New gameplay footage of Ubisoft’s Star Wars Outlaws is reminiscent of the Grand Theft Auto franchise, while once again, we get a tiny sidekick to the Jedi games.

Ubisoft’s newly unveiled open-world Star Wars Outlaws has been given a 10-minute gameplay demo at Ubisoft Forward. It revealed that the game is reminiscent of Rockstar classics Red Dead Redemption and GTA in many areas. Outlaws will be the first open-world Star Wars game. It highlights Lucasfilm’s ambition to expand into new territories after EA’s Star Wars exclusivity expires.

Star Wars Outlaws will follow the story of protagonist Kay Vess and her furry alien companion Nix as they make their way across the galaxy. With a mix of stealth and third-person blaster gameplay, players can explore the open world on speederbikes. They can even take off into space, seemingly in real-time. Outlaws even seem to draw some inspiration from other popular games. As outlaw Kay Vess, you can build and manage relationships with various criminal factions a la Fallout. The cover-based blaster combat is somewhat reminiscent of Gears of War. Kay even throws a rope to rappel down a small cliff like Nathan Drake. It’s unknown, however, whether Outlaws will emphasise Uncharted-style traversal more than its Star Wars Jedi cousin.

One of the gameplay systems shown in the footage, in particular, is very reminiscent of Grand Theft Auto’s classic tiered roaming system, where players are given additional levels of aggression by the cops based on the intensity of their criminal activity.

Following a sour meeting with a local criminal and an Imperial officer in a private canteen room, Kay Vess is wanted by the Empire. When she exits the building, the entire screen turns bright red, and the word “Wanted” appears in big, bold letters. As Kay rushes to her ship, the Empire icon appears in the top left corner of the screen, with three of the six flashing red bars around the logo. “Escape the Empire” reads across the screen.

In an exciting space battle above the planet, the fourth bar of the Empire logo lights up before Kay can jump into hyperspace. After that, the circling levels gradually disappear. Whether this Outlaws system is, just a visual element used to support the narrative moment or an actual dynamic free-play feature is unknown. Either way, the system fits the story of Kay, who lives the life of an outlaw. It will be interesting to see how Kay will be able to sway the Empire in the open world other than jumping into hyperspace.

A “space dog” instead of a droid in Star Wars Outlaws?!

The Star Wars universe is no stranger to cute little sidekicks, most of whom are droids. R2-D2 was, of course, the original Star Wars sidekick. The sequel trilogy continued this trend with BB-8. And the Star Wars Jedi series went one step further with BD-1, who directly helps the fan.

Like R2-D2 and BB-8, BD-1 uses a series of beeps and hoots to communicate, and along with dog-like head bobbing, BD-1 has as much personality as the others, if not more.

BD-1 also has the added benefit of being in a Star Wars video game. This means fans can interact with him directly during the 30+ hour adventure. It also helps that BD-1 is an incredibly useful droid. He heals the player when they’re low on life and scans the environment and enemies for additional database entries.

But BD-1 may have found a worthy rival this time. The first trailer and poster for Star Wars Outlaws features Nix, the Star Wars universe’s newest hero companion, throughout. A furry little axolotl-like creature, Nix is a member of the Merqaal race. But his home planet is unknown. As the companion of a smuggler, Nix has apparently developed a rather brash demeanour. However, it is clear that he cares deeply for his mate. In Outlaws, Nix is precisely that as a playmate.

In the gameplay trailer for Star Wars Outlaws, Nix can be seen throughout, constantly assisting the player character. Based on the trailer and the developer commentary at the end of Ubisoft Forward’s presentation, it seems that Nix will be an essential part of the gameplay. The player can use his companion for several different things. In the trailer, Nix is instructed to distract the enemy, activate an environmental object, and fetch a weapon from the ground, meters away from the player while they shoot enemies. In terms of sheer gameplay practicality, Nix may have already surpassed BD-1.

Source: YouTube