UNEARTHING THE STAR WARS GALAXY: WALKING THE LINE BETWEEN THE FAMILIAR AND THE NEW WITH UBISOFT’S LATEST EXPEDITION

In the wealth of shared gaming and cinematic worlds, the prospect of discovering a universe one loves via a new gaming lens has never diminished, and at the 2024 Summer Game Fest, Ubisoft announced its upcoming single-player action-adventure game (set in that self-same galaxy far, far away) called Star Wars Outlaws. It was described as a self-styled Uncharted-esque foray into the expansive universe which promised to deliver on the thrill of exploration found in that series. I got to play a preview build of the game, and this is why I believe Star Wars Outlaws’ journey into the galaxy has a lot more to...continue reading

DISCOVERING THE UNDERBELLY OF THE GALAXY

The Dynamic Duo: Kay and Nix

We’re briefed on ‘Star Wars Outlaws’ five pages in, when we first meet its protagonist, Kay. She’s the nearest thing the Star Wars universe has to a Han Solo, and she’s completely different to Han. No lightsabers, no force mind tricks – just Kay and her junior sidekick, Nix, going about the seedy underbelly of Star Wars in search of a mission that will thrust them into ‘thrilling espionage adventures’. It is, as the back cover promises, ‘a daring double-cross… a deadly chase… and a no-holds-barred blasterfight!’

A Scoundrel's Toolkit

His weapons are versatile and imaginative, including both a multi-purpose blaster and a challenging hacking device – a tool that echoes the mischievous and inventive spirit of Kay. The process of hacking into systems becomes a mini-puzzle that is enjoyable to solve and rewarding to overcome. Nix is not merely a passive sidekick, supporting combat situations with healing and scouting with her airborne view.

A GALAXY TO EXPLORE

All of the missions were packed with varied environments – a huge variety of towns and ruins and alien locations – that were all covered in the correct Star Wars surface details. Every environment is in some way elaborate, with a whole set of things to discover.

DISCOVERING SECRETS AND CHALLENGES

At the core of Star Wars Outlaws is discovery, whether gleaning clandestine intelligence from overheard conversation to track treasure troves, or deciphering time-sensitive glyph-based puzzles. The game is filled with nooks and crannies just waiting to be explored, and rewards those doing the exploring, in part to keep players motivated to keep digging deeper into the Star Wars galaxy.

CHANNELING DRAKE: A NOD TO FAMILIAR ADVENTURES

Nor is it possible to ignore the echoes of Uncharted in Star Wars Outlaws (2015), written by Robbie Thompson and illustrated by Marco Checchetto. Kay and Nix’s globe-trotting and questing is a familiar, even comforting experience, but it also feels fresh and new when set against the old and broad backdrop of the Star Wars universe. The speed of their movements, whether negotiating a careening climb or a wicked dogfight in space-fighters, highlights the rapid variety of the game, enhancing the adventure.

THE HORIZON OF DISCOVERY

What I most respond to in Star Wars Outlaws is the promise of an open world: glimpses of the vast narrative playground that lurks behind the thin slice we play through. A world shorn of loading screens and artificial sandwiching that’s lived rather than broken into. You might call this a game ‘inspired by’ the movie Star Wars.

DISCOVERING THE ESSENCE OF STAR WARS OUTLAWS

If we are hopeful for anything as we wait for the full release of Star Wars Outlaws, it’s that Ubisoft is planning to take the known tropes and themes of action-adventure games and combine them with something completely unique to Star Wars, which is discovery. Discovering things about the world, about yourself and, of course, about the galaxy as you explore on the ground, by air and space. At its heart, Star Wars Outlaws seems poised to hit upon the perfect formula for a game that pays proper homage to what has come before while blazing its own trail into the unknown. Hearkening back to Sands of Time and Uncharted with its relatable, grounded heroes – two outlaws who each have their own reasons for doing what they do, who are flawed, but smart, capable and driven – there’s a lot happening in the world of Star Wars Outlaws. And it all seems poised to deliver the sort of surprising and engrossing journeys that the best videogames have to offer. As fans and gamers, we stand at the precipice of discovery. A portal into the galaxy far, far away, ready to sculpt our own legends from the things we find, yearning for every secret the Freelancers have to offer.