Star Wars Outlaws, the upcoming open world game from Ubisoft’s Massive Entertainment, may feature cooking as a primary mechanic, with players seemingly able to discover and enjoy a range of ‘alien concoctions’ in their long journey. This teaser was dropped during the game’s San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) 2023 panel, where creative director Julian Gerighty lifted the lid on what to expect.
During the panel, Gerighty discussed a range of features coming to game, and how the Massive team has begun making their own mark on the Star Wars universe with the creation of original planets, like Toshara, a moon where outlaw Kay Vess plies her trade.
While travelling these planets, which are designed to support the world of ‘scum and villainy‘ that characterises Outlaws, Vess will be able to travel from region to region in a player-customised speeder, and use this added mobility to explore, fight, and collect a range of resources.
It’s likely these resources can be used to create alien dishes, per Gerighty’s comments.
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‘There are a couple surprises I don’t want to spoil,’ he said at SDCC 2023, per IGN transcription. ‘There is a particular predator on Toshara that is mind-blowingly cool. So if you have a fear of frogs, this might not be the game for you … The second thing is that food is incredibly important to the world of Star Wars. And if you enjoy food and discovering alien concoctions, this is going to be an exciting experience for you.’
Gerighty stopped short of outright confirming a cooking system, but given these comments, it feels fairly likely that you’ll be able to collect and cook with alien ingredients in your journey through Toshara and beyond. The Star Wars universe is filled with creative food options – blue milk, ronto wraps, roasted porg, to name a few – so introducing these lore elements to an open-world Star Wars game certainly makes sense.
With games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild proving how well cooking can be implemented in an adventure game, power-ups and gaining special abilities for example, Star Wars Outlaws already has some potential inspiration up its sleeve.
We’ll likely learn more about this teased cooking mechanic in the coming months, as Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment prepare for a highly-anticipated game launch in 2024.
