Star Wars Outlaws: Ubisoft’s Ambitious Leap into Open-World Star Wars Gaming

For decades, the Star Wars franchise has inspired countless video games, from spaceflight simulators to cinematic RPGs. Yet one concept remained largely unexplored: a fully open-world Star Wars game focused on the galaxy’s criminal underbelly. With Star Wars Outlaws, Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment aim to fill that gap. Released in August 2024, the game offers a sprawling, seamless galaxy for players to explore, this time as smugglers, thieves, and opportunists rather than Jedi or rebels.

A Story Between Iconic Conflicts

Set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, the game takes place during a period of Galactic Empire dominance and Outer Rim instability. Criminal syndicates are thriving amid the chaos, creating the perfect backdrop for a story centered on survival and cunning rather than heroism. Players navigate a galaxy where law enforcement is inconsistent, power is fractured, and alliances are fragile.

Meet Kay Vess: A Scoundrel’s Journey

The protagonist, Kay Vess, is a young scoundrel trying to carve out her own path in the dangerous underworld. Unlike traditional Star Wars heroes, she is not Force-sensitive nor tied to the galactic war. Her companion, Nix, is a small alien creature who assists in exploration, stealth, and combat scenarios, offering tactical advantages during missions. The narrative revolves around Kay’s plan to pull off a daring Outer Rim heist, a venture that draws attention from syndicates, bounty hunters, and the Empire alike.

Exploring a Living Galaxy

One of the game’s defining goals is creating a truly open-world Star Wars experience. Players can explore diverse planets, travel between star systems, and approach missions nonlinearly. Key planets include:

• Tatooine – the iconic desert world, home to smugglers and crime lords.
• Kijimi – a snowy planet linked to underground criminal networks.
• Akiva – a lush jungle world dotted with settlements.
• Toshara – a new planet crafted specifically for this title.

Each location contains cities, wilderness areas, hidden missions, and criminal strongholds, giving players a sense of scale rarely seen in previous Star Wars games.

Combat, Vehicles, and Starships

Ground gameplay blends third-person combat with stealth mechanics. Players rely on blasters rather than lightsabers, reinforcing the focus on underworld survival. Kay can also activate an “Adrenaline” ability to slow time, enabling strategic takedowns of multiple enemies.

Exploration is enhanced with speeders for traversing planetary landscapes and vertical urban areas designed for climbing and gadgets. Space travel expands the experience further, with players piloting the Trailblazer between planets, engaging in ship combat, navigating asteroid fields, and confronting hostile factions.

Choices and Consequences

A core feature is the reputation system, which tracks player relationships with criminal syndicates. Choices matter: forging an alliance with one faction may unlock missions but antagonize others. This system encourages strategic thinking and immersion beyond traditional objective completion.

Technology and Collaboration

Star Wars Outlaws runs on Ubisoft’s Snowdrop Engine, enabling expansive worlds, realistic lighting, and seamless planetary-to-space transitions. Massive Entertainment collaborated closely with Lucasfilm Games to ensure that story, characters, and environments remained faithful to Star Wars canon while providing a new perspective on the galaxy.

Reception and Future Expansions

Critics generally praised the game’s immersive world and unique focus on the criminal underworld, though technical glitches and repetitive mission design drew some criticism. Despite its imperfections, Star Wars Outlaws represents a significant step forward in the evolution of Star Wars games, highlighting the franchise’s potential for large-scale, open-world storytelling.

Ubisoft continues to support the game with updates and downloadable content, including missions featuring fan-favorite characters such as Hondo Ohnaka. These expansions extend gameplay, adding depth to the criminal narrative and new challenges for players navigating the galaxy.

A Darker Perspective on the Galaxy

By centering on survival, ambition, and risk, Star Wars Outlaws offers a fresh lens on the Star Wars universe. It shifts focus from Jedi heroics and galactic warfare to the underworld, demonstrating the untapped potential of open-world design in the franchise. For players curious about the galaxy’s darker corners, it delivers an experience unlike any other Star Wars game.