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During the opening hours of Star Wars Outlaws, there's a moment that feels magical. After crash-landing on the plains of Toshara Moon, you're set loose with a speeder and tasked with reaching the nearby city before a pursuing group of bandits turn protagonist Kay Vess to scoundrel Swiss cheese. Despite the danger, the adventure ahead feels limitless. The planet unfurls in every direction, its grassy plains billowing as your speeder tears across them, and it feels like you're about to be set loose upon it all.
After seeing early impressions comparing Star Wars Outlaws to Red Dead Redemption 2 – and those comparisons labeled "great" by creative director Julian Gerighty – it seemed like my dreams were coming true. After all, this supposed likeness was the reason I dived into Outlaws. I'm not a Star Wars buff, but the merest mention of Rockstar's western epic is usually enough to send me trotting around the Grizzlies. Yet, not long after Kay's speeder coughed into life, cracks in that fantasy started appearing – and although I ultimately didn't get the Red Dead Redemption 2-style open world I pined for, Star Wars Outlaws remains a huge step in the right direction for Ubisoft.
Familiar frontiers
Star Wars Outlaws review: "An exceedingly fun Star Wars game that's hindered by poor stealth systems"
Some of these cracks were minuscule. For one, I couldn't just turn and blast the bandits who were chasing me on my speeder (though I understand Massive's explanation for not being able to free-aim while driving). But when I reached the city of Mirogana and threw myself into Kay's underworld wheeling and dealing, it became clear that this wasn't going to be the vast space western I'd hoped for.
My biggest issue is that Kay's adventure is too isolated from the world it's inhabiting. Main missions are often set in strictly linear locations that are too detached from the wider world – and after the umpteenth "sneak here, don't get caught, maybe shoot your way out," the thrusters fall off, and suddenly you're in a level, not a place. It's too formulaic, too game-ified with forced stealth and easy fail states, to feel like you're truly risking it all by sneaking into an Imperial base riddled with stormtroopers, or working in a part of town Kay really shouldn't be in.
On the other hand, take Red Dead Redemption 2's 'Blessed are the Meek?' mission, which tasks you with rescuing insufferable bandit Micah Bell from the town of Strawberry's jail. It's just as on the rails as Kay sneaking into a Pyke stronghold (albeit far louder), yet doesn't feel it. Micah can be busted out in a few different ways, whether that's using a specific mechanic – in this case, attaching a massive chain pulley to his window – or with regular things you can already do while free-roaming, like lobbing dynamite at his cell wall or simply walking into the jail, shooting every deputy in sight, and grabbing the keys. Even after escaping, there are consequences. Strawberry remains a visitable location well beyond this mission, but if you return before dealing with the massive bounty incurred for the jailbreak, you'll be arrested or killed. It's an approach that makes Strawberry seem like a living, breathing part of Red Dead Redemption 2's world, while much of Outlaws feels like a patchwork of one-and-done setpieces.
Admittedly, it's not a perfect comparison. Being able to blast in and out of an Empire stronghold, armed with nothing but a blaster, would have felt even more immersion-breaking than its segmented stealth missions. This is a sentiment shared by Gerighty, who pointed out the limitations of Kay's perspective in an exclusive post-launch interview with GamesRadar+. "If you're going into an Empire-controlled area, coming out of your ship all guns blasting, that, narratively, doesn't quite fit the generosity that we'd love to allow," he explained, " It's just these moments where we're trying to convey that aspect of you being a scoundrel against 1000 Stormtroopers, so what are you going to do?"
I completely agree with Gerighty here – it illustrates the difficult position Massive had to work from, though the result feels like a damned if you do, damned if you don't middle-ground. However, the existing approach pays off in virtually every other aspect of Star Wars Outlaws, as Massive's positioning of Kay as a plucky yet ultimately quite-small-fry in the grand scheme of things is excellently done. Taking time to amble through the world, nipping into seedy back rooms for a quick game of Kessel Sabbac before leaving for a quick score or treasure hunt you heard about in a saloon, is Outlaws at its very best. The world itself, despite the shadow cast by its formulaic missions, is vibrant and perfect for, as Gerighty puts it, "virtual tourism". In Ubisoft's usual tried-and-true formula, you're guided by the nose from one glaring minimap icon to the next. In Outlaws, you can leave the Trailblazer for five minutes and genuinely not know where you'll end up. Moving away from interface-led exploration is a phenomenal step in the right direction, and one that I would kill to see Ubisoft ape in Assassin's Creed Shadows.
It's also why I sincerely hope that Massive is given the opportunity to make a Star Wars Outlaws sequel. Gerighty and game director Mathias Karlson pointed to some of the best open world games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Elden Ring as examples of scale and detail done right, yet both of these had the benefit of iteration behind them – if you go back and play the first Red Dead Redemption, its open world is significantly less lively than its successor. What could Massive do with that same chance to iterate?
No, those first moments on Toshara Moon didn't lead to the immersive space-western I'd hoped for – and perhaps with its setting, it was never going to. But if a sequel was announced tomorrow, I'd be first in line for another trip on the Trailblazer.
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