Star Wars: Outlaws announced

[Techwright]

Star Wars: Outlaws has been announced and has a pre-alpha game demo.  Anticipating a 2024 launch.  Some reviewers have compared it to both the Uncharted series and Jedi: Fallen Order/Survivor series.  It's being called "the first ever open world Star Wars game".  Nix, the cute critter of the game, is more than just a pretty face.  He'll be an intrinsic tool in the player's quest to survive, as the demo demonstrates.  I suspect he's going to be every bit as popular as Jedi: Fallen Order's BD-1.  I'm sure the plushies are already been sewn. 

 

Reveal:

 

Gameplay demo:

 

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

It certainly looks the business. Dialogue needs a little polish. Suspect the small McGuffin the monkey/cat thing is playing with is a lot more deadly than just a toy.

 

Also - lovely tiny Easter Egg: they visual-checked both Star Wars and Indiana Jones in the gameplay intro, as it pulls down from the stars, then into a diamond that looks suspiciously like the Paramount logo.

[Techwright]

6 hours ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

It certainly looks the business. Dialogue needs a little polish. Suspect the small McGuffin the monkey/cat thing is playing with is a lot more deadly than just a toy.

It appears to be the Star Wars equivalent of a black pearl.   I wonder how long it will be before someone points out that this basically encourages giving pets small choking hazards?

 

I'm intrigued by what I've seen.  I do think that rancors have been dreadfully overused in Star Wars, and I consider the appearance of one in the trailer to be a negative point, but a small one.  The SW universe is vast and many monsters have been shown.  It would be nice to tap one of these others for the role of boss-fight threat.

 

I'm curious to know if this will be canon or not.

[biostem]

I'm more interested in what appears to be a reprogrammed commando droid.  Other than that, there's really nothing piquing my interest...

Edited June 14, 2023 by biostem

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

It's an early alpha, but quite a lot of polish on it for that. I like that you can tell Obvious Dodgy Plot Arc Lady to go e'chu-ta herself right from the get-go (because AIAB). Though the WANTED full screen flash is a) annoying compared to the discreet Alert Status in the top bar, and b) an obvious GTA lift.

 

Speaking of which, I would play the hell out of GTA: Mos Eisley.

[Techwright]

10 hours ago, biostem said:

I'm more interested in what appears to be a reprogrammed commando droid. 

Yes, that was intriguing.  Especially as it appears that whoever reprogrammed it gave it a significant memory upgrade.  Commando droids were probably the second smartest level of Separatist droids, but this one performs at a level of personality and intelligence that rivals the tactical droids, possibly surpasses them, and is definitely more refined in speech.  ND, "Andy", also is odd because it has a large unrepaired scar.  You'd think if someone went to such trouble to give it a serious upgrade, they'd also repair the chestplate, but perhaps it is a recent scar.  I also note that it has a restraining bolt.  I wonder if the use of that / potential loss of that will be important to the plot.

 

I like that recent Star Wars has been making a good effort to show the recycled use of Separatist droids after the Clone Wars ended.

[Techwright]

New story trailer has dropped:

 

 

 

Looks interesting.  The voice acting feels like it needs a little fine-tuning.  The Nix (Nixx?) character doesn't seem like it will topple "baby Yoda" anytime soon, but will still likely have a strong following.  I'm not sure I'm understanding, but it sounds like each of the underworld factions has its own vibe, and learning how to jab and weave within their variances makes the challenge.  If so, that is intriguing.  Not sure I really gravitate to a character walking into the thick of the Star Wars underworld mouthy and full of chutzpah.  Everything I've seen in Star Wars so far says she'd be bantha fodder immediately, but I'll keep an open mind.  She might be a latent force wielder with a natural luck for all I know.

 

 

Edited April 9 by Techwright
Added thoughts

[PeregrineFalcon]

 

[Techwright]

Posted to the Star Wars YouTube channel a few hours ago.  About 11 minutes of demonstrated gameplay with commentary from the game's director:

 

 

[WanderingAries]

IDK how long I actually played for, but this is feeling like a 6~7/10 from a gaming standpoint. The default controls (while heavily customizable) feel weird on the PS5. I wanted to roam the zones more, but there are points where the cutscenes / progression kick in that end up blocking you from going forward if you don't know where they'll trigger. I always play on "Story Mode", so I can't say where the difficulty level is, but I've definitely "been caught" a few times due to controls or unobvious progression / direction. I set the games to "best looking" mode and haven't noticed any real performance issues.

 

The settings customizations are super in-depth and lean hard into the Accessibility options, but that should be a global standard in games by now. I forget what setting I kept looking for though, but I couldn't find it and it would have made the game better.

[Techwright]

Thanks for the feedback @WanderingAries.  Regarding the comment on the controls, did the game feel like it was actually designed for another system and the PS5 was just quickly inserted?

Edited September 5 by Techwright

[WanderingAries]

2 hours ago, Techwright said:

Thanks for the feedback @WanderingAries.  Regarding the comment on the controls, did the game feel like it was actually designed for another system and the PS5 was just quickly inserted?

 

I guess my main beef is the fact that a lot of interaction requires you to push R3 for interaction and yet you Also use adjacent buttons for Other interactions, so it's a little weird, but the R3 seems to be primary and there are many aspects that probably rely (tool tip wise) on you not changing it. I Do find it hard to read the icons / button prompts sometimes as they could have done better with the coloration during those events. Mostly during the eating mini-game.