Overview
Star Wars Outlaws is an open-world action-adventure developed by Massive Entertainment and published by Ubisoft. Kay Vess and her companion Nix lead an original story about crime, betrayal, and escape. Its central concerns are personal: finding work, surviving dangerous employers, and getting clear of a disastrous robbery.
The adventure takes place between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, shortly after the Battle of Hoth. The Empire remains a threat, but criminal syndicates drive much of Kay's day-to-day trouble. Their competing interests connect the story's outlaw premise to its mission structure.
What do syndicate missions involve?
Syndicate missions send Kay to steal valuable goods, enter guarded locations, and overcome enemies. Reputation changes in response to her choices, making criminal relationships part of the action-adventure's core loop.
The main tools and systems include:
- Blaster combat
- Stealth and gadgets
- Companion-assisted distractions
- Changing syndicate reputation
Nix helps Kay distract enemies, creating openings during encounters. Timing these distractions can give her an advantage, while her equipment supports both direct confrontations and quieter approaches. The focus falls on using a scoundrel's resources to handle a dangerous situation.
Jobs also carry a social complication: Kay works within an underworld of competing loyalties. Completing an objective and managing her standing with criminal employers are connected concerns, so decisions carry weight beyond the immediate encounter.
A robbery that puts Kay on the run
Kay begins on Cantonica, hoping to leave her homeworld and start again among the Core Worlds. She joins a crew targeting a vault belonging to Sliro Barsha, a crime boss working to eliminate his rivals and strengthen his position in the underworld.
The break-in succeeds only as far as opening the vault. The operation collapses, Kay's crew betrays her, and she escapes without the fortune she needs. Sliro blames her for the robbery and places a death mark on her head.
Her predicament gives the story a concrete antagonist and an immediate survival problem. Kay wants a new life, but the consequences of the heist follow her into the wider galaxy. Her criminal career begins with an escape attempt that leaves her in greater danger.
Exploring planets and piloting the Trailblazer
Planetary exploration mixes familiar Star Wars locations with places created for the game. Cities and cantinas provide populated spaces to explore, while individual destinations bring their own adventures, challenges, and rewards.
The speeder handles travel across large outdoor areas. Moving between settlements and open terrain changes the scale of exploration, taking Kay beyond the guarded locations and close encounters associated with her criminal work.
Space combat puts Kay at the controls of the Trailblazer, her ship. Dogfights involve the Empire and other hostile forces, with combat built around pursuing targets, evading danger, and choosing opportunities to attack. The ship extends the outlaw adventure into space, where survival depends on piloting as well as the tools Kay carries on foot.
