Where to start?
The best thing about SW Outlaws is the detailed Star Wars world. Everything looks and sounds lived-in and carries on with its business if you would kindly step out of the way, thank you. Except they don't say thank you. Mostly they cuss you in Huttese.
Gameplay is fun for me. I didn't think I liked stealth games, but when Kay is stuck hiding behind a stack of crates at an Imperial outpost, dawn not far off, listening for the sound of comlink chatter to fade out as the guard passes... yeah I am right there too. The world of Star Wars is alive here.
Particularly if you like the original trilogy, i recommend Outlaws. Somehow they nailed the look of the movies in a way Disney just can't. The devs must have a hardcore cinema and photography nerd on board, not to mention a strong audio engineering team. I spent so much time just walking around in game, thinking this looks like it could have been a movie in 1982. I really don't care for Disney Star Wars much. I tried, but they just look like they were made for kids or people with zero attention span. The way scenes are set up where there is nothing to distract from the main character makes for low effort viewing. I miss the busy, cluttered scenes and beautiful lighting of Ep IV-VI, and Outlaws actually tries to bring that back.
The story is not the typical power fantasy. You play as Kay Vess, a broke small-time thief who lives in a dirty attic over a seedy bar in the workers district behind a fancy casino. The Force isn't a thing here. Laws aren't a thing here either. All Kay has is a broken data spike, five credits that I just lost on a racing bet, and a hunger for the big score so she can get off this rock. Oh and she has Nix! (Good boy, Nix! You are indeed the cutest.)
Props to the voice talent! Humberly's Kay just fits the character so well. Some of the lines made me laugh. And she's so ... dumb? Lost? Real? Hard to explain. Again, this is no power fantasy. Kay is coming up from nothing, no connections, not much brains or social skills. Bad upbringing, like a lot of real people. Poor kid. Not even a very good liar unless you explored a bit more and found some intel to allow Kay to actually pull off a good bluff. The story probably will hit different for everyone, but i really felt sorry for Kay and wanted to see her get out of this mess.
Outlaws is criminally underrated now. It doesn't deserve the hate it gets for having a bad launch or for being an Ubisoft title or Disney or whatever. This is a genuinely fun, immersive Star Wars game. One day, i hope we can get a sequel, either continuing Kay's story or following a new outlaw adventurer.
Give this one a try. If you like old school Star Wars and don't need super hardcore gameplay, i think you will like this.
