One of the biggest surprises of Summer Game Fest on the whole, being a highlight of both the Xbox Showcase and Ubisoft Forward presentation, Star Wars Outlaws has finally been officially confirmed, and given a tentative 2024 release window. While a Ubisoft Massive open-world Star Wars game has been confirmed to be in development for some time now, fans have practically nothing else to go on, not sure of the game's time setting, protagonist, or general gameplay style.
Well, thanks to a surprisingly lengthy gameplay reveal, fans now have a much better idea of what type of game Star Wars Outlaws is shaping up to be, and the initial response has been a very positive one. A story-driven, third-person, open-world shooter, Star Wars Outlaws isn't quite the fully-fledged RPG some fans were hoping for, but it also won't be quite as linear as recent titles like Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. But there's one aspect of Star Wars Outlaws that could end up following in the footsteps of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy.
Star Wars Outlaws' Choices Might Follow in Guardians of the Galaxy's Footsteps
Though it didn't quite get the response Eidos-Montreal and Square Enix were hoping for, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy was a pretty great narrative-driven single-player game. Putting the player in the illustrious boots of Star-Lord, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy had a linear structure overall, but players could affect certain moments of gameplay or story with their dialogue choices. While dialogue options were constant in Guardians of the Galaxy, only a few key decisions properly affected gameplay, and these were immediately identifiable by the appearance of a pink diamond around Star-Lord's icon in the center of the two options.
These important choices usually came just before a major story or action sequence, and would lead to one of two outcomes. For instance, early on in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, players are given the choice to either hide Rocket's tech from the Nova Corps, or hide a mysterious alien llama. Choosing the tech will give the player a new weapon during ship combat but will result in an 8000 credit fine, while choosing the llama will result in a 7000 credit fine and will skip a prison-breaking minigame later on. Another choice later on sees the player choose to either sell Groot or Rocket. Choosing Groot leads to a stealth mission, while stealing Rocket leads to an all-out firefight.
While every player of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy experienced the same overall story, these infrequent choices still allowed for a more diverse playthrough. Based on what fans have seen from Star Wars Outlaws so far, it seems likely that it'll follow in Guardians of the Galaxy's footsteps with regard to its own narrative choices. Unlike other open-ended Star Wars RPGs, Star Wars: Outlaws won't let players create their own characters. Instead, players will take control of Kay Vess, a character that seemingly already has a clearly defined background, and clearly defined motivations. Similarly, Star Wars Outlaws has an overarching story, with Kay Vess attempting to pull off the biggest heist the galaxy has ever seen.
With Star Wars Outlaws already having a clearly defined character and overarching story, and with it presumably being canon, it's unlikely that the player will be making too many choices that truly affect the narrative. Instead, it's much more likely that Star Wars Outlaws will use Guardians of the Galaxy's method of introducing a few diverging paths along the main story, resulting in some alternate action sequences like either engaging in a speeder chase or blaster firefight depending on the player's dialogue choice. Fans already saw a hint of that in Star Wars Outlaws' gameplay trailer, with the player choosing to refuse an Imperial officer their bribe, resulting in the Empire coming after them.
Star Wars Outlaws is coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S in 2024.
