7 Star Wars Outlaws Gaming Secrets I Wish I Had Known Sooner

I’m wandering around a seedy bar, contemplating my life decisions after a stranger just called me “desperate but cute.” That wouldn’t make it a unique experience on its own, were it not for the fact that said stranger is a Mon Calamari, one of the iconic fishy aliens from a galaxy far, far away. This is Star Wars Outlaws, the new video game from Ubisoft that my colleagues demoed at Gamescom last week and that I got to play ahead of its release on Friday, August 30th.

In Outlaws, you play as Kay Vess, a young, golden-haired con artist, along with her cuddly, thieving companion, the running alien Nix. In Star Wars canon fashion, the game is set during the Imperial Era, i.e. after Luke meets Yoda but before the Ewoks build a Stormtrooper drum kit. Early flashbacks reveal that Kay spent her youth running small-time con jobs in the slums of Canto Bight with her currently MIA mother Riko, who teaches her the all-important lesson of “You can’t always expect someone to be there.” (Not ominous, and indicative of a future found family.)

Now down on her luck and out of the house after an accidental run-in with some rebels, Kay is on the hunt for what many a villain wishes she had: one last big job. That means a hundred little missions to complete and a half dozen enemies to make before we go off-world. This is a look at the grittier side of the Star Wars universe, but there’s still plenty of adventure to be had and plenty of fun characters to meet.

The demos at Gamescom were limited to three short mid-game missions, but here are my thoughts and a few timesaving tips after roughly 22 hours of playing the game on PlayStation 5.

Yes, Star Wars Outlaws is an open world game

There are plenty of hidden gems (literally and otherwise) throughout Star Wars Outlaws’ open world, and the game lets you explore them at your leisure. However, this freedom can sometimes make it difficult to find locations if you don’t know your cardinal directions by heart. While pressing Up on your D-pad will help ping your target and also activate your “Nix sense” (which highlights interactive elements in your environment), there are no marked paths to follow for quests or objectives. You’ll have to rely on your map and compass HUD to navigate to your desired location. This can make things difficult if you find yourself changing direction quickly in games. There were several missions where I found myself cycling hundreds of meters in the wrong direction until I consulted my map again.

You may also find yourself in areas that aren’t ready for interaction yet. For example, on Toshara — the second of four planets you can visit — there are a few treasures hidden behind objects that you can’t destroy until you receive upgrades later in the main questline. Just trust that if you don’t have an ability, it’s because you don’t need it yet. Keep following the story and you’ll get there.

Do you like mini games? You’re going to get mini games

Lockpicking tests your rhythm, while slicing (hacking) is like Wordle in space. There are plenty of Sabacc tables in the world to win and lose credits, along with sports betting. In-game arcade cabinets can be found in workshops and hidden alcoves. Within my fifth hour of play, I even got a strange but charming food minigame where Kay and Nix eat space corn. Like Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the abundance of minigames gives you a break from the action and tells you a bit about the story, and most of them are optional.

You don’t have to keep an eye on your speeder bike

Your speeder bike doesn’t always appear on your map, but when you’re in an open area you can call it to you by holding right on the D-pad. I only realized this after a handful of frustrating stealth missions on foot through the grassy plains of Toshara. I’d dismount to gun down some bandits, only to realize I’d completely lost my bike somewhere in the tall grass. Sometimes you can fast travel directly to your bike on the map, but it’s inconsistent. Then again, I’m only on the second planet, so maybe I’ll be able to call a bantha in the future.

You can pet the dog and much more

Nix, Kay’s merqal sidekick — as if Disney’s Stitch were part axolotl — is available for cuddles 24/7, when he’s not busy stealing things and opening far-flung doors. You can also give many of the free-roaming critters a good scratch behind the ears. Unless they’re naturally aggressive, in which case: run. You can also collect cute accessories for Nix, like a tiny Chewbacca-style bandolier.

You’ll need a lot of stealth no matter which side you choose

There are many crime factions in Outlaws, the main gangs being Crimson Dawn, the Pyke Syndicate (the catfish boys from The Clone Wars, most recently seen in The Book of Boba Fett), and the infamous Hutt Cartel. As you might imagine, you can work for multiple crime families, but building an affinity for one over another has its pros and cons.

I chose to start with Crimson Dawn (mostly because Han Solo’s ex-girlfriend Qi’Ra is mentioned in a lore paragraph. Will we see her? I hope so!) but it meant that I had to be extra stealthy whenever I was in Pyke Syndicate territory. I had to rely a lot on Nix’s distraction powers to steal a quest item from the Pykes. I could have stolen the Crimson Dawn part, but getting caught would lower my reputation with them every time. (And I got caught a lot.) This does get a little easier as the game progresses and you can take on more quests from different groups to build up your reputation, but it can be tricky at first.

Take advantage of the accessibility options for gameplay

While writing this review, I tried my best to play on normal mode, but ended up going back to my default Story mode, as I’m just not that good at stealth missions. I did appreciate that the game has a high contrast mode, which makes it easier to find interactive objects, though it was disappointing that Kay and the nonplayer characters in a lot of the non-cutscenes were blue creatures, like the kids in the Capri Sun commercials from the 90sI later learned that you can adjust the opacity of these filters to make it less distracting.

The High Contrast mode is worth it to find usable footholds, as the physics of what Kay can and can’t climb make no sense. Plus, with so many options for blaster settings, extra tools, and all the actions Nix can perform, having guides up top to remember every last controller move is crucial.

Check this out: I played the new Star Wars Outlaws game at Gamescom

00:36

Speaking of display options, here’s how to disable black bars in Star Wars Outlaws

One of the best features of Star Wars Outlaws is the gorgeous art style and breathtaking vistas inspired by the original trilogy. This is emphasized by the game displaying in Cinematic Mode (21:9) by default, which features black bars at the top and bottom of the screen, plus a grainy film filter to recreate that classic 70s film look. If you want to play in fullscreen mode, you can change this in the Display and graphical representation menu in the settings. Just turn on Fill screen in the Cinematic display mode options. Don’t worry, if you still want that retro look, you can still leave film grain on (or off, if you want to see things more clearly).

Read more: Change these settings once you launch Star Wars Outlaws

Those are all the tips for those looking forward to playing the game, which is out in a few days. While I did build a lightsaber at Savi’s Workshop in Disneyland and have a cat named after the rebel droid Chopper, this is my first time playing a Star Wars game. I can’t really compare it to games like Jedi Survivor or even Knights of the Old Republic. In the grand scheme of “run around, punch people, and steal stuff” games, Outlaws reminds me most of Red Dead Redemption 2 and The Outer Worlds, albeit with far less romance and fly-fishing than the former (so far, anyway). There’s plenty of exploration to be had on and off the worlds, morally gray decisions to be made, fascinating bits of background dialogue to be heard, plenty of laser guns and ship blasters to be fired, and enough Star Wars lore to excite even the most sleazy of nerf herders.

Star Wars: Outlaws releases on Friday, August 30 for PlayStation 5, Xbox, and PC.