Star Wars is for everyone — and that includes Star Wars games.
Whether you are a casual gamer or you have a dedicated gaming chair, Star Wars Outlaws offers a unique chance for players of all levels to disappear into the Star Wars galaxy. As the protagonist of the game, Kay Vess is a sneaky scoundrel just trying to survive. While she may lack Force powers, Kay proves she’s more than capable of completing her missions for various criminal syndicates with a blaster and her good buddy, Nix, by her side.
While Outlaws has plenty of features sure to delight expert gamers, Massive Entertainment and Lucasfilm Games made sure the first-ever open world Star Wars game could also be enjoyed by people who may have not played many, or any, video games before.
Here are some tips to get you started and help you make the most out of your scoundrel experience.
Controls
Star Wars Outlaws starts players with a variety of controls set to a default position in the Settings section — but I’d encourage everyone to take a peek inside before starting the game. Inside Settings you’ll find options for Gameplay, Cognitive, Color, Vision, and Hearing for all types of accessibility and player preference needs, including changing colors for color-blind players, turning on text to speech, and increasing the size of the subtitles.
If you need less (or more) of a challenge, the Gameplay Experience controls are your best bet to improve your playthrough. Here you can choose “Story,” as well as “Regular” or “Hard” for things like Player Health and Enemy Difficulty. If you find that the parts of the game that involve lock picking, slicing, or piloting your ship are frustrating, this is the place you’ll also find options to make those parts easier.
The choices you make here are changeable at any time so gamers can mix things up throughout their gameplay.
Don’t get caught
Like Han Solo, Kay Vess is a scoundrel. Frequently in need of credits, often in trouble with criminal syndicates. While exploring several different locations including Canto Bight, Akiva, Kijimi, Tatooine, and a new moon created for the game, Toshara, Vess frequently must sneak in and out of heavily guarded areas. Outnumbered and outgunned, Kay's best course of action in many missions is to stay out of sight as much as possible.
Confession time. I usually avoid stealth in games. I am more of a run into the room with guns blazing — I’ll crouch for a bit, if I must — type of player. But since stealth missions make perfect sense in Outlaws and I was excited to discover Kay's story, I quickly found a few ways I could up my stealth game to make sure Kay didn’t leave missions empty-handed.
“Patience You Must Have”
When Yoda is right, he’s right. Patience is your best friend during stealth missions and it can save you time. Stop. Crouch behind something. Look around. Look around again. Make a plan before you move. In an Imperial compound, you need to keep an eye out for stormtroopers, Imperial officers, patrolling probe droids, and security cameras. Before you start blasting in all directions (this is hard, I know) try to sneak up behind a stormtrooper to take them down or stun them with your blaster to stop them from calling for backup.
Luckily you are not on your own. As you track which adversaries are staying still and which ones walk a regular path, don’t forget to use your best ally in the game. That’s right, Nix. Nix can let you know where people are in rooms and he can distract or attack them to help you move around undetected. Nix can also sabotage equipment, turn off alarms, and fetch helpful items. Note: if you see someone with an alarm icon above their head, they are about to rat you out! Prioritize taking them down.
Keep in mind there are usually multiple entry points into large compounds and you don’t have to barge your way through the front entrance. In many missions Kay’s dialogue can help guide you as well. If you’re feeling stuck sneaking into a Crimson Dawn or Pyke Base, consider taking on a side mission to up your reputation with that group. Once your reputation crosses into the “Good” category, you can walk right into some places you previously had to sneak through. But be warned: if your reputation falls into the “Terrible” category, that syndicate will hunt you down. (I, uh, know this from experience. And don’t get me started about death troopers.)
Explore the terrain to expand on the adventure
As an open world game, players have flexibility about what contract to take on next. The Journal reveals all of your available mission options (continuing the main story, gathering intel, or discovering treasure are just some of the types of jobs Kay can accept) and will let you know where on the Map to find them. Fast Travel is available right away in Outlaws once you open up new areas of the Map and is an easy way to traverse long distances — although crashing around on your speeder is an equally fun way to get from here to there.
And between missions extracting data from a Crimson Dawn compound or trying to take down a Gamorrean guard in Jabba’s Palace (not easy!), Outlaws offers many lower stakes and downright delightful gaming options. Players can stop to pet some of the large and small local animals Kay runs across (don’t forget to pet Nix as well!), play several different stand-up arcade-style games, bet on fathier races, or partake in a friendly game of sabacc.
Talking to characters as you walk around exploring cities and settlements is one of the best parts of the game even when you are in the middle of another job. They might pass on information that will later help you find parts for a much-needed blaster upgrade or challenge you to a speeder bike race. The game even rewards players for occasionally sitting on a bench or leaning against a bar counter where Vess might hear some new intel that will come in handy down the road. And if you need some serious downtime, many cantinas and marketplaces in Outlaws have a jukebox or an area that gives players a chance to introduce Vess and Nix to a new cuisine to snack on. Trust me, this is a part of the game you must not miss.
Star Wars Outlaws is available August 30 for PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5.
