It is Might 4th, Star Wars Day. Or, as we discuss with it at Nintendo Life Towers, Oh-god-Jim’s-going-to-bang-on-about-Star-Wars-again Day.
Heh, it is true, I’m a fiend for all issues from a Galaxy Far, Far Away, and, if I am being trustworthy, that has generally meant that I am somewhat extra eager to see the Mild Aspect than embrace the extra real looking Darkness. However my rambling this yr is not an ‘Assault of the Clones is Good, Really’ scorching take, my pricey Younglings. As an alternative, I am about to hit you with some chilly, laborious details. The sort of details which might be primarily based by myself viewpoint, in fact.
So, right here it’s: Star Wars Outlaws is among the Swap 2’s greatest launch-year signings, and a 2025 launch will give the Ubisoft open-world journey the second probability it so rightfully deserves.
Okay, okay, put your blasters away for only a second and let’s do some clarifying. Swap 2 goes to be house to some belters in its first yr. Placing the first-party line-up apart for a second, behemoth ports like Elden Ring, Cyberpunk 2077, and Road Fighter 6 are going to provide large waves of individuals the possibility to expertise (or re-experience) console classics from the final 5 years, and that is great!
But it surely was Outlaws’ temporary, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo in one of many Swap 2 Direct‘s sizzle reels that elicited the largest cheer from me. Why? As a result of, as nice as it’s to see all the aforementioned titles make the leap to a brand new viewers, few deserve a second shot as a lot as Outlaws.
If you happen to utterly missed the launch of Star Wars Outlaws, I would not blame you. This one arrived again in August 2024, from Huge Leisure and Ubisoft. Set between Empire Strikes Again and Return of the Jedi, it follows outlaw Kay Vess on her journey by means of the galaxy’s underworld after a run-in with a big-time crime boss sends issues squiffy.
Whereas the primary quest supplies a whistle-stop tour of some acquainted (and not-so-familiar) locales, the sport is extra within the facet content material, with bonus missions, Sabacc tables, and probabilities to enhance/damage your fame with the underworld’s head honchos ready round each nook.
If, after studying all of that, you thought to your self, “Sure, it is an Ubisoft open-world recreation. I’ve performed that one earlier than,” you would not be utterly mistaken. I’ll admit, Star Wars Outlaws brings little in the best way of originality to the desk, and its gameplay is about as distinctive because the outcomes of the Clone military’s college picture day. Whereas I discovered quite a bit to love beneath the floor, this Pressure Dyad of enjoying issues too secure and being a Ubisoft joint meant that the Outlaws discourse was off to the (pod-)races lengthy earlier than launch.
Cracks began to indicate from the second Ubisoft slapped the “first open-world Star Wars recreation” label on it. If there’s one fandom you do not need to check, it is the Star Wars clan, and cries alongside the traces of “Pffft, these guys do not even know in regards to the early 2000s PC MMORPG Star Wars Galaxies, what losers!!” have been fast to sully the sport’s fame earlier than it had even fired up its engines.
Drained conversations about whether or not the sport’s inter-planetary loading screens made it really open-world or simply open-zone ensued (a subject I discover about as attention-grabbing as a Gungan TED Discuss), accompanied by official criticism of Ubisoft’s advertising and low cost practices, as the corporate continued to instigate layoffs and deem video games ‘industrial failures’ earlier than they got an opportunity to breathe.
Not the most effective pre-launch image, then. On launch, issues have been somewhat extra constructive however remained undoubtedly combined, and, identical to clockwork, Ubisoft was fast to notice how gross sales had “underperformed expectations” in its subsequent six-month monetary report. Sigh.
The Pressure was not sturdy with this one, however, being the Star Wars sicko that I’m, I selected to choose it up on PS5 all the identical. I am conscious that the sport had undergone some snips to its stealth sequences earlier than I got here to it, and quite a lot of bugs had apparently been blasted away. However, anticipating a pile of poodoo, I used to be stunned by simply how a lot I used to be on board with it at each flip.
On the one hand, sure, the gameplay is way from authentic and the plot is nothing to write down house about, however within the robotic different hand, it has every part I ever wished from an open-world Star Wars recreation.
The facet quests are different, giving me loads to do when the primary path plodding from A to B will get an excessive amount of, and navigating between them lets me stay out my childhood dream of hopping on a speeder and making mud tracks beneath the 2 suns. Kay Vess is each bit the sort of Han Solo-esque ‘couldn’t-give-two-Siths’ hero you need from a non-Jedi-focused narrative (and Nix is the last word “Aw, I need one” alien pup companion), and each locale is full of sufficient nods and references that I discovered myself in a semi-permanent state of that one DiCaprio-pointing-at-the-TV meme.
But it surely wasn’t any of this that saved me coming again for extra. The factor that caught with me probably the most is that Outlaws completely nails the Star Wars vibe. Like Spider-Man or Breath of the Wild, that is a kind of video games the place it is greater than sufficient to move out right into a mission-less space and simply be.
My playtime was rapidly over the How Lengthy To Beat 18.5-hour mark, with lower than half of the primary quests beneath my belt. I wasn’t fast-travelling, I wasn’t speeding to hit the subsequent story beat, and I wasn’t going into something that did not curiosity me. Some evenings, a few arms of Sabacc and a stroll round Tatooine was all I wanted.
Look, a number of the criticisms levelled at Outlaws at launch have been greater than cheap, however I can not assist however assume that the pre-launch chatter and ‘industrial failure’ standing meant that this one ended up in entrance of far fewer followers than it deserved.
The Swap 2 launch schedule seems to be set to maintain us greater than well-fed all through 2025, however I do know the place my consideration will lie as soon as September 4th rolls round. If you happen to’re a Star Wars fan for whom Outlaws fell by the wayside final yr and you’ve got obtained your Swap 2 locked in, you are in for a deal with.
Have you ever already sampled Star Wars Outlaws? Will you be selecting it up on Swap 2? Use your Jedi thoughts tips within the feedback and let me know.
