For all of the freedom Star Wars Outlaws hands over to players, principally the ability to carve your own path as a scoundrel across multiple Outer Rim territories, it does have a few surprising restrictions. Developer Massive Entertainment has a tendency to lean on strict stealth encounters to drive main campaign missions, leaving little room for experimentation – an issue I contended with all throughout my time with the open world adventure.
Something I didn't cover in my Star Wars Outlaws review was another restriction which surprised me: the inability to freely fire from the saddle of your speeder. As Kay Vess, you are able to ride across some pretty wide spaces – delving into regions of places like Akiva and Tatooine that haven't been seen before in other Star Wars media. You'll frequently encounter aggressors whilst out exploring, such as Imperial patrols and assassination squads from Syndicates you screwed over one too many times, and you'll have precious few ways to defend yourself.
The chase is better than the catch
Star Wars Outlaws' lead gameplay designer tells me that one reason this design decision was made is to do with fantasy fulfillment – Massive Entertainment looking at elements of the original trilogy of films and trying to find ways to evoke similar feelings through interactive play. "What we see in the Star Wars movies is speeder chases – you being chased. We see you having to dodge and get away, and then try to explode their speeder or make them crash into a tree – especially when we look back at the original trilogy," says Fredrik Thylander. "We wanted to make a mechanic that made you experience chases, rather than having you feel as if you can ride in and assault people from the speeder."
Kay Vess isn't entirely defenseless from her speeder. There are inputs which allow you to dodge from side-to-side, sideswiping anybody jostling alongside you (something which can easily evoke the Endor speeder chase, particularly when racing through the forestlands of Akiva) and through speeder customisation the ability to boost away from danger. You can also shoot from your speeder in Star Wars Outlaws, but only in an exceptionally limited capacity – Adrenaline Rush, which fills over time, is an activated ability that lets you mark and execute enemies with cinematic style. You aren't, however, able to free-aim and fire as you might be able to do in something like Red Dead Redemption.
"The other part of this decision is just that if we made it so that you can free-aim and shoot from the speeder then we'd also have to then make the speeder drive nicely when you're not looking forward, which is actually a really hard thing when trying to maximize speed, jumping, and off-road capabilities," says Thylander. "So to really flesh out the fun of those elements, this was something we decided not to also have to factor into how the speeder drives. It wasn't an easy choice, and we are happy to listen to how people experience it."
That feedback will surely be coming as Massive begins the process of post-mortem on Star Wars Outlaws. For now I remain undecided, for as fun as the experience of high-octane speeder chases can be throughout the adventure I did find myself longing for a little more control – particularly when the Galactic Empire sends Death Squadrons out into the field once a Wanted status spirals out of control. Truth be told, maybe I'd have swallowed the shooting restrictions had Massive allowed me to customize my ride to look a little more like the iconic 74-Z speeder bike… just one reason of many that I hope the studio one day works on a sequel.
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