Everybody loves an excellent story. That’s very true when that story has been instructed throughout two generations, garnering a large fan following whereas inspiring numerous video games, TV exhibits, spin-offs and the like. Star Wars is a kind of tales, and is a franchise that wants no introduction except you’ve been residing beneath a rock because the Eighties.
Its recognition, and the success of Jedi: Fallen Order and Jedi: Survivor, could have been elements in Huge Leisure’s choice to hop on the bandwagon and launch a novel tackle the sci-fi franchise again in 2024. Ubisoft’s personal struggles with a number of lackluster releases and the utter failure of XDefiant to reverse its failing fortunes meant that Star Wars Outlaws carried a variety of weight on its shoulders on the time of its launch.
Nevertheless, issues didn’t go fairly in line with plan, and a poor response to the daring tackle the beloved franchise relegated Star Wars Outlaws to the background of a stage that noticed different video games take the highlight away from it. Nevertheless, there was rather a lot to love within the sport regardless of its poor exhibiting, and its makers have spared no effort in bringing it as much as scratch.
These efforts have paid off, and Star Wars Outlaws is now a sport that totally leans into the bold imaginative and prescient and scope that its creators initially supposed for it. How has the embattled title managed to show issues round? It’s time to seek out out.
A New Face In A Acquainted But Flawed World
On paper, the 2 studios’ mixed effort to deliver an open-world Star Wars expertise to life had rather a lot going for it. Introducing Kay Vess as a part of the franchise’s felony underworld allowed the studio to right away get rid of advanced plotlines and a variety of posturing that would have include a narrative targeted across the Jedi and Sith.
Kay’s mission to earn sufficient credit to free herself from the clutches of the Crime Syndicate allowed Outlaws the liberty to deliver a number of areas from the franchise to the desk. It additionally gave Huge Leisure the flexibleness to deliver common characters who could not have had sufficient time to shine within the unique movies again into the limelight.
Inserting the story proper between occasions of the second and third movies was one other sensible contact contemplating the quantity of lore that may very well be tapped within the sport’s narrative. Nevertheless, none of those strengths had been allowed to shine by way of when Outlaws was launched, with bugs, technical points, and poor design decisions inflicting gamers to desert ship pretty early of their playthrough.
The pressured stealth sections wherein being noticed meant the undoing of a good bit of meticulous work had been among the many largest complaints. Kay’s trusty speeder throwing her off when placing a rock that it ought to have flattened was one other.
And don’t get us began on having to maintain choosing up an enemy weapon each single time we needed to work together with one thing! All of those points took away from what might have been a superb expertise for each Star Wars followers and new gamers alike, which was certainly tragic contemplating that the sport actually did stay as much as the fame of its inspirations when it wasn’t actively taking pictures itself within the foot like a Stormtrooper would.
However there have been different equally egregious points plaguing the sport. Mission development might simply be damaged by a bug. There have been balancing points that marred the fight expertise that the sport provided. Issues weren’t trying good on this explicit nook of a galaxy far, far, away and gamers who had been very excited to go to it quickly moved on to different worlds – or video games.
For individuals who persevered with it, Outlaws managed to win them over regardless of its points. In a world the place gamers are fairly discerning and prone to go away a defective sport behind, it was some critics and some followers who noticed Outlaws for what it was.
Because it stood, Outlaws had a spot on the Jedi Council, however was not granted the rank of Grasp. Nevertheless, like a lot of our favorite Jedi, its creators refused to let their title be written off that simply regardless of its poor gross sales and underwhelming response.
Repair Issues, They Did
In case you did your finest impression of Yoda if you noticed that, you’re in all probability as large a fan of Star Wars as we’re. So is Huge Leisure, apparently. The studios continued to help their bold title, working arduous to rectify its points whereas additionally promising a roadmap of content material that has since remodeled Outlaws into a superb sport that’s straightforward to suggest in 2025.
The primary title replace arrived in October 2024, addressing points each main and minor. Kay’s time on her speeder grew to become rather a lot simpler, for starters, as did her time with the sport’s stealth sections which did away with the annoying fail circumstances totally. One other important addition was a devoted bug reporter which allowed gamers to deliver points with the sport to the developer’s discover.
There have been additionally fixes that blocked participant development, permitting for a greater story expertise whereas an extended checklist of efficiency and balancing fixes aimed to make the sport a complete lot higher with the promise of extra to return. And the 2 groups behind the expertise definitely delivered on that promise.
November 2024 introduced additional enhancements to the stealth sections, giving gamers extra flexibility of their strategy, whereas enhancements to how Kay dealt with weapons labored properly with balancing adjustments to additional enhance the expertise that the earlier replace delivered to the desk. It additionally introduced Wild Card, the sport’s first DLC enlargement to its world, permitting Kay to have interaction with a personality who earned fairly the fame again when the unique movies had been a factor.
Additional title updates in December 2025 and February 2025 paved the best way for a large new addition to the sport in Could 2025. The brand new replace introduced the lengthy awaited Pirate’s Fortune enlargement to the sport, together with enhancements to gameplay that included a free-fire capacity for Kay to make use of whereas using her speeder, seamless transitions between one-handed and two-handed weapons, and a brand new passive system for the Trailblazer, her spaceship.
Lastly, June 2025 introduced additional refinements to the expertise, making additional tweaks and enhancements throughout the board. However have all these enhancements and fixes made a distinction? The reply is a convincing sure!
The Drive Is Now Robust With This One
With all of those enhancements instantly influencing the standard of the expertise that Star Wars affords, it appears like a completely new sport from the one we performed final yr. Kay has loads of choices at her disposal in quite a lot of conditions, permitting us to decide on between a quiet, methodical strategy or to easily go in all weapons blazing simply as Hans and Chewbacca would possibly do.
Its story was all the time amongst its strengths and continues to be an excellent journey that lives as much as the franchise’s fame. And now, the sport’s open world, degree design, and mission buildings permit you to really expertise Huge Leisure’s unique imaginative and prescient for the sport. With each DLC expansions now accessible to play, gamers who dropped off the sport in its early days are going to have an absolute blast in the event that they select to dive again in right this moment.
It’s one hell of an olive department the sport’s makers have prolonged to their disgruntled gamers, and is properly price grabbing on to contemplating the brand new and improved world that Outlaws now affords.
It’s a world wherein new content material involves you as you’re out exploring a brand new biome. It’s a sport wherein you possibly can merely ignore the primary marketing campaign for some time, hopping in your speeder to research a focal point that you just occur to identify within the distance.
With all the fixes that its builders have delivered to it over the previous yr, it’s now a title that works with you rather than towards you. And it’s all of the extra entertaining due to that.
Star Wars Outlaws is a sport that we’d whole-heartedly suggest to anyone with a passing curiosity within the franchise or open world titles that they may simply get misplaced in. It’s immersive with a visually resplendent world that retains bringing you new methods to get pleasure from it.
Whereas some Star Wars followers are probably persevering with to get pleasure from its bold tackle the franchise, Star Wars Outlaws is now a sport that even newcomers to the franchise might, and dare we are saying ought to, dive into in 2025. Huge have lastly delivered on the expertise they initially wished for his or her gamers.
And whereas that would have been accomplished from the get-go, it’s higher late than by no means.
Be aware: The views expressed on this article are these of the creator and don’t essentially signify the views of, and shouldn’t be attributed to, GamingBolt as a company.
