I wasn’t expecting to care much for the newest video game entry into the universe, but Massive Entertainment’s has had a choke❀hold on my attention ever since I bought it over the weekend. The game has had largely middling reviews (and some brutally negative ones), and much has been said about Kay Vess being a one-note protagonist, but despite myself🌞 and all of these complaints, I kind of love her.

It’s hard to explain, really. Perhaps it’s my enduring love for the Star Wars scoundrel – I always played Knights of the Old Republic as o🔴ne, meaning I did a lot of sneaking around, and getting to do that in a game in 2024 automatically endears me to Kay and her way of life. But I also think it’s because Kay is, canonically, really bad at being a scoundrel.

Like, Really Bad

In facไt, Star Wars Outlaws is pretty much propelled forward by Kay being really bad at what she does. She’s broke, in debt, and lives in the attic of a bar. Despite very obviously needing some charity, she rejects bartender and mentor Bram’s generosity, which is objectively a stupid thing to do if you don’t have a credit to your name. She scrounges up the mone🍃y to repair her broken data spike by picking up trash and selling it, or getting her companion Nix to do the dirty work for her.

She’s so bad at hustling that when she goes to the Club, the bouncer immediately tells her to buzz off. Later, when she tries to talk ജher way past a guard, she’s so woefully inept at lying that he basically laughs her out of the room. When she does eventually manage to find her way to her ma𝐆rk, she triggers an alarm and gets caught.

I’ve played a couple of hours already, and it feels like this is just Kay’s life. She moves through the world, fighting an uphill battle against her own skill issues, failing꧟ constantly and somehow, miraculously, surviving to see another day. She continually tells Nix that the next job will be better, and it neve❀r is. She is delusionally optimistic, and powers through every screw up with sheer willpower.

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S�🐼�tar Wars Outlaws Is Too Simplistic For Its Own Good

I just wish there was more to Star Wars Outlaws.

Girlfailures Are Sympathetic Characters

And I can’t help but love her for that. It feels like she’s terrible at everything, which is why the game’s mechanical character🐓 progression feels so satisfying. In lieu of skill points, Outlaws has you unlocking new progression paths by finding experts. To unlock skills, you have to complete a related challenge that can be finished just through playing the game.

For example, an early skill you can unlock is Fast-Talk, which lets Kay do the scoundrel thing of starting to yap when she’s found by an enemy, confusing them enough that their reaction is delayed and she can fire off some blaster shots. It’s mechanically useful, allowing her to extend her stealthy incursions into places she isn’t supposed to be even if she gets caught, but it also feels like she’s getting better at just being a scoundrel. This is what scoundrels are supposed to do, and you get to watch her figure that 𝐆out in real time.

Because she’s , watching her learn those skills makes you root for her more. She’s failing upwards, yes, but sh🗹e’s on the up-and-up nonetheless, and who amongst us doesn’t want the underdog to༺ come out on top? Scoundrels are scrappy, forced into lives of crime because of the circumstances they’re born into, and Kay Vess is as scrappy as they come. I love watching her fail, because she always comes back stronger. Being this naively optimistic can be a good thing.

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Your Rating

168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Star Wars Outlaws
Open-World
Action-Adventure
Systems
Top Critic Avg: 75/100 Critics Rec: 67%
Released
August 30, 2024
ESRB
T For Teen // Violence, Simulated Gaꦜmbling, Mil꧒d Language
Developer(s)
🌜 Massive Entertainment
Publisher(s)
Ubisoft, Lucasfilm Games
Engine
Snowdrop

WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL

Star Wars Outlaws follows Kay Vess as she bids to out manoeuver the galaxy's deadliest criminals. An open-world action-adventure game from Ubisoft, it also features grand space battles and a deep story.