The upcoming Star Wars Outlaws is shaking things up by taking a page from other great open-world games like Elden Ring and Breath of the Wild. These games let players choose how they want to explore and complete side quests and other optional content.
Unlike other Star Wars games that follow a strict story path, Outlaws gives you a bit more freedom. This game is set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and follows a new character, Kay Vess, a thief trying to survive in a galaxy full of crime lords and dangerous missions.
Star Wars Outlaws Is Built Around Freedom of Choice
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the game’s director, Julian Gerighty, said they wanted to create a game where players feel like their choices matter. If you do a mission for one faction, it can affect your standing with others, leading to new alliances or enemies. Gerighty shared:
Finding your way through the game — who you choose to make friends with, who you choose to betray — you have control over the storyline. It was fun for me to see how each choice leads us to a different route, different dialogue, different relationships, [and] develop different syndicates that will be on your side
Players can choose how the protagonist, Kay, interacts with different factions, like the Hutts or the Crimson Dawn, affecting the game’s story and Kay’s reputation. This, in turn, has different rewards such as weapons, loot, and even more quests for that faction.
The open-world design means you’re not just following a set path. You can choose to take on side quests, explore new areas, or just mess around with different things in the game such as the Wanted System.
This makes the game feel more alive and less like you’re just moving from one checkpoint to another, making things feel less formulaic, which has been a big criticism for Ubisoft games lately.
A Much-Needed Change for Assassin’s Creed
Assassin’s Creed games have been criticized for being too formulaic lately, and not feeling natural or immersive enough. You follow the main story, complete side quests, and collect items in a set order.
Star Wars Outlaws could show how giving players more freedom can make a game more engaging. Instead of feeling like you’re ticking off a checklist, you’re making choices that shape your adventure, and all of this feels a lot more genuine.
The developers of Assassin’s Creed could learn a lot from this approach. Imagine a game where your choices affect the world around you in more meaningful ways, leading to different consequences. Instead of just following the main story, you could decide which factions to support, changing the course of the game.
This would make each playthrough feel unique and personal, much like in Outlaws. An exploration-driven game, with plenty of player freedom, makes the game more immersive but also sets a new standard and formula that other games, like Assassin’s Creed Shadows, could hopefully follow.
Are you looking forward to Star Wars: Outlaws? Let us know in the comments below.
