Star Wars Outlaws dropped its longest gameplay trailer yet at this morning’s Ubisoft Forward during Summer Game Fest. The gameplay deep dive, which runs for a full ten minutes, shows off most of the game’s core mechanics, focusing on exploration, combat, and space travel. It also pulled back the curtain a little on the ways Kay Vess’ relationships with various smuggler syndicates will affect her fortunes around the galaxy.
What was truly striking was the game’s visuals. A cut above what Ubisoft tends to produce, the work poured into making everything look like Star Wars is clear. There is such a focus on making the environments look a bit dirty, scuffed and lived in that is so authentically Star Wars. I look forward to seeing it running on my TV to confirm its Showroom Game status as a visual knockout.
I liked the tweaks to the game’s character progression systems of having Kay check in with various experts. These experts will teach her the tricks of the trade, opening up new abilities. If you want to upgrade Kay’s handiness with a blaster, you’ll need to hunt down a Gunslinger, and that requires gathering a bit of intel. This ultimately leads Kay to Tatooine, where she learns her gunslinger has fallen in with the Hutts, who do not like her. This complicates her quest to find him, and she will have to be careful about her next steps. We will have to wait and see how it is ultimately implemented, but on paper, I think it’s a banger idea.
I also note that Star Wars Outlaws appears to let you fly to visitable planets in each system, a bit like No Man’s Sky. All I’m saying is Starfield didn’t let me do that.
Anyway, the full ten minute trailer is embedded above. If you’re interested in the game I definitely recommend a watch because it’s quite illuminating. I expected a fairly standard Ubisoft open worlder, a format the publisher has made its house style over the last decade. Outlaws appears to want to push beyond that, or at least do certain things differently, and I’m seeing a lot to like here.
Image: Ubisoft, Kotaku Australia
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