Star Wars Outlaws review: A fun if limited trip to a galaxy far, far away

radiotimes.com:

In a galaxy, far, far away, Star Wars Outlaws is a good game that was marketed properly, and was not let down by unrealistic expectations that should have been tempered — but here we are.

In the run-up to its launch, the game has oft been described as 'GTA in space', which isn’t exactly right. Developer Massive Entertainment and publisher Ubisoft never said that it was, in all fairness, but nor did they effectively quell any notions that it wasn't.

Yes, there is a 'wanted' system, and you will have credits skimmed off you when you die, but the game is far too restrictive with far too many guard rails up to make it feel anything close to GTA.

You can’t just walk into a cantina and start blasting (Han shot first), and NPCs feel very static and unreactive, making them essentially set-dressing who don’t really acknowledge you in any way.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s incredible the first time you arrive at Mirogana and see dozens of people milling about. The atmosphere is so thick and is by far the best-realised Star Wars environment in a game, but it doesn’t last for long — as you begin to realise that you’re under strict rules without much room to experiment.

If not GTA, then what? Assassin's Creed meets Uncharted meets a very stripped-back Mass Effect is probably the closest you can get.

There is a wide-open world filled with endless fetch-quests, places to explore and things to do, but the closer you look, the more you realise you’re boxed in with quite strict limitations.

Fortunately, you can just crack on with the story if you want to, making it feel like a much more linear and focused experience where a more static world would make more sense, but there is the added freedom of different paths you can go down – more on that later.

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Once the game is