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 - 13:45 / gameranx.com / Julian Gerighty / Kay Vess / Navid Khavari / Ubisoft
Ubisoft has addressed some worries about Star Wars Outlaws’ playtime.
In a new interview with IGN, creative director Julian Gerighty made it clear that Star Wars Outlaws will not be 200 to 300 hours long. When he was asked if the game could be too big, Gerighty responded that “too big is a game that people don’t manage to play, enjoy, and finish.”
Narrative director Navid Khavari also chimed in, saying:
“We’ve talked about this a lot on the team is that yes, 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 realizing that this might be Kay Vess’ first entry into a planet like Toshara that we’ve crafted for this. So that’s always in top of mind, is fusing that narrative element with the game.”
This new statement is apparently a reaction to fans complaining when the devs earlier made a comparison between Star Wars Outlaws and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Fans have definitely not been shy talking about how they feel that open world games like Assassin’s Creed feel like they have been made artificially long, just so the devs they can say they gave the players a lot of playtime. That presupposes that time played equals time the player enjoyed playing.
But then, what kinds of games take 200 to 300 hours? One should note that the dense worlds of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild or The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom are 100 plus hour games, not quite up to that level.
There really isn’t any game right now that would take a minimum of 300 or 200 hours to play, thankfully. With that in mind, Bethesda’s games can take that much time to play and finish, especially if gamers play through it to enjoy and not necessarily with speedrunning in mind.
Elite: Dangerous is also another game that could run up to the 200 hour period. As open ended and potentially infinite its gameplay can be, it would take about 200 hours to complete the set content. Mapping the universe out could go beyond 400 hours.
Similarly, and surprisingly, massive would be Xenoblade Chronicles X, still stuck in Wii U probation and waiting for that long promised Switch port. Xenoblade Chronicles X’s story content can take close to 70 hours, but exploring the entire planet, which involves getting around in a giant mech, and also leaving the mech to explore can take over 300 hours. That’s longer than what it takes to finish Xenoblade Chronicles 1 to 3 combined.
You can bet that Starfield will also be that long, but then, these developers aren’t Ubisoft. Hopefully Ubisoft plays to their strengths and makes Star Wars Outlaws’ open world as tight and immersive only as much as it has to be.
Star Wars Outlaws will be
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."
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.