A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there was 1313, a Star War I desperately wanted to play. Tonally, it was pitched to be darker than the inside of a tauntaun tent, and grittier than a Sand Person’s underpants. Better yet, it took an original Dark Forces approach—nary a laser sword nor space wizard in sight.

Sadly, that sci-fi spaghetti Western couldn’t exit the hangar before LucasArts took a proton torpedo to the exhaust port. Our dreams of inelegant weaponry, disintegrations for all, and skullduggery on Coruscant went the way of Padme. Just a pointless, unfair demise.

I’m therefore over the small moon/space station to say I have a new hope for a spiritual successor in Star Wars Outlaws. Ubisoft Massive, a dev that’s been navigating the games-as-a-service system since 2015, is deftly replotting a course to cinematic action adventuring, not unlike 1313.

Mechanically, not everything in Outlaws is perfectly in place—and I’ll elaborate on some iffy Alluvial Dampers in a bit—but overall I was mighty impressed. As an OG fan who’s been falling in and out of orbit with Star Wars since The Last Jedi, I went in skeptical; after four hours of hands on, I emerged with an ardent desire for more high adventure in the low places of this galaxy.

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Star Wars Outlaws Hands On Impressions

Though I’m not sure if this timeline is accurate to the final product, my save file lists ’20 minutes played’ when I click in to crash land onto the planet of Toshara. One can only guess as to what’s caused my downfall, though it’s likely, and a bit poetic, that some Black Sun wannabes probably made me go full Icarus.

I’m treated to a cold open of our heroine, Kay Vess, being face licked awake by Nix as she lies on the deck of The Trailblazer. The former is a fuzzy, axolotl-esque version of Cal Kestis’ BD-1. Think: a command-able companion who’s great for messing with distant foes or doodads, and to have one-way conversations with for exposition purposes.

As for the latter, I learn that Kay’s mechanical meteor of choice—the aforementioned EML 850 light freighter—is a nigh-indestructible prototype that’s been GTA’d from the galaxy’s biggest crim. I’d be lying to you if I said I loved its box-like design, but hey—I recall having similar reservations about the Ebon Hawk from KOTOR. In no time, that hunk of junk earned a prime spot in the hangar of my heart.

Speaking of the iconic, there’s a small ‘Indy acquires his whip’ moment as Kay locates and dons the jacket from a cargo crate. In stark contrast to The Trailblazer, I dig where this design is going—possibly the coolest coat for a protagonist since V’s Samurai Jacket in Cyberpunk 2077.

The coolest coat for a protagonist since V’s Samurai Jacket in Cyberpunk 2077.

I don’t have to wait long for some action to kick in. Upon exiting my ride, I’m almost brained by a hydrospanner swung by Waka, a rando Rodian mechanic. As we’re figuring out this case of mistaken identity, we come under fire from a group of bandits riding in on a hoverskiff. I note that one of these attackers has an ‘80s pornstache, which is pitch-perfect stuff for an adventure set between The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983).

Some good old-fashion cover shootin’ gameplay kicks in, and I’m introduced to two mechanics that I immediately dig. First off, Kay seems to thrive under pressure, as being suppressed builds up her adrenaline meter. Once full, a click of L3 + R3 freeze times, Kay pops from cover, and I can designate Adrenaline Rush shots (Outlaws’ answer to Dead Eye mode from Red Dead). While I’m miffed that it’s not as granular enough to pinpoint crotch-shots, I’m quite happy to vaguely mark three aggressors with RB, and then send ’em all to hell with a yank of RT.

The resulting action blockbuster ragdoll physics put a grin on my face. Massive also earns bonus points for including an incidental blaster-spin-to-holster animation. Slick.

With the varmints ventilated and my next steps set—mosey to a settlement for some parts needed to vamoose offworld—I pause to drink in the visuals. Running at 4K, 60fps on a RTX 4080, Outlaws is borderline breathtaking in this moment. The dusty, wind ravaged mesas of Toshara vaguely remind me of that time in Uncharted 4 when the Madagascar level opened right up, except the vista here is brimming with far more movement and detail across a much vaster playspace.

The macro is gorgeous with a map that goes on longer than a protocol droid with a point to make, but there are visual flairs on the micro to appreciate too. As I’m testing how responsive Kay is (very), I can’t help but notice how highly detailed her character model looks. At the very least, it feels like we’re looking better than Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and in the ballpark of Naughty Dog’s finest work.

Be that as it may, when it’s time to throw a leg over my speeder and set course for the town of Mirogana, some bumps in the road appear. On the plus side, I get to barrel along at a more than decent speed, and there’s no perceivable object pop, framerate dips, or detail degradation. Toshana is massive, topographically interesting, and constantly in motion, thanks to wind-tech, small herds of local wildlife, or marauding speederbike gangs.

The meh part of this section resides in combat with the latter. Even when Imps or rival scoundrels aren’t on the scene, the bike feels a little too stiff in its handling, a touch clunky. At this early point in the proceedings, it seems the only way to fire back at any aggressors is to be hassled long enough to build up Adrenaline Shots. I’m also offered lateral dodges on LB and RB, but these little jukes feel pretty useless.

The macro is gorgeous with a map that goes on longer than a protocol droid with a point to make.

My spirits are lifted again when I arrive in town and make my way through “the dank” to Makal’s Cantina. Outlaws manages to look even better indoors, thanks to impressive neon-light/shadow tech, and remarkably dense “lived in” communal areas. I dig the volumetric steam and smoke as well; you can almost smell the ozone, weird alien B.O., and roasting womp rat burgers.

There’s a believable hustle and bustle here. Small detachments of pissed off Stormtroopers push through the throngs of townspeople, some of whom are conducting incidental conversations of surprising length. I hear the entirety of many of them, because the sheer atmosphere ooze of this place makes me resist my usual urge to sprint to objective.

Even though I’m on a strict four hour time limit and want to see as much of the galaxy as possible, I can’t help but perve through random shopfronts and storerooms because they’re so richly detailed with a small Wookieepedia’s worth of universe authentic baubles and junk. I love it here.

Without spoiling too much, the quest-fest of this wretched hive of scum and villainy swallows me up quickly. There’s the odd bit of lockpicking into offlimits areas, and stealth sections with skull-cracking insta-kills and hard-fail checkpoint reloads. Everything here seems par for the course, except for the puzzle-platforming, where I witnessed some mynocks in the wiring. Nothing too major—just an eyebrow-raising moment when I had to retry a run-leap-attach maneuver three times (weirdly, each attempt seemed perfect when I reviewed footage later).

Speaking of upward mobility, I do like that the usual XP and level grind has been replaced with the Experts system. Instead of filling a bar, I’m tasked with doing actual side quests to appease secondary characters with gameplay-expanding skills to impart. Doing odd jobs for Bram the Bartender, for example, can build out my scoundrel antics in nine different ways, plus I spotted empty spots for nine other future Experts to learn from.

Essentially, it feels like there are a ton of ways to inch Kay into your personal anti-hero ideal of choice. For me, I chased down sneakier traits, like Sabotage Alarms (to kill overexcited guards) and Fast Talking. The latter is pretty brilliant—in order to salvage some stealthing gone wrong, you can throw up your hands and momentarily confuse your discoverers with some bullshit.

Meanwhile, you’ve walked out of cover, and everybody’s now in range and angle of a gunslinger solution. *Ka-chow-chow-chow*. Boring conversation anyway.

Everybody’s now in range and angle of a gunslinger solution. *Ka-chow-chow-chow*. Boring conversation anyway.

On the topic of pew-pew, it goes quite well without those tricks, but at this early stage of the game it’s nothing worth HoloNeting home about. For starters, you should know there are restrictions—you can’t just whip out and start blasting in town. Also—and I’m hoping this is just an early game restriction—Kay would auto-ditch any rifle I held when using vents / ladders / or moving back into communal areas. Base pistol monogamy feels like too cruel a rule for me.

Going loud was pretty standard stuff. Enemies communicate well to converge on your last known, will tactically retreat for the alarm if you camp, and flanking them is a cinch with Nix’s (dpad up) listen mode pulse. The AI wasn’t quite perfect in this build, as I did notice one or two instances where an enemy was paying more attention to a wall than they should have. Again, it’s nothing I haven’t seen before in prerelease code (and then not again in final version).

Be those minor quibbles as they may, my overall playtime with Star Wars Outlaws was one of surprise. What I expected going in was something a helluva lot more “game-y” and grindy, instead of a cinematic experience that convinced me I was a key player with a big Sabbac hand to play in a rich and changing world.

I’m all-in on the concept of multiple crime factions to appease or antagonize for unique story beats or bad-ass gang-specific rewards. The cards seem to say that’ll make for a highly addictive and quite replayable Choose My Own Adventure origin story.

Obviously, it’s impossible to gauge a 30+ hour adventure with only four-hours under my stylish Correlian gunbelt. That being said, what I did see penetrated my shields—I’ve gone from blasé to hopeful believer. I’m making a full-on, Millennium Falcon u-turn to stop evading this and fully engage at point blank range.

Adam Mathew is our Aussie deals wrangler. He plays practically everything, often on YouTube.