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Star Wars Outlaws review: Open-world sci-fi action is a blast for film lovers

Ubisoft has taken on the Star Wars franchise and flowed it through a version of its popular Assassin's Creed open-world engine to deliver a large, fun galaxy to get lost in as a scoundrel trying to make a living

[Star Wars Outlaws]

Star Wars Outlaws

This fun stealth and guns game is effectively Assassins Creed: Star Wars.

Ubisoft takes its well-used open world gaming engine and applies it to the space series universe.

And the result is a very decent action game that rewards sneaking and stealing but also packs in enough fighting to keep up the franchise spectacular.

Youll recognise the feel of the AC and Division games in the DNA of Outlaws.

Its over-the-shoulder look and desire to push you towards stealth mechanics to get through sandbox moments to plunder loot from various Star Wars crime factions all have an instant familiarity.

The gameplay is tweaked well however as your heroine Kay Vess is joined by a cute little alien critter called Nix, who can handily flick switches for you, distract enemies and steal items from a short distance away.

It adds a nice new layer to a tried and tested formula.

[Kay Vess is the hero in this game]

Kay Vess is the hero in this game

Scoundrel is a word that comes up a lot around this game and for good reason.

Its not about Jedi knights battling it out in epic battles with light-up swords, this is all about an Aladdin-style street thief character trying to make her fortune in a cruel galaxy.

Kay is a determined protagonist, tasked with doing jobs for various crime syndicates to earn her money and grow favour amongst some of the nastiest baddies Star Wars has to offer.

And she has to do it all by playing groups off each other, double crossing where needs be, and without sparking the interest and ire of the Galactic Empire, those white-hatted Stormtroopers made so famous by the movie series.

On the way through a well-paced single-player campaign youll come across the odd familiar face from the flicks, like Jabba the Hutt.

But its the new cast and their efforts in showing a new angle to this fantasy sci-fi franchise that gives the story a welcome freshness.

The open world action sees you jaunt across the galaxy, doing the odd spaceship dogfight, to places like the humid jungles of Akiva and the windswept savanna of Toshara.

Everything looks great on screen, with well-designed visuals really popping off the monitor.

[You get to have some space dogfights]

You get to have some space dogfights

When on the ground, you can traverse large open spaces between missions using the handy speeder vehicle you inherit.

And there are enough side missions and points of interest dotted around to really allow players to explore the environments at their own pace, ditching the day job of getting to the next plot point at times to simply enjoy what else is on offer in this world.

Weve not had a Star Wars game like it before and its a lovely place to be in, despite the simplicity and sometimes repetitive style of the gameplay, which isnt as good as the better-to-play Star Wars Jedi titles from developer Respawn.

It plays well enough though, and the blaster gunfights are great fun, but you do feel like youre doing the same thing a lot which can bore at worst.

Theres enjoyment to be had in breaking into various crime and Imperial bases.

And the team has done a good job at building out a fresh take on the franchise.

This is an excellent start by the Ubisoft bods and I suspect the inevitable follow-up will fare better once more varied gameplay is added into the mix.

VERDICT 4/5

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