There are times in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Star Wars Outlaws where a galaxy far, far away has never felt more alive, in films, video games, or otherwise. Huge stretches on the planets of Tatooine and Kijimi had me exploring backwater streets and syndicate bases not in pursuit of dull objectives, but to satisfy my own curiosity. When I first arrived in Moꦬs Eisley, I was blown away by how busy, vast, and complicated in scope it managed to be. I got lost, and found myself engaging in conversation with strangers to learn more about their plight, which led me to take on naturally occurring quests and odysseys I will remember for a long time to come.
Ubisoft’s swashbuckling blockbuster shines where it really matters, while doing an admirable job of whipping its tired 🦹formula into shape until it resembles something fresh. This isn’t your usual open world adventure driven forward by a bloated map full of icons and quests, but an experience of more curated scope where missions revolve not just around enjoyable characters, but a mixture of Uncharted-esque platforming and Watch Dogs hacking and stealth that provides heroine Kay Vess a means to showcase what makes her so special. Despite all of its worthy successes, however, Outlaws also feels narratively scuppered, strangely unpolished, and just a few small steps away from greatness at every turn. It’s a frustratingly flawed gem, an untempered kyber crystal waiting for a Jedi to forge it into a magnificent lightsaber.
Kay Vess begins her journey on Canto Bight, a casino planet fans might recognise from 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Last Jedi. She was born and raised on this celestial monument to capitalism, raised by her distant scoundrel mother and a small community doing everything it can to stay alive. It’s a compelling foundation for a character who is essentially a reimagined Han Solo, but the game’s opening hours do a terrible job of explaining who Kay is, why we should care about her goals and what drives her. We know she wants to do one more big score to guarantee a new life of riches for herself and Nix, but beyond that, there just aren’t that many reasons to cﷺare about her journey.
One ☂thing I appreciated about Outlaws was its willingness to abandon the wider Star Wars canon. Yes, you’ll sneak into Jabba’s Palace, but that⛎ aside there’s nary a lightsaber nor Skywalker in sight. This is an original story that wants to go its own way no matter what.
Outlaws speedruns what should have been a slower-paced introductiꦐon to get us a ship and let us loose in the galaxy. This pays off in the end, but for several hours I was desperately in need of something to hold onto narratively, and had to be tided over by cutesy pockets of dialogue and smaller characters found in the game’s four criminal syndicates. You will find them across all five traversable planets in Outlaws, often defending specific expanses of territory or existing in hesitant tandem in sprawling towns and outposts. The Hutts, Pykes, Crimson Dawn, and Ashiga Clan underpin everything the game throws at you, and thankfully, they deliver in both gameplay and narrative.
While the main quest revolves around Kay recruiting a motley crew of criminals so she can return to Canto Bight and break into a vault that eluded her in the opening sequence, every mission the game has to offer is put forward by the four primary syndicates. You’re doing their dirty work, and often offers of better pay or more unique rewards will come through towards the end of a mission where you can switch allegiances on the fly. This drastically im🦩pacts your general reputation and will dictate whether you will need to sneak into certain areas to avoid factions that hate your guts or if you can walk in like you’re underworld besties. This constant back and forth is what makes Outlaws such an interesting game, and one that kept me hooked even if it fails to deliver in myriad other areas. It’s trying something new, and that in itself is admirable.
As for how Outlaws plays on a moment-to-moment basis, it feels like an unorthodox mixture of the criminally underrated Watch Dogs 2 and Naughty Dog’s Uncharted. Kay Vess doesn’t have the force or a glowing sword, but she does have her trusty blaster and a deadly pair of fists. The majority of enemies take only three punches to knock out, which is laughabl𝕴y unrealistic, yet feels incredible. But combat is also too simple at times, turning the majority of encounters into swift blaster battles or a back and forth of sneaking around, inevitably getting caught, and killing everyone you see. It is great fun no matter what, but it feels like the systems c🔯ould have been more complex.
꧙There’s also Nix, Kay’s adorable pet who is destined to sell millions of plushies. He’s not just a pretty face though, and is wonderful to utilise in combat and platforming. You hold down a sho🅺ulder button to issue general commands like distract, steal, or attack, giving Kay enough time to run in and finish the job before an alarm is raised.
Kay is a scoundrel, so she spends a lot of her tiꦍme overriding locks and hacking into terminals. This is expressed through two fun ꦦlittle minigames that, while enjoyable, can come a little too frequently.
He is also great at using switches or navigating the environment on command, becoming an extension of how ꦿyou navigate the world. There’s one mission where Nix is taken away and you’re asked to save him, and it was only when he was gone that I realised how integral his presence is to everything Outlaws does so effectively.
Nix factors into the story eventually, and it’s emphasised how much he and Kay have been through together over the years. Unfortunately, like so much of the main narrative, it feels so last minute and poorly written that you simply don’t care all that much. Your engaging hijinks are♊ suddenly interrupted when Outlaws remembers it also needs to tell a story, even if it’s one defined by one-dimensional stakes and wrought with cliché. I would rather create my own stories using the conversations I have with local occupants while exploring the open world instead of only tolerating the mediocre main yarn that is thrown at me. It should have been so much better.
Supporting characters like ND-5 - the mercenary droid with a cool jacket and a slutty waist - pick up the slack somewhat, but even their big moments are neutered by a lack of setup. It feels strange that Massive Entertainment has nailed so many aspects of this underworld but didn’t have🔥 enough steam to do its main characters justice. It had the time to nail this, even if it came in the form of additional quests or clumsy exposition, but none of thཧat ever came to pass.
As for the open worlds you explore, they’re all a varied mixture of vastness, denseness, and capitalise on a variety of different strengths. Toshara Moon is a windswept land of desert and forests in which towering rocky mount𒀰ains dominate the landscape as farmers live off t𒐪he land. Kijimi is a more densely packed city environment filled with syndicates vying for dominance as heavy snow drowns out the wilderness.
We&rsqu🎀o;ve all seen Tatooine dozens of times before, but this is the most alive it has ever felt, and so I was compelled to jump on my Speeder to discover all it had to offer. Akiva is the weakest of the bunch, mostly because good jungle levels are hard to do without feeling overly complicated or dominated by obnoxious foliage. No change here.
The Speeder is a trusty steed. I initially guffawed at the fact I couldn’t hijack other vehicles in the game, but after a few upgrades, Kay’s ride is a force to be reckoned with. Being able to jump, boost, and slide across the water offers a gradual means of opening up each planet, so you’ll have a re𝓀ason to return, like some sort of galactic metroidvania. I wouldn’t call it a true open world, but for Star Wars, it’s a convincing enough take to keep you engrossed.
I should probably mention space travel and combat, which is another one of Outlaws’ defining shortcomings. You essentially explore the orbit of each planet where a selection of optional locations and space stat🍃ions can be accessed, but aside from that, combat is basic and exploration is𝔍 forgettable. I saw it as a means to an end, which shouldn’t be the case.
Star Wars Outlaws is a frustrating experience to critique because its high points are numerous, from spending an entire hour infiltrating a deceptively vast imperial outpost to upgrading Kay’s skills by engaging with the open world in ways that feel natural and rewarding. There are times when I didn’t want to put this game down, which only made its glaring omissions all the more noticeable. A lacklustre story, a bizarre lack of polish for a production of this scale, and a main character that isn’t the step 🅰forward she should have been all hold the game back from excellence.
168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Star Wars Outlaws
Reviewed On PlayStation 5
- Top Critic Avg: 75/100 Critics Rec: 67%
- Released
- August 30, 2024
- ESRB
- ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ♊ᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ T For Teen // Violence, Simulated Gambling, Mild Language
- Developer(s)
- Massive𒆙 Entertainment
- Publisher(s)
- Ubisoft, Lucasfilm Games
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.
- Star Wars has never felt this sprawling and dense before
- Combat, stealth, and exploration are all thoroughly engaging
- The criminal underworld is fleshed out, interesting, and unpredictable
- Kay Vess is surprisingly one-dimensional and boring
- The main narrative never gets off the ground
- A distinct lack of polish in some areas is hard to ignore
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