Star Wars Outlaws (2024)
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This review has been a long time coming. When I first saw the trailer for this game, I was instantly hooked: an open world Star Wars game? That looked fantastic? Count me IN.
I started playing the game early 2026, two years after the initial release. By this time the game had received patches that fixed some release-date bugs that turned people off the game, and harmed its reputation to the point that any potential sequel was nixed1 immediately.
The basics you need to know: you control Kay, a young outlaw who is trying to clear her name from the wanted sheets while simultaneously making her way in the galaxy. Alongside her is her trusty Nix (I can't recall his species' name, but think a loveable cat who can detonate grenades and steal things). The main plot of the game involves Kay putting together a team of — get this — outlaws to pull off a massive heist.
Throughout it all you have an open Star Wars world that allows you to freely explore and accomplish various side quests. You unlock different gear and upgrade your equipment as you go. You also need to balance your reputation with 4 different crime syndicates that influence your ability to sneak in and out of various parts of the planetary maps.
Stopping there for a moment, I want to address the "open world" concept of the game. It's true that it is an "open world" game, but it is limited in some capacities. I think it sits in a place just below Spider-Man (PS4). You can explore almost every corner of the maps and some objects react to your physical presence, but you can only interact with specific NPCs; however there's background dialogue throughout the entire game that sometimes lead to different side quests, but other times it's just set dressing (but still very cool).
The visuals in this game are breathtaking. The studio put a lot of effort into creating this game. There are two already-established planets in the game — Tatooine and Kijimi — as well as two brand new locations: Toshara, and Akiva.
Kijimi feels very underbaked, and from what I can tell there was more planned that couldn't get finished. Tatooine is what you'd expect (and more), but the game really shines with the original worlds of Toshara and Akiva.
Toshara is where you spend the most time: it acts as a "tutorial world". You're stuck on the planet (actually a moon) until you can get the required parts to fix your ship. The missions are designed to teach you the basic game mechanics and there are a lot of options for side quests between the main story missions. Toshara is similar to Tatooine in that it's very rocky and has a lot of desert-like terrain, but there is water and vegetation (and a lot of wind, which helps to show off the graphics engine).
Akiva, on the other hand, is huge. You don't even scratch the surface when it comes to exploring before the game's main quest pushes you off-planet. When you get to return freely there is a lot to do. The planet is so lush and features huge lakes. It's easy to get lost — which brings me to one gripe I have with exploration.
There's no useful inlaid map. There's a compass at the top of the screen that shows you which direction you're heading, and where specific waypoints are in relation to your position, but I would have found it much more helpful to have a little circle map in the top corner. Once you get used to how the maps "work", it becomes easier to navigate, but it could be a lot better.
Space travel is part of this game, too, but thankfully not a very important one. I didn't have a lot of fun until well after I upgraded my ship (which didn't really happen until after I finished the main story). Taking off, landing, and jumping to hyperspace2 are fun novelties at first but often I find myself using fast travel between planets when I don't feel like flying. It's fun enough, but the best parts of the game are on the surface.
There are two ways to approach the game: stealth or guns-blazing. I have a lot of fun with a mix of the two, generally preferring stealth. That's the great part of the game, though: you can play however you like.
The syndicate system is an interesting take that is supposed to make it feel like you're constantly hustling to make your way through the galaxy, pleasing one faction only to piss off another. Early in the game it does feel this way, and you have to prioritize different syndicates depending on the goals you have to accomplish. Ultimately, as you progress in the game it becomes easy to reach maximum reputation with all the syndicates, and at that point your biggest threat is sneaking into Imperial bases (which is a lot of fun).
The story itself is fun, but loses steam after the 3/4 mark and wraps up very quickly. Where at the start everything feels "grand" and epic, when you near the endgame everything shrinks down in scale. Still, I thought it was decent and I was satisfied at the end of it. There are two DLCs available, but I've only played one of them (Wild Card).
It's unfortunate that the major location in the Wild Card DLC is not available after you complete the DLC, but it's a lot of fun. I won't spoil anything.
The sound design in this game is amazing. Sound effects are perfect and sounds (including background dialogue) change direction based on where Kay is standing or looking. The game makes great use of the PS5 controller speakers, to the extent that I had to turn the volume down so I wouldn't surprise my wife when I was playing while she napped.
The score for the game is great as well.
Visually the game nails it. The story takes place sometime between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and everything looks lived-in. Grimy and dirty in places, but appropriately polished in others. I already mentioned the graphics engine but it's worth saying again that the animations are very fluid and natural.
I had a very good time with this game, and I'm not finished. There's still one more DLC, and I haven't come close to exploring Tatooine in full (I hear there are some fun spots deep in the desert, and also some hidden secrets in Kijimi space). One downside to all of it is many of the missions follow the same basic structure, especially the main story missions. Often the "big" levels involve the same exploration tactics, like crawling up a wall or swinging between ledges.
On the bright side, the levels are all well-designed and are fun to explore, so it doesn't always feel like you're doing the same thing over and over.
I highly recommend this game, especially since it's likely deeply discounted in most platform stores.
★★★★☆
- Excuse the pun.
- It's very satisfying to flick the control sticks down-then-up to "punch it".
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