If you were worried that Star Wars Outlaws was going to end up being an infinite Ubisoft timesink ala Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, the developers at Massive Entertainment want to put you at ease, noting that the experience will be «very manageable».
26.07.2023 - 14:53 / thegamer.com / Julian Gerighty / Kay Vess / Navid Khavari / Be A
Since the last three Assassin's Creed games are gigantic RPGs with equally as expansive maps, there's understandable anxiety when Ubisoft announces a new RPG--will it be an unfathomable time sink of hundreds of hours? With Star Wars Outlaws, Ubisoft says no.
Speaking to IGN at San Diego Comic-Con, creative director Julian Gerighty addressed worries that we'd have another Valhalla on our hands, which many criticised for its enormous but uninteresting map, usually with repetitive objectives or empty stretches of land separating objectives A and B.
RELATED: Star Wars Outlaws Already Sounds Too Big For Its Own Good
"Too big is a game that people don't manage to play, enjoy, and finish," Gerighty said. "Our objective is to get people into a very dense, rich [...] open-world adventure that they can explore at their own rhythm. So it is absolutely not a 200 or 300-hour epic unfinishable RPG. This is a very focused action-adventure RPG that will take people on a ride and is very manageable."
Ubisoft told IGN that each planet will be split into two to three zones of a similar size to Odyssey's. So far, four planets have been confirmed, which means that there are at least eight to 12 zones, compared to Odyssey's 39. That doesn't include everything you can do in space, however.
"We're building open worlds, we're building bustling cities and cantinas and wide open plains, but we always try to approach it from a place of character, from a place of story and realising that this might be Kay Vess' first entry into a planet like Toshara that we've crafted for this," narrative director Navid Khavari said. "So that's always on top of [the] mind, is fusing that narrative element with the game."
While this sounds closer to something like God of War Ragnarok, Final Fantasy 16, or Jedi Survivor than Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Odyssey, and Origins, Outlaws is still the first-ever open-world Star Wars game. It might not be a 200-to-300-hour epic that will eat away at all of your free time, but we still don't know how long it will take.
Unlike Starfield, which is also an open-world RPG boasting a number of planets available to explore, though 1,000 is a bit more than the four on offer here, Outlaws doesn't use procedural generation. That means each and every zone is hand-crafted, which has led to the inclusion of places like Mos Eisley and Jabba's Palace. Not that many people are excited to go back to Tattooine... again.
But with a smaller number of hand-crafted zones and fewer planets, Outlaws is shaping up to be a more manageable experience than recent Ubisoft outings.
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If you were worried that Star Wars Outlaws was going to end up being an infinite Ubisoft timesink ala Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, the developers at Massive Entertainment want to put you at ease, noting that the experience will be «very manageable».
Ubisoft knows its way around compelling open worlds, but Star Wars Outlaws is shaping up to be one of its biggest and most densely detailed yet. As previously announced, each planet in the release will be fully explorable, with enough open space to give you a meaningful sense of adventure. And the French publisher is handcrafting every one: there’s no procedural generation.
Ever wondered what kind of nightmarish, extraterrestrial smoothy you could whip up with the disgusting liquids that barbarian Luke Skywalker was always chugging down? It might not actually taste that bad; as dedicated fans well know, George Lucas had a bad habit of making things sound worse than they actually are (see "Jizz" as an example of this, the specific kind of space-jazz employed by the Max Rebo band).
In some circles of videogameland it's common wisdom that more is better—I remember a quaint time when 30 hours was a «long» game, but today's big budget releases have been pushing that boundary well into the triple digits. In a recent interview with IGN, though, two Star Wars Outlaws devs promise to buck that trend with a «dense» and «rich» game that doesn't wear out its welcome.
In a recent interview, developers at Massive outlined the size and scope of Star Wars Outlaws stating that the title is «not a 200 or 300-hour epic unfinishable RPG.»
While Ubisoft’s last few releases have been more miss than hit, the future is slightly better, thanks to titles like Star Wars Outlaws. Developed by Ubisoft Massive of The Division fame, it’s an open-world third-person shooter starring Kay Vess, who pursues the scoundrel lifestyle across numerous planets.
Despite its open world, Star Wars Outlaws won't be a «300 hour epic unfinishable RPG». Phew.
If you’re a fan of the Star Wars franchise, then you might understand that there is a dark underbelly in the galaxy. Most might instantly think of the Jedi and Sith as being the focal point. But those that are not Force-sensitive have other areas to worry about. We know that there are a few criminal syndicates that thrive in this galaxy, with the Hutt Clan being one of the more notoriously known. However, if you dig deeper into the franchise, you might come across other notable crime syndicates citizens are fighting back against or aligning with. You’ll find that these criminal syndicates will play a big role in Star Wars Outlaws.
Coming up with a Star Wars game is harder than you might imagine. There’s a lot to be mindful of regarding keeping things canon. You certainly don’t want to write against what a movie, film, novel, or comic book has already established. So we imagine the efforts to deliver the Star Wars Outlaws game were challenging and rewarding for the team. Fortunately, we can go into this game knowing that the developers took quite a bit of time ensuring that it remains authentic to the franchise.
One of the reasons that Star Wars Outlaws intrigued gamers from the moment it was revealed was that, on the surface, it looked like no other game set in the galaxy far, far away that we had seen before. Primarily, games from this galaxy focus on the Jedi/Sith or are based on the movies that have come out. Oh, or are LEGO versions of those films. Just saying. This game from Ubisoft is in a much different position because it focuses on the smuggler Kay Vess, who is trying to obtain her freedom and start a new life for herself.
Star Wars Outlaws creative director Julian Gerighty says the upcoming open-world game won't follow in the footsteps of modern Assassin's Creed titles as a "200 or 300-hour epic unfinishable RPG."
Ubisoft has addressed some worries about Star Wars Outlaws’ playtime.