Once I attended the primary hands-off briefing for Star Wars Outlaws at Summer time Sport Fest 2023, I left Ubisoft’s demo room on a excessive, considering this may very well be the piece of media that lastly pulls me into the Star Wars universe. I cherished the concentrate on 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, slightly than throwing gamers into an unfocused open world and calling it AAA. I used to be desperate to get my palms 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 bolstered a bloaty vibe underpinned by unclear navigation and generic fight. I nonetheless suppose Star Wars Outlaws is a fairly sport with attention-grabbing character designs and environments, however I’m now much less hopeful about all the things else it’s providing — you recognize, 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 army bases, and stealth missions in opposition to roaming Stormtroopers and interstellar felony 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 wanting ahead to within the full sport is getting 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 time Sport 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 distant for a leap of religion. I stood there and looked for a sign of the place to go subsequent, scanning the surroundings back and forth 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 just a few extra minutes and second-guessing whether or not I used to be within the correct location, a Ubisoft spokesperson identified a strip of coiled steel excessive above my head — actually as far up as Kay’s subject of view would go and blended in with the foliage. An not noticeable white label recognized it as an interactable object, however all the factor was extremely straightforward 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 steel 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 circulation from any tried parkour motion. The climbable grids are highlighted in a uninteresting yellow that doesn’t precisely stand out in opposition to rusted steel 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 an excellent chunk of time farting across the affected space earlier than contemplating one other bounce 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 acquired 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 tough to observe by way of maze-like settlements crammed with similar-looking stalls, stairwells and hallways, and monitoring targets solely acquired tougher as soon as blaster fights broke out. I by no means need to surprise the place the hell I’m alleged 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 middle of the house. Nix is at all times by Kay’s facet and he may be instructed to gather shinies, flip switches, and distract or assault enemies, and I made him do all of this stuff throughout this mission. The stealth mechanics in Star Wars Outlaws are easy — crouch to be sneaky — and enemies are typically 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 offers me hope that possibly I simply want just a few uninterrupted hours with Star Wars Outlaws for the sport to essentially click on. I’m intrigued by its popularity system, the place gamers can monitor their standing with varied interstellar felony networks, altering the extent of entry Kay may have with the related areas and characters. Hacking doorways and safes includes a screwdriver and a bit of rhythm sport, 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 cute in each state of affairs. There’s a lot to sit up for right here, however I can’t neglect 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 basic AAA bloat, providing an enormous universe of mediocre experiences, a few of them half-functional and the remainder missing depth or innovation. Within the sport’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 all for Star Wars Outlaws — and this nonetheless consists of me, simply barely — it might be this: Search for. Like approach up.
Star Wars Outlaws will hit PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Collection X/S on August 30.