Ever since its reveal, Star Wars Outlaws has teased the “greatest heist the Outer Rim has ever seen,” at least according to Jaylen Vrax. Indeed, if they went into it having only seen the trailers released before launch, all players know by the time they begin a first playthrough of Star Wars Outlaws is that Kay Vess and her Merqaal companion Nix get caught up in Jaylen’s plan to initiate this heist and must recruit a crew to carry it out. The recruits aren’t highlighted in any of the trailers, but not for secrecy’s sake—it’s simply because they play such a small, insignificant role overall that they don’t truly matter regardless in the grand scheme.
Interestingly, Outlaws doesn’t have an emphasis on story until the third act, particularly the final quest where it dumps a ton of rushed, conflicted mother-daughter bonding on the player as well as predictable betrayals and rescues. Outlaws is better when players take their time on each available planet and absorb its detail-rich content, which it gives players endless incentives for, and the focus is therefore precisely where it should be: Star Wars Outlaws’ open world and the enticing moments players stumble upon organically when they’re actively ignoring the golden path.
Star Wars Outlaws’ Story Neglect Lets Its Open World Be the Rightful Lead
To say Star Wars Outlaws has no story at all would be an oversimplification; story content is ripe and abundant in the game’s tiny open-world details but pales when it comes to its golden path in particular. Outlaws differentiates this content in the menu by listing main quests apart from Expert quests, intel, contracts, and the like, which is not novel by any means but is fantastic in this title as it allows players to purposefully avoid main narrative events if they wish.
The story
Outlaws
takes players on is incredibly cookie-cutter as it pertains to locating NPCs and going through the motions of a basic third act, but that was never going to be what made
Massive’s
Star Wars
game
special.
If anything, the main narrative is more or less like Skyrim’s in terms of it not being profoundly impactful to the player’s experience. Instead, the open world and the countless engaging experiences players find on their own are what makes it phenomenal, especially between the Pyke, Crimson Dawn, Hutt, and Ashiga factions found interspersed on each explorable planet.
Here, players can interact with syndicates as often or as little as they like if all they hope to achieve is a quick playthrough of the story, though they’ll get an astronomical amount of content more from indebting themselves to one or two factions at a time and completing contracts that can exploit those favors opportunistically.
The Importance of Star Wars Outlaws’ Side Quests and NPC Interactions Cannot Be Overstated
Star Wars Outlaws’ main narrative golden path is necessary to progress up to a specific point and that’s when Kay Vess and Nix can finally journey with ND-5 to any of the three remaining planets and in whichever order they wish. It’s actually possible to complete a surprising wealth of side content on Toshara before ever visiting Kijimi, Akiva, or Tatooine, though, and doing so can help inform players of precisely how each planet’s open world operates with certain regions being occupied and run by either a syndicate or the Galactic Empire.
Likewise, it is imperative that players indulge in Expert quests as soon as they become available if they hope to get a headstart on their associable ability and skill unlocks, and by embracing these quests players will be taken to different corners of the galaxy and introduced to other exciting optional content.
Massive does a great job of not holding players’ hands when it comes to what they should do and, while some endeavors require an unlocked ability or skill, even lets players infiltrate enormous AT-ST-guarded Imperial bases as early as they’d like. Outlaws’ Kessel Sabacc is a wonderful example of this, too, since it allows players to meet more NPCs as they dive deep into side content tethered to none other than legendary outlaw and future Rebel general Lando Calrissian.
