Key information about the new game in the world of “Star Wars” from the creators of The Division
At the end of August, Star Wars Outlaws, a big game in the Star Wars universe from Ubisoft, will be released on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series. This time you will play not as a Jedi or even a stormtrooper, but as an ordinary criminal who is trying to make a fortune. We talk about the key features of this space adventure.
Plot plot
Star Wars Outlaws takes place between the fifth and sixth Star Wars episodes, when the Empire is in its prime and the Rebels have not yet decisively challenged it. But the war begins to heat up, the balance of power shifts, and along with it, crime syndicates are revived. They, too, begin to fight for influence in the Outer Rim systems, a region of planets where chaos reigns.
You play as Kay Vess, a young but ambitious smuggler who dreams of committing one of the biggest heists in history. At the beginning of the game she is simply trying to survive, but over time she decides to make her way to the top of the criminal world. To do this, the girl begins to work for syndicates and carries out various assignments for them: stealing, transporting dangerous goods, organizing sabotages, and so on.
Apparently, at some point, Vess will cross the path of dangerous people, and there will be a bounty on her head. The main antagonist will be Sliro, the head of the cartel Zerek Bash.
Gameplay
Star Wars Outlaws will be similar to other Ubisoft games – it’s a third-person action adventure set in an open world. Players will explore different planets in the Outer Rim and complete quests in a variety of playstyles. The heroine knows how to fight, shoots well and hides well, so somewhere she will have to break through with a fight, and somewhere she will have to hide from enemies in order to quietly steal something valuable. In addition to combat situations, you should also expect parkour puzzles, like in Uncharted and Assassin’d Creed.
An important role will be played by Nyx, an alien animal who has been friends with Vess since childhood. You can ask him to drop something, fetch something, or even pretend to be dead to distract enemies. The partner also helps in battle, biting enemies with sharp teeth. It will be possible to recruit other residents of the Outer Ring to your team, but it is not yet known whether they can be taken on missions. It is known for sure that the heroine will be accompanied by ND-5, a commando droid of the BX series, which was developed for special missions with a high level of risk.
There will also be ground and space transport, which you can use to move around and participate in action scenes. The developers have already shown chases on speeder bikes and battles in outer space.
Factions and Reputation
Star Wars Outlaws will have multiple factions that Vess can interact with. Each side has its own preferences, demands and aspirations.
Two key factions are the Galactic Empire and the Alliance, familiar to all fans of the universe. The heroine will be able to help the rebels, but the authors warn that this should be done at your own peril and risk. The Empire in this era is still as strong as possible and is harshly suppressing rebels, so attracting its attention is dangerous. Missions that cause damage to the Empire can lead to serious consequences.
But since the heroine is a criminal, she will interact much more often with criminal groups. There are several of them in the game: the Jabba the Hutt syndicate, which is controlled by the cult villain, the Crimson Dawn under the leadership of Qi’Ra from the film “Han”, the Ashiga clan (it was invented specifically for the game) and others.
By working for various cartels, Vess will increase his reputation within their ranks. This opens up additional opportunities for the heroine: access to territories controlled by the syndicate, new missions, a richer assortment in stores, and so on. The allies also provide Kay with useful information and rumors, which makes it easier to find new riches, and also help Vess break away from the pursuit.
However, it is also easy to ruin a reputation: for example, it will be enough to enter the territory of a syndicate without asking or kill its member. In addition, in many missions you will still have to choose a side, which will increase respect from one of the factions, but will harm other alliances.
World scale and duration
The events of Star Wars Outlaws will unfold on several planets: both already familiar to Star Wars fans and completely new ones. It will be possible to visit Tatooine, and many difficulties arose with its creation. The authors understood that this planet is shown in almost every Star Wars work, so they tried to find a way to present it in a new way. But fans probably come to visit iconic locations, so they were added to the game too.
Other stated planets include the deserted Cantonica in the Outer Rim Corporate Sector, which was home to the casino city of Canto Bight. You’ll also be able to visit cold, mountainous Kijimi and hot, jungle-covered Akiva. A completely new planet is Toshara, inspired by the savannahs of East Africa.
The authors assure that they did not try to make the game too big. Two key Ubisoft employees immediately emphasized that they took into account the criticism of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, which took about 80-100 hours to complete. Star Wars Outlaws can be completed much faster.
As for the scale of the world, each planet will be comparable to approximately 2-3 regions of Greece from Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. The authors claim that this made it possible to abandon procedural generation and create all the content manually.
Creators
Star Wars Outlaws is being developed by Massive Entertainment. She was responsible for the looter shooters The Division and The Division 2, and also took part in the development of World in Conflict and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.
The creative director is Julian Gerity. He has been working at Ubisoft for a very long time and, in one way or another, has had a hand in almost all of the company’s games, starting with the first Far Cry in 2004. Gerity also led the development of The Crew, The Division and The Division 2.
Navid Havari, Nikki Foy and Benedikt Podlsnigg are responsible for the script and design. All of them played key roles in the creation of Far Cry 6 and The Division 2.
Release date, platforms and prices
Star Wars Outlaws will release on August 30, 2024 on Windows, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. The game will not appear on last-generation consoles, and on PC it will only be available in the Ubisoft store and on the site of its partner, the Epic Games Store.
The price for the basic edition is $70, about 6,000 rubles at the Central Bank exchange rate. The publisher is also offering a Gold Edition for $110, which includes the season pass, two sets of cosmetic items and the opportunity to start playing three days earlier – from August 27th. The $130 Ultimate Edition includes everything from the Gold Edition, plus a digital art book and two more cosmetic packs.
Finally, you can play Star Wars Outlaws with a Ubisoft+ Premium subscription. The game will appear there on the day of release, and you will have to pay $18 for a month of the service.
Season Pass owners will have access to two story expansions in the future. Their details have not yet been disclosed.
Localization
Ubisoft continues to translate its games into Russian, and Star Wars Outlaws will be no exception. Subtitles and interface are localized – you shouldn’t expect dubbing. However, this is the situation in most countries: the voice acting will be released only in English, German, Spanish, French, Japanese and Portuguese.
Criticism
Star Wars Outlaws has already been at the center of several scandals. The loudest of them is related to the face of the main character, which, according to players, Ubisoft deliberately ruined. Wess’s appearance was given by actress Humberly Gonzalez: according to gamers, she is a very pretty girl, but her game version looks more masculine.
The appearance of the heroine has been discussed since the announcement, and creative director Julian Gerity had to comment on the problem. In his opinion, the game version turned out “wonderful,” and it is criticized by those who cannot live without negativity. Gerity also noted that Vess is a criminal who survives in harsh conditions, and it is not worth getting involved in a discussion of what exactly is considered beautiful: this discussion will lead nowhere.
However, Outlaws is criticized not only for the appearance of the main character. Gameplay videos collect tens of thousands of dislikes: players criticize the new product for the quality of graphics and animations, which look bad in 2024. Even more infuriating were the words of Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, who, amid this criticism, called Star Wars: Outlaws a game of “really high quality.”
System Requirements
Minimum for 1080p (60 FPS, low graphics with DLSS or FSR):
Operating system: Windows 10.
Processor: Intel i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen 5 3600
Video card: GeForce GTX 1660 (6 GB) or AMD RX-5600 XT (6 GB) or Intel Arc a750 (8 GB)
RAM: 16 GB
Disk: 65 GB
Recommended for 1080p (60 FPS, high graphics with DLSS or FSR):
Operating system: Windows 10 or Windows 11
Processor: Intel i5-10400 or AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
Video card: GeForce RTX 3060 TI (8 GB) or AMD Rx-6700 XT (12 GB)
RAM: 16 GB
Disk: 65 GB
Recommended for 1440p (60 FPS, high graphics with DLSS or FSR):
Operating system: Windows 10 or Windows 11
Processor: Intel i5-11600K or AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
Video card: GeForce RTX 4070 (12 GB) or AMD RX-6800 XT (16 GB)
RAM: 16 GB
Disk: 65 GB
Recommended for 4K (60 FPS, ultra graphics with DLSS or FSR):
Operating system: Windows 10 or Windows 11
Processor:Intel i7-12700K / AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D
Video card: GeForce RTX 4080 (16 GB) or AMD RX-7900XTX (24 GB)
RAM: 16 GB
Disk: 65 GB