The Sabacc card is placed on the table first, on the right: Star Wars Desperados Won’t win many Game of the Year awards. There are a number of reasons for this, not least because there were other major releases this year that were bolder, better marketed, or pushed the medium forward in some exciting way. In other major releases, enemy AI isn’t quite as thick. Add to that the overall drag factor of Ubisoft’s open world, which we’ve all experienced to varying degrees, and its prospects seem about as compelling as Anakin and Padmé’s chemistry. But you definitely shouldn’t care about this because it’s a slap in the face.
Mechanically, there’s honestly nothing in Outlaws that you haven’t seen before. This is the hottest song package from Open World Things (thankfully, “Climb a Tower to Clear the Fog from the Map” is like “Shiny Happy People”, but for sadists). It’ll be reminiscent of everything from Assassin’s Creed to Red Dead Redemption, blending urban wheel trading, open-world joyriding, tense stealth and close-quarters combat. It features Tomb Raider -style hanging climbs and a dizzying array of upgrades to unlock for your vehicles and equipment, all of which require completing some kind of mission to become available – most of the time they’re skill challenges, but among them Many are proper side missions, raiding enemy bases to steal unique parts or investigating the whereabouts of Skill Tree Specialist No. 8.
There is a lot to do. As one would expect. Those of us who prefer sneaking rather than outright combat are also well taken care of, as we can complete almost any objective without raising any alarms. Most of the time, you can also blast if you want. The game will rarely punish you for speaking loudly, and most situations can be undone by thinking quickly. Most actions, though, will have some kind of impact on the reputation system, especially if you’re working on a contract, which is an ongoing system of procedurally generated work from which you’ll earn most of your cash, as well as a means through it, No matter what planet you’re on, you’re going to suck up to the worst people.
There are four main crime syndicates in the game, and you have to take advantage of their bounty: the Hutts (the Sicilian mafia, but with Pablo Escobar Zoo), the Pax (guys who sell pirated DVDs in bars ), the Ashiga Clan (Yakuza, but from Morrowind), and Crimson Dawn (British School Goths). Obviously, their goals are often in conflict. Obviously, the work you do for one person may annoy another. You’ll find yourself needing to handle these contracts in order to maintain a good reputation with everyone because it makes good business sense to be everyone’s friend. This is one of the unbelievable things about it: through the grind, you’re likely to find yourself in a situation where you’ve just burglarized a criminal syndicate’s hideout, murdering half the staff in the process, Sabotage their campaign against a competitor, only to have them angrily downgrade your reputation from “Excellent” to “Good.”
The explanation for this is given as an aside in the dialogue – no work by organized crime can be done if criminals hold grudges. And funnily enough, it actually works. In fact, it’s a really fun game – the dialogue is often deadpan. There’s a knowing sarcasm to many of Kai’s interactions with NPCs, but not in a playful Joss Whedon kind of way. A real highlight is Kay’s relationship with her companion Nix, a dog-monkey whom Kay teaches the art of petty theft. Nix is lovably goofy and loyal, but also very capable as a representation of player aids in Ubisoft’s other games. For example, people can operate doors and switches remotely in Watch Dogs — and Nix can be sent out to perform small tasks. He also possesses a detective vision shared telepathically with Kai, allowing her to see men through walls as colorful blobs, suspiciously like the assassins in Assassin’s Creed.
Base infiltration is a tried-and-true Ubisoft staple, a hallmark of games like Far Cry and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey that remains almost intact in Outlaws. Sneak, carefully eliminate all guards, steal treasure (or hack the terminal to sell information), and escape. You can even set traps in alarm boxes to protect you from reinforcements arriving.
You’ll know what game this is after watching it You really don’t need me to describe every feature it’s ripped off from elsewhere, you can pretty much decide whether it’s for you based on your own existing attitudes toward Ubisoft’s open world games.
The key point is that it’s executed extremely well. Massive Entertainment has clearly benefited from the various iterations of the open-world action-adventure series its parent company has been responsible for over the years, and the result is an incredibly polished game that’s a real joy to play. For example, the way you sneak around is Perfectly balanced, there’s always a real challenge if you want to remain undetected, so successfully traversing a level without being timed is a positive euphoria. Likewise, there’s nothing more satisfying than distracting a guard away from his patrol buddies and placing him behind a cargo box.
Slice critical data terminals in the exact time window you need before roaming law enforcement detects you. Yes, lock and terminal mini-games happen instantly with the rest of the world. You can even quickly wave your thumb stick to look around, and you’ll definitely be caught and escorted off the base.
Everything feels so good. Essentially a Guitar Hero lockpicking mini-game? Sophisticated, much better than hanging around with a hairpin. Get caught sneaking around, tap the right stick to activate “Talk Yourself Out of Trouble” mode, and bombard them with stun settings before they fully figure out how to deal with you? Bellissimo. That’s Star Wars, baby.
All in all, open world traversal is also fun. The flying bike you start upgrading early on will quickly become the fastest bike on whatever planet you’re on. Glide through these vast Star Wars landscapes on a frictionless mat, taking out any pursuing enemies with Red Dead Redemption’s Bullet Time attack mode. Space Travel is a very stripped-down space game that takes place in a small patch of explorable space above the few planetary areas you can visit, and the way the game is executed is very simple and unapologetic.
At its core, space combat controls like a first-person shooter. There’s no need to worry about micromanaging ship systems in Elite Danger or Star Wars: Squadrons. It boils these things down to their essence and makes them appeal directly to 10-year-old you. This is exactly what Star Wars should be doing as much as possible.
Ultimately, this is how The Outlaws wins. Not only does it understand Star Wars stories and trivia, it understands that Star Wars at its best will make you feel young. Be young enough to look beyond the horizon and appreciate the prospects of what you might find beyond the horizon. Young enough to think danger is exciting. He is still young and not bothered by Newton’s principles of motion.
It’s not the best game I’ve played this year, but it’s certainly the best game I’ve played this year Felt One that I have been playing for a long time. It has a “one more task” tendency that makes submitting this copy on time very difficult and a burden on sleeping habits, so it should come with a health warning.
It’s also very beautiful. The video game Star Wars has never been so perfectly realized. It’s beautiful and ugly at the same time: the verdant plains of Toshara, an Earth-like satellite, all sun-kissed and edge-lit by the ray-traced sublime, yet visible from the dense urban megastructures that Filled with brushed bronze walls covered in peeling paint, dirt and grime. Tatooine is vast, with brutal desert stretching endlessly to the horizon, while soggy farmers stay cool in their clay hobbit homes.
Everything feels appropriate, authentic, and true to the original movies, which a lot of recent Star Wars TV shows simply haven’t done. You might think the video game graphics look too clean, but we put a lot of effort and meticulous artistry into cleaning it all up. The dust patches on the hull bear obvious finger pull marks, presumably made by some bored space mechanic. Every surface, device, and control panel has a dull, clicky feel to it, fitting the aesthetic of a world designed in the late 1970s. The realism of CRT screens that buzz, flicker and whine when in use betrays the amount of time spent tweaking shaders until they achieve the desired effect.
Ubisoft’s USP is location. Sense of place. Beautiful recreation and restoration of ancient cities, buildings, temples, atmosphere. Star Wars Galaxies definitely evokes that same sense of wonder, and it’s recreated here with the same love and care. Mos Eisley is as real in the public consciousness as Rome was in Caesar’s day. Both familiar and easy to explain. Probably just as dangerous.
Star Wars Desperados won’t win any GOTY awards. But it will definitely win a lot of hearts.
