A brand new gameplay trailer is out from Ubisoft’s upcoming open world Star Wars game. And you may have missed this.
A showcase from Ubisoft took place yesterday, where they gave more information about a variety of upcoming games. They did this exactly one day after Xbox had its showcase, and so there was some overlap in between. But Star Wars didn’t grab its shine until the Ubisoft showcase.
At the Ubisoft showcase, we got new information about the open world Star Wars game, something that was obviously not discussed at Xbox. This new gameplay trailer is ten minutes long and packed with details that further increases the hype for the game.
Star Wars Outlaws from Ubisoft
Ubisoft’s first open-world Star Wars game called Outlaws is only a little over two months away from release. Now there’s a new gameplay trailer with an awful lot of new information that means those two months can’t go by fast enough. The hype is great.
Skills and abilities
Being able to unlock new skills and abilities is nothing new, even for Star Wars -. But Outlaws’ approach is unique. In Jedi: Fallen Order and Survivor you could get skill points that you could use to unlock skills by using the force, but in Outlaws you are not a Jedi. Therefore, they have a completely different approach to new skills and abilities here.
To learn new skills, such as lockpicking, you need the help of certain characters. But this is not as simple as it sounds. You still have to track down these characters yourself and find out exactly who the character is. So even unlocking new skills and abilities is not so simple is Ubisoft’s first open world Star Wars game.
Skills and abilities (Image: Ubisoft)
Expanded map
We already knew we would be able to travel between planets in Star Wars Outlaws, but the new gameplay trailer only shows just how big the map will be. For example, in the minimap we see that Tatooine has several large map sections anyway, such as Mos Eisley.
But we really see how big the map is when Kay rides her speeder through the desert of Tatooine. She spends a fairly long time traveling through several different parts of the desert before finally arriving at her destination. Of course, for Ubisoft’s first open world Star Wars game, a big map is also a must.
(Image: Ubisoft)
Few loading screens in Star Wars Outlaws
As far as we have seen in the gameplay trailer, players are not going to be bothered by many irritating loading screens while playing Star Wars Outlaws. In fact, for a lot of things, there don’t even seem to be loading screens at all.
In Ubisoft’s gameplay trailer, we see Kay walk into her ship, sit in the cockpit and fly away with perhaps one brief loading screen. And when she flies into Tatooine, no obvious loading screen is visible either. It just seems like there might be short breaks in the game where you can’t move for a while. But so far we haven’t seen an actual loading screen in the game.
(Image: Ubisoft)
NPCs are full of life
NPCs are not a revolutionary invention in Star Wars Outlaws, but the game seems to be handling it very well. The planets we’ve seen are full of all sorts of NPCs that actually seem to be alive.
For example, they all look unique and are many different Star Wars species walking around. They all kind of do their own thing as well. Furthermore, you can also play space poker at random tables in a cantina and use NPCs to get information.
(Image: Ubisoft)
Known Star Wars
There are also several things in the open-world Ubisoft game that you can recognize from various Star Wars media. For example, you can visit the iconic cantina from A New Hope. Furthermore, you can also encounter Lando Calrissian and Salacious B. Crumb in the game.
But you can see something else in the gameplay trailer. At one point, Kay is fighting a Stormtrooper Hover Carrier in the desert and this design is based on an old toy item from the 1970s. A nice Easter egg.
(Image: Ubisoft)
Nix is cute and convenient
Nix is the pet of the main character Kay. From the beginning we saw the little animal running with the player, which of course is mega cute. But in the new Ubisoft gameplay trailer, we see that Nix is much more handy than expected.
Nix can not only attack people, but also distract them. For example, the creature can play dead and jump on people’s faces. And Nix’s usefulness doesn’t stop there. The gameplay trailer for Star Wars Outlaws shows that Nix can also scan the environment for enemies.
Attack Nix! (Image: Ubisoft)
Typical Ubisoft
Star Wars Outlaws looks to be a typical Ubisoft game. There seem to be many things coming back from other games that we recognize from the creator. Think of popular game series such as Assassins Creed or Far Cry.
So Nix can scan the environment like a kind of four-legged version of Eagles Vision from Assassins Creed. You can also mark enemies and see when in enters enemy territory. But then again, you know what they say: don’t fix it if it ain’t broken.
(Image: Ubisoft)
Murder is not always the solution
Although many players probably can’t wait to blast down every Stormtrooper they see, Ubisoft also gives the player another option. Gameplay from the Star Wars Outlaws trailer shows than more peaceful options are also available for the enthusiast.
Thus, we see Kay beating up and knocking out several people. And if you still want to keep your distance from your enemies, there is an option to use your gun’s stun setting. It still doesn’t make the player a pacifist, but it’s not murder.
Taser time (Image: Ubisoft)
All in all, Ubisoft has already given us much to look forward to. The first open world Star Wars game looks to be a top-notch game, at least if it is as good as we have seen. Star Wars Outlaws comes out August 30 for the PlayStation 5, Xbox series S/X and PC.
