Massive Entertainment’s upcoming open-world Star Wars game, Outlaws, is coming to PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S sometime in 2024. The game doesn’t follow Jedi and deal with The Force, but instead will give us a look into the seedier side of life in the Star Wars universe as it follows the exploits of a smuggler and scoundrel in an open-world format encompassing multiple planets. Let’s take a look at everything we know about the next trek to a galaxy far, far away.
What is Star Wars Outlaws about?
Ubisoft’s take on Star Wars follows new hero Kay Vess and her sexy robot friend ND-5, who are thieves, mercenaries, and con artists just trying to just stay alive as the Empire’s power grows. But one of her jobs puts her in the Empire’s line of fire, leading her and her Merqaal companion Nix to attempt a score that Ubisoft has hyped as “one of the greatest heists the Outer Rim has ever seen” to secure their freedom.
When does Outlaws take place in the Star Wars timeline?
Outlaws is set in the year between The Empire Strikes Back and The Return of the Jedi. This is during the height of the Empire’s reign, and that’s why Kay is constantly on the run. Her illegal activities have caught the Empire’s eye, and Luke Skywalker and friends have yet to take them down. According to Narrative Director Navid Khavari, the team wanted to explore the ground-level impact of Star Wars’ intergalactic conflicts.
“We always knew we wanted to create an original scoundrel story,” Khavari told Kotaku. “There was something exciting about looking at [this universe] from the perspective of a scoundrel like Kay, who has no experience with the Empire, Jedi, Rebellion or the Sith.”
How does it play?
Star Wars: Outlaws looks like a Ubisoft game in more ways than one. Yes, it has the open-world structure that’s become synonymous with the company, but it also has stealth action elements like sneaking, parkour, and stealth attacks reminiscent of the Assassin’s Creed series. There’s also some cover shooter elements, and hand-to-hand combat, and you can manipulate the environment by sending Nix to hit switches and pick up items across the battlefield.
In addition to on-foot combat, Outlaws has vehicle combat, too, withlast year’s Ubisoft Forward showing Kay firing her blaster while on a speeder bike, slowing down time to line up her shots.
Kay’s blaster seems to have different settings and modifications that change its function. The ones seen in the demonstration included a stun mode and a “focused” mode, which appear to work better on certain enemies or obstacles. The focused setting helps apply pressure on shielded enemies, allowing Kay to get in close for a melee finisher.
Wanted system
Part of being a wanted criminal is being on the run. Star Wars Outlaws has a reputation and wanted system similar to that in Grand Theft Auto, which means if you’re caught doing crimes, you might find yourself on the wrong side of an imperial blaster. Your reputation with different factions will affect how easily you can access certain areas, so while you’re bound to make some enemies on your way through space, it will be important to keep in mind who hates you the least while traveling.
That’s cool and all, but what about space travel?
Kay’s adventure spans the galaxy, and she can fly around it in her Trailblazer starship. From space, she can fly to different destinations and take part in some space combat against the Empire’s forces. You can also jump to lightspeed while in space to escape Imperial forces and cool down your wanted meter.
Dialogue choices, but not branching threads
As seen in the demonstration video, Star Wars Outlaws features dialogue choices that let you color in the lines of who Kay is. The example shown is Kay deciding whether or not to bribe an Empire lackey. According to Massive, these choices won’t result in a branching storyline, but will let you add a tenor to Kay’s personality and scheming.
Outlaws will contain multiple planets from Star Wars’ long history
While Star Wars Outlaws takes place in the original trilogy’s window, Kay will visit planets from multiple eras of the series’ history. We’ve already seen Kijimi, a planet introduced in The Rise of Skywalker, and what looks like the gambling city of Canto Blight from The Last Jedi. We haven’t seen anything that seems to originate from the prequels, though there do seem to be references to its events with some environmental elements like podracers.
When is Star Wars Outlaws coming out?
Ubisoft and Massive have only confirmed Star Wars Outlaws is coming out sometime this year, but there was a brief moment when it seemed as if Disney, via a Disney Parks blog post, had announced it would launch in “late” 2024, specifically. However, Ubisoft quickly clarified that they don’t have a publicly nailed-down window yet, and only reaffirmed that it will launch in 2024. Could it still be “late” 2024? Possibly, but nothing has been definitively confirmed.