Star Wars Outlaws has been out for a couple of weeks now. I have experienced everything in the game. It offers a lot, but nothing is perfect. It is a solid Star Wars non-jedi experience that I can easily recommend to Star Wars fans.
The article is free of spoilers. Some of the in-game screenshots depict locations and some easter eggs.
For me, Star Wars Outlaws has been a very enjoyable experience. For better or worse, Star Wars games have made me get used to playing as a powerful Jedi, which is always fun and entertaining but it’s nice to play as another type of character for once.
Han Solo is undeniably the most famous smuggler in the galaxy. He has charisma, excellent aim, a way with words, and an urge to make questionable choices that more often than not leave him in a very bad situation.
Kay Vess might not be as prominent as Chewbacca’s best friend but she still feels unique and with enough traits to fit within the Smuggler archetype without trying to be a carbonite copy of Han Solo.
At the beginning of the game Kay’s primary motivation is money but as the game progresses you see her true colors, a true and loyal friend willing to risk everything for her companions. She’s learning on the run and doesn’t pretend to have a false sense of security.
Speaking of friends, Nix is without a doubt the star of the game. This adorable Merqaal is what makes Star Wars Outlaws such a fun experience. The versatility of Kay’s companion is unmatched (sorry BD-1).
He’s involved in every important activity of the game: exploration, combat, looting, stealth, customization, mini-games, and even silly interactions that make Nix the cutest companion to ever exist in a Star Wars game.
It wouldn’t be a Star Wars experience without a sassy droid, ND-5 fills this role in his very particular way. He might not show up on screen as much as I’d like, but even then I got many laughs out of his dialogues. I didn’t expect much of this character but it was a very pleasant surprise.
Though, I can’t say the same about the other characters. Most secondary characters feel very bland and it’s hard to get interested in their stories.
I understand that they are not the main focus of the game but it would have been cool to have a small mission to expand their background.
Combat is what you could expect from a very basic shooter. I know that as a regular person, Kay is very limited in what she can do but it gets repetitive after some time.
Thankfully Nix is able to do most of the heavy lifting but don’t expect to learn anything fancier than Adrenaline Rush.
Criminal Syndicates are one of the best things in the game. Hutts, Crimson Dawn, the Ashiga Clan, and Pykes are very different from each other. You have to deal with each one in very different ways and that is reflected in the main quests that involve each of these Syndicates.
In Star Wars Outlaws the Empire is similar to what the movies and some games/series show it to be. A big and powerful machine with almost endless resources that’s only undermined by the incompetence and corruption within its ranks.
All you need is a way to crack a small dent and everything around crumbles apart. Not even the Death Troopers can make up for the incompetence of the majority.
The main story is solid, thought nothing unseen or unheard of. It remains predictable 90% of the time but there are some plot twists that kept me up and at my monitor despite playing for over a dozen hours straight some days, especially during the second half of the game.
It’s been a while since I played an Assassin’s Creed game (or any stealth game) so it took me a while to get used to this mechanic. To be honest I am pretty bad at it and I usually end up having to kill everyone before they raise the alarm.
Outlaws is all about stealth and can be very rewarding to those who manage to pull it off but you can still get away with being clumsy, which is very nice.
The game does a very good job of reminding you that Kay is no Jedi, especially in the early game. One miscalculation during a stealth mission and it’s all over.
Triggering an alarm can scale up to the Max Wanted Level, something very punishing if you haven’t unlocked many abilities or increased Kay’s max HP.
The expert system is a clever and entertaining way to unlock new abilities. You are not required to have all of them but if you do, it definitely makes things a little easier.
The quests to unlock them are entertaining but simple. Side quests on the other hand can feel very repetitive. This is an issue present in many games but that doesn’t make it any less annoying.
Customization is well balanced. A single-player game that’s not an RPG doesn’t require many customization options but there’s more than enough to satisfy my need for outfits and speeder paint jobs that match each occasion. The reputation rewards are some of my personal favorites.
There are so many things to do and different places to explore that doing that alone could take entire weeks. There’s always something interesting in a nearby area and if you pay closer attention, you might be able to find some very cool easter eggs, references, or cameos.
Space gameplay is simple and enjoyable but after doing your tenth space quest it can become tedious, especially if the Trailblazer is heavily upgraded. I wish that enemy ships and types of quests were more diverse.
Performance is arguably one of the weakest points of Star Wars Outlaws. I am running a fairly powerful PC with an AMD 7800X3D and a 4080 Super so my experience has been very smooth but this is not the case for all members of the VULKK team.
Even then, you shouldn’t need to spend thousands of dollars on a PC to be able to have good frame rates and a smooth experience. I really dislike that it’s not possible to completely turn Ray Tracing off. Running this game on my previous card, a 3060TI, sounds like an almost impossible task.
The environment is absolutely beautiful. Even a planet like Tatooine has some stunning visuals. I could spend days just using the photo mode getting some very cool shots.
By the way, the features of photo mode could be improved a lot. It’s annoying that you can’t save presets. Having to adjust all settings every single time you want to take a photo is incredibly annoying.
I must point out how bad Kay’s hair looks compared to everything else. Hair is a nightmare to animate but I don’t believe that justifies how bad it looks. It was so off-putting to have these absolutely stunning views with a character that looks like something from a game released years ago. The details on her clothing are fantastic. A lot of attention was dedicated to even the less-visible parts of her character, like her hands. The textures are very high quality.
The price of Star Wars Outlaws might understandably be a turn-off for many players. There are many Star Wars Outlaws editions and none of them is cheap. If you want to play Star Wars Outlaws at least once just to experience it, I’d recommend subscribing to Ubisoft+ until you finish the game.
Based on the aggressive pricing models to “actually own the game”, it is clear that this is Ubisoft’s prime goal – to get players to rent their games.
No game is perfect (except for The Witcher 3 maybe). I never expected that of Star Wars Outlaws. There are many things that could be improved for a title of this type or even a sequel but overall I had a great time playing it.
It kept me engaged with the story, entertained with the side quests and the general experience was something fresh while also keeping the familiar element of the Star Wars universe.
Some aspects of the gameplay are great while others become repetitive after a while, but there’s a balance between both. In my many hours of gameplay, there wasn’t a single time where I got that bored to actually want to play another game instead.
I’d recommend Star Wars Outlaws to any fan of Star Wars, even if they’re more on the casual side. The game is beginner-friendly and does a good job of explaining most things. However, it might be a good idea to wait for a few more performance improvements if your PC is struggling to comfortably cover the PC System Requirements.
Completing the main story is not the end. There are many side activities to do to prepare for the upcoming DLCs: Wildcard and A Pirate’s Fortune. Coming out in Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 respectively.
Comments from other members of the VULKK team
Here are a few words from some of our other guys from the VULKK team who play and cover this game.
ALEX aka “Vulkk”
founder, lead editor | alex@vulkk.com
Star Wars Outlaws is exactly the type of games I enjoy – a third person action Star Wars adventure with enough structure and story. It offers enough freedom to explore and hunt for secrets. It’s a typical Ubisoft game, so naturally, the game goes a bit too hard on helping you find most locations by marking them from a few hundred meters away.
The story was a bit too predictable, but I was too obsessed with Nix most of the time that I forgive and forget the weak moments. The game offers everything (even more than I asked for of it), but nothing is perfect. I am lucky to be able to play it on a very powerful machine with an extremely high-end GPU, but even then the technical difficulties of this “pre-next gen” title yield bad results.
Kay’s hair is horrible all the time and the FPS counter dips too noticeably from time to time. The cinematics in the later planets are underwhelming and some of them felt even broken or unfinished.
Despite its issues, I have enjoyed it a lot and plan to play all of its DLCs when they are released.
► Currently playing:
Star Wars Outlaws | The Witcher 3 (still!) | SWTOR
SIOW
writer | siow@vulkk.com
I’m enjoying the game as it helps build the view of an average citizen’s life in the less fortunate parts of the galaxy. I love the Nix treat minigames as I love to see what kinds of foods they eat in Star Wars. Some characters such as Ank Pakano are full of charm and the dry humor in Outlaws compliments Star Wars well.
All the mini-games in Outlaws are pretty great and addictive. I wish the characters had more expressive emotions during cutscenes or average talks like how they do in Jedi Survivor. Riding the speeder bike is a pain on PC with keyboard and mouse, and for a while I felt that many of the game’s aspects felt half baked.
Ship combat made me want to play Galactic Starfighter in SWTOR, the blaster combat made me want to play Battlefront II, and exploration made me miss my jumping abilities from Jedi Survivor.
That’s not to say it’s a bad game, it can’t do it all possibly due to engine limitations. I just felt these aspects could have been fleshed out a bit more. Overall I like the game and would only recommend it to my friends that are hardcore Star Wars fans. The price will likely deter more casual players or people just getting into Star Wars.
We continue our coverage until we exhaust everything we want to show and explain, which may take another month. We don’t like rushing and prefer to test thoroughly things first.
We will also be covering the two upcoming paid DLCs as well as any free updates and news about the game.
Related Star Wars Outlaws Collections of Guides
Our Guides Master List for Star Wars Outlaws is a great starting point. In it you will find all of our guides and walkthroughs ordered in categories.
