UNVEILING THE COSMOS: UBISOFT’S STAR WARS OUTLAWS BLASTS INTO A GALAXY OF ADVENTURE

Within the realm of video gaming, few game announcements carry as much fanfare as the launch of a whole new galaxy in a beloved franchise. The existence of Star Wars Outlaws, a new galaxy created by French developer Ubisoft, is setting the coordinates for an unprecedented space voyage, one that brings the sensations of vast galactic travel with the rough-and-tumble of open-world exploration like Grand Theft Auto. With the first trailers for Outlaws now released, we’ve got the exact coordinates we need to consider what lies in store for us in the galaxy far, far away.

GALAXY OF OUTLAWS: A NEW HORIZON IN STAR WARS GAMING

At its centre is an entire galaxy of uncommitted shenanigans: the stories of every scoundrel, outlaw and con artist, and the blurry line between the legal and the illegal. Here are the some of the trailers Ubisoft produced for Star Wars Outlaws, which show off the game’s core elements in exciting, densely detailed ways: A speeder bike chase, probably involving some dodging of blaster fire.Picking a crew, probably involving some of the galaxy’s most conniving and misfitting general badasses.Dealing with the underworld of the Hutts, probably involving improbably dangerous drinks.It looks like a truly diverse set of experiences, just like the galaxy it’s pulling from.

EXPLORE THE STARS: DELVING INTO THE STAR WARS LOCATIONS

Among the most enticing promises of the game is that you can visit virtually anywhere in the galaxy. You’ll fly down to various planets and spaceports, and each one will be a setting for your story in Star Wars. From the arid dunes of Tatooine to the rain-soaked streets of Coruscant – this is the galaxy as it becomes a open playground for you to explore and immerse your character in the diverse environments you’ve seen as backdrop in the cinematic experience of Star Wars, but that have so far not been experienced or felt by you.

ROGUE'S JOURNEY: MASTERING THE ART OF THE SCOUNDREL

At its heart, in essence, Star Wars Outlaws asks you to be a galaxy-famous rogue. Some of that is a story that we’re telling you, but a lot of it adds some nice mechanics. In addition to recruiting one or two allies, the core of the game adds another table of crew. You have to recruit your crew, so you pick them up one at a time. Each has a little skill assigned, whether it’s lateral combat, leadership, diplomacy, piloting, an engineering skill, hacking, or bombs. Each one of those skills has a very specific use in the game. So you might have two guns for hire, but you can’t just hire five guns for hire. What’s cooler is that you have to make some choices regarding your crew in terms of their loyalty. It’s not so much about their competence – it’s only later that you have to worry about that aspect – but you have to make moral decisions about these people and how they’re going to fit together. Are you going to represent a force for good, or are you going to hire extremely evil individuals? The missions that you choose might have an outcome where being evil will help you accomplish something, or being good will help you accomplish something. Things can become very fuzzy, very quickly.

SPEEDER CHASES AND SHOOTOUTS: EXPERIENCING THE ACTION

What we know of Ubisoft’s Star Wars Outlaws through its early reveals is a game as much about strategy, scavenging and exploration as it is action – about whether you spend the money you steal on a bolstered forces or a better hideout, about your ability to evade pursuers on a speeder bike across a desert landscape, about your skill at a shootout against other gangs, and whether you can pull off that high-stakes heist (after all, you have to be good at action-adventure gaming if you want a fruitful career as a heist-plan maker). It’s also a game for much more than the cynical mark it might appear to those fans who have been around since, say, 1977: it’s a game of adrenaline-pumping action for people who want action games set in space. Given that underwhelming sales have dogged new space games for a long time now, gamers should hope that Ubisoft’s gamble pays off.

UNDERWORLD DEALINGS: THE DARK SIDE OF THE GALAXY

No tour of the galactic underworld is complete without a stop at the taverns where the galaxy’s worst scum gather to plot and scheme behind closed doors Star Wars Outlaws will take players down into the darkest side of the galaxy. It links you to the galaxy’s worst, like the Hutts, pulling you into a shadowy world of intrigue and treachery. Working in conjunction with these underworld personalities will add moral ambiguity to the game. Players will have to make hard choices and deal with the consequences as they shape the course of their own star games.

BUILDING YOUR LEGACY: RECRUIT, COMMAND, CONQUER

It’s a dangerous life, to be sure, but there are also abundant opportunities for the right kind of outlaw to make a name for herself. If the trailers are any indication, the game features a rich recruitment and leadership system allowing players to recruit a crew of their own choosing, each with different skills that require some forethought and strategic planning. Would-be galactic leaders will need to earn respect, plan operations and carve out their own galaxy.

EXPLORING THE GALAXY: WHAT AWAITS IN THE STARS?

The galaxy – as an idea, as a sensation, as a setting in Star Wars Outlaws and as a real place – is a place of endless possibility: a swirl of unknowable stars and worlds and gas clouds and dust held together by gravity. In the larger sense, our galaxy, the Milky Way, is just one of billions in the multiverse, each with its own stories to tell and secrets to unlock. The galaxy in Star Wars Outlaws is, above all, a backdrop for the action, a galaxy made for storytelling; a panoramic setting full of weird and wonderful worlds, strange and wondrous aliens, righteous and ruthless rulers, and ultimately a mosaic of diverse and storied cultures that form part of the expansive tapestry of the Star Wars universe. Exploring this galaxy allowed Ubisoft to give their players the chance to carve out a legend where everyone becomes a sort of hero, crafting their own stories of bravery, resourcefulness and ruthlessness among the stars. Countdown to arrival With Star Wars Outlaws, Ubisoft is preparing the most immersive video game experience of any Star Wars game yet. The best of action, intricate strategy, and narrative depth come together in a universe as rich as any in the galaxy. Players will soon discover the galaxy’s most fun fast lanes, and be ready to join them where they start. 29,000,000,000…28,000,000,000…27,000,000,000…