At Summer Game Fest 2024, I was able to sit down and play Star Wars Outlaws. In our 90-minute session with the game, I snuck through gang hideouts, tip-toed across a derelict ship in search for scraps, and darted through orbiting debris in daring space combat. Star War’s Outlaw’s Corellian hound-eat-hound universe is rich with character, deadly fun in short bursts, and (pending a few massive question marks) is frankly one of my most anticipated games this year.
My hands-on preview session was split between three distinct missions, and I’ll start with the best and work my way down. But first, I’ll begin with Outlaw’s bedrock foundation: you, as Kay Vess, are a galaxy-faring gunslinger that scrapes through with wit and agility, mostly alone. You sneak into places uninvited, swiping bits and bobs here and there. When alarms start blaring you whip around corners picking off goons and gangers with your trusty blaster. Controlling Kay Vess is a blast, and it was the glue that kept the whole thing together.
But Vess’s kit is basic. You’ve got a few consumables, two blaster modes for regular shots and anti-electronics, and a stun. That, plus your own aptitude, of course, is it. But with Nix, it became way more interesting. You can use them to mark your surroundings, distract enemies, and even temporarily discombobulate them. On her own the gameplay experience in Outlaws can appear quite vanilla, but with Nix it’s genuinely enticing. They’re like the eagles in Assassin’s Creed games, I suppose, but way more fun to use.
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