REVIEW – August 30th is finally here, and thanks to my one-month-renewed Ubisoft+ subscription, I’ve been diving into the adventures of Kay Vess — or as she might be better dubbed, “Hannah Solo” — since the early hours of Tuesday morning on Xbox Series X. After three days of nearly non-stop intergalactic escapades, I’m ready to share my thoughts with you, fellow gamers and Star Wars enthusiasts, on whether this traditional open-world game by Ubisoft hits the mark or deserves to be cast into the Sarlacc pit. This time, my review is much more personal, because while I acknowledge the game’s flaws (and trust me, there are a few), I still found joy in this Star Wars smuggler-western-style, open-world adventure.

 

In the world of Star Wars video games, we’ve wielded lightsabers and used Force powers countless times, but Star Wars Outlaws approaches things a little differently. It saunters into the cantina, sits down in a booth, sets its blaster on the table, and declares that a good blaster is worth more than any fancy tricks. This open-world — or more accurately, multi-world — action game serves up intense firefights and twists that would make Chewbacca’s best buddy proud. In every sense, Outlaws delivers a Han Solo-esque experience: spectacular and adventurous, yet rough around the edges and occasionally disappointing.

 

 

For a Few Credits More

 

As an “intergalactic western” — reminiscent of Sergio Leone’s classic For a Few Dollars More and set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, when the Empire is at its peak — the real Han Solo is chilling in carbonite. So instead, we slip into the boots of Kay Vess, a cunning thief raised in the seedy underbelly of Canto Bight, the galaxy’s gambling capital. Kay quickly shows her knack for cracking locks and mastering the various games of chance. Much like Dash Rendar or a pre-Jedi Kyle Katarn, Kay can’t quite step out of Han’s shadow and becomes nothing more than a good-hearted smuggler.

Kay is always accompanied by Nix, her small, furry alien companion who’s just as adept at thievery as she is. After a heist goes terribly wrong, Kay is forced to flee and make a crash landing on the dangerous, savannah-like planet of Toshara in her ship, the Trailblazer. What follows is a roughly 20-hour marathon of rescue missions, shady underworld dealings, and tasks as Kay and Nix traverse the galaxy’s four main planets and pirate-infested space to assemble a crew of outlaws. Their goal? Return to Canto Bight, settle their debts, and shake the bounty placed on Kay’s head by the ruthless casino owner, Sliro. Though Sliro isn’t as evil as Palpatine or as menacing as Grand Admiral Thrawn, he is menacing enough to be a constant threat, even if we only see him in cutscenes.

Yet, the Outlaws story remains continuously entertaining, taking us back to familiar locations like the dungeons of Jabba’s Palace on Tatooine and introducing us to new territories like the wreckage of High Republic cruisers on Toshara. Kay makes deals with various colorful characters, such as Akiva, a Sullustan mobster who’s so hardcore he props his feet up on a table made from his own carbonite-frozen brother.

 

 

“This Is Not the Planet You’re Looking For…”

 

While 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story covered similar ground on the big screen but fell a bit short, the criminal narrative of Outlaws feels fresh — at least in the world of gaming. Here, we distance ourselves almost entirely from the epic battles between the light and dark sides of the Force; Kay’s grounded, profit-driven motivations make the Rebels and Empire conflict a mere side note. Instead, we get a straightforward smuggler’s tale, akin to Rogue One, packed with missions set in a well-known yet newly enriched sci-fi fantasy universe that so many of us grew up with. It’s a bit like a Guy Ritchie heist film, and by the time you reach the end, there are so many twists and turns that the plot feels as tangled as a mess of HDMI cables behind your TV.

While Kay’s ultimate goal is far more down-to-earth than, say, blowing up a Death Star, the locations you visit along the way are surprisingly grandiose. To be clear, this isn’t No Man’s Skywalker or even Starfield Wars; you can’t freely orbit every planet or land wherever you please. However, except for the relatively small urban planet Kijimi, the open worlds of Outlaws are expansive and varied. From the dry sands of Tatooine (the kind that, as we all know, “gets everywhere”) to the lush rainforests of Akiva, whose rivers become expressways once you get the speeder upgrade that allows you to race across the water.

Thankfully, Kay’s speeder can be upgraded with different features — like a “bunny hop” function — as it’s the only vehicle she can control across different terrains. Though you’ll see airspeeders zooming around, dewbacks lumbering along with saddles, and massive AT-ST walkers striding like oversized mechanical chickens, none of these are drivable. Compared to games like Grand Theft Auto V, where almost anything you see can be hijacked, or The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, where you can build anything you imagine, the vehicle list in Outlaws feels as limited as Luke Skywalker’s prospects if he’d never met Old Ben Kenobi — which is a bit disappointing for a modern open-world adventure. The gradual introduction of new abilities and speeder upgrades is just enough to keep travel from becoming too tedious.

 

 

Assassin’s Greed

 

Outlaws isn’t just about getting from point A to B; you’ll infiltrate various Imperial bases and crime syndicate headquarters, sneaking in and out on behalf of Kay’s underworld allies. Each of these facilities offers multiple entry points: you might crawl through an underground vent or use a grappling hook to climb over a high wall. You can even mark these entry options with your binoculars — because, after all, this is a Ubisoft game.

Nix, the furry sidekick, plays a key role in Outlaws’ stealth system; he’s essentially a space kitten drone that works like a Watch Dogs phone. You can point him at switches to activate while you remain safely in cover, temporarily distract security cameras to let you slip through, or sic him on guards so you can take them down with melee attacks. Nix is definitely a handy and reliable “pet,” and I didn’t hesitate to take him on little outings and food hunts between missions — especially since it wasn’t just fun but also allowed me to gain special treats that further upgraded Nix’s abilities.

Kay also has her own special skills, particularly when it comes to infiltrating heavily guarded facilities. I wasn’t thrilled with the mini-game required to disable cameras and reprogram enemy turrets, which operated like a System Shock-style symbol-matching puzzle. It felt as intuitive as trying to solve a foreign-language Wordle (though you can switch the symbols to numbers to make it slightly easier). But what I hated even more was the rhythm-based lock-picking mini-game, which uses the most frustrating mechanics I’ve ever seen for opening locked doors and crates — an area where the developers often stumble elsewhere, too.

As for the stealth mechanics of Outlaws, they are somewhat inconsistent overall. Sometimes it’s too easy, like when I used the tried-and-true Assassin’s Creed “lure and eliminate” strategy to draw enemies out one by one and take them down while hiding in the grass, piling up bodies like firewood. Other times it’s utterly unpredictable, like when I somehow triggered an alarm during a seemingly safe takedown, despite no one being around. Often, my attempts at stealth would fail, the situation would quickly escalate into chaos, and I’d find myself dealing with numerous unexpected problems, forcing me to restart a lengthy section of gameplay.

 

 

Smuggler’s Blaster Unleashed

 

Outlaws’ combat system offers solid cover-based gunplay where every blaster shot lands with satisfying sound effects and dramatic sparks and smoke. But new ideas are few and far between — it’s more of a “basic package” than anything truly unique, like the Bad Batch. It seems like every combat location is hosting “Red Barrel Day,” as you can use these explosive props in almost every skirmish to thin out stormtroopers and other enemies before mopping up the remainder with a classic active reload mechanic to manage blaster overheating. The real challenge lies in timing these barrel explosions to take out the most foes — but this trick has been around for decades, so it doesn’t add much to the game’s distinctiveness.

Kay’s “Adrenaline Rush” ability allows these firefights to end even quicker. This power, which charges up during combat, lets you slow down time and mark multiple targets to unleash a rapid hip-fire barrage — much like the Dead Eye targeting system in Red Dead Redemption. It’s a useful and cinematic trick, though sometimes I found Kay stylishly firing in slow motion into cover instead of hitting the marked targets directly.

It was annoying that Kay can only carry her blaster and grenades permanently, while the weapons dropped by enemies — like the A300 blaster rifle or the shielded Z-6 rotary cannon — can only be used temporarily until their ammo runs out. A neat touch is that you can send Nix to fetch these weapons, like a peculiar fetch quest, but what’s truly frustrating is how often Outlaws forces you to drop them. Performing a melee attack? Weapon dropped. Crawling into a vent? Weapon dropped. Climbing a wall or ladder? Weapon dropped. Who designed this, RoboCop?

If I pick up a sniper rifle, I expect to carry it with me to a vantage point where it can be put to good use. It’s particularly frustrating when enemy snipers often take you out even while you’re in cover. How is it that these Imperial soldiers have advanced “weapon-climbing-ladder” technology and I don’t?

Though the basics are simple and familiar, I grew more fond of the combat system as I progressed, especially when I had the chance to upgrade my blaster with different alternate fire modes. The ion shots, for instance, send sparks flying from droids and temporarily disable enemy shields, while the “Power” mode’s charged shots blow apart heavily armored Gamorrean guards. Essentially, you’re playing with three different weapons, even if they all fire from the same barrel.

 

 

Need for Speeder

 

I also appreciated that Outlaws levels up Kay’s abilities through in-game challenges — rather than a traditional skill tree — where bonus tasks like performing a certain number of melee kills unlock new moves, such as a “fake surrender” maneuver to surprise enemies who’ve spotted you. Still, I never felt this combat system was as flexible or fun as the best of Ubisoft’s Far Cry series, and the fights quickly became repetitive, save for the rare encounters with scout droids or the one-off battle against a rancor — where newer, even larger red barrels add some spice to the mix.

Speeder bike combat is even more limited, though it provides some of Outlaws’ funniest moments. It’s frustrating that you can’t aim freely from the saddle; instead, you’re trying to dodge the blaster fire of your pursuers while your adrenaline meter charges, allowing you to take them down with a slow-motion shot. The problem is that since you’re mostly shooting at enemies behind you, the camera often takes too long to swivel back forward after one of these takedowns, leading you to crash into a rock you couldn’t see — just like those speeder bike troopers chasing Luke through the forest of Endor. I also found myself laughing out loud when I sped toward a cliff edge at full speed, braked at the last moment, and watched my pursuers fly past me, smashing into the cliffside. At least speeder combat was as dangerous for them as it was for me.

Because this is a Star Wars game, Outlaws also features space combat, and it’s rare to make a hyperspace jump in Kay’s Trailblazer without jumping straight into a space dogfight that feels just like the movies. Occasionally, it felt great to hunt down some TIE fighters to blow off steam after the ground-based schemes, though I didn’t invest much in upgrading the ship beyond equipping it with an automatic turret and a rapid-fire cannon, as the enemies in space never posed much of a challenge. I didn’t spend much time exploring space, either, since while there are valuable resources hidden among the wreckage, I was already loaded with quadanium and threadweave from enemy bases, so I didn’t feel the need for more scavenging in the cosmos. (Outlaws does not restrict what you can carry with you — aside from weapons, grenades, and bacta packs for health — so I was relieved to pick up all the resources I found without worrying about inventory management woes like those in Starfield or Resident Evil).

 

 

Gangster Paradise

 

You’ve seen a lot in a Star Wars game, but one of the most exciting and innovative aspects of Outlaws is its syndicate system, reminiscent of the reputation system in The Outer Worlds. Essentially, it’s impossible to complete a mission without crossing the path of one crime organization while currying favor with another. Team up with a cartel, and you’ll get cheaper prices from the traders under their protection, but you’ll also find that you can no longer move freely around the headquarters of other gangs once you’ve ticked them off — even unintentionally. This clever mechanic makes mission selection much more meaningful than the usual checklist of tasks; you have to think carefully about which clan you sell your loot to, as it can significantly impact your progress. At one point, I raised my standing with a syndicate so much that I could simply extort a rare item from a shop owner — in exchange for a favor I had no intention of ever fulfilling, having already decided to double-cross them.

It’s important to note that this isn’t Mass Effect: none of Outlaws’ decisions cause the kind of deep changes to the story’s outcome, but they certainly make you feel like a truly crafty smuggler, constantly weighing and reconsidering alliances with every deal to serve your interests best at the moment. For example, before diving into Tatooine’s surface exploration, I ensured I had good relations with the Hutt syndicate, as Jabba’s people control large swathes of the map, and I wanted to roam around without drawing unnecessary attention.

The option for seamless exploration is crucial, as Outlaws constantly beckons you to uncover secrets and new opportunities while roaming its four main worlds. Nearly every bar conversation I eavesdropped on or discarded data tablet I picked up pointed to a new treasure location or a gambling tip, always making me feel like I was discovering forbidden information rather than completing a tedious to-do list common in other open-world games.

 

 

The Good, The Bad, and The Buggy

 

There’s no shortage of dull and overextended side activities in Outlaws, like uninspired checkpoint races and fetch quests, but thankfully, there are also more thrilling side missions to tackle. For instance, you must match holographic images with specific landscapes (much like Link’s Sheikah Slate in Breath of the Wild) to track down lucrative hidden treasures filled with credits and gear to customize Kay’s outfits and vehicles.

The game’s mission design truly shines when seemingly innocuous side quests evolve into exciting, multi-part adventures that regularly surprise. One memorable example involves acquiring a crucial upgrade component, where one event leads to another, taking increasingly surreal twists until you find yourself escaping a sarlacc’s maw only to flee from a massive sandworm. These dynamic, unexpected turns are when Outlaws truly sparkles, tying together countless Star Wars references with Uncharted-style set-piece action and adventure. I completed numerous such quests but am sure there are still undiscovered adventures left in the game, as many side missions seemed innocent at first glance, only to reveal their complexity later.

To enjoy these moments, however, you must accept a mix of good and bad — especially those playing Star Wars Outlaws on PS5, who may encounter more bugs than Uncle Owen with a Jawa-scrapped droid. (Fortunately, I didn’t run into too many bugs on my Xbox Series X.) According to YouTube videos, reviews, and online comments, you might experience NPCs’ weapons popping in and out like yo-yos, guards getting stuck in the environment or walking through it, speeder bikes hovering in midair, and persistent control quirks — like Kay instantly falling back down after pressing the crouch button when climbing over a ledge. I personally encountered black screen glitches between levels, unresponsive climbing buttons, confusing markers, and critical mission prompts failing to appear, requiring a restart; the speeder bike would suddenly teleport to a different spot on the map, and countless times, the dialogue audio would just cut out. If these issues break your immersion in the Star Wars universe, it might be worth waiting for Ubisoft to polish the game quicker than Han Solo shooing mynocks off the Falcon in The Empire Strikes Back.

 

Not All That Glitters is Star-Studded

 

Ironically, Kay’s ship is named the “Trailblazer,” given there’s not much in Star Wars Outlaws that’s particularly trailblazing, offering little we haven’t already seen in other action and open-world adventures. The game is more akin to the old Millennium Falcon: a junk heap held together with rusty parts that tend to fall apart but, in its best moments, can still make a Star Wars fan’s heart race. The clever syndicate system adds real stakes to almost every mission, with some of the more creative quests delivering genuinely impressive twists. A companion like Nix adds depth to Kay’s character while providing useful skills, but even he can’t make the stealth and combat less rigid and repetitive, and the odds of avoiding launch-day technical issues are 3,860 to 1 — as C-3PO might smugly point out. But if you’re a true Hannah Solo, you won’t want to hear the odds — just like the legendary space smuggler played by Harrison Ford.

-Gergely Herpai “BadSector”-

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Publisher: Ubisoft

Developer: Massive Entertainment

Style: Action-adventure

Release: August 30, 2024.