It’s the final stretch for Star Wars Outlaws, which comes out in exactly one month, since the game is expected on August 30th on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series. If you follow me on my social networks, you probably saw it, I went to Los Angeles 15 days ago for the event that Ubisoft, LucasFilm and Disney organized to allow the press from all over the world to get their hands on the game. A special hands-on session since it was the very first time that we could discover the open world, the famous open world that has been the subject of great questions since the title was unveiled. Because yes, one of the main promises of the game is to be able to move from planet to planet in a completely seamless way, that is to say without interruption. Is this really possible? How many planets can we visit? How does the gameplay fit around all this? Is the game as beautiful as it looks in the trailers? Is it true that there are no lightsabers in this Star Wars game? Well, I’m going to answer all of these questions without any detours. And the cherry on the cake is that I came back with almost 5 hours of gameplay captured in 4K.
The first question I can answer about Star Wars Outlaws is the game’s graphic quality. Were you blown away by the rendering of the planet Pandora 6 months ago in Avatar Frontiers of Pandora? You’re going to get the same slap in the face with Star Wars Outlaws. I’ll let you admire the images that scroll by and which are, I remind you, from my hands-on session, and see how Massive Entertainment has matured with its Snowdrop Engine. It’s simply magnificent, whether it’s the quality of the 3D models of the characters, well detailed, well animated too, but also the environments. There is a visual richness that pushes us to look everywhere. We don’t know where to look because there are so many things to see, to contemplate. Between the explosion of colors, the density of the vegetation, the wind effects that add that little next-gen game feel, the rocky elements with detailed textures, the rendering of the water, the variety of flora, with different types of animals that you can come across while walking, the beauty of the sky and the planets that you observe in the distance, the global lighting which is also very successful, the RTX effects that amplify this visual dynamic, the absence of clipping that could harm immersion, no really, there’s no beating around the bush, Star Wars: Outlaws is one of the most beautiful games of the moment, especially for an open world. Especially since the game doesn’t forget to also integrate all the facial expressions that Kay Vess, our heroine, makes, who reacts accordingly to different situations.
A STAR WARS WITHOUT A LIGHTSABER
Regarding the content, it is now a done deal, we know it, Star Wars Outlaws will allow you to travel across a total of 5 different planets: Toshara, Kijimi, Akiva, Cantonica and finally the most famous Tatooine. Each of these planets will have a distinct size and if it is currently impossible to tell you which one is the largest and which one will be the smallest, Massive Entertainment explained that it will be possible to travel through them entirely in 5 minutes via the Mount Speeder which is therefore this motorcycle without wheels, but which moves in levitation at a more than reasonable speed. So it is true that 5 minutes seems little but Julian Gerighty, the creative director of the game that I was also able to interview, wanted to reassure us by explaining that if we take the number as such, it is not huge, but that there will be something to do on each planet. Likewise, he specified that they did not want to make a massive and empty open world where there is nothing to do, but to control the surface area, so that each crossing is interesting and gives the feeling of a real journey. Another thing that I can add in relation to the size of the open world and therefore of each planet, is that there will be a lot of interior areas to discover, with sometimes labyrinthine mazes that make you get lost in these closed areas crowded with people. So Star Wars Outlaws will really play on the contrast of open spaces, very natural, with more restricted, more confined moments, all with always this total freedom to move.
AUTO MOTO
Regarding the driving of the Mount Speeder, many feared somewhat rigid controls and finally, it turns out that the machine is very easy to control. Sure, it is a little slower when you go into reverse, but it allows for great chases with attackers that you can randomly encounter in the open world. The device does not have blasters, but Kay can however use his Adrenaline Rush Shot, which is none other than the Dead Eye mechanic from Red Dead Redemption, and which allows you to slow down time, mark the enemies you want to take down and then let your character aim at the bullseye. Unless I have not managed to find the manipulation, but I doubt it, but apart from the Adrenaline Rush Shot, Kay cannot use his weapon otherwise. You can however get off your motorcycle and draw your weapon, but on the Mount Speeder, we are very limited. On the other hand, maybe we will be able to evolve the bike by integrating blasters, but no confirmation for the moment, but the bike will be able to evolve, since there are garages to integrate improvements to it.
In any case, the Mount Speeder will be your best and only means of transport, because the game does not allow you to use other devices, those of the enemies that we will have destroyed on the road. It’s a shame, it’s true, but we also imagine that the idea was also to create a link with this Mount Speeder that will evolve over the course of the adventure, especially since we can whistle at any time so that it comes directly to us. Classic yes, but rather practical to tell the truth.
In recent months, Star Wars Outlaws has often been compared to Uncharted 4 in its gameplay and it is true that after 5 hours of play, we can feel quite a few similarities with the Naughty Dog title. With such a graphics engine and such sumptuous graphics, it would be a shame not to take advantage of it, and as with Uncharted 4, Massive Entertainment has made sure that the structure of its game can take advantage of the beauty of the environments. Star Wars Outlaws is indeed a game where exploration will have a very important part, with a good understanding of the environments. The game is certainly intended for the general public, but it does not always give them a hand and it is up to the player to look everywhere to understand how to solve a puzzle, find their way, or even climb certain walls. Nothing insurmountable, but it is still nice to see that you will have to rack your brains a little.
GENTLE ON THE INFILTRATION
Star Wars Outlaws is otherwise a game that will give pride of place to infiltration, with sometimes moments that are suggested and others that are downright imposed. Let me explain: overall, the game gives the player the freedom to approach a situation as they see fit. While it is sometimes preferable to go through infiltration, if you ever blow your cover, you then switch to action mode and it is up to you to deal with the cavalry that arrives. On the other hand, certain key passages of the game will require you to do infiltration and nothing but infiltration, which means that if you mess up your discretion, it’s game over and we reload your last save. Moreover, we noticed some problems with checkpoints, poorly placed, and which forced us to systematically do a puzzle each time we were spotted. I assure you that after 15 failures, it becomes painful to retype the riddle of the door to unlock. We don’t really know what the balance between action, infiltration and exploration phases will be in the full game, but over the 5 hours of hands-on we had, it was a lot of infiltration. But the developers wanted to reassure us that there will be a good average, the idea not being to frustrate the player. We hope and we will see that when the game comes out.
Another detail that will have to be judged at the time of the test is the interest of the secondary missions, just to see if this Star Wars Outlaws will not do the classic stuffing of FedEx missions. In any case, during our session, we were able to test some secondary missions, and they were rather well scripted, with key characters to meet. We can therefore hope for a game that has evolved with today’s requirements, especially since this Star Wars Outlaws offers a progression different from the usual Action-RPGs. Basically, instead of earning points of achievement to level up or improve your stats, Star Wars Outlaws will be able to obtain skills or improvements after having successfully completed a mission. The idea is therefore to offer a journey of discovery and we come back to this idea of enjoying its universe through a visual narration.
SPACE OPERA
Regarding space battles, they are very present in the game and some will ask you to clear entire areas. Basically, between two planet changes, you will have to deal with enemies to take down, in environments that are also very neat. Massive Entertainment has not developed these passages lightly, with here too a great freedom of movement. In terms of piloting, the game offers many possibilities, with a boost that can be triggered to go faster, a shield to activate if you get too much shot, possible rotations too, several different shots, and if you ever get drunk, nothing prevents you from going to your destination, that is to say the next planet. Each landing will be done through a cutscene and each planet entry is loaded when you get off your ship.
Star Wars Outlaws is certainly an open world, but it is also a narrative game, and the latter will be talkative. In the manner of Uncharted 4, Kay Vess will constantly interact with other characters, telling us lots of things to keep the player’s interest. We will probably learn more about his personality, his past too, his legitimacy in the Star Wars lore, Nix too who will be there to help us, but also lots of other secondary characters that we will meet throughout the adventure. Suffice to say that for the moment, Star Wars Outlaws is a game that still excites us as much and that we really want to discover next month. It remains to be seen whether the game will be well balanced in its gameplay, that the missions will be interesting, that the story will be exciting too, because we expect a lot from this game that already checks a lot of boxes. See you on August 30th to find out for sure.
