One of the biggest surprises for the Xbox Games Showcase didn't come from one of its own first-party studios, but from Ubisoft. Rather than hold the game back for its own showcase, Ubisoft decided to finally reveal Star Wars: Outlaws, its long-awaited open-world Star Wars game during Sunday's Xbox Showcase, and that was actually a pretty smart decision. Not only did this move presumably help boost Ubisoft and Xbox's relationship behind the scenes, but it also got fans excited to see more from the game during the Ubisoft Forward showcase, and they got to see quite a bit.
The Ubisoft Forward showcase has just wrapped up, and Star Wars: Outlaws was potentially the biggest highlight of the entire presentation. The first truly open-world Star Wars game, Star Wars: Outlaws sees players take control of a new smuggler by the name of Kay Vess as she makes her way in the galaxy, working towards a galactic heist to end all heists. But while Star Wars: Outlaws' first gameplay trailer gave fans a decent look at its ground and space combat, some speeder chase gameplay, and some minor mechanics, the biggest standout of it all was Kay Vess' furry little partner, Nix, who could end up giving Star Wars Jedi: Survivor's BD-1 a run for his money.
Star Wars: Outlaws' Nix Might Be a Better Companion Than BD-1
The Star Wars universe is no stranger to cute little companions, and most of the time, they're of the droid variety. R2-D2 was, of course, the original Star Wars companion, blurting out unknown expletives while doing the utility jobs no one else on the crew can and having a distinct personality despite having no actual face. The sequel trilogy continued that trend with BB-8, and the Star Wars Jedi series took it another step further with BD-1, a Star Wars companion that directly helps the fan themselves.
Generally speaking, BD-1 is one of the all-time greatest Star Wars companions. Much like R2-D2 and BB-8, BD-1 uses a series of bleeps and bloops to communicate, and along with his dog-like head tilts, BD-1 has just as much of a personality as the rest, if not even more so. BD-1 also has the advantage of being a Star Wars video game companion, meaning that fans can directly interact with him over the course of a 30+ hour adventure. It also helps that BD-1 is an incredibly useful droid, healing the player when they're low on health and scanning the environment and enemies for more Databank entries.
But BD-1 might have just met his match. Present throughout all of Star Wars: Outlaws' first trailer and poster, Nix is the latest new companion to the Star Wars universe. A furry little axolotl-like creature, Nix Merqaal species, though his home planet isn't known. As a companion to a smuggler, Nix has seemingly developed a pretty boisterous attitude, though it's clear that he cares deeply about his partner. And that's exactly what Nix is in Star Wars: Outlaws, the player's partner.
In Star Wars: Outlaws' gameplay reveal trailer, Nix can be spotted throughout, helping the player-character continuously. Based on this trailer, and the developer commentary at the end of the Ubisoft Forward showcase, it seems as though Nix will be a major part of Star WarsL Outlaws' gameplay, with the player being able to use the companion for a variety of different things. In the trailer, Nix is used to distract enemies, activate an environmental object, and fetch a weapon on the ground meters away from the player while they continue to shoot enemies. As far as sheer gameplay practicality goes, Nix might have already bested BD-1.
Star Wars Outlaws is in development.
