Ubisoft has finally unveiled its previously announced open-world Star Wars game from Massive Entertainment as Star Wars Outlaws, with a gameplay reveal set for tonight.
Despite Ubisoft hosting its own Ubisoft Forward event later today, it has been all over Summer Game Fest with Assassin's Creed Mirage showing up at the PlayStation Showcase, a new Prince of Persia game being revealed at the Summer Game Fest Opening Showcase, and now Star Wars Outlaws getting its grand reveal at last night's Xbox Showcase. While this is the first time we've seen Star Wars Outlaws, the title was actually announced over two years ago. Coming from Massive Entertainment – the studio behind Ubisoft's The Division series and the upcoming Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.
Set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, the trailer introduced us to Kay Vess (played by Humberly González) a scoundrel akin to Han Solo who is doing everything in her power to take it to the Empire as she becomes one of the galaxy's most wanted. This is alongside her companion Nix (played by Dee Bradley Baker), a weird little creature who is set to join the great Glup Shittos like Salacious B. Crumb and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor's Turgle.
Despite Microsoft's focus on 'no CGI trailers' at the Xbox Showcase, the Star Wars Outlaws trailer was a full-blown CGI affair, but worry not as the trailer promises a full gameplay reveal set for tonight's Ubisoft Forward event.
I don't want to be a Debbie Downer, but when I hear the words 'Ubisoft' and 'open-world' in the same sentence, my interest goes out the window. The Far Cry and Assassins Creed design of overpopulated worlds filled with map icons and boring busywork just doesn't work for me in a post-Metal Gear Solid 5 / Zelda: Breath of the Wild / Elden Ring age after the freedom of expression those games offered.
E3 2023 has been cancelled paving the way for Summer Games FestThat being said, obviously I haven't even seen gameplay yet, but this CGI trailer as a proof of concept is pretty cool. A Star Wars game where you play as a scoundrel rather than a Jedi has been a big request since the cancellation of Star Wars 1313 back in the day. Plus it's nice to see a game in the time between Empire and Jedi rather than the countless games we've seen set in the time between trilogies.
Hopefully I'll be eating my words when this game comes out. But Ubisoft will have to have overhauled its dated open-world systems for that to be the case. And I suppose it can't be any worse than The Rise of Skywalker.