“Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side” is more than a throwaway line from Han Solo, the patron saint of “Star Wars” rogues. It’s the core premise of the action-adventure game Star Wars Outlaws, which is solidly built on the underworld of smugglers and scoundrels.
Here you play as Kay Vess, an affable yet morally gray thief who wants off of her home world of Canto Bight and will steal one of the rarest ships in the galaxy in order to get there. But do you want to join her for the ride?
Star Wars Outlaws is launching on Aug. 30 and can be found on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/Series S and PC. We spent over 20 hours in Kay’s leather boots, vest and low-slung blaster on the PS5, and we unlocked only a fraction of what Star Wars Outlaws has to offer — both the good and the surprisingly bad.
Star Wars Outlaws lets you live out your intergalactic smuggling fantasies in a vast open world, though it's not without its flaws.
What I liked about it
It’s a lot of fun
If you want an expansive sandbox “Star Wars” experience, Star Wars Outlaws is the game you’re looking for. There’s remarkable depth and breadth here. Although missions have similar attributes — break into a secure base, steal from other thieves — the level design assures that quests aren’t repetitious. After unlocking maps in cities, open territory and space, you will enjoy Skyrim-like amounts of side quests and activities.
Some of these quests come from competing crime syndicates, thanks to Star Wars Outlaws’ reputation system. You’ll soon learn your alliances are as flexible as a dianoga, and one minute, you’re in good with, say, the Pyke Syndicate and the next minute you’re bantha fodder. Any rep comes with consequences, both good (such as access to special areas) and bad (two words: kill squad). Meanwhile, if you’re on the outs with the Empire — and of course you will be — you acquire heat.
As you work your way across the galaxy, missions layer up. On your trip to Tatooine, you can do a job for the Crimson Dawn while simultaneously stealing something for the Ashiga Clan, essentially killing two mynocks with one stone.
You will need to do as many jobs as possible for a reason. Unlocking any ability — even to fly your ship — requires quid pro quo, and you can’t help yourself without doing favors first. Of course, many of the jobs that improve your status with one faction will wind up shivving your status with another.
The game is most fun when your expectations are challenged. Searching for loot does not always lead to actual loot. You’re more likely to be diverted from, say, searching for a missing farmer toward competing in a speeder race. Just like Kay’s life, there are more sidetracks than actual track.
Leveling your character actually builds character
In many video games, your character will level up by allocating points to a skill tree. Not here. Star Wars Outlaws makes you work for your progress: You have to use existing skills in order to unlock new skills. For example, to unlock the ability to jump obstacles on your speeder, you first need to successfully jump and land your speeder 60 meters.
This more narratively focused skill progression lets you do what you want … in order to get better at doing what you want. This makes unlocking those skills more satisfying and immersive.
Meeting experts like Aila Bren and Rooster Trace will open up more skill options. For example, Aila will let you boost your slicing skills, while Rooster will help with, among other things, heavy weaponry. The more experts you encounter, the better you become.
Star Wars Outlaws is great at telling you that if you want something, you have to work for it.
Your little buddy Nix is a delight
Nix is more than a furry friend with scales. The merqaal acts as an extension of Kay, performing simple tasks that you can’t manage yourself. He has proved invaluable at filching valuables and pulling levers in tight spaces.
Nix also runs interference when you need a distraction. This is important, because no matter how many times I ran through certain stealth scenarios, I was caught every single time — unless I used Nix to pull focus away from me. Add to this his Nix Sense that’s used to identify interactive elements like valuables and the position of guards through doors. Nix isn’t merely helpful; he’s essential.
Best of all is his animation: To attract attention, Nix falls over and plays dead. It remains adorable, even after hundreds of times (then again, see the “What I didn’t like” section below). Nix reminds me of BD-1, the loyal droid from Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Jedi: Survivor. But unlike BD-1, Nix is more versatile and likes treats and scritchies.
It delivers a true ‘Star Wars’ experience
Even though I didn’t hear a single mention of the words “the Force” or even “Jedi,” Outlaws is pure “Star Wars.” It takes a while to become immersed, but it’s all there. The Empire. The Rebellion. A whole lotta scum and villainy.
Luke Skywalker’s home of Tatooine of course makes an appearance, and the fan service is strong in this one. We have in-game reasons to visit the infamous cantina where Han shot first. We can even spy the blast mark where Han left it.
If you make your way to the Myrra Spaceport, you’ll meet with Lando Calrissian, the expert who will unlock tricks of the sabacc gambling trade. You’ll also meet Qi’ra, Han’s ex-girlfriend from “Solo: A Star Wars Story.” Plus, there’s overheard dialogue like “It’s impossible to find a working power converter.”
But the moment that really proved I was playing a “Star Wars” game? On Toshara, the locals don’t farm moisture; they farm wind.
There’s an emotional story arc
Like Han Solo before her, Kay is a natural loner wrapped in a bundle of bad choices. Her first one is a doozy that leads to a death mark. If she wants to live without fear of becoming a bounty herself, Kay has to work with others. She eventually acquires a “babysitter,” ND-5, a modified BX battledroid who is better at truth-telling than you’d expect.
As you progress, you see that Kay is learning there are downsides to a solo life of crime. There’s also some information about her mother, Riko, who abandoned Kay when she was small, and I was genuinely interested in learning more.
What I didn’t like about it
The game feels unfinished
Star Wars Outlaws needs updates and patches. Nowhere is this more plain than the AI that directs enemies and combat. It’s just plain dumb. Examples include enemies just standing in the open while you shoot them; the ability to punch down multiple assailants while they’re blasting you; enemies on speeders getting stuck at the slightest obstacle and freezing with their guns pointing vaguely in front of them as you casually blast them to pieces; guards not noticing you at a distance, even with an unobstructed view, in some restricted zones; easily distracting one guard in a pair, dispatching them and waiting, but the second guard never looking for their partner; no one noticing the bodies you fell; the commotion resulting from alerting enemies cooling off quickly, in some cases mere moments after you hide; an encampment of thieves ignoring you until you unlock a particular quest; and a non-player character (NPC) standing mutely until you kill every enemy in the area.
The user interface is generally good, but it still needs work. There’s no easy way to track the many, many items you need to upgrade your build; there’s no easy way to track vendors by their offerings; and there’s no easy way to check if the vendor has what you actually need — you have to exit the vendor conversation, dig into another menu, then exit back to the vendor.
The graphics do not feel optimized. The result is that the game lacks the signature light-dark contrast you’d expect from “Star Wars.” For example, many starting areas look washed out, like the gamma is off (there is no gamma setting), and tweaking HDR settings doesn’t really help. The game also struggles on Quality mode, and turning creates visible judder, especially in cities. (We played on Performance for the whole game.) Unfortunately, the Favor Quality setting doesn’t help. And finally, the film grain option made the game look worse.
Our favorite error: If you want to get punchy, beat up a low-level stormtrooper. Their armor protects them from your fists as well as it does from blasters in the films — which is to say, not at all.
The beginning is … not good
It took nearly 10 hours of gameplay to feel like the game was properly starting. It took five hours after that to feel like there was an actual, enjoyable game to be had.
When I first docked in the city of Mirogana, I found it devoid of fun. I had one simple mission that took too long as I learned the hard way that I needed to use stealth and keep my blaster holstered. As I wandered, I encountered an eating game that felt completely out of place in “Star Wars.” It took exploration and patience to listen in on conversations, as well as follow the question marks on the compass bar, to find my place in this game world.
Also, Canto Bight and Kay’s ship, the Trailblazer, look washed out and dingy — and it’s not because they’ve seen a lot of hard years. It feels as if the game isn’t graphically optimized. As both Canto Bight and the Trailblazer’s interior are the first areas you encounter, it led me to say in earnest, “I have a bad feeling about this.”
It relies heavily on stealth
If you’re a stealth gamer, you will enjoy Star Wars Outlaws, which requires you to skulk around forbidden areas like, well, an outlaw. If, like me, you like to go in guns blazing, you will be spanked until you give up in defeat and despair. There’s no getting around the sneaking around. In order to progress most major encounters, you will need the patience of a Jedi. (Your mileage may vary here.)
The game gives you a blaster, grenades and other tools of the run-and-gun trade, but if you use them, you will find yourself overwhelmed before you’ve upgraded that blaster.
I’m particularly salty about this because this stealth-only approach undermines the core premise of Star Wars Outlaws. Think we’re being dramatic? Remember, Han Solo once said, “I prefer a straight fight to all this sneakin’ around!” He also charged a squad of stormtroopers with nothing but a blaster and an attitude.
You can’t save in a restricted area, or outside it
Within a mini dungeon, you’re unable to save at all; the game saves automatically at certain points. You can only pre-save in the open world.
So it was particularly vexing to head into an Imperial compound, save before entering a duct, crawl through said duct, eventually die … and wind up back outside. Yes, the first time, I respawned at the duct, but subsequent times I did not — with no trace of that earlier save to reload. It’s as if I had saved at Point B yet respawned at Point A, over and over again.
Which begs the question, why does the game give you the ability to save within the compound at all?
Expense was spared
Whenever I died in the earlier mini dungeons — which was frequent, considering how underpowered I initially was — the dialogue kept repeating. Compare this to games like Horizon Forbidden West, where dialogue cycles as frequently as Han makes excuses about the money he owes Jabba the Hutt. The lack of new dialogue made each death even more excruciating. It feels like Massive Entertainment cheaped out on writers and voice actors.
Side note: The dialogue continued after I had emptied every room in a mini dungeon, giving me the sense that I had turned my former combatants into Force ghosts.
Despite my love for my merqaal pal, Nix only uses one animation to distract enemies. It remains hilarious, but when you consider how frequently you utilize him as bait, it feels like Massive cheaped out on animation too.
Speaking of cheap animation, motion capture on faces can be described as “meh.” But every time Kay clambered across a wall, I was reminded of games I played on the PlayStation 2 … in 2006.
I’d recommend Massive Entertainment hire more beta testers too, as the game has some bugs. Thankfully, none of them are bad enough to break the game, but I’d be remiss not to mention the moment I fell through a floor.
Bottom line
Star Wars Outlaws is a massive game, with highs and lows in abundance. Much like Kay, it has difficulty realizing its lofty ambitions.
We hope Massive Entertainment spends more time and effort on improving the AI and inventory issues, especially when you consider it has additional content planned. But for all of its flaws, nothing breaks the game. From daring heists to even more daring escapes, there’s still a lot to enjoy here.
To paraphrase Darth Vader: The goodness is with you, Star Wars Outlaws. But you are not a great game yet.