Yes, there is a ‘wanted’ system, and you will have credits skimmed off you when you die, but the game is far too restrictive with far too many guard rails up to make it feel anything close to GTA.
You can’t just walk into a cantina and start blasting (Han shot first), and NPCs feel very static and unreactive, making them essentially set-dressing who don’t really acknowledge you in any way.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s incredible the first time you arrive at Mirogana and see dozens of people milling about. The atmosphere is so thick and is by far the best-realised Star Wars environment in a game, but it doesn’t last for long – as you begin to realise that you’re under strict rules without much room to experiment.
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If not GTA, then what? Assassin’s Creed meets Uncharted meets a very stripped-back Mass Effect is probably the closest you can get.
There is a wide-open world filled with endless fetch-quests, places to explore and things to do, but the closer you look, the more you realise you’re boxed in with quite strict limitations.
Fortunately, you can just crack on with the story if you want to, making it feel like a much more linear and focused experience where a more static world would make more sense, but there is the added freedom of different paths you can go down – more on that later.
Once the game is in full swing, there’s quite a satisfying gameplay loop to be found. You can, of course, go in guns blazing, but you won’t last long if you’re not using the cheesiest of exploits. Stealth is clearly what Massive Entertainment had in mind for the game, and there are robust enough mechanics to support it.
It’s no Metal Gear Solid, mind you, but you gain more and more abilities along the way, such as trying to talk yourself out of situations to buy time and throwing smoke bombs for a quick escape.
The same can be said for the shooting. It is competent enough to begin with, but comes more into its own as you upgrade Kay’s abilities.
Ship combat is fine but it feels like it serves as a means to an end. The controls are a little fiddly but it’s compensated by the fact that it’s quite forgiving. Upgrading the Trailblazer helps, but ultimately it is literally and metaphorically a vehicle to progress the story and visit new locations.
Nix, Kay’s Merqaal companion, is utterly delightful and feels like Star Wars’ answer to everyone’s favourite Disney alien, Stitch. Not only are they cute, but they are immensely useful and make up a large part of the gameplay, with Nix able to pickpocket enemies, access buttons and switches that are otherwise unreachable and more.
The most interesting aspect of gameplay by far, though, is the reputation system. It’s quite the balancing act, and it really makes it feel like your decisions matter.
It’s not so much an exercise in keeping everyone happy as it is keeping them content enough so they won’t kill you. Being a scoundrel interacting with other scoundrels, Kay is frequently presented with the choice to double-cross people, and this offered up the most interesting gameplay experience in our opinion.
The graphics, of course, are stunning, and go a long way towards distracting you from some gameplay’s shortcomings. Oftentimes, I would get off my speeder to pause and admire the sun setting across Toshara. It was at these moments when it truly felt like everything Massive Entertainment had worked towards came together.
All of the planets and stations you visit offer these breathtaking moments, many of which harken back to iconic stills from the films.
This all comes at the price of performance, however. If you are playing on PC, the ray-tracing features are quite heavy, but are well worth it if you have the horsepower.
The graphics have been quite buggy, though, making it feel like the game is coming in quite hot. A pre-release patch appears to have fixed a lot of it, but some issues still persist.
Backing up the gorgeous visuals is great sound design and music that hits all the right Star Wars notes. Really, it’s quite easy to please us Star Wars fans. A screaming TIE fighter, some blasters and we’re happy.
Massive Entertainment has, of course, done more than that, and there are epic orchestral tracks and the most satisfyingly crunchy sci-fi sounds that tie it all up nicely.
Unfortunately, one of the biggest flaws of Star Wars Outlaws is protagonist Kay Vess herself. That is not to say she is a bad character, as such, but not enough is done to establish her story and give us a reason to care early on.
It feels as though the game requires you to have massively bought into all the media and PR that has preceded release.
The ‘adorkable’ character trope wears thin very quickly, too. Kay Vess is a fugitive who has stolen a prized ship from a deadly crime syndicate and will not hesitate to massacre anyone who gets in her way. When you have just raided an Imperial Forward Operating Base and killed 40 stormtroopers, it feels a little odd when Kay returns to her employer all finger-guns and shrugs.
Fortunately, as the game progresses, Kay becomes a bit more serious. When more and more characters are introduced to the player (we don’t want to spoil who), the relationship between them all helps carry Kay along. It gets to a point where you really do feel like a rag-tag operation trying to carve a life out for yourselves in the big bad galaxy.
When taken in its entirety, Star Wars Outlaws is a good game that does a lot right, but it might not be the one you were expecting if you had bought into the pre-release hype. If you want a good romp across the galaxy with set-pieces and a competent story that carries you forward, you will probably have a good time.
If you were expecting a free-form GTA-like open-world game with endless possibilities, then perhaps this isn’t the game you’re looking for.
Star Wars Outlaws is out on Thursday 29th August at 11pm BST with early access starting Monday 26th August 11PM BST.
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