Star Wars Outlaws First Impressions Review

I bought the standard edition of Outlaws because the gameplay I saw of the game didn’t entice me enough. I was always going to buy the game purely because I’m a Star Wars fan but Ubisoft in the last few years has been a miserable experience for me. I’ll never forget the disaster that was Watch Dogs: Legion.

Immediately into the game, we’re met with Kay Vess who is our character to play with. She pretty much gets thrown into the Underworld of Star Wars very quickly and we have to begin playing the gangs against each other.

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.

If you’ve recently lost touch with Star Wars then I don’t think this game is going to really bring you back into the franchise.

Now to get into the stuff I wasn’t sold on. The first is the graphics. In the cutscenes, they look great. When you’re controlling Kay it’s seemingly turned down a lot. I’ve noticed visual glitches and Kay looks like a PS2 model. It’s not great from Massive and you can see this. The cities though do look incredible, some of them at a distance are desktop wallpaper-worthy.

So far, I’m around 4 hours in. The combat isn’t interesting or entertaining. The takedowns got boring relatively quickly and the gun combat isn’t great either. I was told the combat was similar to Watch Dogs: Legion but that game’s only redeeming quality was the fighting – this isn’t it. The superman punch is nice but that’s as far as it goes. Maybe it’ll get better the further I go but so far it isn’t it.

I also believe the game’s jumping and swinging mechanics feel off. The game’s smooth normally in general movement but I can’t escape the fact that jumping or swinging doesn’t remotely feel authentic.

I’ve had some bugs with the game including when I left an Imperial ship and had to defeat some TIE Fighters, the mission wouldn’t progress. I’ve also had some really wonky moments when I’ve fallen off something and Kay has gone weird. However, nothing groundbreaking or that a quick reset wouldn’t fix.

However, despite the negative mentions of the game, I will say so far at first hand there’s a lot to like about the game. One of the things I’ve spent a little too much time on is the Sabacc games. I have never played this before and learning this new card game has been interesting. I love these little touches they add to fill out the content.

There’s also the ability to use a speeder bike and also the ship itself. It allows for more freedom in going to different places. The ship itself actually does feel quite nice being able to have a decent-sized ship that feels like a home. It’s a little aspect I liked but adds to the authentic feel of the game.

I do also love the fact you get reputation bars and each mission you complete has an impact. A positive impact on one and a negative on the other. This makes sense in the grand scheme of things as 3 gangs is fighting for control over small sections of territory.

In regards to the story, I will be honest – I haven’t progressed far enough to give a true reflection at this stage so I’m not going to. The story as of yet hasn’t properly immersed me but I do think this will change as things begin to heat up. I’ve managed to steer clear of spoilers but I am hoping for a cheeky cameo; maybe Vader, Luke, Han, Leia, or perhaps even Lando? I remain hopeful but I don’t think it’ll impact the game any further if this wasn’t to happen.

Massive Entertainment has done a good job and I was skeptical about this game. I’ve enjoyed it so far and I hope the experience continues to surprise me. This is a first impressions article after all so I’m only giving my thoughts based on what I’ve experienced in the early game.

The world is vast and may be overwhelming to some but for me, I enjoy this. I like being overwhelmed with things to do; especially in open-world adventure games. I can’t wait to dedicate more hours to this.

Rating: 7.4/10 (so far)

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