Star Wars Outlaws finally makes good on a "scum & villainy" fantasy
Ubisoft is taking its first crack at the Star Wars universe, and its debut game is going in a noticeably different direction than the usual games set in a galaxy far, far away. As an open-world action-adventure game focusing on a space-traveling scoundrel looking for their next big score, Star Wars Outlaws sets its sights on the seedy underbelly of the sprawling sci-fi universe, away from force-wielding Jedi and Sith and more on the common folk and cutthroats lurking on the fridges of the Galactic Civil War.
Coming from developer Massive Entertainment, who previously worked on The Division series, Star Wars Outlaws features a protagonist that seems right out of the pages of the 1990s expanded universe novels but within the framework of an open-world action-adventure game – one that Ubisoft states is the first actual open-world Star Wars game.
Following an extended showcase at Ubisoft Forward, Star Wars Outlaws game director Mathias Karlson and narrative director Navid Khavari spoke with Game Developer about making a new type of Star Wars game that focuses on the often underutilized areas of the massive universe.
"The other Star Wars stories tend to focus on the conflict between the Empire and Rebellion, which is already well established," said narrative director Navid Khavari. "What we're doing with this game, and what we want to get across overall, is to look at what the folks on the ground level are doing during this conflict that's happening around them, particularly for Kay Vess – how are they getting by, and what sort of characters will they meet when they explore a cantina or venture off to remote planets in their journey in the criminal underworld of the galaxy?"
Set in the Original Trilogy era, between the events of
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