Star Wars Outlaws: hands-on report
Ubisoft Massive is almost ready to let PS5 players become a notorious space scoundrel in the first open-world Star Wars game, coming to PS5 on August 30. Crash landing onto the lush yet dangerous moon of Toshara, I spent time as rookie rogue Kay Vess, meeting her little buddy Nix, discovering visual options inspired by the original trilogy, and taking jobs for crime syndicates.
Kay’s furry and all-too-cute partner Nix (“not a pet,” stresses his voice actor, Dee Bradley Baker) has already gained a dedicated and adoring following. Yes, the doe-eyed Merqaal is genuinely helpful, from distracting guards with cuteness (or causing explosions), and picking up weapons, to showing players interactive elements in the environment… but it’s Nix’s little touches that’ll win over fans across the galaxy.
Gain boosters for your speeder and Nix is forced to hang on for dear life, his little tail and hind legs flailing in the air. If you aim Kay’s blaster at him, he’ll impishly mimic being shot and roll over to play dead, causing Kay to chuckle and encourage his performance.
Outlaws executes open-world Star Wars with flair, delivering a rich and responsive environment that’s lively and joyful to explore. Floating fishing nets ripple in the wind. Broken starship detritus is scattered across lakes, mountains, and moisture farms. And yes, you can pet the… well, animals far more exotic than dogs, and even feed some of the fauna native to Toshara.
Ubisoft Massive has also created discoverable vista points where you can stop and watch beautiful-yet-deadly world go by. The scenic views are striking enough to encourage players to seek them all out.
The Star Wars Outlaws team knows it’s a big deal to set its game between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and has gone the extra parsecs to make it feel authentic to its source material.
To that end, you can select a special 21.9 cinematic mode that creates a widescreen effect and replicates the lenses Lucasfilm used when shooting
