The Star Wars saga and the world of video games have always been related, in such a way that as early as 1983 you could enjoy the first arcade title in which you control a ship to destroy The Death Star. More than 40 years later, the trail is still alive, not only in movies but also in video games. And now, with a dozen releases announced, the time has come to play Star Wars Outlaws in Los Angeles, and to discover that, surely, we are facing one of the best titles in the galactic franchise.
Called to Galactic Glory
Like many others, I have also grown up with the universe that came from the mind of George Lucas in 1977. It has not always been easy to convince the public. Multiple changes in the lore, the introduction of Disney into the equation or the massive exploitation of the brand have made the fandom divided over whether to hate it or love it. Only video games like Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order or television series like The Mandalorian seem to have managed to unite popular opinion. And, in the midst of this context, Ubisoft seems determined to earn a place in that small quota.
Starting the text by saying that Star Wars Outlaws has all the potential to become the best game in the Star Wars saga may be too risky, considering that it has not yet been released. However, after playing it for 1 hour in 3 different demos, I admit that, perhaps overcome with emotion, I felt that it is the game that all of us fans deserved. It is much more ambitious than Respawn Entertainment’s proposals and with all the essence of the first trilogy of films.
In fact, in this installment we handle a kind of female Han Solo called Kay Vess about whom we know very little, but who seems to have a special gift for getting into trouble. She is accompanied by her sweet pet, Nix, who is not only an adorable addition to the game’s image, but also a good ally in combat. As I told you, during the Summer Game Fest celebration I had access to three previews: one about combat with ships, another about exploration, and another about stealth.
Exploration, stealth and action
I’m going to start with the exploration demo, because it is undoubtedly the most striking and it takes place inside an abandoned Empire reactor. This is the perfect scenario so that, from the first moment, the player can experience how the platform works, very similar to what was seen in Star Wars Jedi, but I would dare to say that it is more fluid in the movements and more elaborate. For example, among Kay’s many skills to break through, there are a handful of tools that will make it easier for her to advance just like in the EA game, but here it feels like they are used more frequently and agility… at least in the section we have seen. We find a hook to swing and several types of blasters: an energy one that helps us activate dead batteries and the normal laser one to shoot down enemies.
In addition, the scenarios have the classic reactions to our movements. For example, if you jump on a platform that you shouldn’t or isn’t very sturdy, it will surely collapse. But this doesn’t just happen during the main path as something cooked up by the developers, it happens regardless of whether we follow the story or not, and it speaks to how detailed the terrain is.
These calmer moments of exploration, in which we will collect all kinds of objects and materials, are combined with other more frenetic areas. At the end of the demo I arrived at a chase area in which a character was looking for Kay, and then you had to run and react quickly until you reached the motorcycle. If it were not for the intervention of an unknown droid, we would not have been able to escape.
The motorcycle is going to be one of our main vehicles and, furthermore, I have seen that it can be used freely to explore the wildest areas of the available planets or satellites. This implies a certain breadth of the map, something that seems to be glimpsed in the previews, but that I would have liked to see… although for now we will have to wait.
This demo ended with Kay’s arrival in a city, one of the places that caught my attention the most. As soon as I stepped foot in the place, I saw that it was full of life: droids here and there, living beings of all kinds of species, imperial soldiers… The best thing is that everyone seems to react to your presence in some way. For example, I tried to annoy two soldiers who were walking towards me, and what a surprise I was when I saw that they became aggressive and hit me! According to what one of the workers told me, if we had not hacked the imperial base, we would never have been able to enter this place.
Fugitive from the Empire
And another fundamental point of this delivery is social relationships. That is, the influence with certain groups is what will mean that you can have access to certain places, that that faction is not aggressive or even that the difficulty of a mission can vary. The most interesting thing is that this system of influences depends completely on the player, who is the one who will have the freedom to move as he wants or decide what missions to do and when. Very Ubisoft style, all this faction stuff
That brings me to the second demo, the infiltration one. It was a political mission in which Kay stole an artifact to establish an alliance with the queen of Kijimi, a planet that was seen in Episode IX. This task might have been easy if the relationship with the faction had been different, but that was not the case. I expected a totally desperate mission for those of us who are not good at stealth. However, I was surprised to discover that the game really gives you a lot of flexibility to adapt the experience to your personal way of playing. Of course, the area was designed for infiltration, with places to crouch, hide, or even go through the ceiling. The hand-to-hand fighting mechanics were also important to not attract attention with noise.
Did I manage to complete the mission discreetly? I already told you no, but I completed the objective, which was the important thing. What was very useful was hiding so that the enemies’ attention was reduced and then I could steal the object to escape. After a dialogue with the queen, the demo on the snowy planet ended. As a detail, I would like to point out that although I was not able to see Kijimi in depth, I did notice the wonderful design that she had, so similar to the one seen in the movie.
In the last demo I was able to explore everything related to ship combat, one of the main points of Star Wars. Far from starting the test directly inside one, we first had to reach ours from inside an imperial cruiser, a wonderful detail that emulates films like Episode IV or VII. In fact, the place is very reminiscent of where Luke, Han and Leia were when they met for the first time.
Basically, getting to the ship involved shooting your way through soldiers armed with all kinds of war arsenal. Luckily, it was not necessary to kill everyone and you just had to hold on until the ship’s ramp was lowered. At this point, Nix was a very useful ally and, as a funny detail, he can be sent to the soldiers to remove the ring from the grenades they are carrying and send them flying through the air.
Once inside the ship, the transition to space was so fast that I barely noticed and, suddenly, I was in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by asteroids and with the vision of a planet with its moon in the background. Simply amazing. Unfortunately, there was not much time for contemplation and the enemy ships appeared. For anyone who has played Starfield, the ship’s operating system will be familiar, although perhaps in a slightly more simplified version in which we do not have to deal with its parameters such as the shield, the engine, etc. What is very similar to the Bethesda game is the way of moving through space in terms of its lightness and, when shooting, a certain assistance to the player is appreciated with which only by pointing the camera it becomes more stable and the sight remains stable. This makes it easier for the chases to not be a mere formality, but rather have their point of fun.
Once the space was clear, it was time to enter a planet and here I was able to check one of the points that had attracted the most attention: could it be possible to enter a planet without interruptions from space? It may surprise you, but the answer is yes. However, there is a trick to this. This journey from open space to the planet’s surface is nothing more than a loading scene, a well-implemented one, but a loading scene. It’s still better than a black screen transition and also disguises the loading time (it’s not very long), but it seems like you still have to wait to experience this experience.
As you can see, there are many sections of Star Wars Outlaws that I have been able to see, and I have found them all positive. If I had to put a “but” and be picky, maybe I would point out the fact that graphically the seams are visible very occasionally in small details. Some lack of definition in the most open scenarios (and we were playing it on PC) but nothing that hinders the gaming experience.
The most interesting of all is the level of detail and representation of the Star Wars universe, perfectly capturing its essence, maintaining a tone consistent with the movies, and gameplay that seems flexible and fun. Come on, it’s quite likely that he’s a real time eater. If it finally presents a level consistent with what was seen in Los Angeles, we could be facing one of the best Star Wars games without a doubt.