‘Star Wars Outlaws’ is a reminder of Ubisoft’s mastery of open-world games

These games are also sometimes derisively called “checklist games,” titles that offer literal checklists of activities (raid bandit camps, collect items). Developed by Massive Entertainment, “Outlaws” is indeed a checklist game in that same sense, but it also ticks off boxes on what you should expect from a quality, modern, big-budget open-world video game. Recent great games from other publishers (“Cyberpunk 2077,” “Starfield”) try to innovate, but in their ambitions often forget or neglect much of what makes digital open worlds feel like lived-in, alive places.

Ubisoft games remember to include the little things other games take for granted. In “Star Wars Outlaws,” you can control Kay Vess to pilot her starship from the atmosphere and through the clouds, land the ship, walk out, get on her flying motorcycle and drive it toward the nearby city just to walk into a bar, grab a seat, and eat a bowl of noodles or play a card game. All of this can be done as a seamless visual and gameplay experience.

It’s time, maybe, to rethink our appreciation for the Ubisoft open-world formula. The big-budget video game studios are facing a crisis of ambition and budget. Games like “Cyberpunk” are taking longer than half a decade to create. Meanwhile, Ubisoft regularly releases these types of games almost every year, and it’s set to release another huge Assassin’s Creed game this fall. It’s an awe-inspiring release schedule propped by thousands of people across studios around the world, resources few besides Ubisoft can conjure. Credit where it’s due, these studios have this down to a science.

It’s probably why “Outlaws” can start to wear thin once you do yet another stealth mission involving your typical 3D video game tropes of crawling through vents, shinnying across ledges and blasting Stormtroopers in third-person shooting found in just about every other video game. Fortunately, every location or bandit camp (yes, this game has tons of those, too) feels crafted by hand with unique setups in each one, even if the actions are repeated. It’s around this time you realize this game feels like Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs series. It even comes with a feature for players to interact with objects over a distance. In Watch Dogs, you used a phone to “hack” doors open; here, Kay uses her adorable, catlike alien pet, Nix, to fetch items and open doors.

While exploration is the highlight of the experience, I was surprised to find the action a little weak. Considering Massive’s strong résumé in shooting games (the Division series), shooting and punching Stormtroopers never feels quite satisfying, and that becomes a problem when missions repeat.

The story itself services the gameplay. Kay Vess is a typical scruffy, down-on-her-luck criminal dreaming of a big payday. She eventually gets wrapped up in planning for that “one big heist,” and the game begins with an “I’m assembling a crew” structure to introduce the game’s four planets and a moon. Things get more exciting when you realize you’re in control of how Kay negotiates with the criminals and their factions. My Kay is all the way committed to the Crimson Dawn, which opens up most of its facilities to me, while it’s a fight on sight when she meets the rival Pyke and Hutt gangs. After violent shootouts in rival territories, you might recognize the various shops you could’ve patronized if you didn’t just murder everyone.

The story will find many opportunities for these alliances to push or pull you. Eventually, Kay will serve people she once antagonized. After a job to serve her own interests, Kay complains how all the criminal factions seem to be looking out for only themselves, with zero self-awareness. Kay is a plucky archetypical heroine, but “Outlaws” exposes her core as a little rotten, and that’s a refreshing wrinkle of personality. When a main story mission introduced extremely personal stakes for Kay, I felt motivated to see that mission through immediately because of how attached I felt to the characters. That’s when I knew “Outlaws” sunk its hooks into me.

Because of this pressure to offer a variety of experiences, the story congeals into a “both sides” narrative across several beats. Kay ends up feeling like she’s trying too hard to please everyone in an effort to save herself. Similarly, “Outlaws” juggles many priorities on its way to appease a fickle, frustrated Star Wars audience. “I know what I’m doing,” she assures a worried comrade. Like Kay, Ubisoft may stumble here and there, but it knows what it’s doing.