Star Wars Outlaws swaps lightsabers for blasters in a game that explores the seedy underworld of the iconic sci-fi universe.

The Star Wars saga is dominated by the battle against good and evil: the Rebellion, the Empire, the First Order, the Republic and, of course, the Jedi. Interwoven into all these stories, in keeping with the saga’s “lived in” universe, is a criminal underworld, that, for the most, part we have only glimpsed.

Massive Entertainment, responsible for The Division and more recently Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, invite players to take the role of a scoundrel a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. With Star Wars Outlaws, the Swedish studio has set itself quite the task of bringing a little-seen but much-hinted, darker corner of the Star Wars universe to life.

This is the domain of the bounty hunters, the spice smugglers and criminal organisations like the Crimson Dawn and the Hutts. It is also familiar territory for some of the franchise’s best-loved characters: Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, Boba Fett and more recently The Mandalorian.

Star Wars games tend to stick with familiar troupes. Throw in a lightsaber and a few rebels you’ve got a Star Wars game. Star Wars Outlaws doesn’t take this easy way out. Instead, Massive has strived to make a game that actually feels like Star Wars. And I’ll say it now, they have done a tremendous job. Not only does the game just feel very Star Wars, but it also feels very 1970s/80s Star Wars, perfect for a game set between The Empire Strikes Back and The Return of the Jedi.

The game follows the misadventures of Kay Vess and her four-legged companion, Nix. Kay is a thief who is trying to escape her home world of Cantonica (from The Last Jedi).  Stumbling upon and stealing a starship, The Trailblazer, she puts both a price on her head and opens some interesting criminal opportunities in the Outer Rim.

As a Star Wars fan since the beginning, I really can’t convey just how well this game captures the essence of the movies. At every turn, there’s something recognisable. The developer has gone all out to recreate the familiar races, droids and hardware that populate the Star Wars universe. The game takes players to familiar locations, fleshed out with more detail than ever, as well as new places so well realised that they slot seamlessly slot into the Star Wars mythos.

As with most story-based games, there’s a main quest line that’ll linearly propel you through Kay’s adventure. But the most fun in the game is to be had just exploring and immersing yourself in this authentic and very detailed Star Wars setting.

The game is split into five unique planets: Cantonica with its casino city of Canto Bigh, the pirate haven of Toshara, the icy cold Kijimi, the jungle world of Akiva and, of course, the ever-popular desert world of Tatooine. It’s a living universe with huge cities, settlements and outposts spread across huge game areas.

Traversing planets is best done by speeder, which Kay obtains early in the game. When in settlements Kay must journey on foot. There are fast travel points across the maps to speed up getting from A to B, however, there’s a lot to be gained by journeying across the map and uncovering intel, contacts, story elements and side quests.

As this is Star Wars, the action is not constrained to planets. Interplanetary travel is done via Kay’s starship. The ship can be controlled in orbit, to scavenge wreaks, visit space stations and engage with pirates in ship-to-ship combat. The space-based missions reminded me very much of the old X-Wing Alliance game from the late 90s.

The Star Wars underworld consists of several factions. With Outlaws being all about the criminal underbelly of the sci-fi franchise, you are going to have to manage Kay’s relationship with each of them. The Hutt Cartel, Crimson Dawn, and The Pyke Syndicate may be familiar from the movies and TV shows, these are joined by the Ashiga Clan, new to the game. The Empire may need placating, as well, as the Imperial presence is still felt, even in the otherwise lawless Outer Rim Territories.

Balancing Kay’s relationship with the factions is important. A good relationship with a faction allows Kay almost unfettered access to the gang’s strongholds and areas, whereas a poor relationship will result in Kay being barred from areas and perhaps shot on sight if discovered. Access to optional contracts and side missions may be restricted depending on faction standing.

Kay’s relationship with factions can be improved by taking on contracts. There are opportunities to double-cross your current employer to gain favour with a rival gang. This is a great way to turn the tables if you need access to an otherwise off-limits faction stronghold.

Ubisoft has avoided relying too much on the familiar elements that can be found across the publisher’s games. The gameplay does, however, borrow from a few other games. Thankfully Outlaws feels more like Red Dead Redemption 2 than Assassin’s Creed. Outlaws in an open-world adventure game, like Far Cry, that invites exploration. But it’s also a third-person shooter with the same sort of puzzle and climbing elements as the Uncharted games, with a bit of a bit of Spinter Cell-style stealth thrown in.

Playing as a thief, it makes sense that there’s a fair bit of stealth gameplay. These can range from just avoiding a firefight to more unforgiving sections of the game where discovery is not an option.

Most of the stealth is in sneaking around faction areas and getting caught is a fast way to lose favour with a faction. Most stealth areas have more than one route. The most obvious is not necessarily the best. A few times I spent ages meticulously avoiding enemies only to discover an easy route that could have saved me 20 minutes.

You can use your electrobinoculars to tag enemies so you can carefully avoid them or get close enough to sneak attack them. Kay’s companion, Nix can reveal enemy locations through walls (like the listening in The Last of Us). Nix can also be asked to attack enemies (allowing for two to be taken out at once), or act as a decoy.

Infiltrating secure areas required Kay to use her skills as a slicer, which is hacking in Star Wars terminology. There’s a mini-game that’ll have you selecting glyphs to try and find the right combination to open doors, turn off security or steal funds.

The game has its own Star Wars version of lockpicking, useful to get into otherwise inaccessible areas containing loot or shortcuts. Kay uses a data spike, similar to that used by R2D2 in the movies to open locks. The mini game requires the player to tap a button in time with the locking mechanism and light. I found this tricky at first; for the harder sequences shutting my eyes and listening to the sound of the lock yielded more success (obviously, I was using the force).

Outlaws doesn’t use experience points and levelling up to unlock abilities. Instead, illusive experts, uncovered by collecting intel, set tasks which, when complete bestow on Kay useful abilities. The tasks set by experts are not always easy, though.

There’s lots of loot to be collected, and Nix can help retrieve objects out of reach. Items can be traded with some useful in modding your equipment. Kay’s wardrobe, her blaster, her speeder and the Trailblazer can all be customised. Equipment can be upgraded as well as receive aesthetic mods. These need parts and materials and in the case of the speeder and ship, a mechanic to carry out the modifications.

As usual for a Ubisoft game, Outlaws a huge game full of things to do, making it great value for money if you have a limited gaming budget. Like the Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry game, you can just head out and have fun with a quick side quest, contract or just cause some trouble.

The game worlds have been filled to such an extent that experiencing emergent gameplay is inevitable. For instance, you’ll be travelling to a destination and come across some pirates engaging with Imperial Stormtroopers. I found it very difficult to resist pulling over and joining in, mopping up the rewards for myself.

Another time I found a droid outside a cantina. It had been waiting for its master to return for nearly a year. Inside the cantina I found myself looking for clues and solving the droid’s conundrum. These little mini-quests are dotted around everywhere.

If you want something a little more sedate, a few rounds of Kessel Sabacc may be more your thing. Outlaws features a playable recreation of the famous card game that won Han Solo the Millenium Falcon from Lando Calrissian. Most locations have a Sabacc game that players can join to earn a few credits and unique items.

There are gambling opportunities to be had in most settlements by betting on holographic horse-like fathier races. A few betting tips are lying around to help pick the winners.

You are never going to be stuck for something to do. Even if you’ve only got a few minutes spare to play the game, there will be somewhere to explore and treasure to uncover.

The game’s visual fidelity goes a long way to creating the look and feel of the Star Wars universe. The technology now exists to recreate huge imperial hangers packed full of TIE fighters, and authentic-looking sprawling settlements like Mos Eisley.

The graphics look stunning. The locations are so beautiful I found it hard to resist overusing the photo mode. Some areas look straight out of the movies.

The graphics scale well accommodating even the humblest platforms. On my ROG Ally, I had to make some compromises, but still, the game played well. On the other hand, the main review rig, armed with an Intel Core i9-13900K and an RTX 4090, allowed me to pretty much turn all the settings up to the max, with a bit of help from DLSS to keep a high framerate.

The game is also something of a technical marvel. The game features a range of high-end real-time ray-tracing settings that really boost the visuals to the next level. The lighting effects that bounce around scenes are amazing, much more than just the muted ambient occlusion that you usually see. The Nvidia RTX direct lighting setting allows the game to render scenes with physically accurate ray-traced lighting.

The ray-traced shadows, as well, are spectacular, adding to the realism. I noticed a shadow moving, as if it was glitching, turning around I could see a sliver of light passing through a net, high up near the ceiling, fluttering in the wind.

There is a “film grain” option, which is switched on by default, that’s a little heavy-handed. I recommend turning it off. There’s also an option for a more cinematic aspect ratio, which may be handy if you are trying to get better performance, but otherwise, I’d turn that off as well.

Realistically, most PC gamers will need to tweak the settings to get the best balance of visual fidelity and performance, even with high-end systems. It’s clearly designed to not only accommodate current PC technology but also the next generation of hardware. Anyone with a half-decent gaming machine should be able to run the game with no trouble.

Star Wars Outlaws is the Star Wars game that you’ve been looking for. It’s a game that I struggled to put down. The look and feel of the game is perfect, allowing us oldies to revisit the Star Wars of old, before George Lucas and Disney (arguably) turned the franchise on its head. And with so much to do the game is excellent value for money. Star Wars fans will have a blast.

Rating: Great