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[ManaByte]

'Star Wars Outlaws' team unpack 'grounded' scoundrel story (exclusive)

The cast and creatives of 'Star Wars Outlaws,' the franchise's first open-world game, exclusively tell EW about their 'grounded' scoundrel story and its connection to the original trilogy.

ew.com

Just don't catch the attention of the Empire, which has outposts in each of the four locations. “Think the police in Grand Theft Auto,” Gerighty says of the concept, which has six levels of severity. “If you start being seen doing crimes, that will start getting them to chase you. If you take some of them out, then it gets worse and worse, where they'll send, at the ultimate level, Death Troopers — and maybe even worse."

They also list the five planets:

• Kijimi
• Akiva
• Tatooine
• Canto Bight
• Toshara

 

[spartan30gr]

 

[salva]

Seriously this game sounds so good. Looking forward to more gameplay footage and the Ubi show... But I'm absolutely sure it'll disappoint being Ubi

 

[digoutyoursoul]

Can you customise your outfits and ship?

 

[ManaByte]

Can you customise your outfits and ship?

 

[Hero of Spielberg]

Can you customise your outfits and ship?

Probably collectibles

 

[Kilau]

Oh shit, it’s the popo!

 

[digoutyoursoul]

Thanks

 

[Ozzie666]

So confliced with this game, seems and sounds good. Then I remember its Ubisoft. I'll probably get it, try it and regret it.

 

[Balducci30]

That sounds awesome tbh

 

[Guilty_AI]

they forget what you look like after not seeing you for a couple of minutes?

 

[digital_ghost]

They send in these guys at Level 5 Wanted Level:

 

[damidu]

that sounds bad, why do people get excited by decades old open world tropes.
especially if you consider possibly thousand ways ubi will fumble this. did you guys enjoy their systems at asscreds or watchdog

 

[Jinzo Prime]

Wanted levels aren't anything new to Ubisoft open world games, Watch Dogs Legion had it in full and AC Odyssey has it's own spin of it.

 

[Red Crayon Aristocrat]

Oh no, not a Sequel Trilogy era planet.

Nevertheless I kind of respect this because "X but Star Wars" was a proud tradition of game back in the day.

 

[ManaByte]

Oh no, not a Sequel Trilogy era planet.

There are two.

 

[EDMIX]

Wanted levels aren't anything new to Ubisoft open world games, Watch Dogs Legion had it in full and AC Odyssey has it's own spin of it.

True, its why I trust what they are saying. They've done this sort of thing before so the feature sounds promising from a publisher established in this area.

that sounds bad, why do people get excited by decades old open world tropes.

? Why the fuck would that be bad? As oppose to what? The dumbasses in 2020 that put out a open world game that literally lacked that "decades old" function? lol Suuuuuuuuure

I'm more ok with this, then without it.

especially if you consider possibly thousand ways ubi will fumble this. did you guys enjoy their systems at asscreds or watchdog

That makes zero sense, how would they "fumble" this, they've already done it in many different ways on many different games, so in Watchdogs its amazing. The police come after you from land, air and sea

Soooo why the fuck would I be mad that this game has it? Was it suppose to have cops chase after you with no cars or, appear and disappear like Houdini? lol

I'm more fine with a established function like this being talked about, then a team lacking it for years or something.

So I don't see that Ubisoft will "fumble" this feature, they are established and used this feature many times, if anything that is why I don't see them fucking it up, its not a new function to them, unlike.....other teams

 

[semiconscious]

Can you customise your outfits and ship?

screw that stuff! the big question: can you go somewhere to get your hair done?...

 

[Fbh]

Seriously this game sounds so good. Looking forward to more gameplay footage and the Ubi show... But I'm absolutely sure it'll disappoint being Ubi

I mean it's a Ubisoft game.
At first it will be fun, it will dazzle with really nice visuals and production values, the gameplay will be pretty fun and it's going to be an enjoyable experience.
5-6 hours in you are now used to the visuals and start to notice the gameplay is pretty samey and the story and writing are bottom of the barrel.
7-8 hours in the boring monotony from the repetitive checklist structure of the world design starts to set in. You realize there's no sense of exploration and attacking an empire encampment for the 20th time just isn't as fun as the first few times.
10-12 hours in you realize that aside from a couple of new weapons the gameplay has hardly evolved, you don't even feel particularly stronger because all enemies have been scaled up to hit harder and be more spongy. Sadly you also come to realize there isn't much to the game aside from combat, no interesting level design, no interesting traversal or character builds or anything like that.
15 hours in you realize if you want to get to the end there are still 40 hours of content left, except you've basically seen everything the game has to offer already, it's just another 40 hours of more of the same with a couple of bland bosses along the way and maybe, if you are lucky, the introduction of 1 or 2 new enemy types.

 

[digital_ghost]

I mean it's a Ubisoft game.
At first it will be fun, it will dazzle with really nice visuals and production values, the gameplay will be pretty fun and it's going to be an enjoyable experience.
5-6 hours in you are now used to the visuals and start to notice the gameplay is pretty samey and the story and writing are bottom of the barrel.
7-8 hours in the boring monotony from the repetitive checklist structure of the world design starts to set in. You realize there's no sense of exploration and attacking an empire encampment for the 20th time just isn't as fun as the first few times.
10-12 hours in you realize that aside from a couple of new weapons the gameplay has hardly evolved, you don't even feel particularly stronger because all enemies have been scaled up to hit harder and be more spongy. Sadly you also come to realize there isn't much to the game aside from combat, no interesting level design, no interesting traversal or character builds or anything like that.
15 hours in you realize if you want to get to the end there are still 40 hours of content left, except you've basically seen everything the game has to offer already, it's just another 40 hours of more of the same with a couple of bland bosses along the way and maybe, if you are lucky, the introduction of 1 or 2 new enemy types.

Fuck man that post was depressing. You should be a book writer.

 

[Pasta la Vista]

I'm sharing the sentiment that ultimately, it will be an Ass Creed reskin. It is sounding good though, hopeful for this one.

 

[EDMIX]

I'm sharing the sentiment that ultimately, it will be an Ass Creed reskin. It is sounding good though, hopeful for this one.

lol, I mean, that doesn't even make any sense. This isn't by a team that made Assassins Creed, they made The Division, Assassin's Creed doesn't even have any of these elements.

Thats like saying Sekiro will be a Call Of Duty ReSkin

I mean Activision is making it derrrrrrrrr /s

 

[unlurkified]

People keep bringing up that it’s Ubisoft, but Massive is pretty good. Division 1 and 2 were great. Yes, Avatar wasn’t great, but arguably they couldn’t have done much better with that IP. I expect at least the gameplay to be good.

 

[Fess]

The 5 planets?
This game has decreased in size going by early talks, iirc planets was said to be like zones in AC Odyssey too, it’s not nearly as big in scope as I was hoping for.

 

[semiconscious]

People keep bringing up that it’s Ubisoft, but Massive is pretty good. Division 1 and 2 were great. Yes, Avatar wasn’t great, but arguably they couldn’t have done much better with that IP. I expect at least the gameplay to be good.

when massive is on (division1), they're as good as anyone, imo. it'd be great if this's a return to form...

 

[Meicyn]

when massive is on (division1), they're as good as anyone, imo. it'd be great if this's a return to form...

Julian Gerighty is directing this game, he was behind The Division series and will be returning to oversee The Division 3 after Outlaws ships.

 

[Paasei]

I mean it's a Ubisoft game.
At first it will be fun, it will dazzle with really nice visuals and production values, the gameplay will be pretty fun and it's going to be an enjoyable experience.
5-6 hours in you are now used to the visuals and start to notice the gameplay is pretty samey and the story and writing are bottom of the barrel.
7-8 hours in the boring monotony from the repetitive checklist structure of the world design starts to set in. You realize there's no sense of exploration and attacking an empire encampment for the 20th time just isn't as fun as the first few times.
10-12 hours in you realize that aside from a couple of new weapons the gameplay has hardly evolved, you don't even feel particularly stronger because all enemies have been scaled up to hit harder and be more spongy. Sadly you also come to realize there isn't much to the game aside from combat, no interesting level design, no interesting traversal or character builds or anything like that.
15 hours in you realize if you want to get to the end there are still 40 hours of content left, except you've basically seen everything the game has to offer already, it's just another 40 hours of more of the same with a couple of bland bosses along the way and maybe, if you are lucky, the introduction of 1 or 2 new enemy types.

Just like any open world game.

 

[adamsapple]

The Empire in Star Wars: Outlaws works like the cops in GTA​

You park your droid behind a rock and wait 20 seconds for the flashing badges to disappears, then they forget that you just killed 20 wookies.

 

[semiconscious]

Julian Gerighty is directing this game, he was behind The Division series and will be returning to oversee The Division 3 after Outlaws ships.

wasn't aware of this. thanks!...

 

[Randall365]

Looking forward to seeing what other game mechanics they can throw in stop this bombing!

Being able to play as different characters - maybe someone who is a bit like Han Solo - would be nice, seeing as it is a game where you play as a scoundrel in Star Wars.

Climbing imperial observation towers to unlock fast travel points and reveal icons on the map would be ace too.

 

[March Climber]

Looking forward to seeing what other game mechanics they can throw in stop this bombing!

Being able to play as different characters - maybe someone who is a bit like Han Solo - would be nice, seeing as it is a game where you play as a scoundrel in Star Wars.

I fully expect a future buyable skin of Han Solo, or at least other popular female SW characters like Jyn Erso (Rogue One), Adult Sabine (with Mando armor), or Jan Ors (Kyle Katarn’s second).

 

[Cyberpunkd]

You park your droid behind a rock and wait 20 seconds for the flashing badges to disappears, then they forget that you just killed 20 wookies.

 

[cormack12]

Can I swap the msain characters Rocky Dennis face

 

[Rain432]

 

[Boss Mog]

Equating the police to the evil empire... It's okay Ubi, you can stop now, you had already sold me on not buying the game a long time ago.

 

[EDMIX]

Equating the police to the evil empire... It's okay Ubi, you can stop now, you had already sold me on not buying the game a long time ago.

I know right and just 100x more post of you telling us you won't buy it left.

(hopefully)

 

[Boss Mog]

I know right and just 100x more post of you telling us you won't buy it left.

(hopefully)

On this game it was probably only the 2nd post I made, but these days there's so many games that I have no intention of buying that I see how you could get confused.

 

[EDMIX]

On this game it was probably only the 2nd post I made, but these days there's so many games that I have no intention of buying that I see how you could get confused.

lol damn Boss! lol

Granted my time myself is limited this year so I won't be buying or playing much, but that has more to do with school and work.

 

[Perrott]

There's something off about the reflections in that scene you timestamped. Like, they seem to be RT-based (which wouldn't surprise me, this being powered by Snowdrop), but there also seem to be SSR occlussion artifacts or some sort of noise / ghosting around the protagonist and NPCs. Weird stuff.

 

[March Climber]

Equating the police to the evil empire... It's okay Ubi, you can stop now, you had already sold me on not buying the game a long time ago.

It's clear cut. The problem isn't that the Empire is compared to police (because there's literal video evidence that they are militarized galactic law enforcement), the problem is that barely any SW movies nor TV show media exists that actually humanizes the empire enough to ever care about their side of the story. I think only Andor's show tries to do so and Episode 7 failed to do so with Finn. So SW in general has a cartoonishly bad view of everyone involved with the empire, regardless of status, rank, job, etc. to the point where the guy in empire garb assigned to mopping floors is simply viewed as 'bad guy'.

For almost every other SW show and movie you are mainly viewing the experience from the perspective of criminals, scavengers, renegades, bounty hunters, smugglers, fugitives, traitors, and gang members with illegal arms (Jedi+Lightsaber or Rogue Sith+Lightsaber).

I understand why it can be frustrating for some that this is the case, and to relate, I'm frustrated at SW myself because I feel that the Sith have had multiple chances to be explored further but the writers and showrunners refuse to do so, even when we have a literal Sith Hunter as a canon thing now:

 

[LordCBH]

Fuck it I’ll probably play it. The various games over the past few years have a much better track record than the damn shows and movies.

 

[Lokaum D+]

Probably collectibles

If by collectibles you mean MTX yes, its a Ubisoft game cmon

 

[YeulEmeralda]

I mean, the guys who clean the toilets at the Russian naval base in Sevastopol are still the enemy. They’re legitimate military targets.

One of the first things soldiers do is dehumanize the enemy. Nobody wants to think too much about the guy/gal they just shot.

 

[StereoVsn]

It's clear cut. The problem isn't that the Empire is compared to police (because there's literal video evidence that they are militarized galactic law enforcement), the problem is that barely any SW movies nor TV show media exists that actually humanizes the empire enough to ever care about their side of the story. I think only Andor's show tries to do so and Episode 7 failed to do so with Finn. So SW in general has a cartoonishly bad view of everyone involved with the empire, regardless of status, rank, job, etc. to the point where the guy in empire garb assigned to mopping floors is simply viewed as 'bad guy'.

For almost every other SW show and movie you are mainly viewing the experience from the perspective of criminals, scavengers, renegades, bounty hunters, smugglers, fugitives, traitors, and gang members with illegal arms (Jedi+Lightsaber or Rogue Sith+Lightsaber).

I understand why it can be frustrating for some that this is the case, and to relate, I'm frustrated at SW myself because I feel that the Sith have had multiple chances to be explored further but the writers and showrunners refuse to do so, even when we have a literal Sith Hunter as a canon thing now:

I mean, essentially Empire is equivalent to WW2 Germany. They are the Nazis.

It’s hard to be sympathetic to them when they blow up entire planets.

 

[March Climber]

I mean, essentially Empire is equivalent to WW2 Germany. They are the Nazis.

While at one point in the whole of SW canon this can be seen as the case(The Original Trilogy), the problem is that some of the prequel stuff, Clone Wars stuff, and newer canon like Andor, fleshed things out a bit for the Empire to not be as black and white as the original trilogy. The issue is that their content is still too surface level because they don't trust the audience to see much of a gray area in SW.

So Finn might as well have popped out of thin air into existence, because people can't fathom that he may have actually had a past and spent a quarter of his life as a Nazi janitor like you've stated. Let's cut his entire backstory with Phasma, let's cut the draft of him potentially turning other ex-squadmates and soldiers from his Empire squad, and let's cut the potential the very enthusiastic "Traitor!" guy's story who likely could have been a scorned squadmate of Finn's.

Instead, let's explain nothing from his past nor explain anything from Kylo Ren's time in the Knights/Empire, because complex storytelling isn't worth it if we make a few people from the Empire or Sith actually look like humans and not caricatures or plot devices.

 

[Majormaxxx]

I mean, essentially Empire is equivalent to WW2 Germany. They are the Nazis.

It’s hard to be sympathetic to them when they blow up entire planets.

Ww2 Germany was not black and white. Post war all high level scientists via operation paperclip went on to NASA etc. Surviving high level military went on to NATO leadership positions.

Dresden (read the book Slaughterhouse 5) was fire bombed to collectively punish civilians.

Ukrainian SS Nazis who actually slaughtered 100s of thousands of Poles, Jews and soviets fled and were embraced for a new life in Canada because Ukrainian resistance was useful for the CIA against the soviets. Heck, they even awarded the last surviving Galicia Nazi in the Canadian parliament, before the backlash, because it was useful for them momentarily.

Speaking of blowing up planets - it's no different than what happened in Nagasaki after Hiroshima. Was the second bomb justified - that is if the first was ever justified?

Black and white is for children. Original trilogy was more black and white. Andor is playing on the border between black and white, and gray.

 

[Valedix]

Star Wars GTA would be so cool if it wasn't made by Ubisoft.

 

[StereoVsn]

While at one point in the whole of SW canon this can be seen as the case(The Original Trilogy), the problem is that some of the prequel stuff, Clone Wars stuff, and newer canon like Andor, fleshed things out a bit for the Empire to not be as black and white as the original trilogy. The issue is that their content is still too surface level because they don't trust the audience to see much of a gray area in SW.

So Finn might as well have popped out of thin air into existence, because people can't fathom that he may have actually had a past and spent a quarter of his life as a Nazi janitor like you've stated. Let's cut his entire backstory with Phasma, let's cut the draft of him potentially turning other ex-squadmates and soldiers from his Empire squad, and let's cut the potential the very enthusiastic "Traitor!" guy's story who likely could have been a scorned squadmate of Finn's.

Instead, let's explain nothing from his past nor explain anything from Kylo Ren's time in the Knights/Empire, because complex storytelling isn't worth it if we make a few people from the Empire or Sith actually look like humans and not caricatures or plot devices.

The biggest issue here is that I don’t believe modern Disney is at all capable of such nuance. I disbelieve that they can treat such a tricky subject with any modicum of thought and actual quality writing.

Hence Space Nazis.

 

[March Climber]

The biggest issue here is that I don’t believe modern Disney is at all capable of such nuance. I disbelieve that they can treat such a tricky subject with any modicum of thought and actual quality writing.

I think it’s complicated. I do think that Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau could potentially hit those heights as they have come close before, but I also feel that they would need help doing so, and they would also need the factory-like schedule of show releases to finally slow down for this to happen.

Also, if Disney were smart about this, they would be utilizing some of the writers behind multiple Star Wars Visions episodes. That show made it very clear that there are other creatives out there who are hungry to share and tell their own unique star wars stories, but they’re having to condense these ideas into a single 30-40 minute disconnected episode, because that’s the most that Disney will offer them.

 

[YeulEmeralda]

The biggest issue here is that I don’t believe modern Disney is at all capable of such nuance. I disbelieve that they can treat such a tricky subject with any modicum of thought and actual quality writing.

Hence Space Nazis.

George Lucas made them space Nazis for a reason. Its because Star Wars was a story about good heroes defeating bad guys.
Don't make Star Wars into something that it isn't.