Star Wars Outlaws, the new game from Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment (The Division) was revealed at the 2023 Xbox Game Showcase, and subsequently received a lengthy, impressive showing at the 2023 Ubisoft Forward that demonstrated its strong aesthetic and seamless open world that lets you go from inside a cantina to hyperspace in one fell swoop.
Julian Gerighty, the director of Star Wars Outlaws, took the stage at the event to speak at length about Star Wars Outlaws, which takes place between the events of the films The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, where the Empire is strong and criminal organisations thrive. He spoke about protagonist Kay Vess and her companion Nix, who live a hard life and hope to take on one big job to secure their place in the galaxy.
The game will feature ‘open world locations’ and the ‘wilds of space’, where Kay and Nix will encounter several criminal organisations, which will provide opportunities, and plenty of danger.
The newly-released gameplay trailer opens with Nix, a kind of land axolotl thing, pilfering a gem to deliver to Kay. She’s hiding behind cover, and sneaks up behind an unknowing guard to knock him out with a punch, shaking her hand in pain afterwards. Coming up to a group of three guards, she orders Nix to hit a button, which moves a box on a crane for Kay to grab onto and get across the space, unseen.
Kay’s discovered, unfortunately, and as she tries to talk her away out of things with her hands up, she performs a quickdraw to dispatch the guard, and races to cover. The demo then turns into a full-on firefight. Kay asks Nix to retrieve a blaster rifle from a fallen enemy for her, and she lays down suppressing fire and makes a run for it.
Read: Star Wars Outlaws is a galaxy-wide coming of age story – Preview
As she leaves the facility, she hops on a speeder bike and races out of there, with enemies in pursuit. She slows down time to mark two fast-moving enemies with an ability, and takes them out. She has a quick chat with her accomplice over the radio, and arrives in a nearby town, making a beeline for the cantina.
Kay enters the cantina’s VIP area to chat to a local crime boss, and debrief on the job. An empire officer also sits at the table, and attempts to strike a deal with Kay. The option for Kay to bribe the officer is given, but she refuses, pulls out a blaster, and leaves with the credits for the job.
As she walks out, a city-wide warning for Kay is sent out, which brings up a big ‘Wanted’ status. Kay boards her starship, and quickly zooms up into the atmosphere, and eventually into space in one seamless transition.
They’re suddenly pursued by TIE Fighters within a field of space debris. After shaking the fighters off, they jump into hyperspace, escape the Empire, and complete the quest.
A transition to the interior of the cockpit shows Kay bonding with Nix, and a brief montage of the game’s various locales is shown, followed by a standoff with an AT-ST and several space battles.
It was an incredibly impressive showing for the newly announced game, and capped off the Ubisoft Forward presentation on a high note. We’re optimistically looking forward to seeing more.
Star Wars Outlaws is slated for release in 2024 on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.
