Once I attended the primary hands-off briefing for Star Wars Outlaws at Summer season Recreation Fest 2023, I left Ubisoft’s demo room on a excessive, pondering this could possibly be the piece of media that lastly pulls me into the Star Wars universe. I cherished the give attention to a solo protagonist, Kay Vess, and her cute merqaal pet, Nix. I adored the truth that builders mentioned the sport would inform a cohesive, linear story, moderately than throwing gamers into an unfocused open world and calling it AAA. I used to be wanting to get my fingers on it.
Since then, I’ve been lucky sufficient to entry two completely different previews of Star Wars Outlaws, and my preliminary pleasure has been tempered. It’s not utterly extinguished, however the slices that I’ve performed have strengthened a bloaty vibe underpinned by unclear navigation and generic fight. I nonetheless suppose Star Wars Outlaws is a reasonably recreation with attention-grabbing character designs and environments, however I’m now much less hopeful about every little thing else it’s providing — , the weather that haven’t been plucked straight out of the prevailing Star Wars universe.
The sections I’ve performed of Star Wars Outlaws span cosmic dogfights, parkour ranges in metal-lined house stations and navy bases, and stealth missions towards roaming Stormtroopers and interstellar prison factions. I additionally hopped on a speeder and had a good time flying over the dunes of Toshara with Nix on the again of my bike; one factor I’m positively trying ahead to within the full recreation is coming into hovercraft races.
As for the bits I really performed, I’d describe the general theme as complicated. I encountered a head-scratching second within the first minutes of my preliminary preview at Summer season Recreation Fest 2024 in June: I crawled by way of a busted, rocky base and located myself on the mouth of a cliffside cave, the mountain too steep to climb down and the bottom too far-off for a leap of religion. I stood there and looked for a sign of the place to go subsequent, scanning the surroundings backward and forward and high to backside, however nothing jumped out. So, I jumped.
This was the wrong transfer, and I died and reset. After looking out the sting of the cave for a number of extra minutes and second-guessing whether or not I used to be within the correct location, a Ubisoft spokesperson identified a strip of coiled metallic excessive above my head — actually as far up as Kay’s area of view would go and blended in with the foliage. An not easily seen white label recognized it as an interactable object, however your entire factor was extremely simple to overlook. I pushed R3 on the controller and hooked onto it with my grappling gun, feeling extremely dumb. Sadly, this was a repeated expertise (and feeling) all through the preview ranges.
One of many promoting factors of Star Wars Outlaws is its parkour-style mechanics, the place Kay climbs metallic grids, slides alongside shallow ledges by her fingertips and makes use of her grappling hook to swing throughout gaps. Nonetheless, these mechanics are hit-or-miss, draining the stream from any tried parkour motion. The climbable grids are highlighted in a boring yellow that doesn’t precisely stand out towards rusted metallic partitions, and even when Kay jumps on to them, she generally fails to attach. This occurred to me throughout each previews, in numerous sections of the sport, and the second occasion led me to suppose the grid wasn’t really climbable in any respect. I wasted a great chunk of time farting across the affected space earlier than contemplating one other leap to the grid. It labored, however the loop left me annoyed.
I don’t thoughts some enmeshed, not-obvious traversal factors in my video games, however Star Wars Outlaws appears to take this concept too far.
Navigating the environments was additionally weirdly difficult. I bought misplaced in a number of areas in my previews, even with a responsive HUD and highlighted goal markers on the display the entire time. The little yellow indicator was troublesome to comply with by way of maze-like settlements full of similar-looking stalls, stairwells and hallways, and monitoring aims solely bought more durable as soon as blaster fights broke out. I by no means wish to surprise the place the hell I’m purported to be going in the midst of intense fight, however Star Wars Outlaws served up this case a number of occasions.
I loved some sections of the sport simply superb, significantly the ultimate mission that I performed. On the icy planet Kijimi, I snuck right into a protected, two-story ballroom on a mission to steal an object within the heart of the house. Nix is at all times by Kay’s aspect and he could be instructed to gather shinies, flip switches, and distract or assault enemies, and I made him do all of these items throughout this mission. The stealth mechanics in Star Wars Outlaws are easy — crouch to be sneaky — and enemies are usually oblivious until you’re straight of their line of sight. In rooms with two enemies, it’s greatest to ship Nix after one guard whereas silently taking down the opposite, after which end off the attacked, disoriented foe as Nix scurries away. I employed this tactic to nice success, and even as soon as a blaster battle broke out anyway, I had fun lobbing grenades and touchdown headshots on this degree.
My time on Kijimi provides me hope that perhaps I simply want a number of uninterrupted hours with Star Wars Outlaws for the sport to actually click on. I’m intrigued by its fame system, the place gamers can observe their standing with varied interstellar prison networks, altering the extent of entry Kay can have with the related areas and characters. Hacking doorways and safes entails a screwdriver and a bit of rhythm recreation, and the method is satisfying each time. The speeder controls properly and I’m stoked to check out some precise races as soon as I observe a bit of extra. Area battles are dizzying and completely serviceable. Nix is lovable in each scenario. There’s loads to stay up for right here, however I can’t overlook the frustration that’s seemingly constructed into the climbing mechanics, grappling hook and nav system.
I’m involved that Star Wars Outlaws has fallen sufferer to traditional AAA bloat, providing a giant universe of mediocre experiences, a few of them half-functional and the remaining missing depth or innovation. Within the recreation’s previews, there are hints that that is the case. As at all times although, I’m ready to be shocked.
If I had recommendation for anybody interested by Star Wars Outlaws — and this nonetheless consists of me, simply barely — it will be this: Search for. Like approach up.
Star Wars Outlaws will hit PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Collection X/S on August 30.
