The best way to enjoy Star Wars is to ignore the franchise’s fans. The community is cancerous and its toxicity has metastasized through social media with a rabid irrational hate over most projects. With that bias, it makes any online criticism about Star Wars shows and video games hard to trust.
When it comes to “Star Wars Outlaws,” the hate that the title has received is overblown. Ubisoft’s foray into the space opera is a rarity because of its open-world nature and its focus. Unlike 90% of Star Wars games, it’s not about Jedis or saving the galaxy, but rather, the campaign focuses on the scoundrels. Instead of following the footsteps of a Luke Skywalker-type character, “Outlaws” asks players to shoot first and double-cross denizens of the underworld like Han Solo.
That requires a different set of gameplay systems from the likes of “Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic” or the “Star Wars Jedi” franchise. Scoundrels need stealth, smarts and gunplay, and those are elements that the developer, Massive Entertainment, has experience in through their work with “Tom Clancy’s The Division” franchise.
THE STORY SO FAR
“Outlaws” follows the exploits of Kay Vess, a young thief who becomes the target of a ruthless crime lord. During a high-stakes job, Sliro Barsha, head of the Zerek Besh syndicate, catches her in his vault, but she manages to escape with the help of her axolotl-like sidekick Nix. Kay steals a ship called the Trailblazer but ends up crash landing on the moon Toshara while fleeing. With a Death Mark on her head, Kay has to fend for herself and navigate the Star Wars criminal underworld, and that leads her to another heist that can solve all her problems. To pull it off, she’ll need to recruit a team while visiting three other planets. Players will travel to five in total.
From the outset, “Assassin’s Creed’ fans will pick up on the gameplay adopted from the series. Kay will climb walls, move through air vents and sneak past foes. As a sly desperado, she won’t bust through an Imperial base blaster blazing. She scouts and marks enemies, reads the layout of a base, plans a route and then methodically dispatches adversaries one by one in the same way an assassin would.
As Kay Vess, it’s often better to sneak past guards than confront them in “Star Wars Outlaws.” (Ubisoft)
FIDGETY GUNPLAY AND A HELPFUL SIDEKICK
Often, those plans don’t work out and Kay has to engage in gunplay. She has a customizable blaster that has several different functions based on the situation and enemy. Players will have to move Kay in and out of cover, but unfortunately, there’s no cover button. She’ll mostly duck behind objects or slide into safety. She has grenades, smoke bombs and other gadgets to help give her the edge.
The gunplay is hectic, especially when switching out ammo types to deal with droids, henchmen and situations. The aim assist helps relieve that pressure but combat can feel clunky with all …read more
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
