Star Wars Outlaws After 20 Hours – The Final Review

This game ran through some heavy criticism before even being released. People complained about the lack of graphics, the models, and the general gameplay itself. Most of the trailers and preview videos on YouTube were often riddles with dislikes. The ratios of dislike to like on some of the videos were as high as 90% I saw.

This game follows the Underworld aspect of Star Wars and is set between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi which in itself is a good idea. I think they had a good foundation with the characters and the timeline but poorly executed.

This review follows after my 20-hour playthrough mark. I always like to do a first impression of the game followed by another review after a lengthy spell on the game. It’s important to give those thoughts because more time spent with the game can give a differing opinion on first impressions.

THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS RELATING TO THE MAIN QUEST.

Information and products I used to play the game;

• Platform: PlayStation 5
• Edition: Standard
• Screen: 27inch Lenovo Legion monitor
• Audio: SteelSeries Actis 7P+
• Release: August 30th, 2024

Initial thoughts

I recently released my first impressions article of the game which you can read here. I gave the game a 7.4/10 at the time but I was only around 2-3 hours into the game at the time. Has my opinion changed with an added 17-18 hours into the game since then? It has. There are some things I liked at the time that I don’t know and the opposite.

I will give my thoughts broken down into specific sections and rate everything out of 10, at the end this will average out to give my final score.

My first impression of this game is that it’s not a trash game. It’s pretty fun actually but it’s not a groundbreaking game or game of the year by any means. If you’re a Star Wars fan and you enjoy the criminal gang aspects of the Underworld then you’ll like this. If you’re into open-world adventures with a sci-fi setting then you’ll like this.

5 Dislikes

As always, I do like to point out the flaws of a video game early in the review. I do this, particularly because I prefer to get the bad points out the way so when you’re reading it, you can save the best until last.

1. The combat got old quickly as did the takedowns. I found the Blaster Kay used to be underwhelming even after upgrades, I thought picking up the weapons wasn’t great, the takedowns got repetitive within 30 minutes as did the fighting. I expected more from an open-world Star Wars game if I’m being honest.
2. No New Game+. I think when a game is so heavy on upgrades instead of finding/buying, a new game+ mode always helps with this. There isn’t anything in here at all. Replayability after the main story feels weaker because everything feels repetitive.
3. I will continue to say this, the blaster sucks.
4. No ability to buy added gadgets or other items, specifically a melee weapon which could further add to takedowns or take down multiple enemies at once if they’re close together.
5. The Easter Eggs are laughable. You can visit Luke’s home on Tattooine, Vader makes an appearance as does Lando. Next to no references around the Death Star, no references to Luke or Leia from the Rebels that I’ve seen (maybe I’m wrong?). This is worse considering the game is set between Episode 5 and Episode 6.

Story

I have to admit, the story had me skeptical from the beginning. The Underworld of Star Wars was never a major interest for me so when this was announced, I shut off immediately. The issue is for me, I have to understand that we can’t always have Jedi/Sith-type games similar to the Jedi series from Respawn. I’m a sucker for lightsabers which is why that’s the case.

Once I was introduced to Kay Vess and her story that her Mom left after trying to teach her to be a good thief did brought me in quite quickly. The story was structured fairly well and was interesting. It wasn’t the best Star Wars story ever told but nowhere near the worst.

The issue I had with it was that the main aspect of the story was too short. If I wasn’t messing around at Sabacc tables, I do believe you could finish the story in around 10 hours which isn’t great for a game of this size.

It wasn’t until Jaylen introduced a final member to Kay’s crew which was her Mom. It was here that the story peaked for me. I was pulled in from that moment and it was a great final mission. The final mission was the longest in the game and it was good. It pulled little twists and turns, ending on a happier note which Star Wars doesn’t do too often so I enjoyed that.

I wanted more from it. The fact the last 2 hours were the best parts of it was a letdown overall despite the fact I enjoyed it. It’s clear that Massive and Ubisoft had huge potential here, I wish they’d done more to fill out the story. I guess this is a common theme from open-world games though where if you go through the main quest line, it’s not that long.

The side quests were largely uninteresting as well. It’s not like Fallout or Skyrim-type games where you do a side quest and it’s filled out making you forget about the main questline. You don’t get that from this at all. It’s more go here, do a quick mission, and deciding on who you want to stick with and who you want to betray. The intel you receive isn’t that good either.

Overall, the story was okay but it could’ve been a lot better.

Gameplay

I don’t think I found a satisfying moment in the gameplay side at all. I guess in parts, completing a full mission undetected feels nice but it never gives you that amazing feeling because it’s all the same in the end. You don’t do things differently like you would in Far Cry for example where you can do things differently. It’s simply because the takedowns are the same and you effectively only have the use of Nix and a blaster. Nix is perhaps the best thing when it comes to the gameplay at being able to do things at a distance without being caught.

The rest of it left a lot to be desired. The jumping mechanics were awful, shooting a Stormtrooper 7 times in the head and them still not dying is not fun either. I expect a challenge and that’s where enemy types should play a better role. Deathtroopers rightfully should take a lot more damage or more strategy to take down but it doesn’t feel that way at all.

I’m reverting to the blaster, again, which you will see as the article goes on. I reference this multiple times because I simply hate it. When you’re subject to only using one weapon predominately, it can become tedious very fast. You can pick up other weapons but you only have a limited amount of ammo. Where the Jedi games get this right is the stances, the upgrades feel powerful the more you go with added abilities – it’s not the same here.

The abilities are set between different people you meet. Some of the conditions you have to do are through gameplay or finding a specific item to upgrade an ability. I do like the idea that performing specific actions unlocks abilities. This reminded me of Skyrim albeit not as good but I like that when you see it pop up on the right-hand side of your screen when you perform an action, you’re progressing to unlocking an ability.

Unfortunately, there’s not a lot more to it than that I’m afraid. Nothing changes a lot from the beginning to getting to the final mission. You’ll have a blaster that can fire 3 more shots before cooling down, your speeder bike will be slightly faster and your Trailblazer will be able to take more damage. It’s not immersive really, if anything the gameplay gets boring. It’s great at first because there’s a lot to take in but that experience dwindles as you go. I think the devs should’ve really made the upgrades and the abilities more powerful.

No New Game+ hurts too. This is a game I feel like needs it. Most open-world games are usually okay if there’s an ability to continue after the main story which in this case it is, but there are moments you can only do during the story by unlocking specific abilities. I think a New Game+ in this instance would’ve enhanced the experience a little bit more.

Characters and customization

Kay Vess, Nix, and ND were the clear standouts here. Plus the cheeky cameos from Darth Vader and Lando. However, a special shoutout does go to Kay Vess, modeled and voiced by Humberly Gonzalez. She’s a character I’d love to see be introduced into live-action or even be brought into Cal Kestis’ universe depending on where his third game goes if the two developers can work together.

There was a lot to like about the characters themselves. ND became super interesting, a protective droid over Kay but still programmed by Jaylen. Then Nix, dammit Star Wars knows how to create cute animals/creatures – Nix is up there with the likes of Grogu in my opinion.

The customization though, damn it sucked. 3 choices of outfit, a speeder skin, and a Trailblazer skin were the only things that looked different when you changed it. Kay’s blaster sucked. The upgrades never felt like upgrades nor did they change the look of anything either which was a letdown. I think in games, it’s always nice to see your upgrades be shown so it looks like you’re making progress. Not to mention just overall the blaster sucked, I can’t stress that enough.

When a game like this is as open-world as it is, customization should be a huge point within the game but it just wasn’t here. Even the charms didn’t add anything anywhere and they never felt like they added a lot to the game. The best one I found was where you recover a bar of health on a melee kill. I thought the customization would at least be good but it wasn’t, it’s perhaps the biggest letdown of the game in my opinion.

Content

The content of the game itself is fine at best. I rated this section 6/10 because on face value there is a lot to dig your teeth into. There’s the main questline, side quests, gambling tablets from fathier races to sabacc tables, and intel you can locate.

For me personally though, it doesn’t take long before it no longer becomes interesting. When I finished the main questline, I found it difficult to find any motivation to continue playing because the content got old pretty quickly.

When I first loaded up the game, initially I felt overwhelmed when in a major city seeing the amount of things to do but this is all at face value. In a nutshell, the majority of the stuff you see is just shops with a few arcade machines and betting places. It’s nothing special and doesn’t leave you fulfilled after spending a couple of hours in and around the cities.

There are only 3 methods of transportation too. Your speeder, the Trailblazer, and on foot. There’s no mixing things up or buying extra stuff. I remember people comparing the flying to No Man’s Sky but at least in that game particularly you can buy different ships or customize them to your liking. The content section here feels unfulfilling.

It’s not dead in terms of content but I think it could be a lot better.

Bugs

I counted 2 hard crashes on my PS5 where the game just closed down. This was really it for me. There was a section where I was on a side mission and the game wouldn’t let me progress, I can’t remember it too much but a quick reload of save worked fine. There was a bug I did capture myself in the game which I have posted below;

Buy, rent, wait for a sale, or avoid?

I would say wait for a sale. This game isn’t worth £69.99 here in the UK. If I’m only to get between 20-25 hours of an experience that isn’t all that great anyway then it’s not even worth it on the time factor. I would’ve felt better if I only paid £40 for this and I think that’s where the bar should be set here. I love Star Wars a lot, I love Kay Vess and the characters but the rest leaves a lot to be desired.

Rating: 6.6/10

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