After revealing the game earlier at the Xbox Games Showcase, Ubisoft has now revealed a gameplay trailer for Massive Entertainment’s Star Wars Outlaws at the Ubisoft Forward 2023 livestream.
Set between The Empire Strikes Back and The Return Of The Jedi films, Star Wars Outlaws follows the adventures of Kay Vess and her companion Nyx in their quest to pull off the greatest heist in the Outer Rim.
The scoundrel isn’t an outright smooth operator though, as you can see in the gameplay trailer. Kay and Nix are sneaking out of enemy territory. It looks like Kay can ask Nix to do various things, from hitting a switch to grabbing a weapon dropped by enemies during firefights. Kay can feign surrender which then cancels into a blaster hip fire, and engage in combat. It doesn’t seem that the game has a hard cover system (i.e. it doesn’t play like The Division, which Massive also developed), but can duck behind cover, take potshots or just run away from combat.
The gameplay trailer also shows how decisions you made might influence upcoming events. Upon debriefing after finishing a job, Kay not only met her handler but also an Empire officer, which she is given a choice to bribe or not. In the trailer, she decides not to play ball, which resulted in Kay getting a Wanted level (the screen flashes all red with the word “WANTED” which is fascinating to see) and was immediately chased by TIE Fighters when she is back in space.
Star Wars Outlaws will see the duo of Kay and Nix, plus other outlaws like the droid ND-5 as you explore the first open-world Star Wars game. It looks like there’s various planets that are explorable. The one seen here is the savannah of Toshara, but you can expect to visit the jungles of Akiva and other cities and cantinas in the galaxy. Kay has her ship, the Trailblazer, and a speeder, to traverse around.
The main takeaway from this gameplay trailer is how Star Wars Outlaws isn’t being marketed as your typical Ubisoft open-world game. The jury’s still out if it is actually that or not, but it’s refreshing not to see outpost clearing, hunting, crafting, skill trees or optional co-op as the game’s selling point.
Star Wars Outlaws will be released in 2024 for the PS5, PC (Ubisoft Connect) and Xbox Series X|S.