I’m almost certain that I pitched Star Wars Outlaws to my mate Manky Kev when we were about 14. “All the Star Wars games are about Jedis or fighter pilots, the most boring bastards in the whole saga”, I definitely said, with the eloquence of a me three times my age. “You want a game where you get to be a baddie, but a good baddie, not a Sith, and it’s open world like GTA. And you’re Han Solo but before he started hanging around with Jedis and fighter pilots.”
I remember this really vividly. Manky Kev threatened to kick my head in if I came out with any more Star Wars patter and the idea was lost to time. Except, apparently, someone at Ubisoft pinched it from me and every other 90s teenager who liked Star Wars and GTA and wanted them smooshed together.
And yeah, after decades of shifting player tastes, genre convergence, and the general rise of Ubisoft’s Open World Formula™, comparing this decidedly Watch_Dogsy take on Disney’s 24th Acquisition to GTA might come off as a bit Boss Baby. You can’t even steal other people’s speeders. I checked, there isn’t even a prompt. Ubisoft are very serious about making you engage with the speed bike upgrade system, to the point where a techy-minded career criminal like Kay Vess would canonically rather pay legitimately for a better vehicle than just, y’know, pinch one.
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