Playing the Star Wars Outlaws preview surprised me. After losing interest in the franchise after The Rise of Skywalker and an endless run of spin-off series, Outlaws might just bring me back.
It may even thaw my fatigue of open-world games. Known for making sprawling in-game locations, Ubisoft has potentially balanced the scope between grand scale and character-based intimacy. After Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, the developer-slash-publisher responded to player criticism of excessive bloat with more scaled-down experiences, like Assassin’s Creed Mirage.
Having worked on The Division, Ubisoft’s looter shooter series, Swedish development studio Massive Entertainment appears well-positioned to deliver the deeper experience players like myself crave.
Star Wars Outlaws also refreshingly sidesteps the Jedi fetishism plaguing much of the franchise. Lightsabers are undeniably cool, but in a galaxy purported to be as large as this, what happens when the Jedi aren’t around?
That’s exactly the question Outlaws answers, casting light on a shadowy part of the universe in an interesting way – even if the gameplay loop feels almost as familiar as the franchise it depicts.
Star Wars Outlaws preview: reputation era
Star Wars Outlaws is a game of competing allegiances. In the scrappy boots of Kay Vess, a scoundrel trying to survive an unforgiving underworld, you take jobs from major factions, including one led by the infamous Jabba the Hutt. None of them are loyal to you, nor should you be loyal in return.
As part of driving the story forward, the bulk of Kay’s quests come from one of several syndicates. These tasks often involve sabotaging one of the other groups, consequently reducing your reputation with them while earning favour from your employer.
It’s an engaging system that sees you balancing the competing interests of rival syndicates in a futile attempt to keep everyone happy. Being buddies with one gang nets discounts from allying vendors, and access to restricted areas. Conversely, angering a group enough causes them to become hostile on sight.
Much like the fragile power balance of the underworld, nothing is permanent. It’s not possible to lock yourself out of quests forever by twisting Jabba’s tail in a knot (metaphorically, to be clear).
This lack of lasting consequences for your actions does highlight the gamified nature of the system. But it’s also thematically appropriate; when money and power is the language spoken by all criminal gangs, today’s nemesis can be tomorrow’s friend.
Much of Outlaws revolves around being a scoundrel, fighting desperately to survive every day and using all manner of deception in the process. While Star Wars games have dealt with dubious morality before – see the Jedi Knight series or The Force Unleashed – rarely have they depicted it from the perspective of such a grounded character.
Dealing with legacy
Let me briefly take a step back and examine the recent films to illustrate my point. What I adored most about The Last Jedi was its acknowledgement of what came before it, before forging a new path unshackled by legacy or familial ties. Anyone, no matter their background, could change the galaxy.
Then came The Rise of Skywalker. Instead of carrying the torch of breaking free from tradition, it reinstated the status quo. The ninth main film reverted to the series’ obsession with bloodlines, ignoring the multitude of possibilities laid before it.
That’s why Star Wars Outlaws intrigues me. It explores the underside of a universe not oft examined, from the perspective of a relative unknown character. It’s not all doom and gloom, mind you – Kay’s main partner in crime is Nix, an adorable creature known as a “merqaal” that looks like a fluffy axolotl. I would die for Nix.
A scoundrel through and through
Star Wars Outlaws leans right into its scoundrel themes beyond the syndicate interplay, too. Kay isn’t a military-trained operative or someone born into privilege, which feeds into the gameplay. Her movements are uneven and unsteady at times, yet effective. It’s also a nice narrative foil for the game’s RPG elements, letting you acquire upgrades to improve your blaster aim.
Its gameplay is what feels most familiar about Star Wars Outlaws. It’s a third-person action-adventure game through and through, feeling like many games you’ve played before. Combat encounters are littered with conveniently-placed hip-high objects to use as cover, there are plenty of climbing sections, and a big reliance on stealth.
Derivative as some of the gameplay elements may look on the surface, they work nicely in practice. In a firefight, Kay muscles her way from cover to cover, en route to unlocking a “Dead Eye” targeting system a la Red Dead Redemption, letting you mow down several enemies in quick succession. She’s not blessed with Bacta tanks’ worth of health, so while hand-to-hand combat is viable in a pinch – the way Kay punches armoured goons out cold, she must have titanium fists – you need to think several steps ahead to avoid getting flanked.
Shooting inept Stormtroopers is just one part of Outlaws, with stealth a core part of the gameplay loop. Most quests involve sneaking behind enemy lines to obtain precious objects or intel, and getting caught resets you back to the previous checkpoint. In addition to his inherent cute charm, this is where Nix gets to shine.
At any time, you can direct Nix to distract or attack enemies, helping Kay take down multiple foes at once. He also acts as a sonar, locating nearby dangers to help you plan your approach. A personal favourite Nix intervention involved the little critter dramatically playing dead in front of an unsuspecting Stormtrooper. In these moments, Kay takes advantage of the ensuing confusion, knocking the trooper into next week.
While you don’t control Nix directly, issuing commands to him is easy and feels intuitive. There’s a satisfying cadence to stealth and combat sections that relies on you using everything around you, whether it be Kay or Nix’s abilities, or the environment around you.
Getting lost in space
It wouldn’t be a Star Wars game if there wasn’t any galactic travel, would it? Outside of the main areas, you can ride speeders across picturesque environments, and also take to the stars in Kay’s ship.
Although the space flight isn’t quite as intricate as what featured in Star Wars Squadrons, interplanetary travel still offers great variety to the on-foot action. It’s tough to beat the thrill of slamming the brakes on, turning on a dime, and then punching the engines to pursue a TIE fighter in aerial combat.
Flying between planets also imbues a strong sense of scale. Once you begin your descent planetside, the game takes over, playing a dazzling animation of entering the atmosphere that’s infinitely better than any loading screen.
This sense of scale doesn’t lessen once back on foot; if anything, it grows stronger. My favourite moments of the preview session came from slowly meandering around the densely populated areas and taking everything in. Conversations between bystanders not only add nice flavour and worldbuilding, but also potential leads for quests. Each location felt lived in, with everything placed for purpose, not filler.
True to open-world tradition there are still plenty of fun distractions along the way. Some locations house arcade machines loaded with slick mini-games. I’m not a high-score chaser, but they grabbed my attention for longer than expected – largely due to how ridiculously hard the synthwave beats went. I also lost plenty of time to “Sabacc”, a high-stakes card game that I anticipate playing much more of when the full game launches.
Familiar as Star Wars Outlaws may feel at times, its reversal of the mile-wide, inch-deep approach to open-world design has me keen to play more.
Star Wars Outlaws launches on 30 August 2024 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X | S, and PC.
Read more gaming news on GadgetGuy
Chris Button travelled to LA as a guest of Ubisoft Australia
The post Playing Star Wars Outlaws has renewed my hope for the franchise appeared first on GadgetGuy.
0 (mga) komento:
Mag-post ng isang Komento