Revealed yesterday during the Xbox Games Showcase 2023, Star Wars Outlaws is being touted as the “first-ever open world Star Wars game.” It’s unclear how Ubisoft is defining “open world” in this context, given that Star Wars Galaxies could also be considered an open world game. But we aren’t here to argue details, we’re here to talk about what we saw with the first gameplay trailer from Ubisoft Forward 2023.
The gameplay walkthrough trailer starts off by introducing Nix, a companion creature for the game’s protagonist, Kay Vess, portrayed by Humberly González. We then get to see a stealth takedown by Kay, and options of how Nix can help through attacking, distracting, and interacting with objects in the environment — in this case, pushing a button. This is followed by a sequence demonstrating how players can make split-second decisions during specific events, along with a short preview of combat showcasing Kay switching her blaster to an ion module to temporarily disable the enemy’s shield. She then switches back to blaster mode.
The video then shows a bit more exploration, with Kay using Nix to help, before she uses a new weapon to explode barrels to take down more enemies. We then get to see what it’s like to use a speeder in the game, a bit of a story cutscene, and then Kay hopping into her ship, the Trailblazer, to escape the Empire. We see a bit of a dogfight in space, before spinning up hyperdrive and going to the Akiva system. The gameplay trailer ends with a sneak peek of various locations and moments in Star Wars Outlaws.
The game is set to release sometime next year, assuming it doesn’t get any delays.
