With the Swap 2 nonetheless fairly recent, the system has already proven it could deal with some visually gorgeous video games. Though we’re nonetheless within the early days of the console/handheld, and even when a recreation is formidable, it wouldn’t be the primary time a port has had a bumpy transition. Luckily, Star Wars Outlaws is just not considered one of these examples and offers hope for the way forward for the system.
Star Wars Outlaws is ready within the time interval between The Empire Strikes Again and Return of the Jedi. You play as Kay Vess, a rookie Scoundrel who needs to make a reputation for herself. Joined by her little fuzzy creature-in-crime Nix, Kay instantly bites off greater than she will be able to chew, getting frolicked to dry, stealing a ship from a criminal offense boss, and having to juggle loyalties between syndicates. To get out alive, Kay is roped into pulling a large heist in hopes of attempting to repay the bounty on her head. With the assistance of the surprisingly burly commando droid ND-5, Kay might want to put a crew collectively, sending you across the shadier elements of the galaxy.
You get to expertise a couple of of the Star Wars’ extra ruthless planets and the area surrounding them, with many of the motion happening as a third-person stealth/shooter Ubisoft Open World recreation, as you sneak round Imperial bases and smuggler hideouts. You additionally get to take your recreation to outer area within the Trailblazer, your house and base of operations for Kay and her crew.
The difficult a part of Outlaws for me was having to recollect Kay is supposed to be a correct outlaw. The choices you need to make for Kay aren’t normally the ‘good’ or ‘nasty’ decisions, however variations of whether or not you’ll cross somebody or not for the sake of extra credit, or the place you need your repute to go. When you would possibly assist alongside the way in which, you’re additionally usually seeking to fill your coffers and stroll the tightrope of various loyalties. Initially it may be a difficult determination as to which syndicate to aspect with, as being in poor standing with any considered one of them makes it more durable (or outright lethal) so that you can journey via their areas. Not solely does it make it more durable to do every other jobs via their turf, but when your identify is mud, it’s even more durable to win your means again into their good graces when their jobs are off the desk too.
It seems when you’ve had a bit extra time to run a couple of jobs and earn some credit, you possibly can mitigate this by shopping for and buying and selling in beneficial information to whichever syndicate you wish to enhance your standing with. It doesn’t imply it’s a cakewalk if you wish to preserve good or glorious standing as usually as attainable, with greater story missions usually boosting your repute with one occasion and a much bigger hit to a different. You get to at the very least select your poison after which work your means again from there.
The Swap didn’t get a lot in the way in which of the newer Ubisoft open world video games. Outlaws strikes on from a number of the older open world trappings, however it could nonetheless get a little bit weighed down by what they couldn’t let go of. You now not must climb towers/lookouts to disclose extra of the map space; now it’s extra pure exploration of the world. Upgrades, nonetheless, are nonetheless slowed down with having to scour the worlds to grind for assets. It by no means feels an excessive amount of, at the very least, both via simply accumulating something in your path or with the ability to buy some assets; you possibly can nonetheless eke out a dwelling within the Outer Rim.
For the reason that recreation initially got here out on different platforms, there’s been a while for adjustments alongside the way in which in response to participant suggestions. For those who performed on a kind of different platforms round launch, you’ll have seen these adjustments, now right here from the beginning in your profit. Stealth is extra forgiving in comparison with the preliminary launch, now not immediately failing a mission until there’s a selected motive. I perceive why individuals didn’t prefer it, though understanding you possibly can shoot your means out of the state of affairs diminishes a number of the stress if you’re meant to be stealthy.
Whereas every planet has its personal central metropolis, there’s loads of time on Kay’s speeder bike as you velocity across the surrounding areas too. The speeder bike may be enjoyable to zoom throughout the planets’ surrounding areas. As you decide up extra jobs for the syndicates, it helps you turn into fairly acquainted with the broader world and places, particularly as a number of the extra generic ‘take this from level A to level B’ or ‘steal or plant one thing right here’ can are inclined to occur on the identical spots.
As anticipated with an open world recreation, there are a couple of aspect actions to assist earn some additional credit. A lot of the actions take the type of area playing. There’s Fathier racing, Sabacc, and an area follow-the-card recreation. All are completely different sufficient, and Sabacc is tied to one of many further ‘DLC’ missions that can require you to concentrate and learn to play. You can too hop on an arcade recreation for those who simply wish to purpose for some excessive scores. If you wish to get distracted choosing up requests and jobs, you may be busy for a lot of hours past the story. As all the time with massive concerned open world video games, I ultimately received to some extent the place I needed to cease myself from getting distracted by these. Luckily, the primary story is fairly enjoyable because it immerses you within the Star Wars universe; it’s as much as you the way far off the trail you wish to discover.
It’s nonetheless early days with what the Swap 2 is able to when dealing with ports of extra recent-gen video games. Video games like Cyberpunk have had years of labor, together with years of repairs to get to such a excessive level. Outlaws seems to be and runs higher than most initially anticipated. It’s nice to see corporations making the hassle to squeeze probably the most out of the {hardware}. The sport typically runs at 30 FPS; it by no means felt prefer it actually dipped usually.
I had initially written about some visible points that had been round at launch. The largest being Kay’s hair being distractingly shimmery, and a number of metallic components had been giving off an ethereal sparkle and shimmer. In October 2025, there have been a couple of patches, and there was a bump up in texture high quality, and any distracting shimmer or glowing has lowered.
Hell, the crew even managed to get the sport’s file dimension beneath 20GB, which is wild that it was beneath 30GB within the first place! Whereas it may very well be one thing additional addressed by patches to come back, there does really feel like pop-in has turn into extra noticeable in locations. They’re usually at occasions the place it doesn’t matter; perhaps it’s a trade-off at the moment for the elevated element. Regardless, the sport seems to be nice and has continued to to this point. It provides me hope for different Ubisoft video games on the way in which, like Murderer’s Creed Shadows.
The sport sounds unmistakably Star Wars, with out leaning into the well-known symphonic film rating. As an alternative, it options grooving Cantina tunes, hitting up the jukebox each time there’s one to see what the Galaxy has to supply. It nonetheless provides that Star Wars really feel, though it feels a little bit extra like The Mandalorian than the John Williams hits. It ought to be no shock that the opposite sounds inside this universe are authentically Star Wars too, with no scarcity of Gonks and different droids chirping and beeping amidst the blaster hearth and engine roars.
Star Wars Outlaws is a wild area journey. It looks like part of the Star Wars universe versus simply attempting to shoehorn Star Wars right into a mismatching recreation. For those who get overloaded on massive open-world video games, that’s nonetheless a danger right here, though ending the sport isn’t depending on getting too slowed down both. Star Wars Outlaws is one other nice recreation to point out off what the Swap 2 can do when devs get the chance to make it work for the {hardware}.
Score: 4.5/5
