A certain galaxy, far, far away hasn’t been on the best of rolls, of late. Just look at Disney pulling the plug on “The Acolyte” after only one season. On the gaming front, things have been more successful. Yet while Star Wars: Jedi Survivor is great on consoles, it’s still a stuttering mess on the best gaming laptops well over a year after its release. As a PC gamer first and foremost, that makes me grumpier than Anakin being forced to go skinny dipping on Mustafar.
So thank the Sith I’ve finally found a new reason to love the most iconic sci-fi franchise ever again. Star Wars Outlaws is the game I’ve been dreaming of playing ever since I watched Han Solo bragging about being able to do the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs in George Lucus’ seminal 1977 landmark piece of cinema.
Outlaws has proven to be a surprising delight to play. For context, said surprise comes from the fact Star Wars has a patchy gaming history. For every KOTOR, you get wince-inducing nonsense like Kinect Star Wars or the embarrassing lightsaber duels of Star Wars: Masters of Teräs Käsi — a shambolic PS1 fighting game where LucasArts thought they could do a Tekken and turn Darth Vader into Devil Jin.
The influences Outlaws wears on its heroine Kay Vess’ sleeves — even though the smuggler/scoundrel normally has hers pulled up — are obvious. There’s a pinch of Uncharted 4’s breezy clambering up rock walls and a dollop of Nathan Drake’s gun battles (though shooting in Star Wars: Outlaws is functional at best).
I’ve also enjoyed the sprinkling of spaceship battles I’ve encountered. These well-handled aerial dogfights instantly transported me back to 2002 when I stayed up until 4 a.m. playing the wonderful Star War Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader after I queued outside for a midnight launch to get my hands on a Nintendo GameCube.
It even manages to rekindle fond memories of trotting through the original Red Dead Redemption's barren prairies, after the game’s linear intro is finished and you’re allowed to explore four open-world planets. Although, obviously, zipping through an alien desert on a classic Star Wars speeder isn’t quite the same as trotting along on horseback as John Marston.
Oh, and two of those planets involve a lot of sand. Anakin would hate them.
Make my Kay
Speaking of that legendary gravity-defying bike, it’s highly customizable. As is Kay.
Outlaws offers a ton of tinkering — be it Vess’ outfits, vehicle tweaks or adding parts to her trusty blaster. I always appreciate when a game serves up a banquet of customization options, and after several hours with Star Wars Outlaws, boy is my belly full.
Like Cyberpunk 2077, Outlaws has this great ability to keep making you constantly distracted … in a good way. One minute you might eavesdrop on a conversation about a tasty heist while hanging out in a sleazy cantina, then you’ll get sidetracked as you hover around the baking Toshara Moon taking simple pleasure in a spot of intergalactic sightseeing.
To its credit, Star Wars Outlaws is also considerably better acted or scripted than either Jedi: Survivor or Jedi: Fallen Order. Sorry, Cal. I usually zone out of your average open-world game’s story pretty quickly, but not here.
Kay is an instantly likable lead, the villain is a fiendishly enjoyable jerk, and cutscenes are directed with such panache that I genuinely cared about Vess’ tale.
Bad for your stealth
I’m definitely not digging the stealth in Outlaws, though. It’s not actively bad, but it can occasionally prove irritating and it’s definitely overused at certain points. Metal Gear Solid V, this ain’t.
To the game’s credit, some of these sneaky sections can be bypassed depending on whether you decide to make Kay play nice with the game’s various criminal factions or not. I always appreciate it when a title gives me as much player choice as possible. That's why I can live with Outlaws’ slightly sketchy stealth bits because sometimes they’re essentially a punishment for a bad choice you’ve made on behalf of the upbeat scoundrel.
Outlaws may well be my favorite game to come out of the iconic IP since 2003’s legendary and mesmerizing RPG, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. It has real soul, exploring its sandbox planets is a pleasure and it looks great on one of the best OLED TVs.
Outlaws may well be my favorite Star Wars game since Knights of the Old Republic"
Pro tip: if you own a TV with a 120Hz refresh rate, go for the game’s “Favor Quality (40 fps)” mode over the 60 fps “Performance” option (that runs at 1080p and can’t quite hit a locked 60) or the 30 fps “Quality” alternative.
Though it doesn’t immediately make the best first impression — the game’s opening couple of hours are essentially a linear tutorial — once you fly away from Kay’s dreary backworld planet, the game starts to shine.
“The Mandalorian” season 3 may have missed the mark, and “The Acolyte” is currently being slowly digested by the Sarlaac, but at least we now have a new Star Wars game Han Solo would be damn proud of.
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