Star Wars Outlaws Review (PS5, Xbox Series X/S, & PC)

Unlike Ubisoft’s previous open-world games, Star Wars Outlaws treads on somewhat unchartered ground. It focuses on exploration, with its missions and character progression woven into combing through every bit of five planets and space. It’s also unchartered ground for the Star Wars franchise, with fans now able to freely roam around familiar and new territories in the galaxy far, far away. 

Sure, you’ll find your gaming experience hits close to home as you take in stunning vistas steeped in Star Wars aesthetics. But you’ll also enjoy a new approach in the franchise, one without Jedis to save the galaxy. Rather than a heroic adventure, you’ll unravel a Han Solo-like protagonist’s rise from rags to riches through navigating a nowhere close to noble path. 

We’ve compiled a deep-dive Star Wars Outlaws review below to help you decide whether the game is worth your time.

Pay Back Time

Star Wars Outlaws’ story follows Kay Vess, a street thief struggling to make ends meet in Canto Bight Worker’s District. She’s lost her parents and only has the most adorable pet, Nix, by her side. Together, they orchestrate heists, climbing the ladder of the most prominent outlaws. But amid a heist, things go awry, and Kay finds herself in the crosshairs of a powerful billionaire, Sliro. 

Sliro puts a bounty on Kay’s head, forcing her to seek the help of the criminal Jaylen. But Jaylen, in turn, sends her out into the galaxy to assemble a crew that will return to break into Sliro’s vault and leave him too broke to go after Kay. The premise lays the perfect foundation for exploring the five planets on offer. It plants enough intrigue to want to find out more, and as you unravel more of the plot, you grow more attached to the characters and world around you.

Powers That Be

As you head out to the planets, you’ll discover a criminal underworld run by four crime syndicates: Hutt Cartel, Pykes, Crimson Dawn, and Ashiga Clan. You can choose to please or defy them, with a reputation meter keeping track of your progress. 

Some crime syndicates will ask you to rescue one of their own and, as a result, fall in their good graces. But you can also kill syndicate members and put a bounty on your head. Ultimately, your reputation with a syndicate influences how freely you can move about their territories. And, well, that’s just about all the reputation meter keeps track of. 

It hardly feels fully exploited for all the meter can do. At the very least, your reputation with syndicates could have impacted the story. For instance, you could align yourself with the Pykes and climb up the ranks in the organization. The syndicate could even help you with your issues with Sliro. 

But alas, the powers that be remain a means to control how you move around the world—hardly enough influence to write home about.

Empire Strikes Again

Meanwhile, the war between the Empire and the Imperial boils over. Star Wars Outlaws is, after all, set between the events in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. And, again, the war operates in the background, exerting little influence. If anything, the Empire and the Imperial behave like the police. Cause significant mayhem in their territories, and they will send Stormtrooper patrols and elite death squads your way.

Back to Basics

Ultimately, Kay is the focal point of Star Wars Outlaws. And while she has bad hair, she can also be funny and pretty charming. Still, her character deserves more fleshing out, especially relatable backstories and growth in her outlaw career. She starts somewhat naive, and, unfortunately, as the story progresses, she doesn’t seem to grow more confident. 

Kay is portrayed as an “ambitious street thief,” yet doesn’t seem to invest in a better life. The money she manages to get away with during missions and side quests goes toward buying clothes, spoiling Nix, or something else insignificant. She doesn’t share her plans with Sliro’s loot once she assembles the best crew, and they break into the billionaire’s vault.

Look and Feel

Still, the visuals and music more than make up for the story’s mishaps. Save for the human characters sometimes looking dead-eyed, the alien creatures you meet have intricate designs. Nix is so adorable, while the places you visit, from the vastness of the wilderness to the bustling cities, all look stunning. 

Star Wars Outlaws does indeed do justice to the franchise, with its environments being the best visuals the franchise has seen. Meanwhile, the music is stellar, with deeply immersive orchestra pieces and top-shelf sound effects. 

Planet Hopping

The best crew is scattered across different planets. So, you’ll often hop from planet to planet, taking on missions and side quests as you please. The story campaign does have linearity that nudges you toward some sense of direction. Yet, you can always veer off the beaten path if you like when you stumble onto side quests that sound enticing. 

Star Wars Outlaws has an exciting way of pushing you to explore its world. You’ll eavesdrop on conversations that relay valuable intel about a treasure chest’s location. You could pick up a tablet and discover an Expert nearby. 

Experts give you missions that, once completed, reward you with new skills and abilities. So, even upgrading your character is woven into the gameplay. As a result, you are immersed in the world, keeping your eyes peeled for hidden treasures, secret intel, Experts, and more.

As much as you’ll often be moving from point A to B, completing a mission or side quest frequently in faraway places, you have your speeder bike to cover a lot of ground quicker. Riding the speeder is pretty fun, too, capably capturing the feeling of speed while still maintaining fluid control. And while biking, you could stumble onto biker gangs or an exciting point of interest that further spices up your playthrough.

Good Company

Nix can be pretty useful, in addition to companionship, and has plenty more abilities you can unlock. You can use Nix to disable cameras or distract enemies. You can instruct her to kick away grenades or perform takedowns. On top of all the value she gives you during combat, Nix has a charming personality that takes away the boredom on the more solo adventures.

Stealth First

Meanwhile, Kay has to make the least sound when infiltrating enemy bases. Otherwise, the guards will spot you and sound the alarm so you’re overwhelmed by waves of patrol guards. At the start, though, stealth can be a slog. You have limited stealth mechanics, mostly crouching behind cover and performing takedowns on non-wiser guards. You can use Nix to distract enemies, too. 

Fortunately, later stages of the game grant you more stealth options. An Expert will reward you with smoke grenades, for instance, that can break enemies’ line of sight. Still, you spend plenty of your playthrough sneaking into enemy bases. So, having limited stealth mechanics until much later is a bummer. Moreover, some quests are mandatory stealth missions. So, even if you would rather shoot your way out of trouble, you have no choice but to use stealth.

Guns Blazing

Shooting your blaster gun, however, is a joy. The gunplay is pretty much what you’d expect in any other game. It’s fun. It works. Yet you have more firing modes, including an electromagnetic pulse that charges up power and explodes on impact. 

While you cannot carry a secondary weapon, you can temporarily pick up enemy drops. These vary from rapid-fire chainguns to grenade launchers. At its best, Star Wars Outlaws’s combat thrives, balancing the fine line between skill and tension. 

Dogfights

You can launch into space in your Trailblazer spaceship and engage enemy factions in dogfights. From surface to space, the transition is flawless. Outer space missions range from smuggling to protection and constantly push you to upgrade your spaceship or risk getting shot out of the sky. 

However, the dogfights themselves are basic, simply zooming on an enemy, locking onto your target, and firing. Meanwhile, the cargo ships can be pretty slow, posing little challenge to chase them down. Still, it offers a nice change of pace to bully TIE fighters just because you can. 

Verdict

Star Wars Outlaw is a pretty fun and immersive game. It crafts stunning vistas that are a pure joy to explore. And you have a speeder bike that lets you cover a lot of ground quicker, plus a Trailblazer ship to set off into space in a snap of the finger. The game’s only letdown is the high expectations set by the Star Wars franchise. The story here hardly meets the level of intrigue the franchise is known for. 

While the gameplay actively pushes you to comb through every nook and cranny, it’s let down by limited stealth mechanics and basic dogfights. Still, Star Wars Outlaw nails open-world exploration to a T. You could spend hours simply taking in the gorgeous vistas and charming biomes you come across. Each moment in the game feels immersive, and that alone is enough to make your time in the game worth it.