I’ve made it no secret that Star Wars Outlaws didn’t really blow me away back when it was originally released last year. Sure, as a Star Wars product for fans, it could easily please as it featured some very well put together atmosphere with plenty of production value, but its lackluster gameplay wouldn’t be enough to bring in those who weren’t already enamored with the source material. After months of patches that brought a host of improvements that addressed player feedback, things might turn out different in regards to the game, especially now that it just landed on Switch 2, for a new audience altogether.
Make no mistake: this is somewhat of a watered-down port of the otherwise good looking game you might’ve played last year, but don’t let that fool you into thinking it’s not worth picking up if you are an early Switch 2 owner looking for your next fix. Star Wars Outlaws certainly looks somewhat worse on the system, but its overall performance is surprisingly stable, if limited to 30fps, and thanks to some technical tricks, this port doesn’t hold much back when it comes to playability. If you’ve yet to play the game and lack any of the other systems the game’s been released on, well, you won’t be missing a whole lot if you pick this one up here.
For those unaware of what Star Wars Outlaws is, it’s a Ubisoft Massive production that makes decent use of the license by having you play an up-and-coming criminal within the Star Wars universe. Taking place between the events of Episode IV: A New Hope and Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, you play as Kay Vess, a newbie in the field looking to make a name for herself within the scum and villainy. For that, she has to play the dangerous game of vying for the game’s three main factions, putting together her team and taking on increasingly more dangerous jobs.
Ever since it was announced, Outlaws was potentially the Star Wars game that role-players salivated for, as it was one of the rare occasions where they wouldn’t play as an all-powerful Jedi, but someone vulnerable who had to make use of their wits to survive. The final game certainly has some of that going on, but there’s also a lot of room for survival when the going gets tough. For as much of a stealth game as it promises to be, failure often results in firefights you can easily get out of thanks to generous cover, lots of healing items, and your trusty blaster.
All in all, for as immersion-breaking as that can be, it’s also an avenue for a whole lot of fun, and thanks to the huge and sprawling maps in the game, there’s plenty of that to go around in the form of a laundry list of sidequests and activities to do, the usual Ubisoft formula of open-world messing around in that’s been more than proved to be a great way to waste time in with the Assassin’s Creed titles, to name the franchise that Star Wars Outlaws sticks closest to. But in the name of making it something of its own, they throw in something that’s quite Star Wars into the mix: your very own starship with which you can travel the galaxy in!
And frankly, exploring the whole wide space proves to be one of the best aspects of the game. Out there, not only can you simply fly around and see the sights, but you can partake in actual quests, muck in Imperial business, and get into a whole lot of trouble. Kay is much less experienced in being a scoundrel than someone like Han Solo, so there’s a considerable amount of trial and error in the story as she stumbles around before gaining the skills to back up her considerable amount of confidence. It’s an enjoyable character journey to be sure, and it’s one she doesn’t have to go alone on.
Wix is her lovable little partner who comes into play as she skulks around, activating switches, grabbing items, and distracting enemies. It’s sometimes a little too useful, actually, as most NPCs don’t really react to its presence, even in enemy territory, making it feel game-y as all hell, but then again, this is a game and it’s meant to be enjoyable, and in that, it certainly succeeds. Plus, it’s ridiculously adorable and has a place in the story that doesn’t feel forced at all.
As a Switch 2 title, Star Wars Outlaws looks considerably worse than other versions. Character models are blurrier and less detailed, with low quality real-time shadows, and environments tend to have conspicuous pop-in when loading into different zones. The trade-off for all of that is the stable performance you get while playing either portably or on your TV, complete with ray-traced lighting, much like Cyberpunk 2077’s port from launch. While I haven’t personally played the PC version on Steam Deck, technical analyses by experts point to the fact that Switch 2 manages to run the game noticeably better even though it’s on a lower frame per second count.
Ubisoft has made the right move bringing Star Wars Outlaws to Switch 2. Thanks to the baffingly good job they did porting it over, one could wonder if any of the other more recent releases could make a similar jump to Nintendo’s new hybrid marvel. Maybe Assassin’s Creed Shadows, hm? I sure wouldn’t mind having some ninja action at my fingertips’ reach. Hopefully Outlaws does well enough on Switch 2 to convince the ailing French company that there’s a market to be had here.
