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Star Wars Outlaws Review – Galaxy of Crime

Star Wars Outlaws Review – Galaxy of Crime

In the familiar galaxy far, far away, Star Wars Outlaws is a third-person open-world adventure stealth game developed by Ubisoft. Set between the events of the classic films, The Empire strikes back And Return of the JediThis original story promises exciting escapades and calculated cunning. Considering Ubisoft’s track record with franchises like Assassin’s Creed And Far awayan open world star Wars The game could be a direct hit or a gross miss. Players take on the role of a new outlaw who is thrown headfirst into the criminal underworld. Star Wars Outlaws is a surprisingly addictive and entertaining stealth game that rewards curiosity and brings a bit of old-school to the table star Wars Magic.

Aspirations of a Young Outlaw

Star Wars Outlaws follows Kay Vess, an aspiring criminal trapped in the attic of a bar. Although she achieves small successes in her chic hometown of Canto Bight, she still feels stuck on the desert planet of Cantonica and strives for bigger things. Together with her cute creature companion Nix, Kay eventually comes into conflict with the scheming crime boss Sliro Barsha and has to flee Cantonica with a target on her head. After crash-landing on the moon Toshara, Kay’s epic journey begins in full force as she must embrace life as an outlaw and gain the favor of the criminal underworld if she is to escape Sliro’s headhunters.

This story about a young bully and her friend who transform into hardened, calculated criminals is not just limited to Cantonica and Toshara, but also jumps to various other celestial bodies throughout the galaxy. You’ll explore the snowy streets of Kijimi Town, spend some time on the jungle-covered surface of Akiva, and of course, race across the dunes of Tatooine. Numerous characters appear throughout the journey and some will join the force for Kay’s big heists, including a protection droid named ND-5 who was particularly likeable. The deeper you delve into a life of crime, the more factions like the Pyke Syndicate, the Crimson Dawn and the infamous Hutt Cartel can offer you help or become additional adversaries depending on the choices you make.

In the end, Star Wars Outlaws presents a personal and adventurous heist story that stays true to the source material while creating an original crime story. Kay, Nix, ND-5 and the rest of your motley group are all quite memorable, with solid voice acting from the entire cast. The facial animations during dialogue are rather wooden and unimpressive, but the cutscenes are the exact opposite and look sharp and exciting. Best of all, Outlaws Holds back on excessive fan service, something that plagues many others star Wars games. While there are a few funny references or missions reminiscent of moments from the films, the vast majority of the narrative is original, fresh and intriguing.

Living the life of a mercenary

Star Wars Outlaws is reminiscent of other open-world games from Ubisoft, but places much more emphasis on player discovery. A common complaint with the Ubisoft formula is that you often blindly follow waypoints to find and complete quests, but in OutlawsMost missions and points of interest are discovered automatically as you play. The main quest features both open and linear missions, with an equal emphasis on infiltration, stealth action and daring traversal. Talking to NPCs, examining the oddities of the environment, and generally exploring with an inquisitive mind are often the best ways to discover new tasks for Kay to complete. Completing the main quests will provide plenty of sci-fi fun, but to see the best the game has to offer, it’s important to take your time, immerse yourself in it, and look at things that look interesting.

When arriving on a planet, it’s common to take a trip to the nearest cantina in town, talk to the locals, and try to find mercenaries. This is often how you discover side quests or come across valuable information that leads you to the larger open world map outside the city walls. Unlike other Ubisoft games, there is no particularly tall tower to climb to view the activity around the map. You actually have to go out there and look for things yourself. There’s no shortage of merchants to meet, mini-games to find, or hidden treasures to discover, whether you’re within the city limits or exploring the wilds of a particular planet. I particularly enjoyed the simple but strategic card game Sabacc, which you can play in bars around the galaxy (or in secret underground tournaments if you can find them).

While you can zip around the map with your speeder, Star Wars Outlaws is designed for stealth, as making a ruckus will likely make your life more difficult than if you had remained silent. When you play as Kay, you have a number of basic abilities, such as melee attacks, an upgradeable blaster, lockpicking skills, and a handy grappling hook, but she’s not a killing machine. Instead, it’s wiser to use their dexterity to slip past guards, perform stealth attacks, and sneak through areas undetected. Her companion Nix is ​​also a huge boon in this regard, able to distract enemies, steal items, access otherwise unreachable switches, and more.

Spaceship gameplay is also available as you can launch your cruiser into orbit of any planet, shoot TIE fighters and steal crates of floating cargo. Flying through space is relatively simple, as are the dogfights, but it’s still fun and provides another level of open world exploration to enjoy.

Unfortunately, climbing, melee combat, and some other elements of navigation feel clunky at times. It’s easy to make a mistake by jumping onto a ledge only to find that Kay can’t grab onto it. Your mistake is made even worse by the punishment of falling damage and limited health (unless you grab the right upgrades). I also have a few criticisms of the shooting, such as Kay being unable to hold onto any weapon other than her blaster, as she is constantly dropping rifles and other weapons to interact with the environment, climb ladders, or perform other minor actions. Using items like grenades and smoke bombs is also awkward, as you have to open your bag, select the item, and then throw it (dropping your secondary weapon). These problems aren’t enough to significantly dampen the fun of it Star Wars Outlawsbut they cause a bit of unrest and are annoying to deal with.

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer

One of the defining features of Star Wars Outlaws is its reputation system that tracks your alliances with the various criminal syndicates across the galaxy. As you interact with gangs like The Crimson Dawn, the Hutt Cartel, and others, your reputation will fluctuate depending on your actions. Completing missions for a particular gang will increase your reputation, but if you are caught stealing, fighting, or betraying someone, your reputation will also decrease.

Since different areas of the planet are controlled by different factions, it’s important to maintain high reputation with as many crime syndicates as possible, but doing so also means betraying someone. Although it’s relatively easy to increase your favorability through side missions, the reputation system provides tangible consequences for your actions, both good and bad, and places more emphasis on your decisions as the adventure progresses.

It’s also important to be social Star Wars Outlaws has a different “experience” system than most open world games. Instead of leveling up and improving skill trees, Kay learns new skills from various “experts” she meets throughout the galaxy. After befriending a particular expert, you can unlock more skills by completing small sub-challenges, giving you more options both in and out of combat. New equipment and equippable spells can help increase Kay’s power, but the quickest way to become a true outlaw is to contact experts and learn their skills.

The conclusion continues Star Wars Outlaws

Star Wars Outlaws is an entertaining open-world adventure that prioritizes player immersion and discovery over scripted encounters and blockbuster action. Although there are many standard moments, Outlaws is a personal story driven by player choice, with a low-key narrative that rarely falls flat on its face star Wars Fan service. This is the story of Kay and Nix, set in a familiar world, but still full of new and interesting things and not just an excuse to repeat the highlights of the original film trilogy.

Although there are some control flaws and occasional gameplay bugs, these annoyances are offset by the refreshing reputation and expert systems. Ubisoft has definitely learned some important lessons from previous games, and while it’s far from perfect, Star Wars Outlaws is a step in the right direction.

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The good

  • Immersive exploration that rewards curiosity
  • Lots of content without feeling bloated
  • Memorable characters and good voice acting
  • Nix is ​​a useful and sweet companion

The evil

  • Wooden facial animations outside of cutscenes
  • Random lighting effects issues
  • Occasional gaming disruptions
  • Climbing and melee combat feel clunky

OK

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