Update: Star Wars Outlaws is out now on Switch 2, and from our limited testing serves as a solid port. Capped at 30 frames-per-second and with the occasional stutter, it’s not as visually impressive as other versions, of course, but those who play exclusively on Switch — or, who value portability and don’t have the likes of a Steam Deck — will find tremendous entertainment from Massive and Ubisoft.
Bonus points if you’re a big Star Wars fan, of course.
-Steve Wright
Original review [26 August 2024]: Star Wars Outlaws introduces us to a new face in the galaxy: Kay Vess, a two-bit crook making it on her own with nobody but her pet Nix, the contractually-obligated small, cute, mechanically-important sidekick for our tale. After smooth-talking her way on to a casino heist crew in her home of Canto Bight, things go pear-shaped and Kay soon finds herself on the run – but with a newly-stolen spaceship to her name, the Trailblazer.
With a death mark placed on her by the Trailblazer’s previous owner, a syndicate head named Sliro, Kay finds herself on the hunt for a big score to finance an escape from his reach. It’s not long before an opportunity is presented to take a second run at the casino’s vaults – and secure the 157-million credit bounty inside, guaranteeing a future for her and Nix. No heist is possible without a team, of course, so it’s off to scour the galaxy for a bad bunch to help secure the prize.
Outlaws spreads its story across a number of worlds as you recruit your crew, giving Kay a taste of the galaxy she’s never experienced before – the savannah moon of Toshara, the frozen city of Kijimi, the jungle world of Akiva and the iconic desert planet Tattooine. Each world boasts a cross-section of the various factions in play across the Outer Rim, from the Empire and Rebel Alliance, to the various crime syndicates Kay can take work from to improve her standing in the galaxy. While there’s no making nice with the Empire, the various crime factions can become allies or enemies depending on the work Kay takes.
The reputation system in Outlaws has a different take compared to many games – the aim is never to max your rep with EVERY faction, because every job that benefits one group is at the expense of another. Getting in the good graces of a faction will gift you unique gear and easier access to their controlled territories, but no alliance is forever – the next job just might involve stealing from your new besties.
This constant push and pull means different areas on different worlds are always opening and closing to you, and once you break the compulsion to always be on everyone’s good side, it’s fun to play with. If a mission sees you stealing something from the Hutt Syndicate, for instance, it might be a good idea to do a contract or two for them beforehand so you can just waltz in undisturbed.
It’s a good thing that it is as easy as it is to sway the opinions of your enemies – compared to the usual Jedi protagonist, Kay Vess is much squishier by comparison. Not having an “automatically deflect all bullets with your lightsaber” button means Kay’s combat is a lot more stealth- and cover-based. Breaking into an Imperial location is no joke for her – even a handful of Stormtroopers is understandably tough to deal with, and a full base alerting to your presence is all but a death sentence. Thankfully, Kay has a lot of tricks in her arsenal that AREN’T space-magic, and a lot of that is attributed to her pet and best buddy, Nix.
Smarter than the average pet, Nix can be directly controlled for a variety of different uses, in and out of combat. He’s able to disable alarm panels, open doors, set off explosives, collect pickups in the world and even distract enemies with a Shakespeare-worthy death performance. He also acts as your radar sense in the game, highlighting enemies and interactable objects in your vicinity.
It feels great to enter a stealth-or-combat arena and sit comfortably behind cover as Nix helps prep the field, taking out barriers or helping you eliminate enemies as you move through. Best yet, he’s also never a target to enemies, meaning you never have to see him get attacked – though he might just lead an enemy back to you if he gets spotted being devious.
Kay can also hack computers or pick locks to move through the world, though only one of these minigames was fun for me. Lockpicking involved hitting R2 to match the tempo of beeps as the lock rotates, though the margin for error seems very tight at default settings. Given that you often need to do this fast before being spotted by enemies, it’s a pain to fail when it feels like you’re on the beat.
The minigame can be disabled entirely in accessibility settings, though it seemed a waste to skip it entirely. By comparison, hacking computers is done through a Wordle-like game of symbols, with a capped number of turns to find the code. This feels much more intuitive to play, and doesn’t feel artificially hard in the way lockpicking does.
As you explore the galaxy with Kay and Nix, you’ll do so at different levels – on foot or speeder-bike as Kay, as well as piloting the Trailblazer in space. The game’s open world makes the speeder a godsend, letting you fly across the dunes of Tattooine or through the jungles of Akiva at an impressive pace. Just make sure to watch where you’re going, as it’s all-too easy to crash face-first into obstacles as you zoom about… taking an annoyingly large chunk of Kay’s health every time.
While it makes sense for a regular person to be hurt in such a situation, it’s still annoyingly easy to do both in and out of missions – especially as the game’s camera seems to skew down on the bike, obscuring the road ahead of you. That said, the speeder is saved purely based on how badass it feels to pull off a burnout turn and speed off into the distance.
Piloting the Trailblazer is a whole other experience, as you’re able to explore the regions of space immediately around the planets you visit, finding treasure in debris or dust clouds and protecting yourself from pirates and Imperials. Strangely, it feels so much slower to fly the Trailblazer than the speeder as you’re often just rocketing along at max speed waiting to reach something interesting. If the areas were a bit denser or the Trailblazer felt faster, I’d probably have been more invested in the space-based missions than I found myself.
Outlaws does offer you a few different ways to improve your toolkit as you move through Kay’s heist tale; unlocks for your ship and speeder bike will improve their handling, speed and (for the ship) weapons and shields, as well as a variety of module for your blaster that increase its range of use. These upgrades often require unique parts, found in locations across each planet you visit – giving you a great reason to break into literally everybody’s bases and steal everything that’s not nailed down.
You’ll also meet various Experts across the galaxy who can help develop your skills in anything from hacking to heavy weapons and everything in between. Each Expert has a number of boons you can unlock by finding specific items or beating different challenges tied to their skillset. Even just focusing on the story, you’ll unlock a decent number of these skills as you go, and you might even meet some familiar faces along the way.
As much fun as I had exploring with Kay, I did encounter a decent selection of glitches – bearing in mind, these could well be addressed by a launch day patch. Characters would occasionally appear in scenes in the wrong poses, or with objects like their blaster fused into their hand. While the occasional texture flicker did pop up, there was nothing graphically that affected my ability to play. Other issues, like a heavy rumble effect getting stuck on simply required a reset, and a brief window in an enemy base where my blaster just stopped existing for a while was a bit of a nuisance.
I did get got by odd checkpointing a few times: One drop into deep water ended with me stuck on a nearby piece of geometry, unable to get back to the main map space. Another death in combat returned me to a previous room that was locked from the outside, forcing me to fast-travel to the nearest checkpoint and try the area again.
While these were small and easily recoverable issues, your mileage may vary – fast travel is blocked by missions or contracts with an annoying frequency, so it’s a crapshoot whether you get stuck in a spot you can easily escape from or not. Again, this is pre-launch play so patching may make all of these a non-issue when the game releases.
All in all, I had a great time with Kay Vess and crew. The story has all the heel-turns, reveals and double-crosses you could hope for from a heist story, and even a few surprise twists you won’t see coming. Seeing the Star Wars world from a more boots-on-the-ground perspective also casts it in a very different light – an AT-ST is a much more intimidating thing to see when you don’t have access to midichlorians.
It’s exciting to see how much is possible in this universe without leaning on the Jedi or Skywalkers. That said, fans are sure to enjoy some of the nods and name-drops scattered throughout that link this game to the greater canon. Now go forth, and enjoy all the galaxy has to steal, dank farrik.
Star Wars Outlaws is available on Windows PC via Steam and Ubisoft Connect, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, PS5, and Switch 2.
-Matt Gosper
Star Wars Outlaws was reviewed using a promotional code on PS5 and also tested on Switch 2, both as provided by the publisher. Click here to learn more about Stevivor’s scoring scale.
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Star Wars Outlaws30 August 2024, 4 September 2025 (Switch 2)PC PS5 Xbox Series S & X
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