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Ubisoft Massive’s open world action-adventure Star Wars Outlaws will release on 30th August 2024, according to a new story trailer which introduces us properly to “emerging scoundrel” Kay Vess, aka Hannah Solo. If you haven’t had the pleasure, Kay is a budding crook on the run from her underworld boss, a journey that sees her tangling with several other Star Wars crime syndicates on various planets. It really feels like they’re keeping a lot of the headline Star Wars stuff at a respectful distance for this one: yes, Jabba the Hutt makes an appearance, but there’s nary a whiff of The Force, Jedi or Sith in the trailer and not once does anybody build a Death Star.
The absence of space wizards is partly down to Outlaws being set between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi – if I remember my Lucaslore correctly, Han Solo is a giant ice cube at this point, while Luke Skywalker is getting used to having a robot hand, and Leia is, like, practising her Huttese in advance of Return Of The Jedi’s opening heist sequence. Chewbacca? On sabbatical writing his memoirs. R2D2? Hanging around Coruscant pretending to be a vending machine so he can raise the funds for his second career as an ace private detective.
Still, I wouldn’t rule out a shock third-act appearance in Outlaw from a Force-sensitive of some kind. Perhaps Kay will bump into Cal Kestis off Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, in a surprise EA-Ubisoft crossover. Look, don’t frown at me, Star Wars lore enthusiasts. Educate me in the comments instead. I know nothing.
The trailer is the usual collage of cutscenes from what I’m guessing are the first two-thirds of the game, plus a few representative gameplay segments of Kay socking hoodlums, riding around on speeder bikes and ordering her alien cat companion, Nix, to steal blaster rifles from Stormtroopers. Honestly, this kind of misbehaviour is why they started the Empire in the first place! Somebody needs to take the galaxy’s emerging scoundrels in hand – it’s a slippery slope from pilfering pistols to founding a Republic and what would Darth Vader have to say about that? I don’t reckon he’d be keen on Kay using her ship, the Trailblazer, to fly between planets, either. Those planets are for blowing up with massive space lasers, Kay, not living on!
The planets could be the game’s biggest draws. As Kaan reported last July, Outlaws is perhaps best read as an exercise in Star Wars tourism. I’m not that bowled over by what I’ve seen of the combat and exploration but there’s certainly a lot of texture to savour, because after all, these are the developers of The Division – whatever you thought of that game, it gave great “scenic alleyway”.
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
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