Star Wars Outlaws Feels Mediocre With A Protagonist Who’s Way Too Strong
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.