). As for the blaster, there are three modes players can update with three different variants, but I usually stuck to one upgrade variant, while I wished, beyond gear buffs, the stun setting could’ve been upgraded as well, but overall Kay’s blaster is pretty dependable. You can pick up various enemy weapons, with the Death Troopers’ being the best in my opinion, but it was nice to have a dependable blaster at Kay’s side.
Also by her side are a few companions throughout the journey, with none more important Nix. In gameplay, Nix is extremely useful, helping press far away or hard to reach buttons or levers, distracting enemies by playing dead (it would’ve been fun if there were more animations as I used it a lot for my often stealthy approach), pickpocketing, attacking enemies, and even help players keep track of enemies around Kay, like listening systems in games like The Last of Us. Nix is also Kay’s support system and the most consistent being in her life and I loved the bond they share being supported via in-game activities, from her following him around little platforming challenges as he sniffs out treasures, the little eating minigames were cute as hell (my wife requested to watch all of them with me), to his fierceness with defending her throughout the story. I would’ve liked to see the game do a little more with these two, more than just the mission to rescue him, but what we got was more than cute enough and very helpful during gameplay. ND-5, as I mentioned earlier, is very important to the story and it all stems from Rincon’s performance, as his banter with Kay constantly throughout missions keeps him top of mind, while he even joins on foot for a few as well. The consistency in which he’s in contact with Kay, and how he’s always seated in the co-pilot chair, which helps players not to miss optional conversations, shows the importance they tried to place on him to the player. I do wish we got to spend more time with the various members of the crew Kay picks up along the way, as checking in with Gedeek (Shadi Janho) and Ank (Julie Nathanson) are optional activities and they don’t do much other than contribute to story moments, while their conversations don’t really react to what’s happened recently in the game, unlike those with ND-5. These companions feel much like Jedi: Survivor’s own attempt at this, where characters Cal Kestis meet along his journey would congregate at a saloon, but oftentimes what happened in the story wouldn’t always feel reflected in the saloon, and that’s similar to Kay’s Trailblazer and the crew she’s recruited, as they don’t change much despite story developments. I think more interactable crew members in a sequel, and I’m not asking for Mass Effect levels here, would go a long way in helping keep up the immersion these more static characters didn’t quite help.
When it comes to combat, on land, speeder, and in space, I found the overall controls responsive, the aiming not too finnicky, and space combat to be the smoothest of them all (and often felt a little too easy, but I was able to upgrade it quickly), while shooting on a speeder only with the focus mode was fine but was grating in some sections. I know a lot of the early complaints focused on issues with stealth sections, with many reviewers saying they were brutal, and yet when I played at launch and spent a majority of my time before the first update, I never found any real difficulty with the forced stealth sections. There’s a lot of factors for this, least of which is I wasn’t in a time crunch like a lot of reviewers (and how I focus on one game at a time), but most importantly, I enjoy messing around and seeing the limits of the enemy AI behavior. It didn’t take me long to figure out various limitations like what angles I could approach for someone not to see me, how enemies wouldn’t go through a closed door (so I would just reopen it when they turned around and take them down), and how they don’t go down ledges. Once these many things were clear to me, stealth was always pretty easy, so if they have changed anything with an update, I don’t feel like I’ve noticed anything. Space combat isn’t highlighted as much as it should be by the game (though the second of two DLC packs might change that), as it’s a really fun and smooth experience, making it feel like players can pull off the win even against tough odds, Thanks to things like the Kijimi Nebula or asteroid/debris fields, exploring the various outer space regions meant I could semi-recreate stuff from the films, while knowing these areas led to great places to hide from enemy ships or a high Imperial wanted level. The speeder was a little too floaty, even after upgrading and updates, and the combat on it didn’t always feel that helpful, but it was a blast to take for a spin and explore the larger maps. I sort of miss the wild way it’d come to Kay when calling for it, which they patched out, but I found myself speeding around a ton just to look at the vistas and enjoy the sense of being in Star Wars.
To wrap this all up, I wanted to touch on the sense of being in Star Wars. Playing games like Jedi: Fallen Order/Survivor give me the sense I’m experiencing a new tale in the galaxy far, far away, swashbuckling around as a Jedi trying to help the galaxy, whereas with Outlaws, it felt like I was getting to play in the galaxy itself. Cal’s journeys have been a joy overall, but they feel already decided and have a bigger scale, while Outlaws, thanks to some of its systems and smaller story, gives players the chance to feel like they’re contributing. Also, with levels focused on larger swathes of a planet, with different cities to explore and lots of NPCs around, it’s easier to get caught up in the sense of being in your own Star Wars movie, which is why I loved walking around a lot or just driving around on the bike, exploring. That I could simply do that, watching the galaxy bustle around me, before launching into the next mission or take a contract, is why, after 45 hours and the game’s up’s and down’s, I’m still eager for more.
For your amusement (and mine while I was playing), I took some screen grabs from Outlaws of funny or weird things I encountered, so here’s a collection:
For starters, we have the pre-update speeder reaction when Kay calls for it and then the post-update, and while it’s less wild, it’s still not perfect (and I sort of miss the wild version!)
Kay should’ve known you need to hold onto the handlebars (also, she probably wouldn’t have fallen off after the update)!
Kay is ascending to a higher plane:
Awkward death animation:
Never tell me the odds about doing that again!
The cutscene where some space junk decided to photobomb is actually one of the important late-game ones:
Double the ND-5, which could mean a lot of things to a lot of different people:
Here are a few other things:
- There are two DLC packs, and various title updates, on the way. The first of which “Wild Card”, is out November 21, while the next is out in Spring 2025. “Wild Card” focuses on sabacc and Lando, as they get caught up in a tournament with more going on than initially seems, and I’m looking forward to see how it all plays out. “A Pirate’s Fortune” brings in more pirates of course, a minor annoyance in outer space throughout the main game, but will see players teaming up with one of the most legendary of them all: Hondo Ohnaka. My reviews for those shouldn’t take as long, I hope!
- Really liked this interview with Humberly González about getting the role, the representation she helps provide to the franchise, and even touching on some of the queer-leaning moments in the game. Hopefully an expansion, or if there ever becomes a sequel, will get to expand on the queer aspects more.
- The main theme is a hummable banger, capturing a sense of isolation and yet wonder at the larger galaxy, and much of the overall score matched it in interesting ways, while I really dug the different themes for each syndicate. Composer Wilbert Roget II (The Old Republic, Vader Immortal, music editor on various LucasArts games) did a fantastic job and it shows, as his score was nominated at the Emmys!
- I had a hot streak with sabacc but found a random player in a small settlement on Akiva who I could never win against. I haven’t gone back, but now I have all the cheats, it might be worth the shot. Sabacc really grew on me throughout Outlaws and the final showdown with Lando was a worthy fight that took me a few tries. I didn’t play the in-game video games that much, though their retro appeal was quite enticing, but I wasn’t against saddling up to a sabacc table the moment I found one.
- Vail is the character I think would’ve benefited the most from having more screen time, as I was really intrigued by her story and her allegiances, and it would’ve helped her late game decision land a little better.
- Of the locations players can visit, Toshara ended up being my favorite simply because it was so neat to explore a newly crafted world and see and notice the care that went into making it all seem cohesive, though Akiva was a close second, as it was a joy to see a book location brought to life not too far off what I imagined, while I enjoyed the density of the foliage and the sense of history in the wilds. Tatooine was great to see in such a detailed and expansive way, but Kijimi was my only disappointment, as it was very small and while the Nebula is beautiful and unique, it never really factored into anything other than side missions.
- There were several instances where I’d stumble onto a location or datapad out of order, later starting a mission which took me where I already was, and I think it would’ve worked better if the game could’ve accounted for this, that when you spoke to a quest giver, Kay could tell them she already uncovered some or all of the intel chain.
- I’m no photographer or really ever that great with photo modes in games, but I do love to mess around and use them and am always happy they’re included. I’ve attached much of work to this article and the remainder you can see below:
Star Wars Outlaws captured my attention in its announcement, and while many of its systems can tug at the edges of immersion, Kay Vess’ journey more than lived up to what I’d hope for from a game like this.
+ Kay Vess and her journey
+ Story staying small, focusing on Kay and ND-5 in the finale
+ Reputation system and tons of content to explore
+ Overall captures a sense of immersion
– Certain systems can only go so far and it shows
– Can begin to feel like busy work
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website on Bluesky, Twitter @MynockManor, and Instagram @mynockmanor.