A lot is riding on the upcoming Star Wars Outlaws by Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment. It’s touted to be the first true open-world Star Wars game but it’s also one that’s a somewhat risky endeavour considering that it’s a Star Wars game without Jedi or lightsabers. Courtesy of Ubisoft Singapore, we were able to experience hands-on gameplay with an exclusive preview demo of the game.

More Action Required

We spent almost four hours playing Star Wars Outlaws, which consisted of gameplay on two worlds in the game (Toshara and Kijimi), as well as an Imperial space station and some time on space combat as well. Gameplay-wise, controlling and playing as protagonist Kay Vess pretty much feels like a cross between Nathan Drake and anyone from Assassin’s Creed/Watch Dogs. There are a lot of platforming sections where Kay has to jump from ledge to ledge and climb walls, as well as use grappling hooks to swing across to navigate the environment.

The combat is a cover-based third-person shooter system that feels inspired by 2017’s Star Wars Battlefront 2’s overheat system (if you press the trigger at the right time, the weapon will instantly cool down). There are multiple ammo types to choose from, including Ion ammo to neutralize shields and stun ammo to easily take down enemies (though this can only be used once before you have to wait for an extremely long cooldown). Overall, it feels very familiar and nothing that you haven’t experienced before from these types of games.

That being said, playing several hours of Star Wars Outlaws made me realise one important thing. It’s vital to understand that Star Wars Outlaws is PRIMARILY A STEALTH GAME and NOT an action shooter. The main quests and story missions I completed in the preview demo mostly forced me to go stealth. Getting caught or triggering alarms will often fail the mission, forcing you to restart from checkpoints. This is a bit frustrating because the game doesn’t give you the choice to go in guns blazing with the exceptions of a few rare shootouts or certain situations. Kay Vess also dies and goes down pretty fast, so she’s not meant to be an action hero. I do appreciate that the game offered multiple options to tackle an objective during a mission but they all mostly must be done under stealth. So, yeah, Star Wars Outlaws is first and foremost, a stealth game, not an action one.

Players can use their animal companion, Nix, to distract enemies before silently taking them down or to open doors. Sometimes it’s unclear what exactly Nix can do in a given situation so it’s always best to take things slow. There were a few times I was lost and confused when it turned out that I could just use Nix to open a button somewhere or something in order to progress.

Besides that, Star Wars Outlaws also features hacking and lockpicking minigames. This might annoy gamers because even in a few hours of gameplay, I lost count of how many lockpicking minigames I had to perform. The problem with the lockpicking minigame in Star Wars Outlaws is that it uses a rhythm mechanic. It sounds simple enough to just press a button according to a rhythm but it can get frustrating when there are so many of these lockpicking sections. There was an option to further make the lockpicking easier but I didn’t have time to try it out.

In addition, I managed to try out the space combat in Star Wars Outlaws, and it feels good. This is coming from someone who has hundreds of hours in Ace Combat games and I also reviewed the space combat sim Star Wars Squadrons in 2020. The space combat in Star Wars Outlaws is more simplified and the controls feel tight enough for even someone casual to play. You can shoot blasters or use missiles to take down enemy ships. Arguably, the space combat in Star Wars Outlaws plays similarly to Starfield but it just controls better and faster, as well as feels more responsive, in Star Wars Outlaws.

I spent three hours on Toshara but it was the typical seedy Star Wars city. I did a couple of missions for several factions but I couldn’t really fully able to play with the reputation mechanics. One situation that did impress me was when I had to steal an item but I had to choose to steal from one of two different syndicates. I chose to steal from the Crimson Dawn syndicate because I had a better reputation level with them, which allowed me to simply walk into their base. The process of stealing the item then became much easier because I only had to resort to stealth in the restricted sections near the item, but then I could just walk out because I was on good terms with that syndicate. I assume it would be harder to infiltrate the other syndicate because I can’t just walk to them like I did with this one, which would have made stealing the item a more laborious process.

In comparison, I only had one hour to spend on planet Kijimi but it was more interesting than the time I spent on Toshara. Why? For one, the Ashiga Clan on planet Kijimi is a new faction created for the game, and the planet Kijimi itself is relatively new, having only been introduced in 2019’s Star Wars Episode IX The Rise Of Skywalker. Plus, the atmosphere and design of Kijimi are unique compared to other Star Wars planets, with a distinctive snowy vibe (a different ‘snowy’ to Hoth). It’s always nice to see something new in Star Wars lore, expanding the Star Wars universe even further.

Underworld

Obviously, four hours is nowhere near long enough to write comprehensively about a game as massive (pun intended) as Star Wars Outlaws. I’m looking forward to playing the full game when it’s out and being able to fully experience all the mechanics of the game in depth. As of now, it’s a bit too stealth-focused for me, but the full game might offer a more balanced experience overall.

Star Wars Outlaws launches for the PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC on 30 August 2024.