Star Wars Outlaws – A new hope for Star Wars gaming 

The Hotspot blog gets underway, blasting off in search of (action-)adventure in a galaxy far, far away

Welcome to the Adventure Game Hotspot blog! Articles appearing in the blog won't replace our regular adventure game coverage  – daily news, reviews, interviews and more! – but rather supplement it with more casual, loosely defined content beyond our usual scope: more personal insights into the people behind the pages, exploring topics that may involve drawing a little outside traditional lines. A fun additional bonus, if you will, for those interested in following us to places we wouldn't otherwise go. Like, for example, to a galaxy far, far away...

I’ve been clamoring for a Star Wars point-and-click adventure game for many years, and I’ve finally come to the conclusion that it will never happen. In my search for a proper story-rich Star Wars game, I have tripped over all sorts of good and bad ones. Sadly, over the past ten years there seems to have been a rut dug in the Star Wars gaming universe, with far too much of the same gameplay being “force(d)” our way. Thankfully, there is a new day in Star Wars gaming. Gone is the era of Electronic Arts having exclusivity of Star Wars titles. It feels like the closing scene of Star Wars: A New Hope, where everyone celebrates the first punch given to the great enemy – the Empire. I’m not saying that EA is run by a bunch of pasty Moffs and an even pastier Sith Lord, but I am saying that we can all celebrate a new hope of our own: open competition, with multiple studios competing for our hard-earned dollars. 

Enter Star Wars Outlaws, an upcoming open-world action-adventure game set in the Star Wars universe, developed by Massive Entertainment and published by Ubisoft. The game will be the first released outside of EA in over a decade. Because of that, there is a lot riding on its success. They have a precedent to set and Outlaws cannot set the bar low. 

Why should a classic adventure gamer even care?

I'm sure that many of you have also been looking for a Star Wars game that tells a great story. We never got that point-and-click adventure, but since action has always figured prominently in the Star Wars universe, maybe its games weren’t meant to be played without it. Story, however, is paramount, and this game looks to have it in abundance. You play as Kay Vess, a scoundrel "seeking freedom and the means to start a new life," along with her companion Nix and commando droid ND-5. While doing the things a smuggler does to acquire credits, Kay’s actions draw the attention of both the Empire and many of the cartels vying for power. Not a good position to be in for a person trying to start a new life. (Or maybe it’s the perfect position?) 

For many adventure fans, an engaging narrative is right at the top of the list of elements we desire, with exploration and puzzles close behind. So far Massive Entertainment has released a beautiful trailer and an extended look at the gameplay. We know from those that story and exploration are key elements in Star Wars Outlaws. We’ve already seen a little bit of Kay’s personality (or yours, since you are making the choices), as she has to talk her way out of a tough situation. You control the interaction with branching dialogue trees. Just how much weight your choices have on the outcome of the story is still to be determined, but it never hurts to have some say in how events play out. 

The same video shows Kay using her companion as a distraction, allowing her to cross a previously impassable location. That isn’t much of a puzzle, and we don’t know yet how extensive the puzzle element will be, but even if it’s fairly understated, already this early example shows a commitment to player agency and allowing for more thoughtful, peaceful solutions than just coming out blasters ablazing. There will clearly be plenty of shooting as well, but a little action never hurt anybody … except maybe the Stormtrooper that stumbles out into the crosshairs of our DH17 carbine. There are no Jedi, which I believe is a breath of fresh air. The ground combat looks thrilling and it has space combat as well, which made me jump out of my seat in excitement when I first saw it. 

All of that sounds like enough to generate some real buzz, especially since it now sits center stage in the Star Wars gaming market. However, the buzz just isn’t buzzing. At least, not in the way I expected. Many people seem to be turned off of the game, or are at the very least tepid. What’s got these players’ Jedi robes in a bunch? Part of it may be general disillusionment with some of the recent films and overexposure as a result of the churn of Disney+ shows. But specifically regarding the game, the two common complaints are Ubisoft, and the fact that the protagonist is a female. But are those gripes and concerns reasonable? Let’s break down both of them.

Ubisoft is the publisher

It’s no secret that Ubisoft has had their struggles. Public perception of the company as a whole may be at an all-time low. Allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct at various Ubisoft studios have not helped. On the gaming front, Ubisoft has been plagued by high-profile game delays and cancellations. The company used to be a leader in creating action-adventure classics (Assassin’s Creed, Prince of Persia, Splinter Cell and more) but the public doesn’t trust Ubisoft anymore, as evidenced by their plummeting three-year market numbers. But since Ubisoft is only publishing Star Wars Outlaws, not developing the game, is it fair to compare it to Ubisoft’s other failures?

Massive Entertainment is the studio developing the game, and they have a pretty strong track record for making good ones. Tom Clancy’s Division is a wonderful series, and though Massive is owned by Ubisoft, Division 2 was released in 2019, before the company’s financial setbacks really started presenting themselves. Recently, Massive released Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora more than a year after its scheduled release date and to mixed reviews. Based on another popular franchise, that game isn’t a bad barometer to measure Star Wars Outlaws by. Many of the same variables will be in place, including the use of the studio’s proprietary Snowdrop engine. With rumors of a pretty significant budget, maybe Outlaws can escape mediocrity.

The Choice to use a Female Protagonist 

This is a very touchy subject, and yet you can’t go on a social media site, video platform or online forum without people touching it. Some people are really upset over the choice to use a female as the game's protagonist. But is this just toxic masculinity being blown hard by a vocal minority, or is there actually something to it? According to extensive research by QuanticFoundry, male players make up 82% of the action-adventure game market. Does that mean that Massive Entertainment is alienating 82% of the market? Not in the least. In another study by Quantic Foundry, more than one-third of men actually prefer to play as women in their video games. So really an argument could be made that the game might be more successful by appealing to the underrepresented other half of the world's population. Perhaps the ratio of male to female players in the genre wouldn’t be so skewed if there were more female protagonists for women to identify with.  

A popular theme among those vocally against Star Wars Outlaws using a female protagonist is not the fear of it ruining immersion for male players, but that so many modern female Star Wars characters are just poorly written. In my opinion, this is a much bigger concern. The female characters have been hit or miss in recent years, but the same can be said about the male characters too, and we don’t need to look beyond Princess Leia for a beloved female Star Wars character that has proven she can hold her own with the boys. But Star Wars Outlaws’ Kay Vess appears to be interesting. We haven’t really seen a scoundrel-type female character in such a large role before, and hopefully Massive Entertainment has the chops to pen a good one. And that’s what it all boils down to. Man or woman, good writing goes a long way. 

We wouldn’t even be having this discussion if Star Wars developers (and others, of course) would stop gender-locking their games and give us a character customization system. This is a topic that I break down in detail in my YouTube video "Star Wars Outlaws Missed A HUGE Opportunity" below:

Where Do I Stand on Star Wars Outlaws?

If you took the same gameplay in Star Wars Outlaws and told people that it wasn’t produced by Ubisoft, there would almost certainly be more positivity, and I can relate to an extent. There is a lot to like here, but when I see Ubisoft tied to any game, it’s very hard to get my hopes up. If recent history holds true, we’re going to get a 7 out of 10 game that gets released looooooong after its scheduled release date. I’m sure all Star Wars fans (even the classic adventure gamer who’s not afraid of a little blaster fire) are hoping for a banger here, because this is the precedent for the upcoming Star Wars games being made by other studios, such as Star Wars Eclipse. If this one is great, it sets a high bar for the next ones. After all, as I mentioned earlier, they are competing for our time and money.  

Help us Kay Vess; you’re our only hope. 

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