Is Star Wars Outlaws the most immersive open world in the saga? Our video review after 4 hours of play!

Well, we’re not going to go back over Star Wars Outlaws in its entirety because we already made a preview video a month ago that we invite you to watch for a first look. But to put things in context, Outlaws takes place between Star Wars Episodes V and VI and follows the adventures of Kay Vess, a young scoundrel in the vein of Han Solo.. After a case gone wrong, the young woman is wanted across the galaxy and will try to put together a crew to carry out one of the biggest heists in history and finally be free.

The adventure therefore takes the form of a third-person shooter in an open world divided into several planets which have their own cities and areas that can be explored.. We alternate between on-foot phases between action, exploration or even infiltration, with mini-games and even ship phases. During our first session, we alternated between infiltration, platform and ship sequences, but this time it was on the open world that we were able to focus. And clearly, we have a lot to say about it!

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Cities more credible and alive than ever

On the occasion of this preview, We were able to discover the planet Toshara, an original creation of this Star Wars Outlaws created under the supervision of the Lucasfilm Story Group. In this environment that mixes savannah and rocky city, this is where we spent most of our time. On the city side, we find various activities with quest givers, as well as mini-games like sports betting or sabac, the famous Star Wars card game. For the needs of the game, the rules have been simplified but It must be admitted that this card game is particularly addictive. and we spent a lot of time there during our session.

But to access all this content, you often have to go to one of the cantinas, these famous outlaw bars typical of Star Wars, and we can say that the developers have outdone themselves. Clearly, The teams at Massive Entertainment have taken particular care to recreate the atmosphere of the cantina from the first Star Wars and it is a great success.Whether it’s the work on the lighting, the furniture or even the aliens who inhabit the place, we find all the atmosphere of these iconic Star Wars locations.

Beyond these activities, Cities are an opportunity to find merchants to equip yourself because yes, Star Wars Outlaws has a slight RPG dimension. However, nothing to do with the latest Assassin’s Creed, here we are rather dealing with equipment and modules that give effects rather than statistics. Like this, everyone can adapt their equipment according to their style without getting bogged down with numbers in all directions. But where players will also have to make choices is through the factions and it is clearly one of the aspects of the game that we liked the most.

A nice faction system that shows promise

In Star Wars Outlaws, we play as Kay Vess who is presented by the developers as a scoundrel which could be translated as scoundrel, a term used to describe Han Solo in the original trilogy.. In other words, the latter can only count on herself and is not affiliated with any of the crime syndicates of the Outer Rim in particular. On the other hand, our heroine can work with one of these organizations depending on what she needs and that is the whole point of the experience.

In main missions that involve a crime syndicate, We are often faced with a decision that will impact our relationships with these underworld organizations.. In practical terms, doing the Pykes a favor could well harm the interests of the Crimson Dawn, which will lower your reputation with them. This can have real impacts on your game. because you might no longer have access to a base of one of the crime syndicates that has an interesting merchant for example. Besides, in general, there are two rival syndicate camps per planet, which means that you can choose your side a little when you arrive.

In Star Wars Outlaws, Kay is not affiliated with a union and the player can betray any of his organizations to serve his interests and this is what makes the adventure so interesting.. While the system has already shown its potential after four hours, we can’t wait to see what it has in store for the final game. On the other hand, the aspect of Star Wars Outlaws that still raises many questions is its open world.

How good is the open world of Star Wars Outlaws?

One of the main promises of Outlaws is to offer us an open-world Star Wars adventure in which we can roam freely.. If we take the planet Toshara for example, we find a whole large area to explore after having passed the borders of the city. In this environment with the appearance of a savannah, we can quickly go from one point to another on the map thanks to Kay’s speeder bike. From a maneuverability point of view, It must be recognized that the vehicle is particularly successful in terms of sensationsespecially in terms of his slip-ups that we want to do all the time.

Across these vast expanses, we obviously find activities to do, often classic, but also empty spaces to make everything more organic and credible. Bandit camps, treasure caches or even speeder races, We find all sorts of classic content for an open world without being overwhelmed by icons.. On top of all that, the developers also teased us that the game has a Metroidvania dimension. Concretely, this means that certain areas will only be accessible with abilities recovered later in the adventure, which pushes us to explore old areas again.

If all this seems classic, but effective like the gameplay of the game, We still have a few more questions about the size of this open-world. In an interview, the developers revealed that Outlaws’ planets are two to three times the size of an Assassin’s Creed Odyssey zone and that it is possible to cross them in 5 minutes non-stop in a speeder. Put like that, it may not seem like much, but controller in hand, we really have the sensation of moving in vast areas without being bothered by the limits.

However, these limits were also present and The ice planet Kijimi consisted of only one small town during our session.. So are these restrictions related to the preview version we played or is it representative of the final game? It’s hard to say at the moment. In any case, one thing is for sure is that the size of these open areas will be a major point to watch when testing.

Like a feeling of freedom in the gameplay

Before concluding on our impressions of this second session, we wanted to take a little detour on the gameplay side to provide some additional information since our first hands-on. During this second preview, we must admit that we were treated to many infiltration sequences, which is not necessarily representative of the final result. On the other hand, We were pleasantly surprised to see that the game had a slight immersive sim dimension, with several ways of approaching the same situation.. Obviously, you can go all-out with your blaster, but since Kay isn’t a Jedi, it’s going to take a bit of skill to get through it unscathed.

But even for stealth, on several occasions we saw that several paths were available to you, which brings a little touch of welcome freedom. And while we’re on the subject of gameplay, we were able to tame a little what would look like a skill tree in Star Wars Outlaws. In fact, Kay will unlock new abilities from NPCs called Experts who share their knowledge with her after she completes certain in-game actions.. Defeating enemies stealthily, finding containers or resources, calling on Nix… all these small actions will allow you to benefit from new skills.

Conclusion

After this second hands-on, Outlaws has convinced us even more that it has all the cards in hand to offer a great Star Wars adventure. Through its intelligent faction system, we really have the feeling of being in the shoes of a scoundrel who has no allegiance and who uses crime syndicates according to his needs. This feeling of adventure is also felt through the open world which, so far, offers vast areas filled with activities, even if their number remains to be confirmed.

And then, we said it during our first preview, but if Star Wars Oultaws offers classic gameplay for an open-world of this kind, it is no less effective to enjoy the experience. Now, the whole question remains whether the story of the final game will keep us on the edge of our seats and whether the open world will live up to the players’ expectations. In the meantime, we come out of this session with the feeling that Star Wars Oultaws promises to be exciting. See you on August 30!