XBOX REVIEW | Star Wars Outlaws

Star Wars Outlaws is a game I have been really looking forward to. Developed by Massive Entertainment, it’s the first-ever open-world Star Wars game, and I was eager to see what they could do with the famous IP. Star Wars Outlaws is a single-player action-adventure with RPG elements. You play as a young human scoundrel called Kay Vess from the Worker’s District in Canto Bight on the planet Cantonica. Everywhere Kay goes, so does her pet Merqaal named Nix, who is a small dog-like creature. Nix is Kay’s best friend, and being a pet owner myself, I loved watching the bond that Kay and Nix have throughout this adventure. Nix even gets jealous when Kay is petting many of the other creatures you will encounter on your adventure.

Kay’s adventure begins on a perilous quest to escape the planet of Cantonica. Here, you will learn the basics of Kay and Nix’s abilities and familiarise yourself with the gameplay mechanics and controls. This adventure takes place between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. The leader of the organisation, Sliro, places a bounty on Kay Vess, and she’s then offered an opportunity to gain her freedom by completing the biggest heist she’s ever done. This heist is no easy job, but it’s her only path to freedom, which means she has no choice but to take it on.

As Kay and Nix embark on this journey, they need to take on tough jobs, fight many fearsome foes, build a skilled crew, fly in dangerous dogfights, and tackle many more trials as they work toward their end goal. Everything is high-stakes since Kay is an outlaw with a price on her head.

Things I liked!

• Syndicates/Reputation System | After completing a quest early on in Star Wars Outlaws, I was given the option to betray the Pyke Syndicate. Their leader had just been rude to me, so I chose to betray him. Doing so decreased my reputation with the Pyke Syndicate to “Bad.” I was not expecting the repercussions that followed to have such a big effect on my options going forward. There are a total of five different stages that you can fall into: Terrible, Bad, Poor, Good, and Excellent. Actions that favour a specific Syndicate will obviously increase your reputation, and actions you take against them will decrease it. However, you’ll find that you can decrease your relationship with one Syndicate simply by working with another, so you’ll have to be careful if you want to keep everyone happy. Your reputation affects how welcome you are in Syndicate-controlled districts, how much work is available for you to take on, the prices at merchants, and also what gifts are available to be earned. One of the most immediate consequences of a “Poor” to “Terrible” reputation is how difficult it is to enter and explore districts controlled by that Syndicate. At “Poor,” you’ll be trespassing; at “Bad,” you’ll be engaged and shot on sight; and at “Terrible,” you’ll have death squads actively hunting you down no matter where you are. If you also have a bad reputation with a Syndicate, this may mean fast travel points become unavailable too. You can increase your reputation with specific Syndicates by completing contracts from job brokers, alongside completing general Syndicate-linked tasks. I really enjoyed the extra dynamic that this added to my adventure, and it really made me think twice about every decision I made.
  

• Gameplay | Star Wars Outlaws features many different gameplay mechanics. Kay herself is a thief, so she is always on the lookout for an easy opportunity should one arise. Using her beloved pet Nix, Kay can command Nix to steal an item from her unknowing mark and then return the item to Kay. This is useful for quest items such as key cards or when in a gunfight, as Nix can run and fetch guns and Bacta vials, which heal Kay’s depleted health. Using the same command for Nix, which is triggered by holding down the LB button, Kay can command Nix to distract or attack enemies. This makes it easier for Kay to sneak past or knock out enemies and works really well. Finally, with this command, Kay can send Nix to push buttons, pull levers, detonate explosives and sabotage alarms, which is very important, especially when in an Imperial base with threats all around you. Sabotaged alarms will mean if you are spotted, you will have more time to escape or eliminate any threat. In Star Wars Outlaws, the camera is fixed in a third-person view, which I think is perfect. Gunplay battles remind me a little of games such as The Division 1 and 2. You can hide behind walls and objects used for cover, shoot blind, or sneak out for a more accurate shot. Kay has a blaster with three modules of use. From the start, it only has plasma, which fires plasma bolts. Then you soon unlock the ION module, which fires ionised particles, effective against droids and shields. Lastly, you have the power module, which charges up before firing a powerful bolt. Each of these modules can be upgraded from gear and loot that you find as you explore and can also be bought from the many merchants. You may even be rewarded with upgrade parts when you complete a quest or contract. Kay can also climb certain walls, which instantly reminded me of the most recent Tomb Raider games trilogy. Kay also has a Speeder, which can be called at the press of a button and is vital to get around as you explore and complete missions and quests on each planet. Another gameplay mechanic that reminded me of Tomb Raider was Nix’s Sense ability, which shows any hidden items, enemies, and more. Kay can travel from planet to planet in her ship named The Trailblazer. Each planet has its own small orbit area where you can engage in thrilling dogfights with The Empire, pirates, and other foes. I found the controls simple to learn but very effective in combat. There is also lots of looting to do in these orbit areas, and you can even board smaller space stations. Overall, I was really impressed with the core gameplay mechanics in Star Wars Outlaws. While it is possible to use fast travel to move around the map and even from planet to planet, I preferred to only use fast travel when it was necessary. For example, if there was a lot of heavy terrain between me and where I needed to go, or if I was simply in a hurry. There are four different difficulty options to choose from, with Explorer being the easiest and focusing on the story and exploring the galaxy, to Scoundrel being the hardest and taking on everything the galaxy and Empire can throw at you.
  
  
• Graphics | I was really impressed with the visuals and all the tiny little details found in Star Wars Outlaws; you really do feel fully immersed in the game. Each planet is very different, with some, like Tatooine, mostly being all sand. This sand planet was by far my favourite to explore on my speeder. Fans of the Star Wars movies will also recognize this planet as it has been featured in seven of the movies so far. There are many amazing vistas, and I was constantly using the in-game photo mode to capture the beautiful scenery, which is now my wallpaper on my Xbox home screen. Along with the normal quality mode and performance modes, you also have the option to change the display screen to forge a more cinematic aspect ratio, which has borders across the top and bottom of the screen. Personally, I preferred the full-screen option, but it’s nice to have the choice.
  
  
• Audio | As you would expect from any Star Wars game, the sound effects and musical score are absolutely incredible, again adding to the immersion that you are in a living Star Wars game. From the sound of speeders whizzing past you to the chatter of NPCs when you are walking down a market street in one of the many cities you will get to explore in Star Wars Outlaws, the audio experience is top-notch. While the musical score may be original and made just for Star Wars Outlaws, you can instantly tell this is Star Wars.
  

Mixed & disliked!

• Navigation | A few times while playing Star Wars Outlaws, it has not always been clear where I am meant to go. At other times during a mission, a “Return to quest area” message would appear on screen with a timer counting down from ten. This would often result in me having to start that mission again or go back to the last checkpoint.
  

• Minigames | There are quite a few minigames to be found in the Star Wars Outlaws universe. While some, like lockpicking, really grew on me, others, like Slicing (hacking terminals), I still do not really understand. However, just by pressing all the buttons, I have never failed at hacking a terminal. There is a card game called Sabacc, similar to Gwent in The Witcher 3, that I found tough to learn at first. The more I play, the more I start to understand the rules, along with the cheats required to beat the more cunning opponents. Then there are some arcade games that you can find scattered around the cities. These are fun at first, but they can quickly grow tiresome with their lacklustre graphics and basic gameplay.
  
  
• Weapons | Kay has a blaster, which is the only weapon she can carry with her at all times. During battles, you can pick up enemy guns that they drop, but as soon as you climb a ladder, perform a takedown, or get on your speeder, Kay automatically drops the weapon. I found this a little annoying, especially early on before I was able to start upgrading Kay’s own blaster.
  
  
• Minor performance issues |  I have encountered a few performance issues, such as textures popping, creatures appearing in places they should not be, and sometimes when I try to perform a manual save, I get an error message. However, if I select another save file, it saves okay. On a few occasions, I have become trapped between some rocks and had to load a previous save, but I have not encountered any game-breaking bugs or glitches.

How long did I play the review before publishing? 45 hours
How long to beat the story? 30 hours
How many Achievements did I earn before publishing? 18/49 OR 255/1000
How long to achieve 1000G | 80 hours +
You’ll love this game if you like these | Tomb Raider Series, Cyberpunk 2077 and Starfield

CONCLUSION

Score: 84/100 – Star Wars Outlaws has so much going for it, despite a few minor performance issues that are maybe to be expected within an enormous open world to explore. I was really impressed with how the syndicate and reputation systems worked and that was something that really did surprise me in the best way possible. It really makes you think about your actions and choices you make. As I mentioned earlier I really enjoyed watching Kay and Nix’s relationship grow as the story progressed. There are also some cute moments when Kay and Nix eat dinner and you need to press and perform the button and stick actions that appear on screen. The visuals are a real treat and the audio is equally impressive.  After finishing the main story there is still so much to see and do in this large vibrant galaxy.

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