You might still be reveling in the space smuggler fantasy revealed by Ubisoft and Massive Games on Monday Star Wars Outlaws. You might want a chance to experience it again. Well, Narrative Director Navid Khavari, Creative Director Julian Gerighty, and Game Director Mathias Karlson are here to give you…director’s commentary! From what you saw at the Ubisoft Forward showcase yesterday.
But seriously, they explain a lot of the setup and narration options for it. They also outline the effort that went into developing the world of Toshara, the galaxy’s newest swarm of scum and villains, where we see the newest Star Wars villain, Kay Vess, roaming around.
The video is still the same; Vess infiltrates a Pyke Syndicate chop shop, hits the road with the Macguffin, and escapes back to the dusty frontier town to fence off the goods, where things get real, as they always do in heist movies – bloodless, at cocktails.
Then Vess is out, wanted by the Empire, and Gerighty makes that clear Star Wars Outlaws could be something like Grand Theft Auto in space: “At the highest level [of wanted-ness] The Empire will put tremendous resistance and violence in your way.” Best off planet and go to a safe house, except for those TIE fighters. That’s where space combat comes in – and if you’d expect that component from this type of game, that’s better.
Star Wars Outlaws coming sometime in 2024, and if you’re feeling, like me, that the franchise’s true, redemptive narrative arc runs through its mercenaries, bounty hunters, criminals, spies, and smugglers, it can’t come soon enough.