Star Wars: Outlaws Arms-On Preview – Should you’re like me, a Star Wars fan who grew up loving the franchise and somebody who additionally performs a variety of video video games, then you definitely’ve seemingly performed a good few of the various Star Wars video games which have arrived on PC’s and consoles over the previous couple of many years.
What makes Outlaws completely different from the myriad of Star Wars video games we’ve gotten earlier than is it guarantees a distinct expertise, one with out lightsabers or Skywalkers. It’s the promise of attending to be a scoundrel, to dwell out what it is likely to be like if we stepped into the sneakers of Han Solo, or in Outlaws case, Kay Vess.
I’ve already previewed Outlaws for PSU, however that was solely a hands-off have a look at some beforehand unseen gameplay to provide us a greater concept of what the sport will play like. This time nonetheless, I’ve gone hands-on with Outlaws for PSU, and I’ve come away with much more to say about what Ubisoft touts because the “first open-world Star Wars recreation,” and each different promise it makes.
Star Wars: Outlaws Arms-On Preview – So You Need To Be A Scoundrel?
Getting The Little Issues Proper
First off, some housekeeping. I didn’t play this on PS5, I used to be technically taking part in on PC for this preview, however it wasn’t my PC. I acquired to spend about 4 hours with Outlaws whereas it ran on a PC someplace in Montreal, and was streamed to my pc.
I didn’t have any main latency points, the one factor was that graphically it wasn’t almost as sharp as it might be if it was working natively. That’s all to say I received’t be talking on graphics or its visuals in any form of technical means, and that I can’t present any perception as to the way it’ll run at launch.
Shifting on from what I can’t speak about to what I can, I can say that as I stated in my hands-off preview, Outlaws has the look of the Star Wars universe nailed down.
My hands-on time with Outlaws solely solidified these preliminary ideas. I performed sections on two completely different planets, with a little bit of house and canine preventing in between.
Starting on a brand new planet Toshara, my demo kicked off with a cutscene of Kay and Nix waking up after crash touchdown on Toshara. The primary time I used to be on stick, I acquired to check out Outlaws model of Crimson Useless Redemption’s dead-eye mechanic and rapidly dispatch three smugglers who had been presumably a part of why Kay and Nix crashed within the first place.
Then I met considered one of Outlaws new characters, acquired on a speeder and raced into Pyke territory to lose the pursuers. It was an action-heavy state of affairs, with massive issues taking place, however I saved noticing the little issues.
The sound of the blasters, the dealing with of the speeder, how briskly the speeder felt, the alien however acquainted in a Star Wars-way panorama of the planet. That’s to say, the sand-filled space you land on in Toshara undoubtedly feels acquainted.
Even if you get into Mirogana, the capital metropolis and core of the Pyke felony syndicate’s energy on Toshara, it feels akin to the sorts of felony or backwater components of the galaxy we’ve seen in a wide range of Star Wars media.
The opposite planet I acquired to see, Kijimi, felt acquainted as a result of Kijimi was beforehand featured in Episode IX: Rise of Skywalker. The nook I noticed of it appeared to only be recreated from what we noticed within the movie, and for what its value additionally felt effectively completed.
Granted, that is primarily based on the brief time I had with Outlaws, and the particular slice of it Ubisoft Huge had deliberate to point out me, however I noticed nothing however fixed proof that the staff has completed a fantastic job at getting the appear and feel of Star Wars – all the way down to the little particulars that basically emphasize a powerful ambiance – proper.
When it got here time to fly into house, one other factor that I used to be comfortable to see was a scarcity of loading screens between getting within the cockpit, and being out of the planet’s ambiance.
Certain, a cutscene performs, however watching your ship truly enter house is a far cry higher than watching a loading display screen. Not every thing might be No Man’s Sky, however a cutscene nonetheless will get the job completed in making you are feeling such as you’re travelling out to house.
Normal Gameplay, Star Wars Flavoured
As a lot as I favored the appear and feel of Outlaws, these issues can solely carry a recreation to date, at the very least in massive open-world adventures just like the one Outlaws guarantees.
Whenever you get all the way down to the stuff you’re truly doing in Outlaws, what I performed to date doesn’t actually ring as distinctive.
The third-person cover-based taking pictures, the stealth missions it’s a must to restart in case you’re caught, the climbing and brief environmental puzzles to make it from one place to a different – all of it’s a Star Wars flavoured model of one thing I and lots of different gamers have completed in different video games.
That’s not inherently unhealthy, however it’s additionally not precisely good. It’s simply bog-standard, and I’m already involved about there being a heaping dose of repetitive gameplay beefing up the runtime of Outlaws.
I could possibly be making a lot ado about nothing however listening to the identical NPC voice traces as I used to be sneaking by way of a Crimsion Daybreak-filled a part of Kijimi from two completely different guards didn’t fill me with confidence that I’d be in for a novel expertise in all places I went in Outlaws.
A minimum of that is my worry on the subject of the primary missions. And granted, these fears are being held up by a 4 hour expertise the place I performed a particular vertical slice of a a lot larger recreation, and it’s very straightforward to be cynical a few Ubisoft recreation – even a Ubisoft Huge recreation – having numerous repetition in it.
However I wouldn’t have a purpose to be cynical if Ubisoft had given me and loads of different gamers purpose to be with its historical past of open-world video games falling into repetitive patterns that negatively influence the expertise.
Potential, There Is
That being stated, I’d argue that there’s extra potential for Outlaws to be in contrast to earlier Ubisoft video games which will have felt repetitive than there may be for it to really feel like different open-world video games or different Ubisoft titles.
The potential lies with the development system, which is one other factor it’s nigh unimaginable to get a grip of within the brief demo time I had, however the construction of it is extremely promising to me.
See, in contrast to different video games the place you progress your character by gaining expertise factors after which spending these expertise factors in a ability tree, Outlaws doesn’t have a ability tree. It has abilities you possibly can enhance and unlock, for certain, however it all occurs extra organically by way of gameplay.
To achieve new abilities after which higher them, it’s a must to discover individuals throughout the galaxy who’re consultants in these abilities. You discover consultants by holding your ear to the bottom, listening to the little feedback made by NPC’s about who is aware of what, and who to speak to about various things and the place to seek out them.
Finishing missions for these consultants, if you do discover them, is the way you progress completely different abilities, and clearly you’re selecting which of them to progress everytime you like.
Having this in place as a substitute of your bog-standard ability tree shakes issues up quite a bit, as a result of no longer solely is the trail to upgrading your abilities extra attention-grabbing, there are such a lot of extra alternatives for the event staff to interject extra storytelling.
Quid-pro-quo, there are extra alternatives so that you can expertise one thing distinctive and/or have a uniquely Star Wars-flavoured expertise in a means that’s by no means been attainable earlier than, due to the sport’s open-world focus and the way this development system weaves by way of that.
So You Need To Be A Scoundrel?
Identical to once I acquired a hands-off have a look at Outlaws, I’m strolling away from this hands-on look with a variety of optimism for the potential I see.
I’m additionally stuffed with loads of cautious emotions and the damaging voice in my head that jogs my memory there are such a lot of trope-traps Outlaws may fall into. That very same voice additionally jogs my memory that Ubisoft was the architect to a few of these traps.
The open-world foundations, the wished system (which I didn’t expertise just about in any respect on this demo however I used to be cognizant of all the identical), the development system, the visible design and the eye to element filling out the ambiance all make me optimistic.
Stuff just like the lock-picking mini recreation the place you employ the software that R2-D2 makes use of as the reply for every thing and it’s rhythm primarily based is admittedly cool to me.
These are the sorts of issues which have made me extra optimistic after going hands-on with the sport, the way in which I had hoped they might after my hands-off preview.
However till I get to expertise the total recreation, I’ll stay cautiously optimistic, although extra on the optimistic facet.
Star Wars: Outlaws arrives on PS5 on August 30, 2024.
