Star Wars Outlaws

[udm]

Star Wars fans have been asking for more modern, rated M (think cutting people in half with lightsaber or blowing them up with ion grenades) open world “rpg” based in the SW universe since forever. And now they make one but what do they do? Make the protagonist a woman, and you can’t even change the gender. Most people who watch Star Wars are men, and the vast majority of people who actually know, research, and are real fans of Star Wars are men. And let me guess, real world politics will be center point during the playthrough. No thanks, Star Wars is dead.

That's simply not true, there are a lot of female Star Wars fans especially in the cosplay community.

Spoiler

 

[NecroLord]

 

[Dr1f7]

they really should just let you build your own character in these types of games
anyway we all know it's AC in SW setting, which is the most enticing setting for AC since the pirate (or maybe egypt) one
but it's still AC

 

[taxalot]

The game will not even have the redeeming quality of not having Denuvo.

 

[911 Jumper]

STAR WARS OUTLAWS INTERVIEW: ‘UNCHARTED IS A WONDERFUL GAME TO BE COMPARED TO’

“Neil Druckmann” will be smiling

 

[Tehdagah]

Star Wars fans have been asking for more modern, rated M (think cutting people in half with lightsaber or blowing them up with ion grenades) open world “rpg” based in the SW universe since forever. And now they make one but what do they do? Make the protagonist a woman, and you can’t even change the gender. Most people who watch Star Wars are men, and the vast majority of people who actually know, research, and are real fans of Star Wars are men. And let me guess, real world politics will be center point during the playthrough. No thanks, Star Wars is dead.

M-rated Star Wars would be stupid and very not like Star Wars, funny how so many fans want it. Edit: lol at "research Star Wars". Star Wars isn't a scientific article.

Also, what's the problem of a female protagonist?

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Even milk-dripping game journos are complaining that the game is too easy.

Star Wars Outlaws Feels Mediocre With A Protagonist Who's Way Too Strong​

I didn't see much of Outlaws' story at Summer Game Fest, but what I saw of the gameplay did not leave a positive impression.

By Jordan Ramée

on June 20, 2024 at 12:30PM PDT

I'm more shocked than anyone that Star Wars Outlaws didn't resonate with me. I love Star Wars, and have been hoping to get a new game in which we don't play as yet another Force-sensitive person. But after playing through three different sections of Outlaws at Summer Game Fest--each of which was about 15-20 minutes long--I walked away disappointed. Nothing about Outlaws feels bad; hell, bad would have been better than what I played, because then at least it could have been memorable in some way. Instead, Outlaws feels fairly mediocre and unmemorable. What I played feels like an amalgamation of different features and mechanics borrowed from other games that do those things better, all while masquerading as a Star Wars game without actually embodying the themes and storylines of Star Wars.

Taking place between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, Outlaws sees you play as Kay Vess, a smuggler striving to be a famed scoundrel by accomplishing heists throughout the Outer Rim. Though I didn't get to see these elements, Outlaws will feature instances where Kay can talk her way out of trouble and the game will feature a system akin to Grand Theft Auto's Wanted levels, in which Kay's actions have consequences that can chase her across the open worlds she'll be able to explore.

At SGF, I played in three contained, linear levels. The first saw Kay working her way through an Imperial facility before leaping into her ship and engaging in a dogfight against some TIE Fighters. The second part focused on the game's platforming mechanics, with Kay navigating a derelict ship. The third and final portion of the preview presented a level in which Kay was tasked with stealthily infiltrating an organization's base to steal back some stolen tech.

I have individual complaints with each of the sections but my main gripe with Star Wars Outlaws, based on this slice of the game, is that Kay feels way too powerful. It's possible Ubisoft put me on the easiest difficulty for the preview to make sure I'd get through each one in a timely manner, but if that's not the case then Outlaws is laughably easy. The ease of the third part of the preview feels the most damning. I wanted to see what would happen if I broke stealth, inciting the dozen nearby enemies in the immediate area to attack me all at once. I easily killed them all and subsequently completed the first part of my mission without having to sneak around. With this newfound confidence, I ran through the second half of the level, forgoing stealth entirely.

I eventually reached a locked door that I couldn't go through until all the enemies who had seen me were dead. I was far enough away that I couldn't quite see the enemies all the way back at the start of the area but my cursor occasionally changed from gray to red whenever the game registered that Kay was "aiming" at them, even if I could no longer see them. I just held the trigger whenever that happened and sniped the guards without even having to aim myself.



Kay's apparent invulnerability and god-like powers persisted throughout the demo, whether it was surviving three-story drops in the platforming sections or getting into a firefight and tanking multiple hits. Aside from simply feeling dull to play, this actively gets in the way of Kay's characterization as a scrappy scoundrel and smuggler. If anything, playing as Kay should feel more like how Han Solo accomplished problems in the original Star Wars trilogy--you take your shot when you can but you're far better off running away when the blaster bolts start flying. Even if Kay has no apparent Force powers (it's entirely possible we discover she does in the full game), Outlaws seems to be designed in a way to encourage you to play like she actually does--she can easily perform huge acrobatic leaps, make pinpoint shots without a sniper rifle, and take on hordes of enemies like they're nothing.

Kay's strength also detracts from one of the core pillars of Outlaws, which is Kay's adorable partner-in-crime Nix. Nix can be commanded to aid Kay in a number of ways, such as distracting guards, fetching an out-of-reach weapon, or exploding a grenade in a person's pocket. Causing someone who's just minding their own business to suddenly explode is hilarious, but I never felt like I needed to use that command, or any of the others, in order to accomplish my goals. Kay is so versatile and able on her own, I never actually used Nix save for a few moments when the Ubisoft rep beside me told me how I could use Nix to solve the problem at hand and I did so to see how it would play out. I left the preview wondering why Nix is even a part of the game.



My misgivings about Outlaws' lack of challenge aside, what I saw of the minute-to-minute gameplay also isn't all that remarkable. Kay handles a blaster just about as well as any other third-person shooter protagonist, and much like her peers in the action genre, she is regularly stymied by locked doors that can only be bypassed with annoying lockpicking minigames or finding an energy pylon to energize with an electrified shot. Again, none of what I played feels outright bad but it is very familiar and none of it stands out as notably good as a result--it doesn't help that a lot of what Outlaws does, Star Wars games that have come out in recent years have done much better. The shooting is fine but pales in comparison to Battlefront II, for example. The ship combat is unremarkable, especially on the heels of Squadrons. And the platforming challenges and puzzles feel like unimaginative speed bumps that don't take into account the same level of spectacle or narrative importance as those in Fallen Order or Survivor.

I also didn't get a strong impression of Kay or any of the characters she met during the three sections I played. Perhaps Ubisoft is going for more of a blank slate for Kay to make her easier to connect to for more people, but even so, Star Wars lives and dies by its characters and it's difficult to feel excited for Outlaws when I played the game for nearly an hour and didn't really relate to anyone. It's an odd miss for Ubisoft, which usually develops games that are hit-or-miss for a lot of people but--at least for the story-driven ones--tend to have a handful of fairly memorable characters. Granted, Outlaws still could. But the sections I played through don't suggest that to be the case.


The aspect of my time with Star Wars Outlaws that stands out to me the most is just how much my preview experience reminded me of previewing 2022's Saints Row, a game that paints over half-baked systems and average storytelling with the trappings of a franchise I love. Outlaws so far feels exactly the same, using the imagery and sounds of Star Wars to disguise an otherwise mediocre game. Maybe the full release of Outlaws will surprise me in a way the full release of Saints Row didn't, but I have serious misgivings about Outlaws that I didn't have prior to playing it. The full game could be fantastic, but if so, this preview didn't sell me on it.

As one final addendum, what I played at Summer Game Fest did not look anything at all like what was shown off during Ubisoft Forward--that gameplay seems way more exciting and appropriate for a Star Wars game about a smuggler struggling to survive during the height of the Galactic Empire. That gameplay showcase dives into how Kay can use her scrappiness to learn new skills that will aid her in a pinch while still highlighting her shortcomings as an easily overwhelmed flesh-and-blood human who is better off fleeing from a dangerous situation than sticking around. If Outlaws plays more like what we saw at Ubisoft Forward and less like what I actually got to play at SGF, I think it will prove to be an entertaining Star Wars game. Only time will tell which experience we're going to get, though.

Star Wars Outlaws is set to launch for Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC on August 30.

Yo watchout, highly-trained Imperial Officer, Sir!

 

[deuxhero]

Star Wars fans have been asking for more modern, rated M (think cutting people in half with lightsaber or blowing them up with ion grenades) open world “rpg” based in the SW universe since forever. And now they make one but what do they do? Make the protagonist a woman, and you can’t even change the gender. Most people who watch Star Wars are men, and the vast majority of people who actually know, research, and are real fans of Star Wars are men. And let me guess, real world politics will be center point during the playthrough. No thanks, Star Wars is dead.

M-rated Star Wars would be stupid and very not like Star Wars, funny how so many fans want it. Edit: lol at "research Star Wars". Star Wars isn't a scientific article.

Also, what's the problem of a female protagonist?

Depends on what it gets the M rating for. Saber combat with full dismemberment would absolutely fit (IIRC few games have experimented with segregating M rated gore into a minimum cost M rated DLC and keeping the base game rated T, which I think a Star Wars game could absolutely take advantage of). Plenty of EU books experimented with horror themes (Deathtroopers, Galaxy of Fear, some of the short story compilations got a horror story in them) and it would be unusual, but not inappropriate, to include strong

Problem with female protagonist is obvious: She's not attractive, infact she's deliberately ugly, and won't get naked. Rianna could have looked better, but Ubisoft was far closer to getting it right the last time they made a Star Wars game (or games, since the PSP and DS "versions" of Deadly Alliance share no gameplay). An M rated Star Wars game starring an attractive young Twi'Lek that had some topless scenes, with a lightsaber that took off limbs (or more) with each hit could be great.

 

[NecroLord]

Depends on what it gets the M rating for. Saber combat with full dismemberment would absolutely fit

Set g_saberrealisticcombat 1.
Good old Jedi Outcast/Jedi Academy...

 

[deuxhero]

Yes, and the PC version (the only one where it's possible) basically cruises by on having gotten its rating before Hot Coffee and Oblivion's titty textures forced ESRB ratings to include unused contents. I would not be surprised if the modern console ports cut the code for that mode out entirely (even if it can't be accessed) for sake of maintaining a T rating. Plus modern games would demand cauterized stumps instead of the JO/JA level "the models separate and a molten texture is applied over the gap", which would absolutely provoke M rating.

 

[Ryzer]

It's a disaster, it looks like a PS3 game at best, PS2 at worst.

 

[Fedora Master]

Nooooo waaaaay
A bad Star Wars product? In 2024???

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Banal shit boring.

 

[Jaesun]

I think this is going to be received and actually do well in general. I think Ubisoft is hitting all the right buttons as it were. Will now wait and see how this all plays out...

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Bulo]

Just watched this video, what did I think of it?

 

[Dr1f7]

Just watched this video, what did I think of it?

where's the lightsabers?

 

[Fedora Master]

Reminder that this guy reprimanded JamesDixon for "just posting videos".

 

[Lemming42]

The mocap has backfired, the animations look really weird. What is it with mocap technology that keeps it so shitty after so many years.

Rest of the game looks okay, it's going to be very standard derivative third person action adventure stuff. Probably good if you like that kind of thing. If you can choose between stealth and combat then it'll be fun but I'm not sure game developers have come to this epochal realisation yet, and the bit in the Gamespot article about how some doors are locked until you kill all alert enemies in an area makes it sound like the devs are just gonna fall into the same kind of dumb traps that litter these types of games.

I can also already tell that riding the bike will suck. I can just feel how tedious it is through the screen. Big empty desert maps with your shitty bike.

 

[mediocrepoet]

The mocap has backfired, the animations look really weird. What is it with mocap technology that keeps it so shitty after so many years.

Sometimes it's because they fuglify female characters and make them look weird even if the actress is pretty.

 

[Elttharion]

Sorry for posting Asmongold but this looks terrible



Look at the scene at the beggining of the clip when there is an explosion. I know there is probably some heavy compression here but even so the effects and texture details are very rough.

 

[Ryzer]

Sorry for posting Asmongold but this looks terrible



Look at the scene at the beggining of the clip when there is an explosion. I know there is probably some heavy compression here but even so the effects and texture details are very rough.

Meanwhile in 2001, explosions were better made with an infinitely less powerful hardware:

 

[orcinator]

Even milk-dripping game journos are complaining that the game is too easy.

Kay's strength also detracts from one of the core pillars of Outlaws, which is Kay's adorable partner-in-crime Nix. Nix can be commanded to aid Kay in a number of ways, such as distracting guards, fetching an out-of-reach weapon, or exploding a grenade in a person's pocket. Causing someone who's just minding their own business to suddenly explode is hilarious, but I never felt like I needed to use that command, or any of the others, in order to accomplish my goals. Kay is so versatile and able on her own, I never actually used Nix save for a few moments when the Ubisoft rep beside me told me how I could use Nix to solve the problem at hand and I did so to see how it would play out. I left the preview wondering why Nix is even a part of the game.

It's Watchdawgz but instead of press X to Hack you press X to Rat.
Technically an improvement but I might be biased.

 

[Baron Dupek]

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Kay needs a bigger ass and a haircut.

Then there's the issue with the game itself...