We’re probably not going to get a Star Wars: Outlaws sequel. The game has reportedly underperformed, and Ubisoft is having all sorts of problems. The whole AAA gaming industry is having all sorts of problems, but I’m not here to talk about that. I finally got around to beating Outlaws this past weekend, so I’m here to just ramble about my thoughts on the game, while daydreaming about what a sequel might hold.

Video Game Rating: 7/10 – Good

I liked Star Wars: Outlaws, for the most part. The game delivered pretty much what I expected it to deliver, and it delivered it well enough for my liking. Granted, I’m not hard to impress. It’s not Grand Theft Auto: Star Wars, but then it never promised to be. It’s a solid 7/10 game set in the Star Wars universe, providing a different style of game from the Star Wars Jedi series. I bought the game for full price on launch day because I really needed a new and fun game at the time. But I would definitely recommend waiting for Star Wars: Outlaws to be heavily discounted on Black Friday before you buy and try it out.

Join me after the jump for my thoughts on the game and what I’d like to see in a sequel.

6. Set it during Return of the Jedi

Star Wars: Outlaws is about up-and-coming scoundrel Kay Vess getting her first taste of the wider galaxy. She gets a ship and a sidekick, and is then tasked with putting together a crew to pull off a major heist in the climax. I like Kay. She’s a fun character. I love how she’s constantly lying through her teeth. The game is set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, which is a fine place to put a game. I considered putting the sequel in the post-Jedi era, around the time of The Mandalorian, so that Kay could fit into the era of a lot of the TV shows. But then I realized it would probably be more fun and have more potential to set a game during the events of Return of the Jedi.

In Outlaws, Kay meets and pulls some jobs for Jabba the Hutt. She also meets and befriends Lando. So what better way to start a sequel then have Kay present at Jabba’s Palace during the opening scenes of Return of the Jedi? Maybe she’s helping Lando on the sidelines while Leia and Luke rescue Han. That sounds like a fun opening set piece for a game. Obviously she misses the Sail Barge ride and explosion, but that’s fine. The game itself can pick up then and she’ll have the freedom to do her stuff.

Then it all builds to Kay being on the second Death Star pulling some new heist before it explodes. There’s your climactic video game third act. Plenty of time passes during Return of the Jedi to make up for all the free roaming in a video game. And then just fit Kay Vess into various story beats from Jedi to make it more fun and connected to Star Wars.

5. Sharper, more fulfilling stealth mechanics

One of the major points of the game is stealth, just like an Assassin’s Creed game. You’re given an Imperial base or a pirate camp or a section of town you’re not allowed to be in, and you’ve got to sneak around, knock out patrolling guards and otherwise break in and then break back out of a place. And it’s fine; I love a good stealth section. But it’s not nearly as sharp or as fulfilling as other stealth sections of more stealth focused games…and there’s no reason it can’t be like those games.

If I’m playing a stealth game, I want to be able to move bodies. Either pick them up or drag them to a safe place away from prying eyes. In Outlaws, you knock out a bad guy and then just leave their body there for anyone to see. Granted, the levels are usually designed so that nobody is going to walk by and see, but it would still be nice for more interactions. Likewise, the AI could just stand to be smarter. If someone finds a dead body, maybe don’t spend two minutes looking around and then just go back to normal patrols, leaving the body on the ground to rot.

The stealth areas also aren’t as sharp as I would like. There are rounded corners, and it’s pretty much impossible to know if you’re hidden enough when a bad guy comes through your area. Knowing for sure that I can ambush a Stormtrooper when he comes around a corner is paramount to making a good stealth game.

4. Use the crew more often

Like any good heist flick, the main storyline of the game is about assembling a crew in order to pull off the third act heist. You visit a planet, meet the potential crew member and going on a few story missions to recruit them. It’s all well and good…but the crew members are pretty boring and don’t get used all that much. And there aren’t enough of them. There are four members of the crew, and you only pick up the final two when you reach the endgame. So you don’t actually spend much time with your crew members, and once the first two join, they pretty much just stay on the ship while you’re out in the world.

I would like more interactions with the crew members. Maybe see them around town when you’re in a city. Maybe they get side missions like some games do for supporting characters. Anything to help flesh them out and really make the crew feel more rounded and family-like.

Though I will note that one of the recruits ended up getting killed during his recruitment mission, so that was a fun story twist.

3. Jedi crew member

Speaking of the crew, I’m just going to go ahead and say I want a Jedi member. There are no Jedi or lightsabers or Sith or anything of the Force in Outlaws (aside from one quick Darth Vader cameo). And while those things are not missed, I think a former Jedi turned scoundrel crew member would be a nice addition for a sequel. Why not? They’re inventing new surviving Jedi all the time! Maybe the character is a secret Jedi and we won’t really know for sure at any point. Just seems like the Force might be strong with them.

What’s Cal Kestis up to once his trilogy ends?

2. Syndicate choices to impact world/story

A big selling point of the game is the crime syndicate system, and it leaves a lot to be desired. Basically, four crime syndicates are major players on all the planets you visit: Crimson Dawn, the Pykes, Ashiga Clan and Jabba the Hutt’s people. And Kay Vess has a reputation meter with each group. If you do jobs for them, they like you more and you have better access to their zones and shops. If you betray them or kill their people, they like you less and will issue ‘kill on sight’ orders. It’s neat in concept, but very, very, very easy to manipulate, and it ultimately doesn’t earn you anything in the larger game.

There are a few story missions or larger side missions that effect your standing with the gangs. But mostly you do small jobs for them. I like the idea of having the middle men out there in the world, who you connect with to get jobs. But the jobs are usually easy: raid the same pirate den for the third time and collect the thing; pick up the thing and move it to another location across the city; fly into space and grab a thing and shoot some pirates. After the job, you get some credits and your reputation with that gang goes up. You also always get the option to betray the gang that hired you in favor of one of the other gangs, but I never did that because it was unnecessary and would cost me reputation. But yeah, pull enough minor jobs, especially against unaffiliated pirates, and you can maximize your reputation with each gang pretty easily.

The problem then is that having good or even max reputation with a gang doesn’t really grant you anything in the larger story. For example, I had maxed out my reputation with the Hutt Cartel before even setting foot on Tatooine, and that didn’t matter at all when I came up against Jabba in the story missions. In another mission, the game clearly made it seem like siding with Ashiga Clan was the “good” option and siding with Crimson Dawn was the “bad” option. But at that point, I had only just met Ashiga while being in real tight with the Dawn, so I chose the Dawn…and the game made it seem like I’d been played and made the wrong choice. Sorry game, but I knew exactly what Crimson Dawn wanted and gladly and willingly sided with them. And even after that, nothing about the world or the syndicates changed with the decision I made.

So the worlds don’t change, and the story missions don’t change based on your standings with the syndicates, and that was a damn shame. And nothing was achieved by maintaining a reputation level. You get some cosmetic rewards once you hit max, and after that there’s no reason to stay at max. I even stopped doing jobs on a regular basis at one point and nobody cared. Likewise, you can access all available jobs from a console on your ship, so I didn’t need to maintain any sort of relationship with the middle men either.

1. Honestly, more cameos

I’m not one who needs Easter Eggs or character cameos to love a product. But Outlaws could have used a lot more, especially in the syndicates. Kay Vess didn’t need to meet Luke and Leia or fight Darth Vader, but maybe some smaller Star Wars characters could show up and do something? Maybe Bossk joins the crew. It was especially problematic when two of the four syndicates had a named character as the leader. Jabba and Bib Fortuna ran the Hutt Cartel, and then Qi’ra ran the Crimson Dawn, and while Emilia Clarke did not do the voice, I couldn’t tell the difference. So you can understand why I gladly sided with the Mother of Dragons herself against the nobody Ashiga Clan.

Maybe the Pyke leader showed up in Rebels or something? I dunno and I don’t care. Give me named characters from the movies to interact with and pull jobs for. Let me tour Jabba’s Palace when a party is in full swing so that Boba Fett can flirt with me. Let me spend a little bit of time exploring the Millennium Falcon. I’ll readily admit that it’s silly and unrealistic to have Kay Vess meet all the important Star Wars characters…but it would sure help a sequel be just that much more fun.

Also, you wanna really blow some fan minds? Bring in Prince Xizor as the head of Black Sun in the sequel! Now there’s a crime lord and a syndicate!

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