Back in 2021, Ubisoft announced that The Division studio Massive Entertainment had started working on a new open world Star Wars game, and naturally, that announcement turned plenty of heads. The couple of years that followed saw nothing but radio silence from the people working on the game, which was understandable enough, given that it was in the early stages of production, but recently, across Xbox Games Showcase and Ubisoft Forward, it has been formally unveiled. Star Wars Outlaws is looking mighty impressive, and thanks to its announcement trailer and the lengthy gameplay walkthrough that followed, we’ve learned quite a bit about it. Here, we’re going to go through those details.
SETTING
The Star Wars universe is massive, with opportunities galore for storytelling revolving around all manner of time periods, locations, conflicts, characters, and more. Star Wars Outlaws is choosing to place itself in a setting that fans will find quite familiar. Set between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, Outlaws takes place in a time when the Galactic Empire is at the peak of its powers, and is incessantly hunting down the Rebel Alliance. The main story of the game itself, however, won’t be too concerned with that overarching conflict, and will instead take a much seedier turn.
STORY
In Star Wars Outlaws, players will play as Kay Vess, who, unlike most Star Wars protagonists, is not a Jedi, or a bounty hunter, or anything special at all, really. She’s described as a cunning scoundrel and a thief, and as you’d expect from a rogue in the Star Wars universe, she also has a bounty on her head. Her set of circumstances leads to her getting involved with the underworld criminal syndicates scattered throughout the galaxy, who are all thriving under the Empire’s shadow, and once she develops a taste for it, she fully commits to that lifestyle. What she doesn’t know is that path will eventually lead to her having to pull off one off the biggest heists the Outer Rim has ever seen, and her becoming one of the most wanted criminals in the galaxy. On her journey, Kay will also be joined by a loyal, furry companion named Nix, while we can also expect to meet plenty of other characters throughout the galaxy.
SYNDICATES
The criminal underbelly of the Star Wars universe is something that a great many stories across media have shined a light on over the years, so there are obviously plenty of groups and factions that fans of the franchise are very familiar with. A couple of these have been confirmed to be part of Star Wars Outlaws’ story, with the Pykes and the Hutts both set to be involved- though it remains to be seen to what extent that will be. Meanwhile, Massive has also confirmed that new syndicates will also be introduced in the game.
OPEN WORLD
Star Wars Outlaws is going to be a fully open world game, which doesn’t come as too much of a shock for a game developed by Massive and published by Ubisoft (though it’s also fully single player, which definitely is a bit surprising). What exactly can we expect from that world though? Ubisoft is promising a number of planets that players will be able to visit, with each of those planets offering bustling cities, sprawling landscapes and more. While it remains to be seen exactly how many planets will be included in the game, the two that Ubisoft has officially confirmed so far are Akiva, a planet characterized by humid jungles, which has appeared in some Star Wars stories outside of the films in recent years; and Toshana, a dusty planet of windswept savannah, which we saw quite a lot of in the recent gameplay walkthrough. Of course, the vast expanses of space outside of those planets will be part of that open world as well. More on this in a bit.
COMBAT AND STEALTH
When it comes to the combat, Star Wars Outlaws will, in a nutshell, function as a third person shooter. Equipped with a blaster in true scoundrel fashion, Kay will engage in firefights against a variety of enemies. Meanwhile, those who want to take a more sneaky approach will have the option to do that as well, with stealth abilities and a variety of gadgets also being available to players. Additionally, Nix will also be able to chip in from time to time in terms of both combat and stealth.
SPEEDER
The planets of Star Wars Outlaws will offer plenty of real estate for players to explore and traverse through, and while we don’t yet know the full extent of the traversal options that will be available on this front, we do at least know that the game will feature speeders (or sci-fi hoverbikes, for those not familiar with Star Wars lexicon). During the recent gameplay demo, we saw Kay involved in a high-speed speeder chase, so we can presumably expect a good mix of both set piece moments and non-scripted, open world gameplay sections with the speeder involved.
SPACE FLIGHT AND COMBAT
As we mentioned earlier, Star Wars Outlaws’ open world won’t just include planets, but also the vast stretches of space beyond them- which, of course, means the game will feature space flight and combat. In the recent gameplay demo, we saw Kay hopping aboard her ship, the Trailblazer, firing it up and launching into space, and then flying around for a bit before being ambushed by TIE Fighters, with the ensuing dogfight culminating with her jumping into hyperspace, and jumping out in orbit around a different planet. If all of that is as seamless in the game as the gameplay walkthrough made it seem, there’s every reason to be excited. On the other hand, just what kind of content (and how much of it) the space sections will be populated by remains to be seen.
CHOICES
Interestingly enough, Massive Entertainment has also confirmed that Star Wars Outlaws will also make use of choice and consequence mechanics. We saw a hint of this in the gameplay demo, with Kay having to decide during a heated conversation with an Imperial official whether or not she wants to bribe her, and that decision leading to her becoming “Wanted” by the Empire (whether or not the game has an actual Wanted system remains unclear for now).
The decisions you make in these moments will play a wider role in the experience, including impacting how the story ends. That said, narrative director Navid Khavari has said that while the story will adapt moment-to-moment to your decisions, some key narrative beats will remain constant regardless of what choices you’re making. In an interview with GameSpot, he explained, “It’s in that moment-to-moment decision-making where the narrative is going to react to what you’re doing. But also, we wanted to make sure this was a full journey for Kay from beginning to end. We wanted those anchor points – those emotional beats in the story – so it’s guaranteed you’re going to have that. But moment-to-moment, the story’s going to adapt.”
REPUTATION
You’ll be able to see much more tangible consequences of the choices you make with what seems to be a game-wide reputation system in Star Wars Outlaws. With multiple factions featured in the game, Kay’s actions will affect her relationships and reputations differently with each of them. Speaking to GameSpot, game director Mathias Karlson said, “Action and consequence is pervasive in the experience. The decisions you make and actions you take are going to have an impact on your relationship with the different factions, creating threats and opportunities. There will be an ebb and flow there, depending on the choices you make.”
LAUNCH
When exactly can we expect Star Wars Outlaws to launch? While a specific release date hasn’t been announced, Ubisoft has confirmed that the game is set to launch for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC sometime in 2024. Of course, delays are never out of the question for any game, especially a Ubisoft game, but for now, that’s the official launch window for Star Wars Outlaws.