While Massive Entertainment’s Star Wars Outlaws isn’t trying to be too big for players to finish, it’s still a sizable open-world experience. Players can explore five planets and moons – Toshara, Akiva, Kijimi, Cantonica and Tatooine. However, they’ll need to unlock them first.
Speaking to IGN, narrative director Navid Khavari revealed more details about the beginning. “There’s a very structured intro that leads you to crash land on Toshara, which is a moon that we created with LucasFilm Games. And once you finish the sort of linear narrative on Toshara, the other planets open up, and it becomes completely non-linear, and you can choose to tackle those [worlds] in any order you want.”
If you want to stay in Toshara and explore, there’s plenty to see. Creative director Julian Gerighty confirmed that it takes roughly four to five minutes to traverse the moon on speeder, with plenty to distract you throughout. However, unlike your average Ubisoft open-world experience, you won’t see the map light up with icons. Instead, you have to go out and explore with the same mindset as protagonist Kay Vess.
“Kay hasn’t seen the galaxy. She doesn’t know everything. The first time you come to Toshara, you have a map where you can see mountains over there and stuff, but discovery is what gives you more information,” says game director Mathias Karlson. Creative director Julian Gerighty also notes that players will have to “take some risks” to garner information.
“You’re going to have to go to a cantina […], and you can eavesdrop and pick up on some conversations that will lead you to another location that reveals a location within the open world that you have to get on your speeder to go and find. And there will be a fog of war that you’ll be able to clear up, and that’s where your curiosity will open things up even more.”
Star Wars Outlaws launches on August 30th for Xbox Series X/S, PC and PS5 after recently going gold. Check out our feature for more details.